No hoof, no horse..

I am a believer that most horses should be barefoot.
With that said,
I understand that there are circumstances where horses do need to be shod.
We are heading off to the mountains with the horses in a few weeks time and the horses need to be shod for this trip.
My regular farrier had decided that he was too busy, my back-up farrier was not answereing his phone,
so in desperation I  had to go looking for another farrier.
Up here in the Peace Country, there are either too many horses or too few farriers,
on second thought,
perhaps their are too many horses AND to few farriers!
So finding another farrier was more difficult than I thought.
It took more than a few weeks to finally find someone.
 Finally (and thankfully) he came.

He measured and hammered,
heated and grinded,
measured again,
hammered,
heated, hammered, grinded and

finally nailed.
And now my horses have shiny, properly fitted new shoes.

And, when we return from the mountains,

they will go back to being barefooted,
footloose and fancy free
cow ponies.

Chasing my tail..

It seems like I am running around in circles and chasing my own tail...
I am running so far behind,
as this post will demonstrate.
It is now July 8th and I am going to blog about Canada day!

Forgive me.

Every year we celebrate Canada Day at "our" local community hall.
This hall is affectionatley called Triangle Hall, not because it is triangular
but because it is situated on the corner of a few "big" roads.
At this hall is a small church, a museum, saw mill and lots and lots of old stuff from yester year.

On June 30th the Canada Day celebrations starts off with a jamboree.
July 1st kicks starts with a pancake breakfast and then the day is filled with all kinds of demonstartions and activities.
There is an old timer tractor parade:

 We see old stuff and new!

Jess helped our neighbor Roeby to do nail art!

The tractor pull was won by a 14 year old girl, with a full pull,

all the men got stuck in a hole halfway up the track!

Family and friends enjoy the day.

We give a sheepdog demonstration,

and the public just seem to love seeing the dogs working.

The celebrations ended with a fireworks display.

  

"BOOM!" 
and before you know it, it is a week later!

Ranch roping and pasture doctoring

We have two friends visiting from the Netherlands; Jolien is a 4th year veterinary student and Joska is a horse trainer back home.
 This is there first visit to Canada and as both enjoy riding, we spent an afternoon with Charlie and Joe checking cows and calves, roping and doctoring the sick and lame. This was quiet the experience for Jolien and Joska. Jolien was quizzed on her cattle veterinary knowledge and got some hands on experience.

Here are a million pictures:

First you need to ride through the herd in a quiet way,
 looking for sick or lame cows,

once they are spotted, Charlie, on his sorrel horse (who "needs more experience" according to Charlie) and Joe prepare their ropes.
The cow is quickly caught, a rope around the head and one on the heels and she is down and ready to be treated.

Our horses, Ally and Smokey pay close attention to what is happening on the ground.

Now, for the sake of better pictures,  my photo's will now switch from this black cow to a red cow... but the story carries on...

Once the cow is down, the roping horses holding her, Charlie goes out to check the reason why the cow is lame. Jolien had to join him for her ranch doctoring education.

First you examine the hoof, cut away the bad bits, then you inject antibiotics, now, don't forget to mark the cow and then get back on your horse and let the cow go...

Charlie really takes the time to explain what he is doing..

Then, Jolien gets quizzed as to what to inject the cow.

Jess and Joska look on, while holding our horses who take the opportunity to grab a mouthful of grass while they wait.

Joe on the paint.

The little sorrel who "needs more experience" working the rope.

Jolien got some hands on experience.

The sorrel gets some training,

to hold the rope right and to stay in position.

Joska, out on the range..

After a number of hours checking different herds in different pastures, we headed off home to feed sheep, pull out stuck trucks in the mud, walk dogs and to take Jess and Joska riding again that evening...

Summer days are full.