My fabulous helper asked me that when Big-Dummy-Red-Head (the name I call him when speaking with my farrier) pulled his 8th front shoe in 6 weeks.

Yeah, you read that right.

It’s not really a shocker with a horse that routinely does

this……………..

and

this…………

and um

this…………

AND he always manages to pull the shoe within the first 5 minutes of an outing that took us 4 hours to get to………..(he was wearing BELL BOOTS almost every time!!)

At our first (and possibly last) horse trial he came off cross country missing BOTH front shoes.

And before you tell me I must need a new farrier……he is fantastic. After the most resent set of ripped off shoes, he whipped out a set of the tightest fitting shoes you’ve ever seen. Do you see any shoe sticking out for him to step on?? ……………. He even beveled them and added filler to make sure there was not a single millimeter to step on anywhere……….

BUT – If you look at the number of SCARS on Big-Dummy-Red-Head you’ll get a quick understanding of how little self preservation this horse has.

When he ripped off shoe # 8……….. I’m STILL impressed he got that one off……………….

which I’ve now dubbed The-Most-Expensive-Shoeing-Job-in-History…………….I had to come up with an alternative.

1st thought:

I’ll just get out my anvil

and start putting them back on myself.

In my endurance days I routinely and regularly nailed shoes back on.

My farrier would send me to a ride with a spare front & back shoe, and I remember one occasion in particular shaping a shoe on a friend’s old steel truck bumper before nailing it back on in the rain.

Then I started wondering where the anvil was…………… last time I remember seeing it was when I took that deer photo……………
and where the rest of my farrier tools are……………
and what size nails my farrier has been using………………
and what if I can’t FIND the shoe…………….

and that prospect started feeling much less appealing…………….

I never can line my nail holes up anyway…………

Unfortunately, Big-Dummy-Red-Head is also a big sissy and I can’t just ride him barefoot (what a nice solution that would be!)

All we have are ROCKS, as far as you can see in every direction.

So I started looking for alternatives………….

And while I love my horse boots for trail rides, there is NO WAY I’m going to try jumping Mr. Fumble & Fall in them…………..

So I’ve decided to try some of these………………..

My thought is at least if he rips one off I can slap it back on at home…….of course I am Bad Eventer……………………….

So we’ll see what happens………….

But there is a bigger question………………….

WHICH COLOR??