Ok before I continue with my awesome weekend, I need help. Friday morning I had the farrier come out for a trim. I was unable to be there because I had to work, so I had Kelsey hold. She knows about feet so I felt comfortable. While he was doing Olly's feet, he mentioned to Kelsey that Olly is heavy on his feet. Meaning, that he really gives them a beating, in addition to the jumping and that he uses his right rear leg/hoof more than the left. He suggested that he has shoes put on to prevent lameness in the future.
INSTANTLY I thought maaaaaan...and he has done so well barefoot. Why would I want to change a good thing.
HERE is where I need your help. What do I do? I, mean, I know that I will have to make my own decision based on what is best for Olly, barefoot or not. But I really don't know alot about it. So far my only decision is to get a second opinion. But for those of you who are out there and are interested...here are a few bits of info that you might want to consider. Earlier this summer (late June early July) Olly and I took a jump and he hit his foot. It was more like a xc jump in the sense it was fixed and didn't fall. I have added the video.


He had one month off, no riding at all and seemed to make a good recovery. Now, he was never "lame" per-say. He just had swelling in the cannon and fet. I would wrap him with cold polos during the day (when he was stalled) and leave him to his stall and small paddock (by himself) at night. The swelling diminished eventually and we went back to just riding. Mostly dressage work and trail riding and we didn't get back to jumping until late August/early Sept. Up until now there has been no sign of lameness and his long distance and jumping have improved. In my personal, non-professional, opinion, I think he has done quite well with out shoes. He has been barefoot since he came from Hawaii(Aug 2009). We have done a ton of training in the past year and I haven't seen any signs of him even almost lame. So, now you have the whole story-let me know your opinions!!!!
BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BIGREDHORSE....


Where were we? Oh, yes, Day 2 at Frying Pan Park.
On the second day we finally figured out how Olly busted four lead ropes. He would just sit down at the trailer and snap them like dental floss. I guess he is just on his own program. I have had people tell me to tie him to a tree and let him fight it out, then there is don't tie him. The best one which I have seen, yet have not tried, is (courtsey of Kelsey's mom, she is awesome by the way) tie his butt to the trailer with a collar and when he sits scare the crap outta him until he stands back up. This is the method I chose. We fashioned a collar out of one of the broken leads and tied him. Long, irritating story short...he sat once or twice and he didn't try it again. WIN!
We signed Kelsey up for her class and headed back to the trailer to get Olly ready. It was rainy and humid. The grass had dried a bit since we got up. I was nervouse about running on the wet grass, but I thought, well, there will be times when I will have to run in the rain, so let's get this show on the road!



We started out in the arena warming up and did a few of the verticals and oxers in there.

There were a bunch more jumps that we didn't get to on Day 1 that I was dying to jump. Olly wasn't as focused. He had Ben (his new boyfriend) in the arena and he could see him from afar. Not good when you are trying to focus and you end up checking someone out. So we had to move out. Here are the videos of the course. Now just a little FYI, in case I screw up the days. Day 1 I had on black breeches and Day 2 I had on blue. Not to mention Day 1 was sunny and Day 2 was not.




Again, these videos are not edited. so be gentle. I am always open to critques, but be polite.











So we were going to do the "hill jump" but there were like 3-4 ground hog holes with caution tape. FAIL! Moving on!!!



Here is the video of Kelsey's second ride. She owned it. Unfortunately, she was too fast to win one division and too slow to win the other.



Here are some added non-horsey tid-bits from the weekend.
Deer outside our trailer. The boys wished they had a rifle, while Kelsey tried explaining that deer aren't always food. Boys-1 Kelsey-0


 

Notice what foot is being used....Interesting, huh??

Sweet!!

I love this picture!!!

My little monkies....

What is camping without smores and a retarded mom???

The drive home.