Let it snow

As you may know, we've been getting a lot of snow up here this year. Cleo likes to go out in the snow but as soon as she comes back into the barn, she's got a ton of it packed into her front hoofs. (She doesn't have shoes on the back so it's not a problem there.) When she gets back into her stall, she stands all kinds of lopsided and doesn't look all that comfortable because it always seems to ball up higher than her shoe bottom - its like she's standing on top of a ball. I pick her hoofs when she comes in but that doesn't help her when I leave her out for a while with her stall door open. Today was shoeing day for her so I asked Rick (our farrier) about either pulling her front shoes off for the winter or putting pads under them. Since she's got some issues with cracks in her front hoofs, we decided (well Rick actually) that it would be best to leave shoes on so we had to go with option 2. Here's a picture of what the pad looks like. Basically its just a piece of rubber with a bump on the downward facing side. This bump helps keep snow from packing in.














This pad is put between the hoof and the shoe then the shoe is nailed on top. Between the pad and the hoof is packed with some special stuff that will help to keep out thrush and any other bad stuff. And for extra traction in the snow and ice, we have ...














yup - studded shoes. Each of the four round items you see in the shoe is a stud that's been attached to the shoe. This will be a big help for her in getting around. Not sure if we have a "studded horseshoe" season up here like the do for studded snow tires tho. The good thing is that when we're finally rid of winter, we can take the shoes and pads off and put them away till next winter. Cleo was a good girl for the farrier.

Rick also took a look at Grace while he was here and said once she's reliably allowing her hoofs to be picked up we should get her hoofs trimmed. She's getting much better at that so hopefully in the next few weeks she'll be ready. (That ought to be fun)

On Wednesday morning while I was sitting by the computer looking out over the barn, I saw what looked exactally like a white squirrel running across the front of the (closed) barn doors. What I had seen was, in fact, an albino squirrel.















So that's about all for now. More snow predicted for tonight (1-4") and Saturday night (2-4").

OK, one more thing I have to gripe about. I went out tonight to fill up the truck and get 5 gallons of fuel for the tractor. $100.00 on the dot. Never in my life have I spent this much at one time for fuel (diesel or gas). I don't even have that big of a tank on my truck (28 gals).

"Don't worry about anything;
instead, pray about everything.
Tell God what you need,
and thank Him for all He has done."
- Phillippians 4:6