Posted by JD Seller on November 12, 2012 at 22:50:35 from (208.126.196.144):
Last week was the full circle of livestock care for me. Ending the week with the great Sunday cow chase!! LOL
A very good friend went on a four day vacation to Branson, Mo. First time he had been away for more than over night in over eighteen years. I did all of his farm chores. That included milking his 38 Holsteins in a stanchion barn. The biggest PIA was the fact he does not have a barn cleaner. You have to push/shovel the barn 3-4 times each day to keep it clean. Let me tell you I did not have to be rocked to sleep the first few days. Carrying the milkers cow to cow and the bending over to put them on/take them off, very tiring. I kind of got used to it by Sunday. Then on top of the milking he has twenty bottle calves to take care of as well. The other calf chores where not too bad.
So from Wed. to Sunday I started my day at 4 am. Did my chores and then went and did his. By Sat. I was getting done around 10 am. Then start the whole thing over again at 4 PM, usually got done at about 8 pm. Made me feel every day of being 62. LMAO
Then on Friday I got to shoe horses between chores. Great fun!!! Not!!! LOL. My Sister-in-law is taking the grand daughters on a three day trail ride down around Ft. Smith this coming weekend. They also have six other friends that are taking their horses too. So that makes a total of twelve horses all going. They all brought them to my place Friday for a little practice riding around the pastures and fields.
I told the grand daughters that I wanted to check their horse's shoes and feet over before they went on the trail ride. The grand daughters talked to the other girls and they thought it would just be great for me to check all of the horses out. LOL Don't you like how Grandpa get led around by his nose.
The horses of my SIL and grand daughters did not take much just a few loose nails and a trim on one of them. I had just done all of them last month. Two of the other horses had a good job done on them. The other four where a different story. The Farrier that did the work on them should be shoot. He did not fit the shoes correctly. He had tried to just use shoe blanks without sizing them to each individual horse. I got this from the girls that owned the horses. They told me he did not use a forge to shape the shoes. I guess the only thing he knew how to do was CHARGE. He charged them $150 per horse for a terrible job. They do board their horses at a pretty fancy stable north of Chicago. They pay $1000 a month per horse. (They are nice kids whose parents happen to be very well off. My SIL went to college with the parents) Anyway, the guy had really screwed the job up. I noticed a big bay colored gelding was walking real funny like he was lame with just a 75 lbs girl on his back. The guy had a few of the nails too far toward the center of the hoof not in the hoof wall like they are supposed to be. Luckily there was no permanent damage to the horse's feet. I am amazed the horse was acting as well as he was. He is real tame and gentle with the young girl that owns him. So I had to make completely new set of shoes for him. Plus his feet had been trimmed very poorly too. I did take pictures that I showed the girl's parents.
The city girls had a blast helping me make the new horse shoes. I made them from scratch out of 5/8 bar stock. I started keeping some cold rolled bar stock around. It makes a real nice shoe when you are done that will wear great but is still light. They thought I was pulling a trick on them when I went and got the straight bar stock to make the horse shoes out of. The oldest girl about wore her cell phone out taking pictures.
I did let them "help" nail the shoes on too. They had fun. I did too until it came time to milk. I was so stiff that I could hardly stand up straight. I am too old for this stuff.
So they got to have a good ride Friday afternoon and Sat. after the morning rains. All twelve horses are at my place until Thursday. Then a semi truck horse transport outfit is moving the horses down to the ride for them. ( The well off parents treated the others to this service) All the rest will follow down in cars.
So by Sunday night I never wanted to see another horse or milk cow!!!!!
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