I keep hearing 'It's all about being in the moment' but we all have a past that shaped us so this is a brief synopsis of Lottie the horse's history. She had her feet with her through every step of this so I'm thinking it may be relevant?! We'll see...
Lottie (aka 'Violets Pride') was first sprinted as a two year old in 2005 and ran the last of her 27 flat races in August 2008. The great thing about her being a racer is that excellent records are kept meaning we can track her history on the Internet. We know who owned her, who trained her, when she was bought and sold and we can even watch her race but no where will you find a blog about her feet (funny that?!) until RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE! :-)
These are the assumptions we're carrying about her and her past...
1) She was shod by the time she was two and could have been shod as early as at one year old.
2) Thoroughbreds are inherently physically rubbish at being barefoot
3) She's never been without shoes on the front feet since that first visit from the blacksmith
In the year between retiring from racing and ending up with us she spent six months more or less turned away and then had six months having her first go at a bit of dressage and jumping, seemingly preferring the former to the latter.
We've had her since November 2009 and have spent a lot of time 'hanging out' (google it, it's a new training technique :-) and generally playing about with a natural horsemanship type feel. She's healthy and happy and we've had romantic visions of her running around barefoot pretty much since day one! So this is what we did...
21st May 2010 - Her back shoes were removed. There's no doubt she was pretty sore at first and she was still showing occasional signs of soreness until the end of June. At this point, she hasn't been noticeably footy on her backs since the beginning of July.
18th July 2010 - Her front shoes were removed and the reality struck. Our thoughts about the process, our assumptions and our convictions are moving on a daily basis. Hopefully tracking the journey like this will keep us focussed and may offer some insight to others considering the same trip!
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