It doesn't end there...yes we are still on the clinic.

I haven't even gotten to actually riding in the clinic...sheesh.  Well I can fix that pretty easy.  Nothing fantastic really happened.  Steady was super.  He gave me his best and did EVERYTHING I asked him to.  Charles had us doing some basic gymnastics.  Well basic for those who do gymnastics.  I have never done any.  Not that I didn't want to I just was never taught anything about them.  So I would say that is the only good thing I took away from the clinic was a few gymnasitc exercises I learned.  We did the four leaf clover, which we struggled with at first but Steady soon got the idea once I figured it out.  Then lots of polls laid out in a row that he would raise one at a time.  We didn't do all of these because Steady was just not ready for bounces yet.  The very first time we went up to the polls he did not stop be he sure did slow down and put his head down to look at them.  I am sure his thoughts were "ahhhh WTH is this, there are like 10 polls laying here.  What do you expect me to do with them?"  Just a little encouragement and some stumbling he never batted an eye and kept at it until he figured it out.  He is so awesome!  We jumped a couple 2ft fences and that was about it.  Over all it was a disappointment.  I don't feel like he ever gave me any specific instruction except for keeping my hands higher.  Not something I would pay for again.  That was that.

After we were done I went and put Steady on the cross ties and noticed that Steady is one less shoe then when we started.  I had front shoes put on him last week.  And one came off already???  I looked at the other and it was pulled up a little on one side,  what in the world?  We had probably 6 people out there scouring the arena looking for it and could not find it.  I know it was on when we started.  Remember I said in the first post that I picked his hooves and went in to warm up?  Well that was the last thing I did and went from the cross ties to the arena.  All of about 15 feet on cement.  Everyone was in disbelief that he lost it in the arena.  But I SWEAR he did.  I thought is strange too.

I called the farrier first thing on Monday and he got back with me that evening and agreed to come out in the morning.  So he looked at them and said that Steady pulled it off with his back hoof.  Though I had never heard of this before it made sense.  Especially the way the other was bent.  I checked Steadys back hoof and there is a small chip where he probably caught it.  When he put the shoes on last week has was saying how Steady's feet are between a 1 and 2 and he was having a hard time deciding which one to go with.  He ended up going with a 2 and it did come off the back a little.  Well I think that was the problem.  He came out yesterday morning and put on 1's and made sure they were bent in.  He did not charge me for anything though tried to insist to at least pay for the shoes but he said no and appolgized and said it shouldn't have happened.  The purpose of the four leaf clover exercise was to get him reaching his hind legs under himself more and working from behind.  Well I think Steady did exactly what he was being asked to do and in turn reached so far under that he caught the outside of his shoe and ripped it clean off.  Which Jessie (ferrier) said he must be really over reaching in the back because he pulled them off from the outside and he has only seen them pulled like that from the inside.  Interesting I thought, anyone have anythoughts on this?  Is it good, bad or indifferent that he is reaching under himself so much??  Should I know this answer..lol?

Not what I want to happen and it seems that Sunday was the day from *&^$.  It was so bad that I had to spend yesterday cleaning up the messes from that day.  But all is good now and we will just move forward.  All we can do right.  Yesterday I went from hauling the farrier back and forth (he is amish so I pick him up) to driving the hour it takes to get to THE tack store to return THE saddle then back again to get and oil change on the truck.  Seemed like a waste of a perfectly good Monday but you gotta do what you gotta do.  Good thing is this wraps up that entire day and now I no longer have to speak of it!