Unlucky Horseshoe

As expected, today’s hunt was cancelled because of the predicted winter slop. It actually turned out to be a very light snowfall overnight, turning to rain this morning which left us with more mud than snow. As it turns out, I wouldn’t have been able to go anyway. When I fed this morning, I noticed Arthur was a little gimpy on one front foot. A closer look revealed a mangled shoe still loosely clinging to the hoof. You know your farrier is doing a good job when a shoe takes this much abuse and still hangs on. Arthur did some damage to the hoof wall in the process of destroying the shoe, but it doesn’t look serious. I think the lameness was just due to the shoe causing some discomfort; after I pulled the shoe, he walked much more soundly. Assuming I can get my farrier to nail the shoe back on before Sunday, I should be ready to hunt then.