Well that was a nice little break now wasn't it?

Things got pretty busy there for a while! Hopefully I'll be able to get back to a more regular schedule of blog posting now that Christmas is done for another year!

How was your Christmas? Mine was pretty good! I got a new rasp for trimming my ponies' hooves, and after using it I can't believe I put off getting a new one for so long... Funny how much easier it is to trim when you're not using a blunt rasp!!

The horses are having a bit of a holiday. I had my last competition before Christmas and was very pleased with the results considering our preparation was a bit patchy due to all the rain. I rode in two tests, for two seconds with scores just over 60%. I was especially happy considering the surface was slippery so I had to ride 'safely'. We weren't exactly dribbling about or anything, but we definitely could go more forward next time under more normal conditions.

Always good to finish the year on a good note!

Hope you're all recovering well from whatever festive celebrations you may have been partaking in :-)

Sunday mornings are a great time to relax and reflect... and get horsey jobs done!

It's a beautiful Sunday morning in this part of the world. I'm just eating my breakfast before I go out and feed the horses and give their feet a bit of a tidy up where needed. It's been very wet here lately, and today looks like a great day to catch up on a bit of hoof maintenance.

I have been trimming my horses' feet for several years now using the "wild horse" style of barefoot trimming that can be seen on sites such as Barefoot for Soundness.

That site is an excellent place to get started if you're interested in learning about an increasingly popular method of hoof care. To put it simply, people have studied the way the hooves of Mustangs and other wild horses wear naturally and have developed a very successful triming method based on their findings.

Another site that is great to visit is Iron Free Hoof.

I visit these sites regularly to 'keep my eye in', and refresh the theory of what I'm doing in my head.

Learning to trim has been one of the major turning points in my life with horses. I'll share the story of my hoof trimming journey at a later date when I've got a bit more time up my sleeve!

Hope you're enjoying your Sunday too :)