As expected, Rocky was frightened. When we came into the pasture, he came running to me, and then stopped short when he heard Ken. He hid behind the barn and then balked. Ken came up quickly, slipped a halter on him and still, this must have been frightening for a blind creature whose hooves have not been trimmed in awhile. He kept looking for Maria and pressed his head against her for comfort. These two love one another.
Ken believes Rocky will have no trouble with the donkeys. He says equines can sense things like aging, and even blindness. Rocky is not likely to challenge them, or them him. In fact, he said (and I have seen research on this) donkeys will be very protective of horses who are impaired. He agreed with me that they ought to be separate for a week or so, but he said he didn’t expect any trouble at all. I don’t either. They will be in separate fences and pastures for awhile.
Lulu and Fanny give Simon a hard time sometimes but Simon is a pest. Unlike Simon, Rocky has always been well cared for and loved. He has spent much time along in recent years, and hopefully, that will change soon.
Ken Norman is a man of great heart and a farrier of great skill. He was tired, having trimmed 45 horses in the last two days and some donkeys and Rocky fought with him almost every step of the way. Ken uses physical strength and compassion. He says he loves every day of his life, and you can see that is so. People who love what they do tend to do it well in my view.
Rocky is not our pony. He belongs to Florence’s family, but meeting Ken Norman at his farm today and working to get his hooves trim did connect him to us in a new and different way. It is always a shock to see how brutish and physical this work is, but also how much Ken Norman, the farrier, loves equines and handles them and speaks to them in so confident and assured a way. They respond to this. He slipped the halter easily onto Rocky, and then the fun began.
Rocky struggled to get away and kept kicking and bucking when Ken tried to trim his hooves, so after some struggle, Ken gave him a sedative and he calmed right down. He kept pressing his head into Maria for comfort and he seemed anxious and uncertain. This is perhaps worse because he is totally blind. Ken thought his hooves looked good, and so, he said, did Rocky. He was just very old. I took a bunch of photos. I am having difficulty uploading Facebook photos to their photo album, so I will post five or six of them here, and they will appear on Facebook. We are grateful to Ken for his compassion and competence. He and I and Maria also looked over the New Bedlam Farm and he gave me some good ideas about rotational grazing there and making good use of the land. Rocky was rattled, but calmed down and stumbled off to graze by himself. It felt good.
Exciting. Tranquilizer. Under control.
