Goal #2: Accomplished!

Betty had her first "real" trim on Thursday. I'm particularly proud of her because it was raining, and she had to be trimmed in a stall. I was glad we had practiced with the scary mats because she marched right into the stall when I asked her to. It probably helped that there was food in there. Betty loves food.

Sadly, I have no action shots. I was busy shoving treats into Betty's mouth. As long as she was chewing, she could handle the scary guy working on her feet. I think she'll get much better with a little more practice, and John gave us a rasp to use to work on getting used to having her feet hammered on. I'll keep her barefoot as long as I can, but, when the time comes for shoes, she'll be ready. 

Since the weather was rotten, we decided to leave the horses stalled for the night. It was also a test to see how they got along in close quarters. The plan is to move them in together so that they can start going out in the big pasture to graze. When I came to turn them out in the morning, Betty was happy and relaxed. She didn't seem to mind her night in the stall one bit. 

I've been holding off doing a lot of "work" with Betty because I didn't want to chip her feet, but now it's time to get serious about conditioning. While I'm not in a hurry to get her started under saddle, I do want to start making baby steps toward it.