It was one of those days in which everything goes better than right. Such days are rare, so when one occurs, I traipse (briefly) down memory lane, as I am doing now.

10 a.m. I arrived on time for the hoof dissection clinic over on Soapstone Road. I had vowed to stay really quiet and let others do the talking. In minutes, my vow had fallen by the wayside. It was like (see yesterday’s dispatch) someone had released the valve on the pressure cooker.

The thought did cross my mind that those of us present were horse geeks. I got really excited in learning how to take a digital pulse, something I’d been wanting to know for a while. Others were equally overjoyed to see the location of the deep flexor tendon and the superficial flexor tendon. As importantly, we all learned the reasons why a horse founders, that is there is a separation of the laminae from the hoof wall, causing a downward rotation of the coffin bone (P 3). This reason might not be related to poor farrier work, but to diet. Too high an insulin level can bring about an inflammation of the laminae.

I was really glad to see our farrier, Josh Morris was present. My sense is that he is a very intelligent and inquisitive man who too is eager to learn as much as he can about internal hoof anatomy.

The clinic ended too soon. Nevertheless, I rushed home and caught Pete just as he was leaving, heading for our friends Claudia and Frank’s place, so that we might size Hrimmi for Renegade boots. By the time we got there it was raining. Pete had said that while I was gone the wind had briefly blown quite hard.

Joshua Morris strips a hoof that was in his freezer

The leg stripped down

Once we got to Frank and Claudia’s place. Hrimmi looked out the trailer and did not budge. She just didn’t want to get out of the dry trailer and stand around in the wet driveway. So we fitted her in the trailer. Tonight or tomorrow we will put together our boot order.

The rain didn’t deter us from doing a late afternoon/early evening ride at Matanuska Lakes. Pete was the motivator. I would have been quite happy to return home and maybe go for a short ride here. I was mainly concerned about how Raudi would do in all that wind. I needn’t have worried. I put her behind Hrimmi as we took off and kept her there for a while. Then, later on, I went out in front. She trotted nicely, she cantered nicely – my thought was that this must be what its like to ride in Ireland both in terms of the blustery weather and in terms of the bright green terrain. The grass the UAF Experimental Farm field, soon to be hay, was blowing in the wind.

Raudi even heard her first loon on Long Lake.

On the ride home, I asked Pete if perhaps at the start of the CTR, that I might be one of the last open riders and he said sure. I had worked myself into a tizzy thinking that because I signed up first that I would have to be number one and be out front. This is what you call unnecessary tizzying.

So a good day was had by all. It is supposed to rain all weekend. No matter, I will get out and ride. The up side is going to be there will be fewer ATVers out and about.

Next: 167. 6/16/18: Time and Time Again