Down the slippery trail

I think I may have done Clover a disservice by keeping her front feet shod with borium-tipped shoes the past several winters. Now that she's barefoot, she's having to learn how to negotiate slippery footing again.

We went out on a leisurely hack, it's been incredibly mild, but some of the snow pack and melt has left icy patches on the trails. My friend's horse, barefoot all of his life, has little trouble with the footing, but Clover slipped and slid a little here and there. I realized that she was stepping very tentatively over the icy parts, where my friend's horse would step down solidly and let his hoof do the rest.

I think Clover's tentativeness is in part due to a slip in the paddock two (three? I guess it was three) winters ago, which was bad enough to leave her with a sore shoulder for several weeks. By the end of the ride, she seemed to be getting it—I felt a definite change in her footfalls, and she was slipping far less.

We're going to haul to the indoor tomorrow and start ring work again. First thing, warm up, then work on moving away from the leg, no matter if it's forwards or sideways!