Eight Years Old

My baby is growing so fast!

Today is his eighth birthday!

I went out to the barn to give him some apples, and I wish that I was able to ride him.  He is much more content in the wing with all the horses, and he even has a new friend, Clinton, who likes to stick his nose out as much as possible for Walker (or anyone really) to pat or touch.

Speaking of Clinton, I've figured out that my new barn owner is a fan of Clinton Anderson.  Besides his horse named Clinton, I was starting to suspect he was a fan of Clinton Anderson's methods just by little things I saw at the barn, trinkets and hardware that I've seen in Clinton Anderson books, etc.  Anyway, the kids at the barn confirmed with me today that they are all on Clinton's programs, and I must say I'm intrigued.  I'm not abandoning Jane Savoie just yet, but it's nice to know that I have some other interesting options to try once we're back in work.  Needless to say, I'm impressed by a teenager who can take Clinton Anderson's method and turn a crazy thoroughbred horse who used to buck and gallop around the arena into a Western Pleasure horse, so they must be doing something right!

Clinton - the horse, that is

I also got a chance to take some photos of poor Walker's feet, which I've included below.  I called the farrier today but I haven't gotten a response yet.  Even though I may have to just get my barn manager to hold Walker for me because of my crazy schedule, I would rather have Walker's feet done as soon as possible rather than wait a few weeks just so I can meet the farrier.  I'm sure I can meet him another time.

As you can see from the photos, his feet need a trim, and I'm angry to say that they have looked like this for awhile because my farrier didn't do much of a trim the last couple of times and I could never wrangle him to fix them afterwards (i.e. the problem with my old barn owner being an intermediary for everything done at her barn).

In particular, take a look at the white line area, which is difficult to see in pictures.  I'm just worried about it being brittle because I think that it's contributing to the "expanding" of his hoof (that's really the only way to describe it).

Also, notice the white spot on the sole of his hoof.  Any idea what that might be? It's almost like a hole there with this white stuff, dare I say a fungus, that I can scrape away but never really make go away.

This picture makes his feet look longer than they are for some reason, but they are still long

Notice the white line area.
In my opinion it's slightly too crackly (for lack of a better word)

Two comments:
1) Notice the white area on the hoof.
2) The bottom of this picture makes it look like there's a
giant hole in the wall of his hoof.  Also deceiving.  It's just dirt.