Learning again.

 Last Friday Jen arrived to trim Ozzies feet. I excitedly told her how the bandage changes went, how I battled to get Oz to lift up his hoof for me to clean and how the bandage change was back breaking work. I asked her to please teach me how to lift Ozzie’s hoof.  She looked at me with the quiet confidence of someone who’s been around the block with horses her whole life. She told me that it was really simple. Inside the four legs horses have rough spots.  A skin of sorts or a patch that looks like a scab only it’s not. All horses have them and Jen explained that the legs of a newborn horse are attached together at these points to enable the horse’s legs to come down together in the birth canal. I vaguely remember the lady that sold Ozzie to us call them scent glands, but Jen says she’s never heard that before.  Well these patches are the very spot one needs to press on gentle at first and then steadily increase the pressure.  The horse automatically lifts his heel and the rest is history. Wow, it was that simple. A nugget of wisdom for me. I smiled, bewildered at what I just saw as if it was the first time I’d seen Jen doing the trim. Of course it wasn't.  Who would have guessed it was just this simple – not me that’s for sure.   We chatted a while and I discovered Jen was rather partial to free ranged eggs. I got excited and told her I had just what she wanted and so she left with two dozen of my free range eggs. She told me how she loved to bake and had just learnt how to make a wicked low fat cheese cake and her cupcakes weren’t too bad either. I ordered one of each as I thought one good deed deserves another.  I found another customer and she found one too.