Pat, our regular farrier, Denis Gobet, our tipping table farrier, and Julie, our barefoot farrier, were here in October. We trimmed about 160 horses over the course of 7 days during the month. Our fall deworming is well underway with about 100 horses dewormed so far and the rest should be done this weekend. Almost all the horses (and cows) are back from pasture. I'm really happy with how well trimming, deworming, and hauling have gone. The horses have been quite well behaved! We're sorting the horses at the house for the winter season so that like feedings share space and paddock mates are okay together. It's always a juggling act as we have to factor in which horses get along, which horses get what type of feed, health issues and treatments, and, if we can, how to make things easier for those of us doing the work!
After a miserable number of weeks that started in mid-September with snow and rain and mud, we've now had wonderful weather which has really helped get everything caught up before winter really settles in. We are so fortunate to have had a lot of really, really great interns and volunteers staying with us since the start of our program in February. Most recently, we have Ineke from Belgium and Joyce from Germany staying with us. Emil and Roman, both from Germany, were an immense help to Mike during their 1-week-that-became-4-weeks stay. Thank you Vienna for sending them our way!