Rocky is not our pony. He belongs to Florence’s family, but meeting Ken Norman at his farm today and working to get his hooves trim did connect him to us in a new and different way. It is always a shock to see how brutish and physical this work is, but also how much Ken Norman, the farrier, loves equines and handles them and speaks to them in so confident and assured a way. They respond to this. He slipped the halter easily onto Rocky, and then the fun began.

Rocky struggled to get away and kept kicking and bucking when Ken tried to trim his hooves, so after some struggle, Ken gave him a sedative and he calmed right down. He kept pressing his head into Maria for comfort and he seemed anxious and uncertain. This is perhaps worse because he is totally blind. Ken thought his hooves looked good, and so, he said, did Rocky. He was just very old. I took a bunch of photos. I am having difficulty uploading Facebook photos to their photo album, so I will post five or six of them here, and they will appear on Facebook. We are grateful to Ken for his compassion and competence. He and I and Maria also looked over the New Bedlam Farm and he gave me some good ideas about rotational grazing there and making good use of the land. Rocky was rattled, but calmed down and stumbled off to graze by himself. It felt good.