Thank you, thank you, thank you, Zoilo!

Called Zoilo this morning to see whether he could (or would!) come over and trim everyone's feet this week or next.   I had some doubts as to whether he would since the last time he was here - when he trimmed Arthur the first day after we bought him - Arthur threw hissy fits and tried his best to kick the crap out of him!   Zoilo did manage to get his hooves trimmed, though, by lifting each foot with a lead rope from far enough away that Arthur couldn't reach him, then trimming while Arthur was forced to stand on three legs so he couldn't kick.  Definitely NOT fun!  But apparently he wasn't nearly as horrified by that as I was because he said he'd be glad to come trim everyone again next Friday after he finishes training horses over in Gonzales.  

Zoilo is from Peru.  He came to this country decades ago to train Peruvian Pasos.  Here he is after winning at a show.

But he's also an excellent natural hoof trimmer for barefoot horses.  He has trimmed our horses' feet since we first got them.  The first thing I've always done is remove their shoes and get them barefoot trims. 

Here he is dealing with Duke's white line disease

And here he's trimming Ladybug when we were still over at Al's place.
(God, I miss her.)

But Zoilo is primarily a horse trainer.  Here he is working with Knight, the very first horse I ever had (who now belongs to Jan since I couldn't ever control him).  And Zoilo STILL works with him sometimes!

But I digress.  Anyway -- while we were on the phone, I gathered my courage and asked if I could possibly bring Arthur out to his place for a month or two and have him train him to behave better.  (Then I held my breath.)

But he said "Sure,"   adding that Arthur definitely "has a mind of his own."   THAT'S for sure! 

I think maybe when I take Arthur up there to Zoilo's place I'll load up Lizzie too so he won't throw a fit at being hauled alone like he did coming down here the day we bought him. 

But I don't think I'll take him up there until after I get back from Ohio.  I get back on a Monday night and don't go back to work until Wednesday.  So that Tuesday after I get home while I'm still off work would be a great time to haul Arthur up there.  I'll check with Zoilo when he comes over and see if that works for him.  Sure hope so. 

THEN comes the hard part -- I'll need to figure out when I need to go over there to work together with him so that Arthur will actually behave for me when he comes back home.  But Zoilo lives clear up in Kentwood, so it will take an hour and 45 minutes if I go directly there from work (which I can do if Mark is home) - or more than 2 hours each way if I go home first (another 40 minutes) and THEN drive out there.  Yikes!  I sure hope he's going to have some time on the weekends.  It'll be SO hard to get out there during the week - particularly when Mark is offshore.  Even if I go in to work early and take off at, say, 3, by the time I go home, let the dogs out, get back in the truck and drive up to his place, it would be at least 6:30 by the time I could get there.  I guess that COULD work out, at least if he has a lighted round pen or arena to work in anyway.   

It's going to be a loooong two months!  Good the days are getting longer!  Maybe I should hope against hope that Arthur will straighten up and ride right in less time than two months.  He probably could, actually.   It's not that he doesn't KNOW what he needs to do.  He just doesn't!  He was perfectly fine for his previous owner. 

You know, he's always felt differently about women than men.  They told me he liked women better, but I'm beginning to think he also feels he has to obey men but NOT women.  He seems to know that I'm not strong enough to control him and so he won't listen to me.  He apparently needs to be convinced that he should do as I ask ANYWAY.  Absolutely NO idea how the heck Zoilo can teach him that, but I'm sure he will. 

And I hope "quickly."