One of my clients rescued Starbuck from a kill pen when he was 12. He was emaciated and had severe hoof distortion. After 2 years of rehab his soundness improved so much that he became too much horse for her to use on the trail. After a couple more years she decided to rehome him. She knew how much I liked him so she said she would give him to me. That’s how we ended up with Starbuck. We are integrating him into our herd slowly. I don’t know if he has ever been in a herd before. Possibly not.

I’m not sure what his gift is yet. He is just a really good guy who deserves to have good feet and a nice life.

My lesson is that in my profession it’s really bad if you can’t say no to the gift of a horse. Free horses aren’t really free.

Starbuck was on 4-6 week trims (for owner) for 5 years, and he has now been on 1-3 week trims for the past 2 years.