Nudibranch
Well-Known Member
My 2 yo was bought at 6 months and I taught him to pick his feet up straight away, no problems (he'd had one trim as a foal, breeder was reluctant to get them done). He's quite a sharp horse but very trainable and intelligent. Anyway he started to see our very experienced, highly rated trimmer. First time, fine. Second time, fidgety. Over the next few months he got worse and worse with the trimmer, for no apparent reason whatsoever. In between visits he also became more awkward about picking his feet up. This despite daily handling. Anyway in the end he started lashing front and hinds really badly, and then eventually throwing himself on the floor when the trimmer came. Plain dangerous.
At 18 months I gave up with the trimmer and started doing his feet entirely myself (trimmer showed me how when I had my old cushings mare who needed doing between visits). I had to start with a rope - it was worse than starting from scratch - and have built up so I can now run a rasp round and gradually we are getting back to normal.
But what I have never been able to figure out is what the problem was. There was no "incident", no trigger. The trimmer was pretty amazed at his attitude, and I think eventually frightened of him. Understandably since he's over 16.2 at 2 years old. He's ok with me doing them now but nobody else, and every now and again does try a good old strop. In 30 years I have never seen anything like it and still can't figure it out, and I've known some quirky horses. So any suggestions as to what went wrong? And what would anyone else have done?
He is still very clumsy and I do find that even now I have to physically place him before lifting every foot so he can balance on three legs - he just hasn't figured out how to do it himself yet. I wonder if this has been a cause?
At 18 months I gave up with the trimmer and started doing his feet entirely myself (trimmer showed me how when I had my old cushings mare who needed doing between visits). I had to start with a rope - it was worse than starting from scratch - and have built up so I can now run a rasp round and gradually we are getting back to normal.
But what I have never been able to figure out is what the problem was. There was no "incident", no trigger. The trimmer was pretty amazed at his attitude, and I think eventually frightened of him. Understandably since he's over 16.2 at 2 years old. He's ok with me doing them now but nobody else, and every now and again does try a good old strop. In 30 years I have never seen anything like it and still can't figure it out, and I've known some quirky horses. So any suggestions as to what went wrong? And what would anyone else have done?
He is still very clumsy and I do find that even now I have to physically place him before lifting every foot so he can balance on three legs - he just hasn't figured out how to do it himself yet. I wonder if this has been a cause?
