Any tips?

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My husband's horse has to be sedated to be hot shod, sedated to be clipped and sedated to be sedated. I'm going to be borrowing him over the summer and I'd love to try and fix these issues.

He's a big horse 17hh ISH and is more of a bu66er than just being scared but although big, he can move quickly and managed to swing and kick the vet with both barrels on her hip when she tried to sedate him last summer to have his teeth done.

Has anyone got any advice on how to get him used to needles, clippers and farriers. He's my husband's hunter and at the moment clipping him costs a fortune as the vet has to come out once he's been orally sedated to intravenously sedate him and then hang around while he's under and being clipped. Nightmare and very expensive.
 
Very unhelpful post from me but be chief member of the bunny hugging brigade?
i.e unshod, hairy au natural, and give it a few herbs in lieu of vaccination?
grin.gif
you could even replace hunting with parelli if you felt so inclined


Alternatively, ram him tight in the lorry to get a needle near him or use hobbles

For shoeing might be worth trying cold shod to start with
 
I know how you feel. I have to sedate my horse to be shod which is costing me a fortune! I have tried everything and when people say i need to train her to accept it i find it very hard to think of any new ways to do this. I would say that you need a confident farrier/clipper etc as my mare does pick up on it if my farrier is being wary or nervous of her. Will be interested to hear what people suggest.
 
You specifically say hot shod, does that mean he will accept being shod cold ? If so what's the problem with that ?

Regards teeth rasping, I'd try a different equine dentist. My horse will not tolerate a bridle gag without sedation, but I had an old boy that used to do it, with a little gadget that he slipped into the "bars" gap and she didn't mind that at all, so maybe try to find out what part of the teeth rasping he dislikes.

The only way to make things cheaper, is to have two people clipping to make it faster and get his teeth done at the same time by the vet.
 
Phew, B&J, when your message came through on my phone, I couldn't see the smiley or your sig and I thought you were serious about the parelli suggestion but seeing your sig, I suspect you're not! Husband is master of the local pack so the idea of him jacking it in to pursue parelli made me laugh!

As a result though, au naturel doesn't really work cos he's in too much work. Funnily, I stupidly hadn't even thought about cold shoeing him but will def go down that avenue. We got him straight over from ireland and I think he must have just been rushed with all of these things and being a tough sort fights if metaphorically pushed into a corner.

For the teeth, we've always used the vet because it makes sense if they're coming out to sedate anyway. For his teeth, I don't mind so much because it's not done so often but with clipping and shoeing it's a real issue because it's such a frequent occurrence. Tracey, good tip about getting 2 people to clip him and getting his teeth done at the same time, thank you.

Having sneered at parelli, if they had a method of fixing any of these issues, I'd have a go at it, I just don't see myself handing my faith wholeheartedly over to the parelli way of life.
 
You get HHO messages on your phone
shocked.gif
I'm so in the dark ages.
I have an awful knack of being sarcastic/flippant, but to be fair if you have a lot of time and patience his summer then there is no harm in doing lots of desensitisation work - but I would be inclined to maybe hobble back legs to help save on human broken bones!

I groomed for a hannovarian eventer at one stage and he was a nightmare to shoe when I first was looking after him. Owner would just give in and have him done IV every 4 weeks. When I worked with him we got the farrier to shoe him cold and each shoeing lightened the sedation until we could cold shoe under acp and eventually without and sweeties at all. Took the farrier a lot of time and paience but I ran into that horse 3 years later and by that time he was hot shod with no problems.

The lorry trick does usually work if you need to get a needle in a hurry
 
B&J, thank you, great constructive advice. I will have time on my side and am all for a bit of desensitisation - had thought I might just leave clippers running every time I feed him, bring him in, etc until he just gets bored of hte noise. You've been really helpful, thank you.

Re the phone - it's just my emails get forwarded to my phone, nothing more amazingly whizzy!
 
K I don't suppose you remember, but I desensitised B to the clippers - first year I did him took a tube of sedalin, a twitch and L and I ages pinning him down to get a crappy clip which looked ridiculous because if we went near his back legs he lashed out at us.

I bought some Wahl trimmers at about £10, and just had them on all the time I was with him - started as you say with feed and me outside the stable, eventually I could touch him with one hand with them in the other, then groom him like that, then lay them on him without clipping, then groom him with them on the brush, then clip him with them. Then I moved on to my battery-operated Moser Avalons which I still use now - I can now do him (what, 4 years on), completely on my own, just twitch for ears (and even then he's not scared, just bloody minded as he'll let you do half of one then remember he hates it!).

Even by the second winter I could do him mostly on my own.
 
I'd totally forgotten that about Boyz. In a funny way I think it'll be quite a fun challenge, so long as I don't get killed in the process. How is B by the way?
 
He's good thanks (I assume - have not seen him since last weekend but haven't had any calls saying he's on 3 legs either!) - completely fixed now I think, just need to crack on. I've decided that I have lost so much money on comp entry fees over the past 2 years now, that I am not BEing again until he's ready to go out at Novice again, we'll do some unaff PN which is half the price over the same courses, and see if we can get the SJ back up to scratch before spending money on BE.
 
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