Farrier twitched my mare

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Rollin

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My farrier came last week to do several horses. I left him doing the first and when I returned to the yard he had the second one out had twitched her very hard and she now has a white ring on her muzzle.

Treatment?? Will this be permanent?
 
The white ring, is this white hair growth, is there any sign of the skin that would have been affected by the twitch breaking down or other adverse signs?

If this is white hair it may recover, I guess, but could take a full season of coat change at least.

I hope you twitched some vital part of his anatomy in return!
 
paulineh said:
To be honest if I found that my farrier had done that to my horse without my knowledge, then that would be the last time he shod my horses.
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I would be pretty pissed off too, were you around on the yard, could he just have not come and found you?
 
im sorry but your blaming the farrier you shouldnt be leaving him to it anyway. it can be so frustrating when owners just leave you to it and sort yourself out. he obviously had a problem with the mare as you havent said he did it to any others or in the past or he wouldnt still be there.

Why should a farrier put himself possibly in danger because you have wondered off.
 
joe_carby said:
im sorry but your blaming the farrier you shouldnt be leaving him to it anyway. it can be so frustrating when owners just leave you to it and sort yourself out. he obviously had a problem with the mare as you havent said he did it to any others or in the past or he wouldnt still be there.

Why should a farrier put himself possibly in danger because you have wondered off.
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Agree, only acceptable when the owner is not around but if she was then he should have called her over.
 
What some of you may have missed is that the OP is in France and things are a little different there, there may also not be a wide choice of farriers in that part of rural France.

If the horse was fidgeting then he could have moved on to do another, or found the owner...nothing makes leaving a tight twitch on for an excessive amount of time OK
 
As Rollin said that several horses were to be done, then if the farrier was having problems with a particular horse there were others to be seen.

Many people leave their horses to be shod and they are not around.

Whether there was a problem with that horse nor not he should not have put a twitch on the horse.

I once had a young horse that had come to me for rehabilitation and the owners farrier came to re shoe it. Although I was standing with the horse it would not stand still. The farrier picked up a hammer and hit it in the guts, hence that was the last time he came on my yard.
 
I once had a young horse that had come to me for rehabilitation and the owners farrier came to re shoe it. Although I was standing with the horse it would not stand still. The farrier picked up a hammer and hit it in the guts said:
Sounds like a farrier I used to have who is often quoted on here as 'the best farrier in the country'

I agree you should not leave the farrier to get on with shoeing. His job is hard enough without fidgeting horses to deal with.
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i think it was maby not the right thing to do if you were on the yard at the time of this happening, but on the other hand atleast he twitched her rather than beating her, i think farriers have to put up with alot of problem horses annd they all have their own ways of dealing with them but i would much rather someone twitched my horse than turned agressive towards it.
 
im not condoning a farrier beating a horse. but you tend to find that the owners that sod off and leave horses to be sorted by the farrier on his own are the 1st to complain about the farrier being late yet it is owners not staying to handle their horses that waste the farriers time.

if you want things done right then stay with the horse. SIMPLE. that way nothing can go wrong can it.
 
cornish rider said:
i think it was maby not the right thing to do if you were on the yard at the time of this happening, but on the other hand atleast he twitched her rather than beating her, i think farriers have to put up with alot of problem horses annd they all have their own ways of dealing with them but i would much rather someone twitched my horse than turned agressive towards it.
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I have to agree with this and also to the point made that unless you know your horses are 100% good to do, then someone should always be at their head. Time consuming, yes, but safer for everyone and you'd be the first to shout if it happened somewhere else, your farrier got hurt because of stroppy horse and he couldn't come to you; sometimes they do risk their life to do your horses, the least you can do is be there. It's times like these you have to be practical and I call him being practical, he needed to get on so he did the only way he could because he was alone.
 
Going back to the original query - how long would a twitch have to be on to actual cause that kind of marking? I twitch my horse when clipping his ears - kinder to us both and works very well for him, but now I am concerned about actually damaging/marking him?
 
Difficult to say as each horse is different. I was told by one vet never to twitch for longer than 20 minutes at a time, take the twitch off, have a break and then go again but in some cases that isn't possible, you need to get the job done. Yet other vets say it's better to continue as long as you make a point of rubbing the nose gently for a while to restore circulation when it's removed. It should never be tight enough to cause damage but equally it needs to be made of the right stuff too so that it tightens evenly; from choice I prefer something like proper rope/jute, the plastic type rope/binder twine seems to mark a lot more than a 'natural' rope.
 
joe_carby said:
im not condoning a farrier beating a horse. but you tend to find that the owners that sod off and leave horses to be sorted by the farrier on his own are the 1st to complain about the farrier being late yet it is owners not staying to handle their horses that waste the farriers time.

if you want things done right then stay with the horse. SIMPLE. that way nothing can go wrong can it.
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Sorry only just returned to this. I don't "sod-off" and leave him to get on with it. He should have arrived at about 8.30am but pitched at 7.50am. We were just getting mares and foals in. He had five mares and a colt to do. I had just finished morning feeds, left him with an Arab and returned to my house (all of twenty paces) to get showered and dressed.

My farm sits in a quadrangle on old stone barns with stable yard attached to sout facing barn.

He had a friend with him and could easily have sent him to the house or done another horse.

When I returned to the yard they had finished the Arab - front shoes only and had two mares out. Friend seemed to be attending to mare who was twitched. I immediately asked if he was a qualified farrier? I was assured he was!!! but he didn't do anything else.

This is not like the UK I have already sacked two farriers. One told me proudly horses he shod only needed new shoes every three months; the next didn't balance feet - one mare finished up with odd feet.

This farrier is technically competent, but I am concerned by his attitude. I have never had to stand over my farriers in Scotland or Berkshire!! There has to be trust.

The mare is a Cleveland Bay who was a champion filly in the UK H&H gave her half a page at her first show. I have sent him photos of her muzzle. The white line if it does not disappear means she will never go into the show ring and she is a fantastic mare.
 
The white ring will go and white hair wont grow in its place, it will look a bit ugly for a while but it will heal up and go back to normal. Twitch must have been on a long time to do that but your horse will be fine
 
Speaking as someone whos father is a retired blacksmith/farrier i have to say it is better that you or someone you trust is present. There are good and bad in all disciplines of life and i could give you countless examples of ignorant and very offensive horse owners. For example - Dad had just been badly injured by a so called well mannered horse and had to undergo surgery on his back during this time one of his customers telephoned for an appointment when she was told what had happened all she could say was what about my horse who will i get, not a word of is he alright and will he be able to return to work. My advice to anyone is be their or someone you trust to be their even if you have to wait, as sometimes your opinion of well mannered differs very much from someone elses and this is what takes up time. If the twitch was put on correctly there should be no damage.
 
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