Farrier woes

[FreeSher50]

My heavy cob is driving me insane on farrier day. He wears shoes as he really seems to feel the ground under him and I tried without them for a long time before having them put on. He is a pain in the bum with the Farrier. He's not nasty, never does anything to purposely hurt the Farrier but he's a big boy and cannot stand the sound, or vibration of the hammer on his shoe. Until then he's not too bad but as soon as the hammer is used he tries to run forward dragging the Farrier with him. We have tried...
Licks, these help but not enough.
Slaps and aggressive grooming as distraction from the noise
Tying him up strongly led to a broken headcollar
Twitching makes him worse.
I am now lifting his feet daily after picking and using a hammer to try and get him used to the noise but it doesn't seem to be helping yet.
I'm desperate to get him over this and wondered if anyone had any ideas or had been through similar.
I can get sedation but he's a big boy and I'm not sure it would last long enough.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I would get his feet x rayed that is a strong reaction and probably because its painful, my horse started playing up a bit when the shoes were banged on, I x rayed and he had incredibly thin soles so I ditched shoes and used boots for a while and the soles did improve.

 

[Barton Bounty]

Have you tried rewarding him with a treat. For example , talk to him while lifting feet, give a couple of knocks with the hammer and massive praise? Treat, lots of good boys, clever boys . Most can be trained with food. ?

 

[asmp]

Mine developed large side bones and one thing we noticed was that he didn’t like the nails being banged in. He is now no longer has shoes and is in boots. I would recommend getting his feet x-rayed too.

 

[PurBee]

Id also get xrays of feet to just get the health side checked out.

Horses usually get used to things, when they realise it didnt kill them, they eventually get used to repeated things. So if your boy has had 5+ farrier sessions and still reacts the same as session 1, i’d be wondering about inner hoof health.

If its just been 3 farrier sessions, and never been shod before, it‘s likely still mid-training stage and him learning while still resisting. But to break a headcollar is pretty strong resistance to something that normally shouldnt/doesnt hurt, so i swing back to xrays for peace of mind, and hopefully give answers why he’s resisting so much.

If his soles are thin like you say, his feet could be feeling a pain reaction with every hammer blow. You say he’s a big boy so weighty, on those thin soles.
I’d try pinkvboots suggestion and boot him, while adding a good mineral balancer to help his feet grow more sole.

 

[millitiger]

Mine was silly about the hammer (and the smoke) when he was young.
My farrier used a rubber headed hammer which worked well.

Horse is now older and wiser and fine with normal hammer and the smoke, he is very easy to shoe now.

 

[catembi]

My TB was always bad to shoe. He has thin soles. He is now barefoot & has been for 7 years, & it's a lot less stressful for all concerned. His feet are a million times healthier than they were shod. He has boots if he needs them.

 

[Sossigpoker]

I'd definitely suspect there's pain in the foot or higher up , even as high as in the neck. I'd treat this as a veterinary issue rather than a behavioural one.