My horse just tried to kill my farrier!

Dolcé;10752274 said:
I have 5 ponies and 1 horse that have all struggled with legs being lifted too high and when they are pulled forward for the ponies, the horse just with one hind. Our current farrier, in about 5 visits, has turned them from fidgety leg snatching horrors, that are a nightmare to stand with, into animals that don't even twitch whilst he is trimming - all without a cross word! The horse almost lost us one farrier because of his behaviour, I now wish he had and that we had found this one earlier, he is brilliant! He takes their problems into account and deals with them accordingly.
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Yes, it really pays to find a 'good' professional even if it is a bit trial and error.
I've just had the EDT out and he is just fantastic with the horses and spends time with each first before starting work. He does them loose in the herd and just goes with the flow and adapts to each one individually. It is an all round pleasure for me and no trauma for the horses. Cant say it's a pleasure for them I'm sure but as good as it gets imo.
I have found often farriers do get legs in awkward positions for the individual and most I've used always the say the minis don't need trimming. :confused: :D
 
I have one who is bad for the farrier to trim (not shoe, he doesn't wear them) and he is a real rock cruncher. Never a footy day in his life.

Some horses are just difficult. He is like it over lots of things. You can't make him, he knows it and when he doesn't want to he won't. Some days he's fine and others he's a git. His entire history is known, he hasn't had some awful, traumatic experience. He is just uncooperative. The big moose!

Whilst I agree that trying to shoe a horse with sore feet is daft, and I would have waited for the bruising to heal before I tried, it is possible for horses to just be arses!
 
Your horse reacted to pain, clearly. I'm surprised you think he was just being naughty when you have said yourself that he is sore.

He was anticipating more pain after that, hence the messing around. I think you have to change your mindset and stop viewing it as a "fight" that you didn't win.
 
Oberon said:
Fair enough. But it sounds to me like she doesn't have healthy hooves at the best of times and then can't cope as soon as the slightest thing happens to them.

My gelding had an abscess that went nasty once (it was down to a few other health problems at the time and his hoof copped it:(). It grumbled on for ages and the vet used hoof testers on him a few times. It got where he started throwing a tantrum at the sight of hoof testers. Even years later and with healthy hooves - he will throw himself on the floor or try and clunk the vet in the head if he gets them out of his bag :o
He is still twitchy with me picking out that particular hoof or looking at it for too long. No matter how much he likes or trusts me after 20 year together, he remembers pain with that hoof and he will protect himself accordingly.

I may be speaking out of term - but I would have a close look at her diet and see if that can improve her hooves. Over the last couple of years, mineral balancing has brought big improvements to a lot of those horses who just couldn't grow good hooves despite best efforts before.

And get a gelding next time :D
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Not sure about the gelding :D, my 36 year old has been a bit of a pain at times in the 31 years we have been together. My 22 year old mare is just a sweetheart. But the warmblood is a different ball game, daughter bought her and then got fed up so I'm stuck with her, shes only 8 :mad:

Her feet aren't really bad, they grow very well and we cant leave her longer than 6 weeks or they are too long. She doesn't loose shoes either, but I will admit they are not as hard as our cobs.

I do accept what you are saying about pain. But she is the same about anything she takes a dislike to and that can change from day to day. One day she likes hoof oil and looking pretty, the day after you would think I was trying to kill her. Same with sun cream, fly repellant and wormers. I'm sure some of it is just her trying to intimidate me, just because she can :o

Would be happy to supplement her diet to improve her hooves. Currently she gets grass, haylage, fast fibre, nuts, yeasac and chaste berry.
 
My mare is also a sod for the farrier, but for that reason I would be even more wary of having her shod at times when she might have the slightest excuse to misbehave. If she wasn't 100% sound and right I'd delay.

I'm working to get her better, and she is generally improving, thanks to a wonderful patient farrier who is prepared to deal with her, but she can have a backward step from time to time and be awkward, the last thing I want to do is give her any reason to fear the farrier or being shod.
 
amandap said:
May I ask why she gets chaste berry?
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Recommended by the saddle fitter. Apparently it is excellent for hormonal mare behaviour. She also recommended the Yeasac

The mare has been 100% better since I started feeding them. You can tell what she was like before. Even my uncle who turns them out, and doesn't know what they are fed, has commented on how much calmer she is recently.
 
My old farrier had to remove the shoe from a horse where the shoe had been put on to a badly bruised hoof. The horse had thrown a shoe out hunting and the rider carried on until the horse was lame :mad: Farrier came out and whacked a new shoe on and the horse obv went mental. The YO threw him off the yard and got her own farrier (my farrier) to come out and sort the situation - my farrier said the poor horse was in such a state the vet came out and administered pain relief until he was calm enough to remove the shoe. The horse's owner aggreed to let my farrier reshoe the horse when he was ready and he said it took nearly an hour to put one shoe on because the horse remembered and was panicking :(
 
I agree with the others who have said it's a pain reaction. Of course she didn't want to put all her weight on a sore hoof having just had a nail bashed into it!

Would you want to stand on a stone with your bare feet and then be forced to put all your weight onto that foot for several minutes? I wouldn't!
 
Rather emotive title. Agree with others it would appear your horse was/is in pain. Sounds like suffering from LGL. Sore/LGL horses often find being shod very painful.
 
Going forward I would tie her up in same place as farrier will be working on her and each day practice holding each leg up and moving it forward for the stand and get a small hammer and tap the foot gently to start off with - building up. Obviously you will want to make sure that the sore foot is no longer sore before you start the practice - dont even try and sedate to do it until the foot is 100% as you will probably just compound the problem. Obviously nice haynet or small token feed to reinforce the positive experience when practising.

Worth ringing the vet to see what is best to do - leave shoe on or get it taken off and how to check if bruising/soreness still there - once you get the all clear give yourself a couple of weeks prior to farrier visiting to practice.
 
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