Nervous Horse with Farrier

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katiex2

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Hi everyone - I was wondering if you could offer me some advice on helping a horse who is nervous of the farrier. She is fine to have her feet trimmed but when the farrier starts banging nails in shes starts pulling her feet away. She is very green and new to the yard and I am trying to make her as comfortable as possible and don't want to make a whole issue out of the farrier!!! Any suggestions?
 
All horse will pull ther feet away, its only a problem if they start leaning bakwards to try and break away from their tie up, or kicking out at the farrier. If she is really bad try some ACP.
 
How about distracting her with a lick-it or something. When she holds her leg still let her lick, but when she doesnt dont let her have it?? Only works if she like the lick-its of course
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Yep AmyMay has said it all really - Rocks is the same, and has been for 2years! He'll still have a tizzy at the beginning but generally is a lot better now. Just make sure your farrier doesn't raise his voice, or hand, to your horse - be patient, gentle and understanding and always have yourself present at shoeing. If all else fails try a bowl of feed whilst being shod
 
Second patience, from you and farrier, and feed if all else fails.

I've actually just posted in Patches post below at my horses progress as she was very nervous when shoeing when I first got her.

I keep a haynet close to mine so she can pick at that (she's very motivated by food!), and I have another horse tied up next to her for reassurance when possible. You could also desensitise her yourself whilst picking out her hooves - tap them with the hoof pick (or a hammer) everyday.
 
Every time you pick out the horses feet bang them with that flat of your hand until she stops reacting (put up some resistance if she pulls away - dont just let go straight away). If that makes her jump a lot start by tapping with something small and move up to something more.

If your horse isn't a big foodie and she likes being groomed see if your farrier will let you groom while he does her feet (provided you dont get in the way of course!). I find my horse really chills out when groomed.
 
Invest in a little hammer and every day when you pick her feet out tap her feet all round with the hammer, put her foot back down and pat her. To start with, if you know she will pull away, just do one tap, then you put her foot down, dont persist if you know she is going to snatch her foot off you, only do it for aslong as you have total control. Slowly you will be able to increase the amount of activity on her foot with her waiting for you to put it back down.

Patient farrier is a must too, I changed my farrier and havent looked back, my boy is very happy with the current person shoeing him
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As well as above suggestions why not bring her in the yard when the other horses are having their feet done. You can giver her a bit off food and fusses so she gets used to the noise, smell etc. We had a horse who was nervous arround farriers on the yard so I would make sure he was tied up when my mare was having her's done and the farrier would just come over and give hm a fuss then carry on with my mare. He soon settled down and was a doddle to shoe.
 
I have one similar, but i think he gets bored and that's why he plays up and pull his legs away or tries to sit down. It always at the precision bit when nailing on the new shoes.
Think I cracked it yesterday, he adores being scratched, so I used one of those paddle brushes you groom dogs with on him as the nailing on started, always on the opposite side/end to the farrier so I wasn't in his way. the pony was in such ecstasy from the scratching, he didn't bother at all about his shoes being nailed on. The farrier and I were thrilled to bits about this discovery, everyone stayed calm and unstressed, and it took a good half hour less than usual.
 
My young horse used to be terrible to shoe, as soon as he started banging she would pull away and refuse to stand until I put a twitch on her. I didn't want to use the twitch every time though so the next few times the farrier put cotton wool in her ears to muffle the sound. It worked great, she stood perfectly and the last time she got shod she didn't even need the cotton wool. I had tried having her exercised, feeding her, letting her listen to the other horses getting shod, all the usual tricks but the cotton wool worked a treat. Definitely recommend it.
 
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