Pony - short legs and farrier

Fruitcake

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15 February 2012
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Little pony tends to be a bit of a pain when having front feet trimmed. He’s fine with hinds, and for most of the fronts, but seems to object when it comes to resting his front feet on the stand and will do a mini rear / hop. Now, he may just be being a pain, but I’m wondering if it’s uncomfortable for him. He has quite short legs and the stand does seem quite high for him. Is this likely to be a thing? I’d never really considered the height of a farrier’s stand before as the other horses are all much bigger. Now that I think about it, with a very small pony I had in the past, an old farrier used to just rest his front feet on his knee for that bit rather than using the stand.

He’s otherwise extremely steady and calm.
 

Fransurrey

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My farrier was constantly holding my elderly shetland's feet too high for him and so it was a struggle. I have a hoof stand, now, so if I was in the same situation again I'd drag that out to make pony and farrier's life easier!
 

Fruitcake

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Thanks everyone. It seems I'm not imagining it then. He's been with us for a couple of years now and has always been a bit difficult to have his front feet trimmed. Like I say, he's otherwise very steady and completely fine to mess about with. (He's no problem when picking out feet either). I think I'll try to (politely) ask farrier if he'd mind trying the stand on its side next time. Farrier is quite tall so I don't want him to do his back in either!
 
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