poor pony....and some advice please

madhector

madhector

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poor Jerry, have spent the last half an hour practising holding his back feet up (the farrier is coming tomorrow and he was a bit funny last week to have his fronts on, so my farrier suggested leaving the hinds till the week after so not to stress him too much)

my dog was outside the stable, and every time i told Jerry 'no', he growled at him, i stuck my head out over the door and he jumped up, of course Jerry came over to investigate at my dog bit him on the nose!
shocked.gif
poor pony looked so shocked bless him

anyway back onto the shoeing problem, im finding it really hard to get him used to noises whilst holding his foot up, he was fine last week until the nails went in, a friend suggested giving him some acp to keep him calm, but not sure if this is wise, advice please guys!
 
You can do some desensitizing yourself. Tap his feet with the hoof pick...do anything that would be similar to what the farrier would do. At first try to limit the distractions, once he is better then make it more difficult. Since he is coming tomorrow I dont think you have time but for the next visit you should be good.

My only caution with an type of tranq is if you give to much he wont have great balance while his feet are getting worked on. If you give to much he may not be able to stand properly at all. Plus he may still spook on 3 legs and if he is a little drowsy and his balance is off it may make it worse. I would try and get him through with out it. A calming environment, a patient farrier and you there should make it ok.
 
My boy used to hate being shod just takes a lot of patience from you and your farrier you need to work together, at first the boy wouldn’t have any of the tools near him as is nervous of the noise so suggest to your farrier that he keeps the tools well away I know it’s a pain but it worked for us, also try and stay with the same farrier so Jerry gets used to him, we are now ok with the farrier still snorts at him when he first arrives, but he now is ok with the tools around him. We have now got to work on getting him used to the vet, although his visits are only once a year for injections, fingers crossed touch wood
 
He will get there, G was terrified of farrier for ages, and turned himself upside down on the yard first time (literally). Is 100% now, just a case of taking everything very slowly, and he will improve as he learns to trust you more. Please don't sedate him, is more likely to make him react even more strongly if he s scared as he will feel slightly spaced aswell, so will also fight he drugs. It will get better
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I was thinking sedating proberly wasnt wise, thanks for confirming
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hopefully he will be a bit more relaxed this time as he knows me now and i can turn him out for the morning so he isnt so full of himself, think i might ride first thing too so he is nice and settled
 
My new mare also tried to flatten the farrier when he did her hinds for the first time, it was only her second time being done, previous owners said she'd been fine but now I think not!! Anyway my farrier is not brave and put a twitch on her, I don't like using them but she calmed down straight away and he took it off to do the other hind and she was as good as gold. It was the banging that started her off aswell, I've since been banging her foot with a hammer every day to imitate the noise and feel and she's also been made watch two of the other horses being shod so hopefully she'll be better next time. I wouldn't sedate though, not unless it was totally necessary. Good idea having him nice and tired, you could also leave him hungry so you can distract him easily with food and hay!!
 
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