Squirrelly with farrier

[Caol Ila]

When we got Fin five years ago, he was really good with the farrier. His previous owner, who gentled him from wild, did a brilliant job (unlike me, who royally fkced that one with Hermosa and have to live with that). My lovely farrier could grab him, trim his feet, no bother, and I didn't have to be there. That was great, because I have to be there to give Hermosa moral support due to my spectacular cock ups (with a different farrier). That is what it is.

Then last year, around this time, he came up lame and the farrier and vet found a hole in his foot that was about to turn into a nasty abscess. The farrier had to cut away a fair bit of hoof wall. He was quite sore afterwards and I couldn't ride him for about three months, until enough foot grew back (which it did, no bother). Ever since, he's taken a great deal of offence at the farrier, and a foot trim involves lots of dancing about. Worse than Hermosa! She has a dance when she first sees him, then remembers it's fine and stands perfectly. My farrier is very calm and patient, and we can get it done, but dammit, it would be nice to go back to the way he was.

We didn't have a lot of options with the hole. Just one of those things. The farrier said a shoe would, in theory, help, but when I gave him a stark-eyed stare and said, "Do you want to try putting a shoe on this horse?" he replied with, "Nope." I said, "Yeah, me neither." He said he could pack the foot with stuff, but given the ground conditions, the horse would have to be on box rest or bacteria could get underneath the packing, and there is no way in hell you could box rest this horse for three months. Letting it sort itself was definitely the best option for everyone.

BUT, even a year later, he eyes the farrier askance. He's perfectly calm picking up his feet for everyone else on the planet, but he sees the farrier coming and gets quite wound up. I don't know what to do, since I don't have a pet farrier (should have married one). I'm sure this is a thing the farrier has done for hundreds of horses in his career, and he's pretty blase about the faff, to be honest, because Fin isn't dangerous, but yeah, I'd rather my horse get past it and go back to going to sleep when he gets his feet trimmed. I guess being ex-feral, nothing is as set as it is for a domestic horse.

 

[smolmaus]

Hes too damn smart!!!

Is it Fin that isn't particularly food motivated? The simple answer for most of them is that the farrier is the molasses delivery man and outside of him, (and standing quietly) there are no molasses deliveries.

If that's not an option, it sounds like he IS smart enough to eventually realise the foot resection was a one off. It might just take a long time, if hes too clever to be tricked into trust.

 

[SEL]

Likit?

My Appy needed sedating to trim when she was younger and with her various muscle / joint problems it's not comfortable.

She sees my farrier pull up these days and demands her likit. We're done in 10 mins with one even when she's stiff

 

[Britestar]

Random, but have tried the duct tape on the nose trick?

I always felt it was a gimmick, but one cob is a nightmare to clip, imagine clipping a moving target. In frustration time before last I stuck duct tape on his nose and bam! stood like a dream. Used it again, same effect so tried it when being trimmed (also a git), and it worked then too!

Defo worth a try.

 

[holeymoley]

I’m glad it’s not just mine, my youngster has the attention span of a gnat and can lose patience. Sorry, no tips, would a haynet help? I don’t like pandering them with food but farrier only takes so much. I think you have the same farrier as me! Poor soul, my oldie’s getting stiff behind to trim and the youngster can be a prat

 

[Caol Ila]

The Likit might be the answer.

It's Hermosa who is not very treat motivated. I have a Likit lying about that I've had since she was two, to try to bribe her into stuff and not terribly successfully. Should probably buy a new Likit. Fin, like a typical Highland, is a lot more open to bribes.

I’m glad it’s not just mine, my youngster has the attention span of a gnat and can lose patience. Sorry, no tips, would a haynet help? I don’t like pandering them with food but farrier only takes so much. I think you have the same farrier as me! Poor soul, my oldie’s getting stiff behind to trim and the youngster can be a prat

Yeah, we do.

Fin is rather good at remembering negative experiences. All horses are (and people) but he can get so stuck in it. I gave up trying to get him to hack alone, because you could have a few positive, uneventful rides, then you'd have one where he got spooked by someone driving like a tw8t, or construction work, or a horse being an idiot in a field you're riding past, or whatever else you can't control, and you're back to square one...planting like a bloody tree at the yard. I felt like I was in a time loop. One little misadventure, and we were getting out of that same bloody teleporter at the top of that castle. And sure, Hermosa has seen all the same stuff, and some of it was scary when she was baby, but she was always able to get past it one way or another, and indeed, got *more* confident because we lived to tell the tale.

I had some online conversations with Warwick Schiller and Lockie Phillips. Lockie was like, "you should be grateful he can be ridden at all," which I sort of took seriously and got more accepting of living with what Fin can do and what he can't (including solo hacking). And Warwick said, "If he says no, accept it, just turn back." This is deeply unhelpful when the thing that's spooking him is either a vehicle that's going to pass you one way or another, because you're in the middle of the f**cking road, or it's something that's three minutes from the yard, on a loop, and you don't have time, because of say.... daylight, to just turn around (and god knows if you'll find something else....which has totally happened....I once did a 180 because he was having a meltdown about a thing, then we found another scary thing going the other way, and bounced home in an absolute state). I concluded that Warwick Schiller does not live in the real world. Having a bazillion acres of your own land on a ranch in California sure is nice.

Obviously the farrier is a bit more non-negotiable. But I think a Likit might help him see things differently.

 

[Boulty]

I think some horses can have a “one strike & you’re out” tendency (Finn probably because of his feral past… the Welsh I used to have I think it was simply because he was Welsh!) in that they’re fine with something as long as it doesn’t hurt them but as soon as it does (even just a small amount) then on the blacklist it goes and there’s an absolute mountain to climb to get it off! (Some horse you could literally batter with a sledgehammer (not that anyone would ACTUALLY do that I hope but some of the things we have to do to help them when they’re ill or injured are admittedly quite grim sometimes) whilst doing a specific thing and they’d make absolutely no connection… the Highland I used to have fell into this box!)

On our trip to Leahurst vet hospital I had to be summoned no less than 3 separate times to assist with the tendency of the Welsh to want to maim anyone who needed to come near him. They themselves didn’t do anything that awful (although I wouldn’t imagine he enjoyed the CT scan of his head but he was off his tits on sedation at that point) but his opinion of vets in general was absolutely on the floor at that point and he knew what a vet looked / smelt like!

The Highland spent the last 6 months of his life having multiple day trips & overnight stays to vets and having various joints stabbed and injected, lots of X-rays, MRI scans, shockwave therapy etc and was still happy to see his friends at the vets and cheerful & compliant for whatever they needed to do. Arguably he had worse things done to him closer together but his ability to cope with less pleasant things and shrug them off was much much better. (He also managed to go through the whole jaw slicing incident including 2 stitch ups after the first broke down and daily cleaning & dressing changes for weeks on end plus months of wearing various hoods without becoming in the least bit bothered about having his head / face handled whereas the Welsh decreed nobody was allowed to touch his mane with 2 hands at once ever again after he was plaited too tight once before I owned him… he never got over this)

 

[Trouper]

Does your farrier come to the yard at any other times other than to "do" your two? Just wondered if it were possible to have any "non-treatment" interractions - so farrier makes a big fuss of Fin, gives treats, walks away. Sometimes this works to scramble the connections in the brain which says "oh, oh farrier, treamtment I don't want". Never actually tried this on a horse but one of our quite aggressive GSDs became a lifelong friend of the postman because he threw a ball for him every delivery!!!!!!!!!!

 

[maya2008]

Food. Just…food. The nicest, tastiest thing he goes completely nuts for. Only give it at farrier time. I start by feeding continuously if the foot is up and still and stopping when it goes down. Builds positive association with the farrier and gives a reward for the behaviour you want, thus reinforcing it. I gradually then back off to reward for each hoof once done, but at the start we just feed the nicest treats ever, in bucketloads, to get it done!

 

[SpeedyPony]

Small pony used to be fussy with the farrier, so I started asking him to feed her a treat every time before he trims her hooves. Even now I still hand him one to give her, although she's fine about it now.
Initially I did bring out the horslyx/treats throughout the trim as others have said above.

 

[Highmileagereindeer]

Any chance of some non reactive companions standing on the yard with him? Does he react to the farrier picking up his good feet? My old boy absolutely will not have any treatment or procedures carried out in his stable, food or no food, but will stand like a rock at the tie ring on the yard. It's difficult with natives, they file away any possible threats or upsets for future reference, and getting them to reboot is hard. It might help if the farrier could see him on a day when he is on the yard but not actually booked for Fin - just to pick up a foot, and walk away several times, give a treat, run his hands down his legs that sort of thing. It might fool Fin.....

 

[Jenko109]

Not entirely related, but my colt had his first trim this week.

He did quite well. Was a bit silly for the first foot, but perfect for foot two and foot three, then a little stroppy come foot four.

He had a worried face.

For a very first trim though, he did just fine and I anticipate the next time to see much improvement.

Anyway, I have toyed with the idea of getting him a lickit to have during the next trim. It isnt that I want to bribe him. More that I want him to find trims a good thing, rather than just something that happens to him?

 

[Caol Ila]

With my mare (2 when I bought her), I tried bribing with a Likit and it did f-- all but it depends on your horse. That's a whole 'nother sordid story, not helped by the fact that her breeder did not believe in training babies at all. Which meant she never had her feet handled until she became mine at 2.5. So that was fun. Anyway.......

The farrier comes every Monday and has a pile of horses at the yard to do. If I happen to be there and I ask and he's not rushing like a lunatic, he will give them a pat on a day he is not doing them (I did this with Hermosa) but the stars have to align a bit.

The Likit may work.

 

[tda]

I got a lickit to help with my youngsters, and one older pony.....never have i ever seen such disinterest i even wet it, but nope
Hope you have better luck

 

[Sussexbythesea]

A HorseLyx mini lick tub (not a Likit) works well with both of mine. Younger horse wasn’t very cooperative generally and older horse became agitated after we moved yards when separated from his field companions whereas he was fine before.