What to do?

[wellsat]

Gerry has been going really well recently, calm, relaxed, responsive and starting to show true self carriage.

The vet was out for something else and being the perfectionist that she is she said she thought his foot balance was slightly out on his near fore and that he would benefit from egg bars.

The farrier shod him with egg bars on Monday and since then he's been a different horse. Tense, rushing, resisting the contact and not wanting to canter. He looks sound, just very unhappy and threw in the odd rear tonight to make his point.

Could a different foot balance make him that unhappy? I've left a message for the farrier to call me but I don't know how to handle it, I don't want him thinking I'm criticising his work.

 

[misst]

If nothing else has changed I would be getting the shoes changed back. If he has had his foot balance radically changed in one go then he may well be very uncomfortable IME.
He is obviously trying to tell you something.
The bad news is that when this happened to one of ours it took a while for him to settle again

 

[wellsat]

Thanks, I was worried you might say that. I've given the poor lamb a bute tonight to see if he's more comfortable in the morning.

 

[Brownmare]

The real expert is your horse! Listen to him

Also have a long hard look at his legs. Is there anything to suggest a problem higher up the leg that he may be compensating for? If this is the case he may need that "imbalance" at least until the root problem is fixed.

 

[wellsat]

Thanks everyone for advice. Spoke to the farrier this morning and he agreed that some horses just don't like them. He's coming back on Monday to put different shoes on him and see if it makes him more comfortable.