shoeing a horse

[testy]

OK i don't know much about horses just the basics. but i am boarding four horses for a friend and he has one here that is not broke. he says when he got her she was abused. and yesterday he tried to put shoes on her and she hated that she would rare up and just fought it all the way. so my question is how would he get her used to touching her feet? she is fine until her feet are touch. he was working with her a little yesterday. is there a way of doing it to where its not stressful on her? or me lol. i hated watching it. please help. she is really a sweet horse.

[MokeyBird]

Sorry about the book.

Oh yes. I totally understand. The feet, IMO are some of the most important things to work with. You are in such a vulnerable position when you are messing with them that you want them to be the best about the feet.

Are the shoes absolutely necessary? If he will just be hangin' out in the field, then probably not, because it will just be another thing with nails to go missing in your pasture. KnowwhatImean?

My hero says that there are three areas where a horse will be most defensive about because of thier prey instinct. The head, the belly and the legs. It is kind of ingrained into them. If they lose an eye or irrevocably hurt thier mouth, they can't eat or see predators as well (I have several half blind horses, by the way, so that is something they can and do learn to deal with). If they get a bad wound to the belly, in the wild they would be done for. If they damage thier legs or feet, they cannot run away from predators. So yeah it is natural for unknowing horses to be frighteningly defensive around those areas.

If he is an abuse case, then she probably isn't fine and dandy with everything else. She needs to start with the basics. Here would be what I would do, and this is what I do with all of my babies. Feet are last on my list of things to work with, despite how much they need it. Since a few of my colts never would let me touch them out in the field, I start there. I start by just getting them comfortable with me scratching, petting, patting, brushing. Not to where they will "tolerate" it. But to where they are "comfortable". No tenseness, no wanting to move away. Usually it is when I can do all that without any contact on the lead.

Once he is comfortable with all of the "topline" stuff(neck, back, rump, and sides). I start moving lower to rubbing on the legs. I'm not trying to pick them up. I am trying to get the horse to let me touch them. If they move away, since you are still holding the lead and they are comfortable, you can gently pull them in to stop, or wait for them to stop. Move slowly and quietly as you go up to them next time. Talking helps, if you are calm. Start rubbing the neck and work your way back down to the leg.

With the back legs, you might want to use another leadrope to rub the legs. If you've ever seen a horse kick at a fly on thier belly, you know how fast they can move and you DO NOT want your face down there if they are...kickey. Just safely maneuver a spare leadrope between his back legs using your feet to bring the ends back to you and do a gentle sawing motion up and down the legs with the rope.

When the horse is comfortable with thier legs being touched, it is best to have two people on the same line of thinking. One to hold and one to work with the feet. What I do to get unknowing babies to lift thier feet is put pressure on the chestnut. Just give it a squeeze and once they "unlock" thier legs, slide your hand down and lift the foot. For the first couple of times don't hold it there for an awful long time. Hold it up for a little bit, then drop it. And give praise. And then do it again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Try to drop the foot before you feel him trying to move away.

***

IN SUMMARY- Get him comfortable with rubbing everywhere, move to rubbing the legs, and then try to pick them up.

Good luck. Plase tell me if you don't understand what I said.

[testy]

thank you so much. that really makes a lot of sense. i am going to print out your post and give it to my friend to have him do this. and I'm going to work with her a little everyday as well. again thank you.

[S t e p h]

Goodluck!!

[MokeyBird]

Go right ahead. And remember that horses are individuals and some take more time to adjust and learn than others.

Goodluck and keep us updated!

[Runky]

Yeah, I agree with Mokey 100%. (:

I think you need to build a trusting bond and gradually work with him until he lets you touch him where ever you want. There's one of the Parelli games you can play with. It's called the friendly game. Basically you rub him where he feels comfortable getting rubbed and you gradually work your way to places where he's not as comfortable being rubbed and if he seems uncomfortable you go back to rubbing where he is comfortable and you gradually work up until you can touch their whole body. Here's a link to an article about it if you wanna read it. And the other games are on there as well.
http://www.parelli.com/info_page.php?page=article&lit_num=26&title=What%20are%20the%20Parelli%20Seven%20Games?&t=lit

Basically I'd just work on bonding with the horse and gaining it's trust. And gradually work toward the feet. And what I do, I make sure the horse puts the hoof down when I want to put the hoof down, not when he wants to put it down.

And if he's not doing any hard labor, I don't see any reason why he'd need to be shod. Just a good trim every month should be fine.

[lneill84]

You can also give him about 1/2 a cc of ace and knock the edge off. But don't unless you are under your vet's guidance