Okay, two things: You are asking a serious question. Referring to your mare as "ponay" several times in that post was very distracting, obnoxious and not cute, IMO. Proper punctuation and grammar makes your post easier to read and more likely to get equally serious, polite, respectful responses.
Second of all, you need to keep desensitizing her to having her hoof banged on. You can even just use a hoof pick to tap on it, and if you're afraid of getting kicked, it's never going to work. Do you have a trainer you work with? Can s/he help you with this? One of you holds the hoof and the other feeds treats when the horse is good/etc? You really just need to make her deal with it if it isn't pain related, and if you're too afraid to, you need to find someone who can help you.
Agreed. As she said, it's HER horse and HER resposibility so who else would teach it to be comfortable with getting shoes nailed on? The farrier? Nope. It takes patience, practice and confidence.
Do short sessions, reward with food. My guy hated his feet being worked on. We started giving him hay and it kept him occupied enough to stand still and now he doesn't even need it. It just takes continual practice. Don't pound on her foot with all your stength.. gradually increase the pressue with which you tap her.
Practice, practice, practice. And like was mentioned above, you cannot be scared. She'll take advantage of it. Just pay attention and if she acts like shes going to kick, stop her before she does.
yea i know this...I almost think she "has my number". I used to have no problem with stuff like this. One of my things to try is to have our barn manager, a big "take no shit" guy to hold her to the farrier but like I said in my post, this is my problem to deal with so I want to work with her for the next 5 weeks and see if there is a difference when the farrier comes again. Thanks :)
Thank you for your suggestion. Sorry if the reference to Ponay was distracting for you. However, thats her barn name and what I refer to her as so Im sorry I did not explain that in the post
( ... )
Second of all, you need to keep desensitizing her to having her hoof banged on. You can even just use a hoof pick to tap on it, and if you're afraid of getting kicked, it's never going to work. Do you have a trainer you work with? Can s/he help you with this? One of you holds the hoof and the other feeds treats when the horse is good/etc? You really just need to make her deal with it if it isn't pain related, and if you're too afraid to, you need to find someone who can help you.
Reply
Reply
Do short sessions, reward with food. My guy hated his feet being worked on. We started giving him hay and it kept him occupied enough to stand still and now he doesn't even need it. It just takes continual practice. Don't pound on her foot with all your stength.. gradually increase the pressue with which you tap her.
Practice, practice, practice. And like was mentioned above, you cannot be scared. She'll take advantage of it. Just pay attention and if she acts like shes going to kick, stop her before she does.
You have to be smarter than the horse.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment