We shall see----Update on Twist

UPDATE:::::: Yesterday we had the farrier once again and it was actually a nice morning. The sun was sunshinning for a change. The past few times he has been here it has pored. Twist is very uncomfortable in the stable and we have been unable to do her feet outside due to the weather but things finally seemed to be in our favor. We brought Twist into the corral and Fred held her while I fed her grain. The farrier was able to trim her front feet without ANY problem but she was iffy about the backs. I had seditive on hand but hestitated to use it and we opted that since we had made great headway with her front feet to leave the back for another time so as not to lose the trust we had gained. She was very well behaved and her feet look so much better.


We have the farrier coming in a few minutes. We do our horses in rotation but hooves seem to have grown quickly over the past few weeks so it could turn out to be a lenghty session. My worries are with our Paint mare, Twist. She came to us with feet in terrible shape, long and cracked. I did a bit of research into her past and found that she was a range mare, rarely stabled if ever, had a few baby trims and that was about it. She is a lovely girl, kind and gentle. The farrier has tired to trim her a few times but tenses when she is inside so we have had to target a day when the weather is good so we can trim her outside. I prefer to try her without seditive, slow and steady but we have it on hand if she is just too tense We are hopeful if she has a few good experinces that she will discover that it isn't a bad thing.

I hope everything went well with Twist! What I found that works really well for horses like that is going up to them often and starting by just rubbing their legs all over, getting them used to you touching them. Then once they are comfortable with that you start asking them to pick them up. For the front legs I squeeze at the chestnut, starting very lightly, and waiting a few seconds before squeezing tighter, never start with your strongest squeeze because there is no where for you to go from that! As soon as she shifts her weight off the foot release the chestnut and rub, rub, rub. Then repeat, repeat, repeat. Eventually you’ll get to the point where you bend down to that hoof she is already picking it up for you. Same for the back legs but you squeeze on the cap of the hock, again start with rubbing and then start of softly with squeezing. She’ll get the hang of it in no time!

Just remember Ori is touchy with her right front leg, bucket of grain is what I used to distract her, but she probably isnt really needing doing yet as she was done about 6 weeks ago If I remember correctly.

It started to rain so Twist got a reprive for today. We managed to get 4 others done and have the blacksminth rescheduled for a couple of weeks from now.

MB..Twist will give her front feet willingly to us and we did manage to trim them a little earlier in the summer but it was outside. The back feet are a bit more iffy but we are working with them. If think there are several factors that cause her problem. Firstly, lack of previous handling in that area, no stabling done in the past and the fact the the farrier is not overly familiar to her. She has come a long way since we got her and with positive reaasurance I think she will improve. We decided this morning to start bringing her in and leaving her in the stable just so she can realize that it is a good place. It is just that she has never been inside. She loves to be groomed outside but tense when groomed inside so it is not the act so much as the place. I wish they all came with a manual...it would be so much easier to know all that they have been through.

My old mare Charm got a lovely trim this morning. She has been a bit off in her front shoulder the past while. She is 33 so I guess she is intittled to a lame step or two. Her feet looked great and she trotted up over the hill when she was finished so all is well in her world. She has been "vacationing" this summer, as she has done for the past several, with my sister's two older mares.

Thanks for the info, LB. We had him check Ori and she is fine until next time. She is a gem and we really like her. She settled in with the herd extremely well. We had planned on riding her this PM but it has started raining. The rain has put a damper on quite a few of our plans today.

Rain, rain go away!!!

Sounds like a successful morning either way :flower:

It was a good morning. it seems like the past 4 or 5 times that the farrier has been scheduled that it has rained. we try to bring the horse that need to be done in before he arrives. Since we have babies weaned in most of the stalls the barn was full this morning so we left them in the corrals. Of course the girls got a few drops of rain on them and decided to stopped, dropped and roll....what a mess. I brushed them off as well as I could but they were still wet and dirty. We have a great farrier and he never complains but I am sure when he had to lean up against their muddy sides that he was saying a few flower words under his breath.