More on the solution to the shoeing dilemma (by Fiona)

What do you do when you have a horse that does not want to be shod? It’s one of the most difficult problems in the world to deal with as it is not something that is done everyday, you only shoe for real every 6 weeks or so and your farrier is highly unlikely to be on site every day to familiarise himself with your horse and practise picking up of feet etc.

Nor can your horse tell you why he doesn’t like being shod. All he can do is object in the strongest terms to the entire procedure and in the case of Murphy that could seriously disable someone or even kill them, he’s not a small lad.

So you try to go the sedation route. Being cautious to start with you opt for trying ACP. You talk to your vet to find a sensible dosage (25 in Murph’s case) and see what happens. Not a lot when your horse is the sort who is not just playing up a bit, but has serious issues with the whole farrier thing and fights the sedation so it has no effect whatsoever.

So then reluctantly you go for the vet sedating him route. There are several reasons why this is not a good thing.

First and foremost have you ever known a vet or a farrier to turn up on time, never mind trying to get both of them in the same place at the same time?? Nightmare!

Secondly the cost involved, suddenly your shoeing fees shoot up from the standard £55 - £65 per set, you then have to pay vet call out fees (extortionate) and the costs of the medication which can be 2 – 3 jabs, so your shoeing fee is suddenly nearer £200 a time.

Thirdly there is the strain sedation takes on your horse – they cannot properly regulate their body temperatures when sedated so get very sweaty which is not nice for them, nor is it good for them.

Fourthly there is the emotional strain on both you and your horse as you watch him fighting against the sedation and when the main problem that your horse has is the fear of being unable to control his situation in case he gets hurt again, all you can do is be there for him and hope to hell that your presence reassures him enough to allow his shoes to be done.

However he doesn’t trust these strange people who can be quite loud, in a hurry, who do not have the patience to reassure him and win his trust nor the time as they no doubt have at least 2 more jobs to do after you and expect docility and obedience instantly and have no time to deal with a traumatised animal.

So he reacts in the only way that he knows how and even under the heaviest sedation he can be given without falling over, he lashes out with his hinds and has a good go at biting his ‘tormentors’.

He never hurt a farrier, had a couple of near misses, but never actually hurt one, however the first one got fed up and refused to shoe him, the next one at least was honest and said he was scared to shoe him, the next decided it was too much like hard work.

So it was time to find yet another farrier…. But it seems word had gone out on the farrier grapevine. Now we were never anything but honest about Murph’s problems and opinion of shoeing from day and farrier 1, but suddenly not one of the local farriers were prepared to even see him, never mind shoe him.

The same old attitudes, callousness and ignorance came up again, that he was evil, we should have him put down, he was useless, we should have him put down – you get the idea.

In desperation we called some horse whisperers, both in the UK and the US to see if anyone had any ideas of what we could try. We got one of 2 reactions – that shoeing problems were the most difficult to solve because it was not a daily task – and that yes they would come out or give a phone consultation for an extortionate amount of money.

Great, we were already half way to bankruptcy with the costs we had been incurring with the sedation.

Finally we found a farrier who was willing to come and take a look at him. We were again absolutely honest and told him all the problems we had been having and he was also honest and said he’d take a look, but if he felt it was too dangerous he’d let us know then and there.

He came, Murph was sedated, he started out OK then something triggered the old reaction and he lashed out. The vet lost his temper and said he was evil and we should have him put down, I lost mine and told the vet that if he didn’t know how to cope with a damaged animal and had those sorts of opinions he could get off the yard. The farrier stayed calm and got on with shoeing Chestnut.

In desperation I asked the farrier what he thought and then the revelation – he said why didn’t we try him barefoot? He had beautiful hooves, he hadn’t been shod that long anyway, we’d have to be a bit careful and Murph would soon let us know if he got footsore and he’d keep an eye on him when he came to shoe Chestnut.

The sedation had worn off by this time and Murph still had 3 shoes on so in trepidation I got him out of his box again, stood him in a quiet bit of the yard and just held him in his pressure halter. The farrier came over and proceeded to take the other shoes off and give a bit of a maintenance trim without any real objections from Murphy who seemed quite relaxed now he wasn’t being shouted at and hit by the vet. He did pull his foot away a couple of times, but no biting, no kicking and a pretty happy horse.

And so he started his barefoot life last August with trepidation from us as it was such a new thing that we knew little about, but relief that there was a chance that we didn’t have to keep going through the nightmare trauma every 6 weeks of shoeing him with the damaging cycle it maintained.

For the first few weeks he picked his ground a little but was just as happy as ever in general. Miraculously his habit of brushing and cutting the insides of his hinds vanished over night and his paces generally improved.

Most importantly he was becoming more relaxed now he wasn’t being forced into a corner every few weeks.

We did vast amounts of research into bare foot trimming, took loads of advice from our farrier and finally after about 2 months started in a very trepidatious manner to trim Murph’s feet ourselves.

It was a revelation. Gone was the aggressive frightened animal that would kick as soon as look at you. He was curious as to what we were doing, was not above nipping ones bottom as you worked on a front foot and pulled away on occasions, but was pretty chilled about the entire affair. It was a nerve wracking thing to start with as you do worry that you’re doing it right – but as the farrier said – if he’s not lame and his paces are good then you’re doing it right – don’t worry about it.

Mind you, it’s bloody hard work, much respect to farriers doing it day in day out several times a day. I take the easy route now and do the fronts one day then the hinds the next and I still end up sweating with aching legs and arms just from doing that!

Finally I would like to post out a huge thank you to Lloyd who was there to suggest it in the first place and help us through the initial stages in bare foot trimming.

And also a massive thank you to Glenn who took over from Lloyd when he got too busy, for his help and support and his suggestions. Not least that Chestnut should also go barefoot as he kept loosing shoes by pushing them off.

Thank you both, if only more farriers had the forward thinking and sensible horse friendly attitudes that you have both shown then traumatised horses would have more of a chance of getting the understanding that they need.