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Went through problems with Toc, after a farrier managed to shoe him
unevenly behind and caused a tendon strain.  He went from being a horse
who could be shod in the yard without a headcollar, to being one who
would rear and chop at the farrier and who broke loose and headed for
the hills when you went near his back feet.

It was no good me working with him as I could pick up his feet, bang on
them with a hammer, and do just about anything else with them, but when
the farrier went near them he went ballistic.

The farrier I was using at the time (not the same guy who messed up his
feet) insisted on tranqing him, but to me that made no sense as it
didn't deal with his fear, it just numbed it.

I got in another farrier whose approach was simple.  He shod the fronts
today, and removed the backs.  Then he left the horse over night and
came back to do the backs.  Toc is not good without back shoes, he gets
really sore.  Every time he pulled away, Pete would leave the foot, walk
away, have a cigarette, ponder the horse, ponder the horizon, basically
wait for the horse to settle and come back.  The first few times it took
two hours to do the back feet but I now, once again, have a horse that
you can shoe with no problems.  It took about four shoeings until Pete
could shoe him front and back in one go, without coming back the next
day.

It really worked, because at the end of the day, for this horse, a
farrier had to teach him not to be scared of farriers.  



Tracey



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