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We have one like that! Vinnie has always had shoeing problems and always had patient shoers. He is a little Paso Fino who goes STRAIGHT up in the air when the hammer is nailed. After trying sedation (which I hate) and carrots and lots of calming, we decided to keep him barefoot. He was never so happy after that. He is an angel for trims, stands perfectly still and falls asleep but don't get that nail going! He was using Epics boots last season but now has these mustang tough feet so we may not be using boots as much. He is my daughter's horse and she really only wants to continue to do LDs on him so thats cool. The shoer & I realized that after 1 year of shoeing, he was never going to get better. He never got even one ounce of better each time he came. We both agree that he is sensitive to those nails being driven in. I know there are some that say we should keep trying but after 4 years of shoeing, it was pointless. Fortunately he isn't someone's endurance horse so we can live with keeping him barefoot. But if she decides to do 50s with him again, he'll be booted up. I have to tell you that after we kept him barefoot, his personality changed. He was calmer and happier all around.

--------------Karla Watson/Oregon

----- Original Message -----

From: sherman

To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 1:17 AM

Subject: [RC] unable to shoe

I had planned on keeping Sonny barefoot since he was eight when I started him & hadn?t had shoes ever before. I finally shod him for our first ride about 5 weeks ago because he got rub sores from the gaiters of the easyboot epics. My farrier is very patient and spent quite a while getting the nails in, especially the rears, but we got it done. Sonny seemed to dislike the nail being driven in. Recently he lost a shoe in front and the farrier came out to replace it today. Sonny would not stand for the nailing. He?ll let me hammer on his hooves, place a shoe on it & hammer as much as I like, but as soon as the nail starts going in he very strongly resists.

 

Has anyone ever had a horse like this. He doesn?t have any problem with having his feet handled, lifts whichever leg I want when I stand by it and tell him ?up?, deals with trimming, booting, and really is a cooperative horse, just doesn?t seem to be able to handle the nailing. I had hoped to keep him barefoot & ride in the boots, and I?m only concerned because of having had rubs before that kept me from using the boots for awhile, and the boots won?t stay on without the gaiters. I don?t know of any way I can desensitize him to nailing.

 

Any ideas?

 

Kathy