Posted by Katie on November 06, 2003 at 19:43:39:
I own a 1995 gelding who used to be an absolute angel for the farrier. We could hold him anywhere and the farrier did not have any problems with him. That was two years ago, after we bought him. He was doing great for about 3/4-1 full years, although the farrier did not like him at all. The farrier kick his heels to get him to lift his feet instead of just picking the foot up. The gelding began to move, as a result. After about 1.25 years, until this past May, we used this same farrier, until this gelding lost a shoe, twisting it and having it stuck to his hoof. We pulled the shoe and since that farrier could not come out to reset it, we got a different farrier. We were able to trim him, but not get the shoe back on. We found out that he had severe bruising. The next time, he was worse to trim, and as soon as we got near him with a shoe, he reared and backed down the aisle. The next time it was worse, and he reared half-way while trimming. Now he is fully-rearing after a single hoof is trimmed.
We work with this gelding daily. He gets his feet lifted, picked, stretched forward, and held between our legs. We can do this while he is eating or while he is standing in our aisle, but our new farrier (a Natural Balance graduate) cannot. Any tips on how to get this gelding how he once was?