Jim Sweeney
08-04-2009, 10:11 PM
Last week on my day off I finished my last horse around 2:00.:D On my way home I got a call from Bruce Mathews, he was near my place and wanted to meet up. A month ago Bruce asked me if I was interested in learning his methods of dealing with difficult horses. I told him I had the perfect horse in mind for him to demonstrate his methods to me.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj286/JimSweeney/IMG_0754.jpg
This is "Boxer", he is a Field hunter believe it or not. His rider is probably a whopping 100 lbs, pretty good guy but I have only seen the bottom of his hind feet a couple of time in the last five years. If they get a little long she rides him on the roads a little more and wears them down. They don't wear evenly though and he does need some trimming. He has never been shod to my knowledge. Usually I trim the fronts, touch him on the hind leg and the foot goes past my head at warp speed and back in the stall he goes.
Bruce worked with him in the stall for a few minutes and I was surprised how Boxer accepted him. He never once even seemed to question his purpose. He seemed interested in the ropes, he never resisted enough to even tighten up a rope. I handed some tools to Bruce and he had him trimmed in pretty short order. That was a nice change.:D
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj286/JimSweeney/IMG_0756.jpg
After moving him out onto the cross ties we took turns playing the bongo drums on his feet, he really did not seem to mind. I felt a little silly that I had let this horse get over on me for so long. Bruce had a trusting relationship built with Boxer in about twenty minutes. His techniques are simple and are not time consuming. I told Bruce I could see the value of it to get out of a pickle. More importantly I have walked from some otherwise good little accounts based on one knothead. If I had taken a little time I could have helped out the horse and kept the business. It is really simple. I got to thinking about other trouble makers on my books and hoping to get Bruce back down to do some A.D.D. Tbreds. Somewhere there are some pics of me working on Boxer but missing at the moment, anyway I'm not as photogenic as Bruce... Thanks Buddy.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj286/JimSweeney/IMG_0754.jpg
This is "Boxer", he is a Field hunter believe it or not. His rider is probably a whopping 100 lbs, pretty good guy but I have only seen the bottom of his hind feet a couple of time in the last five years. If they get a little long she rides him on the roads a little more and wears them down. They don't wear evenly though and he does need some trimming. He has never been shod to my knowledge. Usually I trim the fronts, touch him on the hind leg and the foot goes past my head at warp speed and back in the stall he goes.
Bruce worked with him in the stall for a few minutes and I was surprised how Boxer accepted him. He never once even seemed to question his purpose. He seemed interested in the ropes, he never resisted enough to even tighten up a rope. I handed some tools to Bruce and he had him trimmed in pretty short order. That was a nice change.:D
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj286/JimSweeney/IMG_0756.jpg
After moving him out onto the cross ties we took turns playing the bongo drums on his feet, he really did not seem to mind. I felt a little silly that I had let this horse get over on me for so long. Bruce had a trusting relationship built with Boxer in about twenty minutes. His techniques are simple and are not time consuming. I told Bruce I could see the value of it to get out of a pickle. More importantly I have walked from some otherwise good little accounts based on one knothead. If I had taken a little time I could have helped out the horse and kept the business. It is really simple. I got to thinking about other trouble makers on my books and hoping to get Bruce back down to do some A.D.D. Tbreds. Somewhere there are some pics of me working on Boxer but missing at the moment, anyway I'm not as photogenic as Bruce... Thanks Buddy.