So sox has a problem with the farrier. When he is been shod on his front he will let the farrier shoe for so long then he will get bored and put his foot down. I have had him checked out by my vet and he has confirmed it's boredom. So my question is how do I relieve sox of the 'boredom' If I can. Anyone got any ideas
becoming bored when been shod
- Thread starter lauren123
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As an ex racehorse he will normally have been cold shod, is it a problem with the smoke rather than boredom or is is just one foot? One of ours has a very low boredom threshhold but the farrier works around this by only holding his legs up while necessary, there are a lot of up/ down times and breaks while farrier adjusts shoe ...we also find doing one foot completely at a time is better than doing all feet in stages.
He is cold shod. Smoke and sox don't mix! It's generally his front feet both of them. To shoe on back his great. My farrier does do one foot at a time.
Does he have any favourite areas that he like scratching? When Chloe's mud fever was at its worst she was quite difficult for the farrier to trim on her backs. We discovered she adores having the arch where the top of the leg meets the body scratched (inside her thigh I guess). It almost has the same effect as a twitch!!
What you describe Lauren, is exactly the problem I have but we need to sedate because the farrier won't take the chance of such a heavy horse deciding he's had enough. He still does it even though he's sedated and there's not a damn thing I can do to help as Flipo is so far out of it, he couldn't care less.
I wish my farrier would let him have a few more breaks as it would help my boy not to learn that snatching is possible. The few times I've done work with him, I hold his leg up and it he does manage to snatch it away, I reverse him back quickly to help him understand it isn't acceptable. Trouble is, it's difficult to do in the summer as with the whole 'set yourself up for success' idea, with so many flies buzzing about, my horse is already prancing about and we just end up in war, so I can only try this in spring and autumn. But when I have had a good few sessions, it does improve his behaviour when it comes to shoeing day.
I guess you could try distraction techniques, a horslyx, lots of carrots, etc, but if it's definitely behaviour then somehow reinforcing the good or making the bad harder could be the way - clicker perhaps?
I wish my farrier would let him have a few more breaks as it would help my boy not to learn that snatching is possible. The few times I've done work with him, I hold his leg up and it he does manage to snatch it away, I reverse him back quickly to help him understand it isn't acceptable. Trouble is, it's difficult to do in the summer as with the whole 'set yourself up for success' idea, with so many flies buzzing about, my horse is already prancing about and we just end up in war, so I can only try this in spring and autumn. But when I have had a good few sessions, it does improve his behaviour when it comes to shoeing day.
I guess you could try distraction techniques, a horslyx, lots of carrots, etc, but if it's definitely behaviour then somehow reinforcing the good or making the bad harder could be the way - clicker perhaps?
Carrots and apples are sox thing . May try that . My vet has confirmed there is nothing wrong with sox and that it is just behaviour .
I would have a good long look at shoulder pain. Mine was exactly the same. He was VERY naughty for his fronts but not his backs, and my farrier (who is old and very experienced) said if he was being naughty, he would be the same front and back.
It was actually a shoulder issue that was causing Tobes pain. I had had a back lady to look at him and frankly she was not much good, and didn't identify it as a particular problem. The lady my farrier recommended took one look at him and said he had a real issue, and after a lot of hard work on my part, the issue has resolved.
Tobes if he was a person would suffer from ADHT, he lives in the moment and bores quickly of lots of things, but he was so good last time my farrier suggested I should call the vet because there was clearly something very wrong with him!
We have also found that Tobes although he has excellent feet - round and strong, has very big frogs. We therefore take one front off at a time so he always stands on one shod front foot, and this has helped enormously.
Horses generally are very generous creatures who put up with a lot. If Sox is kicking off about being shod, I would lay money on it that something, somewhere is hurting.
A haynet for us is a must as well. It helps to alleviate the boredom!! As is a punctual farrier!
Edited to add, that in my opinion, which I am sure a lot will disagree with (!), a good back person is far more likely to pick up muscular issues than a vet. I would get a back person out to save more hassle - but make sure you get someone who knows what they are doing, and has more than one string to their bow training wise.
It was actually a shoulder issue that was causing Tobes pain. I had had a back lady to look at him and frankly she was not much good, and didn't identify it as a particular problem. The lady my farrier recommended took one look at him and said he had a real issue, and after a lot of hard work on my part, the issue has resolved.
Tobes if he was a person would suffer from ADHT, he lives in the moment and bores quickly of lots of things, but he was so good last time my farrier suggested I should call the vet because there was clearly something very wrong with him!
We have also found that Tobes although he has excellent feet - round and strong, has very big frogs. We therefore take one front off at a time so he always stands on one shod front foot, and this has helped enormously.
Horses generally are very generous creatures who put up with a lot. If Sox is kicking off about being shod, I would lay money on it that something, somewhere is hurting.
A haynet for us is a must as well. It helps to alleviate the boredom!! As is a punctual farrier!
Edited to add, that in my opinion, which I am sure a lot will disagree with (!), a good back person is far more likely to pick up muscular issues than a vet. I would get a back person out to save more hassle - but make sure you get someone who knows what they are doing, and has more than one string to their bow training wise.
I agree with SJP, to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Sox is sore somewhere, and personally wouldn't go to a vet to investigate this but an experienced back person / physio. You say your vet has "confirmed it's boredom" because there's nothing physically wrong - that seems like a strange thing to say really, as far as I'm concerned you can't "confirm" behavioural issues, you can only rule out physical ones.
When I say confirm I mean ruled out anything physical. Sox has been like this since I have had him. It is more his front though sox will sometimes do it with his hinds too. Though I will get my back person out to him x
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