Super sensitive for shoeing, but always sound

[IPEsq]

My vet’s farrier cocktail is Dorm + Torb + Ace. For ones that are not lightweights, up to 1cc each, combined to be given IM.

One of mine gets anxious about the hinds due to a previous injury and jerks away but doesn’t want to be bad, so that makes him more anxious, but the tension makes it even harder to hold up the hinds. I’ve been able to wean him down now to 1/2cc of the Torb in the mix, and he is alert enough to be safe to hold a leg up, but mostly just snores through his appointment.

I would practice banging on the feet some. Though my younger horse can be a jerk about nailing the hinds sometimes unless he’s distracted with cookies, and I’ve done all manner of banging and hammering and clinching and whatnot (including sometimes to tighten a loose shoe) and he’s always been fine for me. I think he just doesn’t have much patience. It was the same trying to desensitize him to IV needles. Fine for me; jerk for the vet.

[lberreth]

His feet are actually in really good shape now, but they were a mess all last year. He’s been off the track for four years and came to me with good feet. A couple of farriers and vets I spoke to said they’d never heard of a horse being burned, which seems strange to me. It was the most logical explanation at the time based on how he reacted. He acted like he was being hurt just the one time (the last time, after about 6 months with that farrier) which set all of this off.

Since he’s a big moving guy and still new to eventing and since I’m not able to get him out on hills as much as I’d prefer, it makes me feel better to have studs in, and my trainer always prefers to use them on young horses so they don’t slip and get scared. The thought of him going barefoot and being lame for months while he adapts, if he adapts, is hard to swallow after everything we went through last year.

I totally agree with you that the drugs won’t solve the behavioral issue, and it’s probably a good idea to get a fresh set of X-rays. He is completely sound at this point and has not been unsound after shoeing since the the incident last March and the couple of months after while we worked to get him comfortable. He’s the kind of horse who, if the farrier takes off both front shoes and starts working on one, he’ll be uncomfortable standing on the other one, which makes sense because of his thin soles.

At this point, I need everyone to have a safe and pleasant experience, so sedation is what I’ll have to do for now. I’ve never had one that needed sedation for the farrier, but I’m trying to look at all possible reasons for his discomfort for sure, so I appreciate everyone’s responses!

[IPEsq]

Drugs can solve the behavioral issue over time in a situation like this. If he’s not painful in some way. Having some relaxed experiences at least won’t reinforce the behavior and can help over time by getting rid of the anxiety for some sessions. If he is painful, then a drug combo like I mentioned, maybe with some NSAIDs in advance, will fix the behavior by helping with his comfort level which you won’t get without medicinal help until he can get healthier feet. Farrier may want to only pull one shoe at a time as well.

[DiamondJubilee]

If your horse is reactive to the nails being driven in, have your farrier coat the nails in Vaseline first. I had a super sensitive horse that was very reactive to the nails only and my farrier read about dipping the nails in vaseline first so he tired it. Night and day. Horse never flinched or moved. 2 years of dorm gel and a twitch to nothing else needed. Just a big jug of vaseline!

We did combined driving so needed shoes and studs as well. This guy was good for everything else as well - picking feet, adding studs etc, but hated the nails being driven in.

Now this won’t help with the clinching issue though, but it could be something easy and simple to try with the nails being driven in?

[lberreth]

Very interesting idea! He’s not always bad about the both the clinching and the driving of the nails, but for whatever reason this last time, he was quite unhappy about it.