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.
