Thursday, October 15, 2009

Farrier....B+

Ace was prety good for the farrier. I put him out and let him run for about 15 minutes before we worked on him, then tied him in the grooming area and held the other line like a cross tie. He was a bit impatient with the first hoof, which was the right front. He yanked that one away a few times and pulled back and fussed etc. He was better than I expected with both hind feet. Our farrier is very good with the horses. He rarely asks for me to get after a horse, and it usually has to be fairly extreme before he does. He was able to hang on those hind feet better than I can and as a result had less of a struggle from Ace. When Ace would lean on him or try to bully him with his shoulder, Kim would just shove back a little and "talk horse" to Ace. They got along well, as they have from the beginning, and Kim seemed happy with his behavior for a cocky little weanling. Although, when he came in the barn and I was swooshing Ace around he said "maybe you ought to do that a little bit longer". I will say it again... teaching a horse to tie to the wall for a length of time is the single best thing you can do. After he was tied he knew he was supposed to stand. Not that he was happy about it or anything....

2 comments:

Kaede said...

do you think he will grow out of his pushy behavior?

SmartAlex said...

They usually grow out of it to an extent. The rest is training.