No hoof, no horse

I received a call from my farrier yesterday that left me dumb-founded, and more than a little worried. I have no illusions or sense of denial that my mare *isn't* a demon. She is, absolutely. But, she has always, *always* behaved for the farrier and the vet, barring the occasional, I want my foot back type reaction or backing up a bit to get away from a needle. She gets corrected, and then they can go about their duties -- safely.

I don't tolerate misbehavior, especially on the ground, and I guess I expect those working in the barn and/or directly with my mare to do the same. I know it doesn't always happen that way. But with the farrier/vet, I EXPECT them to not take any crap from her, if I'm not there when they're working. 99% of the time, I can't be. And, I understand their livelihood depends on them not getting hurt. So, I try my damnedest to keep my mare well-behaved to avoid such a scenario. I know as a horse owner, it is my responsibility to do so.

When my farrier called yesterday, he told me that she has been kicking out, rearing, breaking cross ties, and generally being a wench. This is beyond unacceptable behavior. It's also not like my horse. Yes, she has a history of doing all of these things, but NOT with the farrier. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around what would cause her to all of a sudden behave the way he's describing. I've had 4, maybe 5, farriers in the 11 years I've owned her. All of the switches were due to moving barns...this one included. None of them have ever had this much trouble with her, whether I was there or not. The last farrier worked on her for the last 5 years. He never had a problem with her, and believe me, he would have told me. I would often go to the barn when I knew he was there, around the time I knew he would get to her, and watch out of sight to see how she was behaving. She wasn't an angel, standing perfectly still -- but she was pretty close.

So...that leaves me with a couple of lines of thought...either she's afraid of him - she was severely abused, most likely by a man, as a yearling and two-year-old - and it's possible his look or demeanor is triggering something. Or he's afraid of her, and she's taking advantage of it. Or...and this is probably stretching it a bit, but maybe he accidentally caused her pain while working on her feet. I have agreed to meet him there Wednesday night to hold her for him and try to get her feet done, and I am pretty confident it will be mostly uneventful - and if it's not, obviously I will be disciplining her. I appreciate the fact that he's still willing to come out and try. But I don't like the fact that he wants me to have the vet meet him there and dope her in the future. I will not dope my horse to get her feet done.

Basically, I just don't know what to do until I see what happens. But I'm very concerned that my horse is acting this way...