She's a Momma's Girl

I met with the farrier last night at the barn. I got there around 5, and didn't expect him until 6.

I loaded up my pocket with mints, grabbed her new purple cotton lead with chain, and her brush box. I pulled her out of her stall and ground-tied her with her regular lead to brush her. She kept trying to follow me when I went to her hindquarters. A couple of reminders to stand still and she stopped moving. She let me pick up her feet with no trouble -- like normal. She fussed a bit with the back, but I held them until she stopped, and she relaxed. Then I took her to the arena to lunge her for a few minutes, to take the edge off. There wasn't much of an edge. She was pretty lazy, probably due to the heat. She did play a little, but didn't actually buck, just jumped around a little. Weirdo. She broke a sweat, and was puffing a bit, but was breathing normal by the time we got back to her stall.

I put her up, leaving her halter on, put the Freedom 45 bug stuff on her to try to relieve some of the flies. No sooner had I finished that, the sky finally stopped threatening rain -- it opened up in a torrential downpour, thunder and lightning and all. We made it back just in time! It cooled off almost instantly -- dropped about 15 degrees in 30 minutes or so. Nice. It was stifling before that.

The farrier arrived about 10 minutes early. I brought Promise out with her new chain across her nose, just in case. He came in and spent a few minutes talking with me, and paying attention to Promise. He seems like a nice guy. Kind of quiet, and what the barn owner described to me in email about him being a gentle person seems to be very true. I didn't see anything that told me she was afraid of him. She lowered her head for me when I asked, and relaxed, with it around my knees. He was surprised to see her being submissive - and completely comfortable in that status, and I think, instantly impressed. I backed her to a spot near the middle of the aisle, and asked her to put her head down again - and he got to work.

Even with the loud booming thunder, the lightning, and standing in a growing puddle, she never moved, unless she was asked to. She pulled one hind foot from him, but it seemed mostly to rebalance herself. She gave it back to him with no hassle. She looked a little worried while he worked on the first foot, but relaxed pretty quickly, ears flopped sideways, or listening to me. I think he was a little worried with that first foot, and so she was probably picking up on that. As he relaxed, and with me staying calm, to begin with, she relaxed. Even with a foot in his hands, she lowered her head if I asked her to, and generally remained very cool and calm. When he was ready to switch sides, I pointed to her shoulder and said "Over" and she moved to the other side of the aisle.

He was very impressed by the end, and shocked, too. He scratched her ears and said, "You're trying to make a liar out of me, aren't you?" I laughed, and told him I did believe him about the behavior, but couldn't figure out what caused it. She is expected to behave *this* way for the vet and farrier, not the way you described to me, and she knows it. He said, "She's obviously your horse. She is completely relaxed with you here, and it's clear you're the dominant one, and you make her feel safe. Thank you for making my job easy today."

I offered to meet him there a few more times, and work up to having her cross-tied with no one at her head while he works. Hopefully, she'll continue to be well-behaved, even if I'm not there. I can't help but wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I wasn't there for their first appointment. Normally, I am always present for the first visit with a new vet or farrier, but I wasn't able to be there when he started working with her.

I am relieved that it went so smoothly. My gut said it would, because I know my horse. But, I couldn't imagine what was causing her to act that way. It's not like she's new to getting her feet done! I am relieved, too, that I don't seem to have a chronic problem on my hands with this. And, of course, I was amused at how surprised he was by the change in her personality.