Farrier
Phobia
Help your horse "kick" this fear.
By: Bryan S. Farcus, C.F.
reprinted with permission from HorsePower
Imagine yourself trapped in an elevator with your hands tied, and
only able to stand on one leg at a time. Let’s add an annoying
fly which insists on using your nose for a landing site. Sounds pretty
uncomfortable and maybe even scary, if you’re the claustrophobic
type.
Remember this the next time you see a young horse in cross-ties,
fighting flies in a narrow barn aisle, anxiously awaiting a visit
from the farrier
Both the owner and the farrier must realize that skittish, jumpy,
even “kicky” reactions are not personal attacks directed
at them, but rather natural responses to the horse’s situation.
How should we deal with this situation? The automatic response is
to hold the horse in place with force. Such approaches can include
cross-ties, leg hobbles or twitches, some of which can prove dangerous
to both horse and handler. Some may argue that they got the job done;
however, it is a long, traumatic process which never leads to a “lasting
fix.”
There are two basic fears (phobias) all horses face:
1) being attacked
2) becoming trapped
Unfortunately, when a farrier is a new experience for a horse, he
can represent both. It is only through setting boundaries (limits)
for the horse’s body in relation to the handler’s that this
problem can be truly solved.
The “body-boundary” approach I use is sort of a simplified
version of the logic used by many successful trainers and educators.
Terms such as “WESN-Lesson” (John Lyons), “Joining-Up”
(Monty Roberts) and “Heeding” (Ron Meredith) promote the
basic idea of creating corridors, tunnels or counter-moves. They develop
a horse’s understanding of where he should be in relation to
the handler.
The proper position for the handler on the ground is a “shoulder-by-shoulder”
alignment with the horse. From this safe spot, you can easily “direct”
or “steer” your horse.
So, now you know where you, the handler, should be. How can we show
the horse his boundaries?
The first step is to deal with the phobias. Being patient and standing
by his shoulder will help show him that there is no threat of attack
by you. Also, being in a place that is familiar to him, such as a
grooming stall, barn aisle, round pen or arena will relax him and
show him that there is no attack from his surroundings.
The second step is to remove any feeling of entrapment, which can
result if the horse loses balance or his ability to move. A horse
needs to feel he has an “opening”, “release” or
“hole” in at least one direction (forward, back, near side,
far side). When a horse needs to stand still, use the shoulder-by-shoulder
boundary, blocking him with light resistance in front of the shoulders
if he tries to move forward; nudging or tapping at the rear of the
shoulder to ask him to step forward.
Slight side-to-side movements should be tolerated in the early stages.
Using restraint devices (hobbles or twitches) at this point will only
increase the feeling of being trapped, and allow fear to take over.
Once the horse is relaxed and accepting his boundaries, it is time
to ask for his feet. The single most important thing to remember is
to avoid a tug-of-war match. The goal is not to see how long you can
hold the horse’s foot up, but to teach him that you are in charge
of when the foot is set down. This means setting the foot down before
the horse expects you to. He will eventually learn to trust and wait
for you each time, whether it is two seconds or two minutes.
Archives
