Farrier Visit

Today was the best farrier appointment Chance has had since I have owned him! I'm so pleased with how well he is doing, and thrilled that the lyme treatment worked.

Things I did differently today were: I went out 1/2 hr before the appt. and walked around the paddock with him. I was surprised to find that I had anxiety about the appt. I am always a little stressed out before his trims wondering if he is going to hold up his feet. I needed to feel okay before George came to help Chance feel okay. So after walking around for a few minutes I hopped up on the purple bucket and asked Chance to move around me. Then asked him to stand next to me as if I was going to hop on his back. I had no intentions of getting on, but started petting and scratching him, lots of relaxing. I then helped him stretch out his front legs and rubbed them both from the shoulders down to the hooves. Then I asked him to give me each foot, I picked them out and shook out each leg and hoof to help relax and loosen him up. Then we did more petting, brushing and relaxing. Chance must have yawned 10 times throughout this process which is good, he was releasing stress. By the time George got here we were both pretty relaxed and happy.

This was the 3rd trim by George. He asked for Chances lead line and asked him to move back, then also did some things to help him relax. He trimmed the hardest foot 1st - front left, which went perfect. In between each foot he would ask Chance to move, bring his head around to the side, rub his eyes, scratch his nose, just giving him more opportunities to relax and get ready for the next foot. The only one that was a little hard was the last one - front right. I think that was more of Chance being tired and ready to be finished. And it wasn't bad at all, he pulled his foot away a couple of times, as George put it "No more than any other horse would do, not a Chance Special"

I'm so grateful to have found such a patient farrier. I think Chance is too.