Farrier lessons for hackney horse William 1

After 2 months, the fear for a farrier is still very there. Little doubt, that severe abuse and extreme forced handling must be the reason.
For myself, picking up and cleaning all his feet and hammering on an iron on his front feet is no longer a problem.
Already the noises of the farrier, the sound of the gasoven for heating up the irons etc. made it difficult to get him out of his safe stable. With good words and a carrot, I managed :).
A very helpfull young, but quiet and experienced farrier, and a 23 year old pony
come in handy.
So just tying him to the wall, and let him experience the farrier without bad things happening to himself, might prove the best cure in the end.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• hackney
• farrier
• hackneyhorse
• harnesshorse
• carriagehorse
• horsedriving
• showdriving

[MsKatieHunter]

he is a stunning horse. is he a purebred hackney? im looking to buy a new horse and i love how balanced and athletic he looks. Gelding or stallion?

[hackneysaregreat]

@MsKatieHunter

Purebred gelding and not for sale :-)

And this was 2 years ago, when he was still not on good condition.

[mopkowski]

I don't really understand what this accomplishes? Do horses learn by observation? Or are you basically just bombproofing him by using the farrier.

[hackneysaregreat]

@mopkowski

Horses learn very much by observation.

You hope he picks up the idea, that a farrier not always is a big threat to him and will not always mean physical harm to him, like it certainly did in an extreme way in the past.

[Dressage9603]

I like your idea of tying him nearby to simply take in the experience. My horse had similar problems with the farrier after he had a bad experience. The farrier startled him when his tool kit got caught on the edge of the floor mat and made a racket. He reared up and managed to get a foreleg hung in the cross tie. It took doing little things like what your doing, and the patience of and goodwill of a willing farrier to get him calm enough to shoe again. I hope your ideas worked!

[hackneysaregreat]

Seems Murpies law caught up with your horse.

Good you found a willing farrier.

[candypaddle]

Good idea and a gentle way to train :) Oh and your farrier has a nice butt!

[Horserider14ify]

He's Beautiful! xx

[Ja72corbin]

this is like going to the dentist as a kid and hearing other kids being worked on . same thing except the horse can see it being done. if you would have seen your buddy worked on at the dentist would you let the dentist near you??

[DiamondNotch]

Very good training progression! 

[Tat2sbitch]

@hackneysaregreat What do they typically do to Hackneys? What happened to him? I'm assuming it's more than just heavy shoes...

[xdieromantic7x]

hes gorgeous.

[Dooooodle]

You could try giving him some hay aswell as a distraction, that way the sounds are still there but it might not seem as scary, it works with the horse i look after, she shows similar behaviour when the farriers around, just the smell sets her off without even seeing him! but she settles down when she has something to munch on =]

[hairsprayfanatic101]

how big is he ?

[branfeather]

Awww, poor William, I'm glad someone who obviously knows what they are doing is handling him now. Our dog has that exact same body language when he's scared of storm, I was amazed how similar it was.

[marigold321]

I've watched most of your william videos. Did you report his former conditions to a human society? That previous owner should face some consequences.