The Farrier Incident

About 5 weeks ago, Hampton's farrier told me he was going to spend the winter in Florida.

But, he had a name of a guy he highly recommends to take care of Hampton over the winter. First, I will say that Hampton's farrier is probably one of the best I have ever been around. He works for one of the best farriers in the midwest, if not the country. He is an all around nice guy, is patient with Hampton, is funny and extremely hot good looking. Basically everything one wants in a farrier. ;)

So, when he recommended this other guy to shoe Hampton over the winter I of course took his advice without question.

So this new guy comes out (about 4 weeks ago) to reset the creature.

At first things are going great, but I warn him that when he gets to the hot-shoeing part, he will need to be patient at the smoke scares Hampton and he will want to hop backwards a bit. He usually gets over it fairly quickly but does require some patience at first. So we proceed.

And Hampton does exactly what I said he was going to do - he hops around a bit when in reaction to the smoke. To be fair, Hampton has never been hot-shoed until this summer. This was maybe the 3rd or 4th time he has experienced this.

After a few hops around, New Farrier says, "Put a lip chain on him."

I immediately got a bad feeling in my stomach.

So I try to put a lip chain on Hampton. I pretty much fail miserably because 1) Hampton is too damn tall and 2) He is now getting very upset as to to why I am trying to cram a chain up his lip. It is really rare that I have to put a chain on this horse's nose, much less a lip chain. Which he has never experienced.

So farrier says in the most condescending manner: "Have you ever put a lip chain on before?"

... Now I am annoyed AND offended. I tell him YES I know how to put lip chains on but have never needed to on this horse. He is too big to manhandle.

"Well, this is what we do on the track," he says. So I tell him to give it a try and HE CANNOT GET THE CHAIN ON EITHER. I am aware that track horses wear lip chains all the time. They are used to it, and it works for them. But Hampton is not used to be handled in such a manner. It just scared him and pissed him off.

He finally succeeds after 5 minutes. Hampton's gums are bleeding now of course and he is visably upset. Great.

So Hampton stands a little better now, but after maybe 10 minutes I notice that he is started to tremble in the flanks. Another 5 minutes and he is now shaking like a leaf. He looked like a horse having a full blown HYPP attack. Now, I was getting scared. Was he tying up? Was he going to collapse? Was he going into shock?

The farrier seemed unconcerned at the shaking and kept on shoeing. He was almost done at this point, so as soon as he was done hot shoeing I took the lip chain off and Hampton stopped shaking very quickly after that. Endorphins? I don't know.

After he proceeded to charge me an arm and a leg, I turned Hampton back out in hopes he would move around. He galloped out to his friends and seemed totally fine. I watched him for 10 more minutes to be sure.

To be honest, the farrier does quality work. But I won't be using him again. In fact the experience was so traumatic that I am going to have to drug Hampton next time (new farrier), just for his sake.

I feel horrible for not standing up for him more. He is certainly not above getting into trouble. He isn't allowed to act like a jerk, but when the horse is truly scared, it does no good to get rough with them. I don't want any farrier to get hurt, I get it. But I think this went too far.

How can you put a lip chain on this kind face? geez

I know it's not the farrier's job to train my horse to stand to be shod. But it is only the hot-shoeing portion that bothers Hampton. And I'm not sure how I can replicate that in daily life to teach him it's ok?

*sigh*

I guess a lesson learned?