Pets
When Horses Get Depressed And Emotionally Unbalanced by John Silveira
[Apr 19, 2008]
I'm a Farrier in the Bay Area California for about 17 years now. Shoeing horses is a great thing for me as I have helped many horses from lameness and bring about much recovery. When horses feet are correct horses know it and I love it when I see horses become happy and better adjusted from my efforts, blood, sweat and tears. Sometimes though horses are just not happy animals, the following story is just such an example.
A big beautiful paint horse i have shod for the past 12 years for the most part has been easy for me to shoe. The horse "always" was not just quite right though. Usually she would bobble on her back feet while I shoe the front and she would always side step when I approached to shoe the rear. However it was nothing serious enough for me to become alarmed or too concerned - until the other day.
It was time to shoe High (the horses name) so drove out to the ranch where she lived. She is a nice horse - haltered her up and walked back to the shoeing platform. I nearly always start with the front feet (they are usually more important as horses carry so much more weight on the front end). I pulled the front shoes off and started trimming and as usual High started bobbling on one rear leg which makes working on the front feet quite a difficult task. So as usual I sort of bark out the command "Quit"! She usually responds favorably, however this time it was very different.