Over 2 tons of horsepower, 2 big powerful Shire horses as gentle as a lamb, calm and sweet natured. That's how I would describe Lady and Quest....most of the time. Quest is a wimp, when Quest has an owie, it doesn't matter how big an owie or how small Quest makes a fuss. When Quest makes a fuss, it's a big fuss and like it or not we have to listen ! All the recent Seattle rain has resulted in mud at the gateways where the Shires like to lurk in anticipation of a passing treat... and the mud has softened the horses feet. When you have hooves as big as Lady and Quest, supporting bodies as big as they have, they need to be healthy and hard.Mud causes softening and can in a worst case and untreated scenario cause hoof rot. For some time Greg has been treating one of Quests hooves and since the treatment appears to sting Quest has learnt to object and when a ton of horse objects you have little choice but to listen. Greg has tried various methods of application, we've tried distracting him and we've tried chastising him and Quest still objects. This behaviour was causing us considerable concern because we have one super big horse with a small hoof owie and a huge attitude problem and one little farrier with a back problem who was due to visit yesterday. The farrier arrived early ( which is quite the novelty !) and Ibuprofen was duly offered ( standard practice for our poor farrier). Quest was brought from the field, already with an attitude issue as he had tried to go through a gate that wasn't quite open. ..he will learn one day, maybe. Nerves were tense, we really dont like to see our farrier hurting and we like even less to see him hurting because of our Shire reprobates behaviour. I was the victim nominated to try to control Quest, I'd have said I drew the short straw...but I didn't even see a straw ! Jodie and I devised a plan, she cut the carrots and delivered them to me and I would shovel them into his ever open mouth. She cut, I shovelled... and Quest chomped happily and quietly. Our farrier worked frantically to trim before Quest remembered to misbehave or we ran out of carrots and before we knew it he was done....Carlos was still in one piece, his discs still where they should be and maybe Carlos will come back to us. I know that serious horse owners and trainers will be quivering in their seats, rewarding bad behaviour, feeding treats, how many horse rules did I break ???...but you know what, when you have a 19.1 hand equine brat who could potentially disable our much loved and much needed farrier ANY tactic is worth considering. Oh yes....and I'm fine too which made me available to clean the sheep pen..but thats another story ! Time to go, take care, M
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