He who was born next to horses, moves among them in a magical way, almost imperceptible for whom knows what is it about. But who didn’t count on such an opportunity, finds himself at the previous stage of lifting up a leg or a hand.
As it is well known, the horse is a quarry and a capture animal and before an unknown situation they always will react looking for protection.
As professionals farriers or as aspirants to being it, we must try to maintain our pysical integrity, and it begins by extending our knowledges about the behaviour of the wild horse with regard to the domestication.
I recommend to whom is a farrier or who wishes to be it, to obtain a complete bibliography about the behaviour of horses, as it will help him to know the species better and he will be able to apply those knowledges in his profession.
I could write about the little I have studied and the most I have been taught by horses along my job as a farrier, but I know there are persons that study the behaviour of horses in depht and they know many things which are essential for us to bear in mind, ¿the reason? It is simple. We work with horses which belong to the animal kingdom and they are much stronger than us.
We farriers dedicate ourselves to a kind of work highly dangerous for our physical integrity, therefore the more we deepen to know the mind of the horse, the more we’ll be minimizing the risks.
As a first step, when arriving to a place which I don’t know, I have to resort to many weapons in order to find out how the horse with which I have to work is. It isn’t good for anything to ask the owner about the character of the horse, simply because it is his horse and he imagines and he also wishes it to be the best. Besides, a horse which is peaceful for the sattle, not always is it also peaceful for the shoeing.
I have to bear in mind that in only little minutes I have to find out the following aspects:
• Whether the animal has been broken in or not.
• If it was broken in, in which way was it carried out.
• Whether it has a peaceful, a nervous, an aggressive, or a collaborating character.
• If it gets easily frightened or scared, if it is fearful or peaceful.
• If it kicks or slaps and bites.
• Whether it has been shoed before that or not.
• Whether it gets scared on one of its sides but not on the other one.
• If it has been beaten.
• If it is young or old.
In short, a lot of different kinds of behaviours which, if not detectet early enough, they may play against the physical integrity of the farrier.
An injured farrier, as he isn’t able to work, becomes a farrier that reduces or annuls his monthly income, and the only way to avoid that this happens, is being careful and knowing the horse before starting with the work.
If I discover that the animal I have to treat isn’t peaceful or that it has dangerous behaviours, then I am free to taking all my tools again and to go. In other words, I deny myself to do the work.
Previously and also courtesly, I explain to the owner that his horse could hurt me and that he probably wouldn’t be ready to pay a salary for every months of my rehabilitation in case of a serious accident.
The owner of every horses must know that before engaging a farrier he previously have engaged a good horsebreaker.
In order to carry out a good work, the horse has to remain calm.
But, what can we do with those horses which will be shoed for the first time?
If the horse has been broken in correctly, we only have to be patient and to resort to our greatest calmness, in order to be able to shoe it without any problems.
We have to respect the times of traineeship and must care that each instruction corresponds to a time of just a few seconds or minutes. The horse learns by repetition of positive acts, and we therefore will avoid unique, long and negative acts.
For instance, if we are going to work with a horse that will be shoed for the first time, We shall lift its leg or hand as often as it is necessary, until it understands that it isn’t something that will hurt it. Always for short times. We lift up its leg or hand, then wait just a few seconds until the horse relaxes, and we then release it again. We repeat this until it accepts the action, on one side and then on the other one.
If, for example, because of the fact it does not know what we want to teach them, it is afraid to put its hand on the base-for-leaning-hooves, the blacksmith must be very patient and do his work considering the training times of the horse.
The first time, we can lift up its hand leaning it on the base and we may wait until the horse itself takes it down again. It must know that its hand will not be tied up on the base and it may take it down just when it wishes to do so. It is good to let the horse itself taking its hand down, when one has lifted it up to the base for the first time, because so we are giving to it the opportunity to make a mistake. In other words, we let it make the mistake, in order to teach it , starting from its own mistake. If we leave out this stage, the horse will hardly understand the aim of the instruction.
At the next stage, the process is to teach it that it must leave its hand upon the base. When lifting its hand for the second time, it will be different, as the horse must know that we will not permit to it taking its hand down and that we are going to tick it off, if it does it. When we are lifting up its hand, we will stroke the zone of the pastern, knot and crown, and when it tries to take its hand down, we tick it off through our voice. Above, on the base, it means a prize,down below it means a bother.
In every case or traineeship, the horse must count on the possibility of denying itself or escaping if it wishes to do so. It corresponds to us to convincing it not to do it. Its foot must remain on the base for hooves, for its own will and not because we tie it to same. As well, the horse must remain with us because it decides so by itself and not because we bind it strongly at a stick or a wood. What must we do when a horse seats down and tries escaping backwards?
Usually, we intend to pulling it forward compelling it to remain standing. It is not only normal, but also incorrect.
As a first step, that horse which tries to seat down and also to escape, has to be left loose, that is to say, with its halter loose on the floor. In this way we are indicating to it that it counts on its right to escape, but without our permission.
Usually, this kind of horses, when we lift up its hand, they react escaping backwards. So immediately, we must help it to walk wider backwards than it intended to do. If it tries to walk 2 m backwards, we help it to walk 4 m backwards. If it was to walk 4 m backwards, we help it to walk 8 m backwards and so on. The reasoning of the horse will be the following: “if when I walk backwards they make me walk a little wider, then it it is better I stay where I am”.
Previously to doing any work, we have to find out what kind of character the horse has. In this way we’ll know how we should apply the corrections or how far we should allow or hinder any reaction.
It is natural that, when shoeing it for the first time, the horse feels bothered and it wants to avoid all that it does not know, but it corresponds to us to showing to it that these are only little troubles which will not hurt it. We have to be patient and consider that from one horse to another, the times of traineeship vary. We also must bear in mind that there are horses which learn more rapidly than other ones.
When we work with adult and balky, easily scared horses, we may turn to other methods of teaching, as I am going to describe below, but they should always be based on the teaching of test and error, or through prize and punishment.
An excessive punishment and violent reactions on side of the farrier, will be the cause of an easily scared horse in the future. Neither must we beat a horse nor toss it down to shoeing it; these technics only produce more scared horses, or when they accept it, it will be for fear but not because they got used to us and to the shoeing.
The task of shoeing a horse for the first time gets more complicated when the horse has not been broken in correctly. In these cases, if the farrier is willing to shoe it, he must be very careful in order to avoid any accident which could make it impossible for him to continue with his work.
There are horses which because of its character, it is difficult to break them in and as a consequence, they are also difficult to be shoed. They so come to be a latent risk for the physical integrity of the farrier as well as of any other person spending time with them. Before these horses, we also have to take precautions in order to avoid accidents.
When we go up to a horse which we do not know, but which, - theoretically – should be peaceful when shoeing it, we must show to it that we are willing to be its friend, adopting passive movements and a calm pose, as well as of a full control of the situation.
Without looking directly into its eyes, avoiding so that it takes us as an aggressor, we go up to the center of the horse or to the zone of its front limb, in order to start calmly stroking it on the zone where the insertion of its neck is. We go up stroking it to its head and let the horse perceiving our smell. The horse will already know whom is it dealing with and it will allow us to go on to the second stage. It will manifest its acceptance by circular motions with its mouth, doing so what is called ‘mascar’ (to be chewing). If we don’t notice this acceptance, we shall repeat the process.
At the second stage, we shall slowly move away from the horse and we’ll start placing our tools which we are going to use for carrying out our work. In this moment, the horse will be looking at us and, whenever our behaviour continuous being calm, it will begin to relax. It will be “chewing” again.
At the third stage, we shall move up directly to its front limb without looking into the eyes of the animal and we’ll start removing its sensibility with our hand going from the zone of its shoulder blade towards its foot. Then we’ll lift up its limb.
The same technic is to be used to going up to its posterior limb, but, always, starting on the zone of its front limb.
In this short space of time, since we appoached the horse for the first time until we lift up one of its hands, we should have collected as much information as possible, so as to know what will be the behaviour of the horse during the trimming of the hoof or the horseshoeing.
There are horses which accept all okay during the first five minutes, but after that time they show some cunnings. We must be alert to such reactions.
It has to be considered that there may exist surprise factors which could frighten the animal and we will find ourselves within a critical situation if we are just doing our work at it when it happens.
Another important factor which also means a risk, is our state of mind.
Not always do we have the time to choosing t h e day of doing the work. The only feasible solution is to control our reactions and to think about it before reactioning in a way which thereafter could bring about irreversible consequences for us.
Horses count on a high degree of sensibility and do detect our states of mind and they always react wrong when they detect a state which confuses them or lead them to be distrustful.
We must know that it is almost impossible for a horse to avoid a panic reaction, because its speed overcomes our reflexes and possibilities to protect us by ourselves.
It it escapes, it will do it towards the opposite side of the danger, without caring whether we find ourselves in its very way of escaping.
As well, if a horse really wants to kick us, we have to take it for granted that it will achieve it, if it does not do it, then we should consider it as a warning from its part and, let us learn from it. Those who think to be stronger than a horse, it is only because they counted on the luck that the horse didn’t use all its strength and speed.
When shoeing a horse for the first time, be it peaceful or not, we must try to achieving that during each one of the next horseshoeings, the horse behaves better and remains more and more calm. It must finally become our friend.
Daniel Anz
Translations made by Elsa Anz.
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