The Feedlot Decision & The Trimmer

2/6/10: Aspire has been with me for a week now. I decided to keep her in a pen in the feedlot for a couple reasons. Though it’s not ideal she will gain a lot of exposure to people, dogs, traffic, cows, heavy equipment, and commotion being front and center. In addition to that the herd she would go out with are somewhat afraid of people and are hard to catch. Because I don’t have a solid relationship with Spy yet I am hesitant to turn her loose with a herd that is unpredictable, tense, skeptical of people, and again hard to catch. The boss mare will run the whole herd away from you if properly motivated by a glimpse of a halter. So, in the feedlot she stays. It has been a really good opportunity for me to bond with her by bringing her water to her twice a day, her hay, and be a source of engagement and socializing. Day by day she has begun to look for me when I arrive and is happy to follow me around some and leave to visit with me even when she’s eating her hay and grain.

On Feb 2nd she had her first visit with the trimmer… I did as much prep as I could in the three days I had her before the trimmer arrived but apparently it wasn’t enough. She’d let me pick up and hold all four feet quietly but it must have been the new person or the funny feeling of the nippers that made her uncomfortable. Aspire has never been trimmed in her year and a half of life and needed it badly, so I told the trimmer let’s give it a try but not force it. Well, she got a little direct line and Aspire was going to have none of it. I instructed her to just rub her legs until she stood quietly and once again, if we can’t trim her now, we’ll just do it later. It went ok, got the fronts nipped a little, but it really showed me her lack of trust in a human taking her leg away from her and how much she needed to move her feet before she could stand still. She never balked or tried to run away, just would circle and circle and circle us while we rubbed her. The trimmer did once try to hang onto a hoof for dear life which resulted in her hat being knocked off and Aspire of course regaining her hoof. Wonderful. Pat always says he thinks vets and farriers would all love it if we did the proper preparation with our horses – but I as an owner would love it if our vets and farriers had a touch of savvy themselves. Anyway, I have a rasp, so I might stick to trying it myself a bit once I gain her confidence with her feet. No rush.