KBR Horse Net
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Wow, Annie!
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Day 5:
There was lots of activity at the stable today. Annie pretty much got to enjoy the show until the end of the day. At that point Sharon and I decided it was time to start trimming some long feet. We approached Annie's overcharged "Pick up!" reflexes on the basis of simply holding her feet in place, then slowly bringing them up. She got the concept after a few minutes and allowed me to actually pick her feet up without her overreacting and slapping herself in the belly. Sharon used a great deal of "click-assurance." She actually filled the horse up on carrots; she wouldn't take any more so Sharon switched to click-muzzle rubs. With Annie settled down I was able to get the nippers on her and overall she was pretty quiet while both front feet were trimmed and rasped. Day 6: Sharon and I worked on Annie's hind feet today. She would give them to me without much difficulty but I could feel her start to wobble some and she'd paddle to get her foot back. I tried one time to put my shoulder into her hip to help balance her but she wasn't ready for that much contact. Sharon suggested trimming her with her feet on the ground and if I cocked her foot, she would rest it pointing her toe down as long as I wanted to work on it. I could trim the sides this way but I still needed to get to the toes. I went to the hay barn and got an old saddle jack which we had made which is nothing more than a 2 foot long 4x4 with a carpet stapled onto it and an eye bolt at one end where it hooks to the wall. I laid it out, flipped Annie's foot back and and rested her short pastern on it with her sole extending past the carpet. Annie flinched a little bit and the wood moved. Sharon suggested I set the jack so I could hold it in place by kneeling on it with my outside knee. That idea worked. Now I had her toe 4" off the ground. The carpet was apparently comfortable and once she figured out what we wanted from her, along with copious amounts of click reinforcement from Sharon, she held her foot on the saddle jack even when I needed to use both hands on the nippers. (I was nipping as deep as I could and still had to make a second pass.) I think by making contact with something solid, Annie could help balance herself just a little tiny bit when necessary. She might have pulled away a couple of times on each side through the entire routine which took a bunch of nipping. We gave her a little break after the first foot, then we set up the off side hind for nipping and dressed both hinds with a rasp. I left plenty of sole on both feet so that she will wear down to her proper angles gradually over the next few days. In the meanwhile she is walking kind of like a water fowl as she was not used to having properly shortened toes. It will be interesting to she what she does with an arena turnout. Day 7: Cheryl came out in the morning, haltered Annie and led her out to the horse course. This was only Annie's second time out of the paddock and the first time being any distance away. It took her a couple of minutes to lead smoothly, then Cheryl worked Annie through every one of the obstacles except the pit which was still muddy. Cheryl needed to set Annie up for the stairs by leading her over increasingly high cavaletti. Annie negotiated them all, the stairs, mound, bridge, concrete culvert crossing and the tire maze, each virtually on her first try. In a couple of instances she needed some "click-assurance" but she never lost her "try" for Cheryl. Later Cheryl turned Annie out in the arena to play with CJ where she must have rolled back and forth in the sand a dozen times, bucked and ran and played with CJ. After the high jinks Cheryl had no problem haltering her.
| Fairly level front feet
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