Trimming Daisy

I have been dreading the day our wonderful farrier would come out to give Daisy a trim because she is somewhat difficult to halter, and without two functional arms at the moment, it was an intimidating thought to have to keep her still to get her feet trimmed.

My daughter and I went out early, before the farrier arrived to work with Daisy and get her mellowed out. But fate had other plans. The peacocks down the road were screaming and that was setting off the horses in pastures around us. Daisy's head shot straight up and she was antsy. Oh terrific, I thought. Just want we don't need! Every 10-15 seconds a peacock would let loose with a humongous screech. It sounds a lot like a human screaming. It came through the trees at the far distant perimeter of the pasture and was a bit distorted. I wondered at the time if elk make some sort of screeching noise because we've got elk and deer and bear in abundance around here. (Later a neighbor reminded me of the peacocks right down the road.)

I did some target work with Daisy to get her to lower her head, but she was too anxious to keep her head down, and backed warily away when I raised the halter towards her neck. It didn't help that the two humans were trying to halter her much like a couple of guys running a sack race, each using one appendage to get the job done. While my daughter does have two functional hands and arms, she isn't accustomed to getting the halter around behind the ears before getting the horse's nose in it. At a time like this, fumbling doesn't earn one extra points!

My daughter was going to quietly brush her without the halter, but Daisy was too antsy for that either. The peacocks continued to scream (at each other, I presume).

When the farrier arrived, I walked to his truck to let him know that we had not able to happily halter Daisy. She had already created serious damage to my arm 5 weeks ago...I didn't want anything to happen to him.

Kevin, the farrier, has the serenity of a Buddhist monk. I think the only reason he isn't worked to exhaustion is because he lives in a small, rather rural area. If he were available in the Portland area, he would not be able to get to everyone who would want his services.

He smiled gently and asked if I minded if he gave Daisy a try. I said I'd be delighted. He walked in and asked her if he could touch her. He always asks a horse before he does anything--he never demands or orders.

In a flash, his nimble hands had the halter up and over her nose, and then buckled.

He picked up one of her big soup-plate feet and started rasping while I gave her clicks and treats. She has been trimmed all her life, and it appears that trimming was the ONE THING that has occurred to her which did not involve betrayal or abuse. She was perfectly delighted to have a real, live, human Pez dispenser in front of her, dispensing peppermint-flavored  horse treats! One by one, Kevin was able to work his way around Daisy's feet, while she stood quietly slurping and chewing.

When treats are dispensed fairly rapidly, it changes Daisy's breathing pattern. Her breathing slows and becomes steady, and that calms her. By the time her feet were done, her eyes were large and soft, and her head was down in a relaxed position.

What a relief that she has been trimmed. Kevin remarked that I might be experiencing all sorts of problems doing other things with her, but he was happy to trim a horse who stood that quietly. With the treats coming at the front end, she never thought about turning her head to stare at him, much less nibble at him. I'm sure the nibbling and nipping can get very tiresome to a farrier.

I have noticed that clicker training and treats will cause Daisy to relax after about 15 steady minutes of click - treat repetitions. She starts to slobber and relaxes as she realizes that things are going in a very predictable and safe way for her. About 15 minutes in, she will give a small sigh and visably relax, lowering her head and neck and softening her eye.

The problem is that the next day, we start all over again, with the classic stressed or nervous horse pose of neck and head sky high, stiff muscles in the back and withers area, lowered back, and "disconnected" hind end which is stretched out too far to the rear.

I had loaned one of my books on Ttouch by Linda Tellington-Jones to a neighbor. Our neighbor has a little Poodle who has been very anxious and stressed by the move to our neighborhood. He barks at everyone and everything. So she wanted to try Ttouch on him each night. She returned the book, commenting that he was getting calmer.

I leafed through the book, scratched my head, and said, "Now why in the world didn't I think about Linda's methods before now??!" (Duh!)

So out came another of her books, which has line drawings and descriptions to help one assess the basic personality of their horse.

While Daisy has a broad expanse between her eyes and a medium to broad jowl which give her very positive traits, she also has a hard, pointed chin, straight-up ears, and other traits which give her inflexibility, stubbornness, and so on. "Nature" gave her sort of a 50/50 balance of the favorable and unfavorable, but "Nurture" enhanced the unfavorable and brought them to the forefront.

I plan to start some Ttouch work on her in the near future, including some Clouded Leopard circles on her hard chin, and to see if she will let me do some very soft work on her nostrils. The goal is to get to where I can work on her lips, gums and ears which will help her with her anxiety issues. There are other things which can help bring out her softer side, but it will probably take time to be able to do everything on the list. A tense horse often will initially resist work where they are all tensed up.