Finally got my first horse to stand perfectly still for a full trim yesterday

I've been at this for about 8 months now, mostly doing work for a few local stables near me in Nashville. There's this one mare, Daisy, who always fidgets and tries to pull her foot away when I get to the hind ones. Yesterday she just stood there like a rock for the whole 20 minutes I was working on her. The owner even came out and said 'I don't know what you did but she's never that calm.' I think it was because I spent an extra 5 minutes just letting her sniff the rasp before starting. Has anyone else found a trick that helps with the nervous ones?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopher5948d ago

8 months of hard work and the trick is basically a 5 minute sniffing session with the rasp. Guess I've been overthinking all those fancy training techniques. Daisy probably just wanted to make sure it wasn't a snake or something before letting you touch her feet. Maybe I should start letting all the nervous ones sniff my tools first, see if they calm down or just get suspicious of me holding a rasp to their face.

drew_thomas97d ago

Ha, fair point but most horses do just need that sniff check before they trust you.