the infamous Arabian Moment usually occurs when I'm at the truck or walking to or from (thankfully) but I do have a ringside seat. I've never felt the need to be hero and try to save them from themselves. Usual causes: weed wacker, hay thrown down from above, tractor/manure spreader hitting barn, cat/dog fight, owner trying to clip ears/clean sheath...etc
I make it clear to my customers that while im working with him we do it my way if they want to train,groom or otherwise piss him off do it when im done. I hate cross ties they make horses closterphobic and when it hits the fan thehorse gets to fighting the ties and not only cant get away from you but compleatly forgets your there . I do most spooky colts in a pen with the lead on the ground or over my sholder you would be amazed how much commer they are.
True to the thousandth degree. Murphy's Law applies and don't forget totally rotten or wild unbroke horses apply also. But after riding with Grandpa for seventeen years and helping for the last five or six, after showing me the foot rope and at other times the lip rope grandpa said, "These are not crutches, if you have to use either of these on every horse you run into, you are doing it wrong. These are only for extreme cases." I altered that a bit, those extreme cases pay me 75 an hour to 'train' their unbroke horse to shoe. Some lady argued with me, "But Tejun, 'real' trainers(what a *****) only get 450 a month." "Right lady, im a Farrier, I don't like training horses or I would have been a ****** horse trainer, so if I have to train your horse it is going to cost 75 an hour." Usually they get a trainer, but if they pay me, I ground break the horse. Just to clarify, in my area, I am the guy they go to if the other farriers beat the horse or have major problems with it, the bulk of my clients are from people who didn't like their other farrier and how he had to fight and beat their horse(i understand some of these cases are dreamt up by the owner). When I get there, I have little to no problems, almost always.(grandpas words ring true). Out of the hundreds of horses(200+) in my book, I may have less than ten that are or were a actual major issue, and like I said, they came to me because they were a major issue already. PS I have had shoes move..... rarely. Usually I bone it up nailing and have to set it again.
Saddly most "horse trainers" ither cant or cant be bothered to teach a horse to pick up a foot.the vast mijority of ill mannered horses i have had the plesure of working with have come to me from trainers and ushaly the same ones. I have found that some people can screw them up faster then i can fix them so i started a sliding scale first time is reasnable concidering and all i ask is the owner pick a foot up every time they mess with there horse.the second time i shoe them if the horse is not at least as good as he was when i finnished with him the price goes up and so on untell i feel im wasting my time at witch point they can find some one else...ive done this becouse while the horses have changed over the years the people have not and i could nolonger stumick the cycle of stupid i found myself cought up in .It cleared three trainers off my books within four shoeing cycles and my life has become so mutch more plesent .Ironicaly one of those trainers badmouthing my methods has actuly brought me more business and a better clientell then the years of fixing her mistakes did. PS. Tejun im a transplanted northwesterner whos had his brains rattled a few to manny times so if you can put up with my spelling i can handle your french .besides dealing with some horse and mule people can add that flaver to a saints vocabulary
Incase that sounds bitter understand .Working with young horses ,out laws and knot heads has ben and still is one of the greatest plesurse of my life and while i have not made my forten doing it (heck sometimes i hardly break eaven) i have reaped ten times what i have sowen and would not trade it for the world.
Hey Smitty, I have been practicing my clips while i wait for the big shoes to heat up, the other day a horse lost its shoe and tore out a huge chunk of hoof wall and I actually made clips that worked, shoe is still on after 3 weeks woot woot, not pretty though. I filled the cavernous hole with DAP.
Oh SNAP you got me, the craftsmanship had a lot to be desired haha, Damit! I took a picture of it, but I can't find it now. what the shizzzzzzz?
i was putting the 1st year apprentice through his paces tonight pulling clips as he has his 1st competition tomoro
Accepted, just cut the **** language, my virgin ears can t stand it, and i m sure that when expressing your sentiments to /via the world, some others may appreciate the decorum that ,you, are capable of ! thanks ray ps not the other ray
Hats off to farrier / horse trainers ..that's not me... Tejun bringing up foot rope reminds me of one I first started like all farriers i had a lot of trash horses on my books...I remember it like it was yesterday a horse named Manny .. I went into the ol talk of working with your horse on picking up the foot ..there was about 4 people standing around watching the show.. I sent on after a rope cause I was fixing to put on a training lesson ..after all I'm a pro so they needed to see how a oro does things the right way.. they bring me a rope I get the rope on the hind foot as I'm going along I'm giving a safety talk that even OSHA would have been proud... I get a young guy to head up the horse cause he was good handling the rank ones... I'm going into my little show and tell and explain ..see you lift the foot up like I'm fixing to do and when he stops kicking let him have it back..( now yall watch me).. and here is where things go to shit.. I double up my hand around that rope..and give the ol slight tug and Manny bolts like he has be shot from a cannon.. first the header kid goes down..them I make about four steps before my big ass does a face plant... Keep in mind I'm in a field of junk cars and out the corner of my eye I see a ford fairlane pass me but it ain't moveing...about the time I work my fat azz onto my knees skidding along on them chaps ..well the chaps safety features turn loose and off they go...now I'mskipping not sliding any more...about the time I get my hand loose ol Manny takes a hard left and I swing wide right.... And come to a fast stop right into the fender of a 1950 rusted out Chevy collapsing the bottom part of the fender... I stand up and they all running at me asking you ok... All I could say was now see how important safety is.....I knowed right then I'm no damn horse trainer nor would I ever be..
LMAO Travis. Its kind of like flying a airplane though ,considerably less exciting when you know how to do it.
Travis Dupree. Wow that was a great story. I was with you blow by blow haha. I too had a 'experienced' horse handler loose control of a half foot roped horse and it would have went through the side of a metal barn if it didn't bounce of the steel support beam. Unless I have seen the handler in action I tie them up to a strong post usually one with a solid wall behind it.
No I don't see a lot of it, as Brian stated the arab moment usually happens when I'm at the truck, so I do them one foot at a time on the fronts and they go in the stall next to the tie area when I'm at the truck fitting shoes and pads. Mainly because of pawing rather than acting up.
