Another Double Barrell Horse Kick. A NEAR MISS
Categories: Horses, navicular, shoeing, farriers, Shoes, Western, kicking, Riding, ringbone
Hello Everyone.
I'm going to say i want this to be the last time i talk about kicking for a while. It's a subject that i think everyone should be aware of but not to be dwelt upon. I'm writing about it again because two days ago i went out to shoe that horse that stomped me.
I was lulled in again. This is the second time in my carreer i feel i was actually lulled in by the horse acting sweet. The first time i was lulled in i actually got kicked / this time i was more lucky. As a farrier i get exposed to quite a bit . The quick story is as follows: And i'll be candid. No names though.
When i first started my carreer as a farrier i was apprenticing out in Gilroy Ca. at savanah farms. I had been shoeing for just over a year after graduating from horseshoeing school now. We - the farrier and myself were to shoe a fabulous looking arab halter show horse. In the cross ties and i have both front feet with shoes on and finished up and both rear shoes on but needing finish rasping. I'm standing on the right rear side of the horse getting ready to finish rasping the rear feet - this horse stood like an absolute statue the whole time i was shoeing and i was just starting to say to myself " Wow this horse is perfect they ALL should be like that". Well i had the rear foot on the stand as i was saying this and bending over to pick up the rasp.
WHAM !!!! BLASTED !!!! this horse Kicked me square in my knee - had i not been bending over and my left foot came off the ground my left leg would have been broken like a twig at the knee. EVERYTHING went in slow motion - but of course in reality the kick happened in hundredths of a second. It felt like the kick came from across the room, felt like it took a long time for the kick to come but i just couldn't move, it also felt like being shot by a cannon . I'm going to guess it's like being hit by a car doing about 50 miler per hour.
well the long story short - i'm leaning against the wall in pain and the Handler/Trainer and Barn manager at the time came out and poked the horse in both eyes with his fingers ( i'd never seen such a thing in my life ) ( the horses eyes teared up and swelled shut ) and he said " If the horse can't see you he won't kick you " - and the farrier i was with ( a very cocky fellow ) said " I'll finish that horse " and he jumped under the horse but didn't use the hoof stand like i did. No longer than three seconds go by and i'm leaning against the wall watching and just starting to want to tell the farrier " GET OUT FROM UNDER THAT HORSE" and he got kicked too - BROKE his leg right at the knee. Went into shock and we drove him and myself to the hospital.
A bolt through his knee to hold the broken bones. OK enough said . That was when i realized that horse lies in wait and lulls you in before attacking - what a mistake i had made in judgement as i went back to look at this horse several months later and took one look at him and could just "See the maliciousness" in it's eyes. The day after i had been kicked the horse kicked the groomer - and the following day the person feeding. the horse had a record of kicking and we weren't informed of it.
ok - quickly to the current issue . Two days ago i was called out again to shoe that horse that stomped my foot two months ago. Well this time she's being pretty well behaved for the most part - she's letting me pet her nose and rubbing over her eyes and she's soft in the mouth showing she liked it actually . That was a relief. So i put both front shoes on with no problems - all the while i'd take short breakes to go stroke her nose and talk with her to ease her anxiety if any and she's not showing much anyway.
Well - time for the rear shoes now - and as i walked around to the back she had side stepped into a position that was too close for me to work on - So i stood next to her rear ( Like so many people always do ) and i put my hand on her rump to cluck to her and ask her to side step back into the middle where she stood and in the "Instant of a heartbeat" she hopped and blasted a double barrell kick ( Both rear feet flying ) FULL BLAST HEAD HEIGHT as both her feet blew past my face and head in what surely would have killed me had either foot connected with my thick skull. I simply could not believe it !!! All she had to do was cock her hips like horses do and she would have put me out !!!!
The point is - i got lulled in again - for the second time in my carreer - this time i got lucky , REAL LUCKY.
The point is - the owners DID NOTHING !!! they are just too easy going .. The woman who also deals with this horse ( the girlfriend of the actual owner ) tells me " You have to treat her like a lady "...
I'm done harping on this subject for now. Just take from this article what you want and i truly hope to enhance everyones horse experiences.
I personally don't think i'll shoe this horse again. And to the previous comment i recieved from Marcia about Circling this horse - " There's no amount of circling i would ever trust ".
I'll be following up with some examples of horse psychology i've experienced you should find interesting to post in the next day.
to all my friends - happy and safe riding and remember to www.Care4Horses.com
best wishes
john silveira
Hey John, do you feel like a cat yet - how many of your nine lives do you think you've used??
Don't think I'd go back to a horse that did that to me. That's too close.
================
Hello Patricia.
the answer to that is " A FEW ". Yes that's exactly what i feel like this time. It's just a bit different being a farrier you know. There was another horse , a big jumper at the Stanford Barn - yes right there by Stanford College , i was shoeing it and he'd been some trouble previously , a little high strung and a bit onry , while at his side he cow kicked right accross my rib cage. It was a graze , no bruising but enough of a shock that when i went to practice AIKIDO that nite my instructor of 9 years said to me " What happened today"? I told him i got kicked . His response and explanation was that things like that will skatter our energies out into the universe and we have to kinda reach out and regather them back . I just thought it was kinda interesting how he spotted it immediately.
i'll talk to you.
john
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Hi, Read your stuff. I bought a mare and she would let me handle her feet no prob. Then when my farrier came she wouldn't cooperate and he punched"charley horse" my mares ass. Ever since then I can not handle her back feet... any ideas...I will train her before farrier comes. BTW... he is a young inexperianced farrier...my pony and older gelding did fine...is i a personality issue? or experiance? or the wind? the neighbors dogs.....the full moon...help.
Hi Shannon , thanks for the comment , You bring up a good point about what to do with a horse that's not allowing it's rear to be picked up. We all know it's the rear that's most dangerous of devastating kicks. It's just too easy for horses to take us out when we're back there fiddling with their rear feet. There's a couple things i do when handling the rear of horses that i'm somewhat leary of kicking me.
1. I'll stand along side facing the rear of the horse. I'll put my hand onto the shoulder and very slowly start to work towards the rear. Stopping along the way sometimes just to get a feel of things and rub a little circular motion on the horses skin to help calm it. when i finally get to where i can actually start touching and reaching for the rear leg i'll use my right hand on the right rear leg but i'll reach my hand out so my thumb faces to the left and i cup the leg ( usually the lower leg ) that way - so my thumb is on the left and my fingers on the right .. What this does for me is if the horse decided to pull it's leg up in a hurry as if to kick i can easily press downward while it's leg is coming up and really diffuse the power of the kick .. Plus as it's leg comes up it pushes me out of the way instead of directly into the kick. that is different than the textbook way of picking up feet which is to reach with the left hand while the right hand is on the rump. if the horse decides it wants to kick that way i'm pretty much totally vulnerable.
2. The other method i use when i'm "Scared" LOL is i'll take a length of rope ( like the braided supple lead ropes ) and get it around the rear fetlock joint. i'll stand to the front of the horse about even with it's shoulder and i'll start to apply pressure to the rope asking the horse to lift it's leg forward just a bit - just enough to get the foot off the ground is plenty to start. i go gently. If i can get the foot off the ground then i'll ask for more forward motion ( a further flex of it's leg forward ) if that's ok then i'll start to do a little pull and release pull and release motion to see if the horse is going to get upset with that ( i never know what's going to get em upset ). If that's ok then i walk to the rear of the horse and standing far enough back so as not to get kicked i'll start to pull the foot rearward asking the horse to relax and extend it's leg rearward - that's the one that usually if they're gonna get upset happens then. Be prepared for short little kicks as of to dislodge the rope from their fetlock by the horse. they can come quickly and rapid fire. it's best not use a rope with a metal snap as when the horse can occasionally kick it off will send the metal snap flying and you might be struck. Also best to keep some light tension on the rope so it's doesn't fall off the leg. Watch out for rope burns to yourself ( you don't have a coating of hair like they do ) and when they do the jerking it'll pull the rope through your hands.
the horse will usually settle down after a few kicks ( ok - sometimes might be a couple dozen short kicks ) but they finally just get tired of kicking and kick themselves out . Then i pull the leg forward again - testing for kicks in the forward flex - then pull leg to the back again - if you can pull the leg forward - then backward with no objections then you've come along way to getting things to a safe level again. i'll usually leave the rope on and pull the leg forward then grab the foot while it's off the ground - let go of the rope and hop under the horse if the horse's eyes don't look scarey... i'm always checking their eyes...
hope this helps... thanks for the comment - it's helps everyone to hear from each other ...
talk to you
john "the foot doctor" silveira
Reply to this
Hi Shannon , thanks for the comment , You bring up a good point about what to do with a horse that's not allowing it's rear to be picked up. We all know it's the rear that's most dangerous of devastating kicks. It's just too easy for horses to take us out when we're back there fiddling with their rear feet. There's a couple things i do when handling the rear of horses that i'm somewhat leary of kicking me.
1. I'll stand along side facing the rear of the horse. I'll put my hand onto the shoulder and very slowly start to work towards the rear. Stopping along the way sometimes just to get a feel of things and rub a little circular motion on the horses skin to help calm it. when i finally get to where i can actually start touching and reaching for the rear leg i'll use my right hand on the right rear leg but i'll reach my hand out so my thumb faces to the left and i cup the leg ( usually the lower leg ) that way - so my thumb is on the left and my fingers on the right .. What this does for me is if the horse decided to pull it's leg up in a hurry as if to kick i can easily press downward while it's leg is coming up and really diffuse the power of the kick .. Plus as it's leg comes up it pushes me out of the way instead of directly into the kick. that is different than the textbook way of picking up feet which is to reach with the left hand while the right hand is on the rump. if the horse decides it wants to kick that way i'm pretty much totally vulnerable.
2. The other method i use when i'm "Scared" LOL is i'll take a length of rope ( like the braided supple lead ropes ) and get it around the rear fetlock joint. i'll stand to the front of the horse about even with it's shoulder and i'll start to apply pressure to the rope asking the horse to lift it's leg forward just a bit - just enough to get the foot off the ground is plenty to start. i go gently. If i can get the foot off the ground then i'll ask for more forward motion ( a further flex of it's leg forward ) if that's ok then i'll start to do a little pull and release pull and release motion to see if the horse is going to get upset with that ( i never know what's going to get em upset ). If that's ok then i walk to the rear of the horse and standing far enough back so as not to get kicked i'll start to pull the foot rearward asking the horse to relax and extend it's leg rearward - that's the one that usually if they're gonna get upset happens then. Be prepared for short little kicks as of to dislodge the rope from their fetlock by the horse. they can come quickly and rapid fire. it's best not use a rope with a metal snap as when the horse can occasionally kick it off will send the metal snap flying and you might be struck. Also best to keep some light tension on the rope so it's doesn't fall off the leg. Watch out for rope burns to yourself ( you don't have a coating of hair like they do ) and when they do the jerking it'll pull the rope through your hands.
the horse will usually settle down after a few kicks ( ok - sometimes might be a couple dozen short kicks ) but they finally just get tired of kicking and kick themselves out . Then i pull the leg forward again - testing for kicks in the forward flex - then pull leg to the back again - if you can pull the leg forward - then backward with no objections then you've come along way to getting things to a safe level again. i'll usually leave the rope on and pull the leg forward then grab the foot while it's off the ground - let go of the rope and hop under the horse if the horse's eyes don't look scarey... i'm always checking their eyes...
hope this helps... thanks for the comment - it's helps everyone to hear from each other ...
talk to you
john "the foot doctor" silveira
Reply to this