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<\/a> Corny’s stressed out tongue acrobatics<\/i><\/p>\nFernando and I were patient and reassuring with Corny. I took Corny out of the cross ties and held him. I lowered his head a few times to place him in a posture of relaxation. I did the one T-touch I know. I kept the older horse that had just finished his shoeing appointment around as a buddy. Despite all of this, Corny was increasing the intensity of which he was yanking his feet away from Fernando. By the time Fernando had finished trimming and rasping Corny’s feet, Corny was striking out with his front feet. All of our efforts to help Corny relax weren’t working, so I had to think of a way to get the job done.<\/p>\n
So I turned to drugs. I very rarely sedate horses, but I do keep some Acepromazine around for emergencies. There problem with Acepromazine though, is that it doesn’t really work once the horse is already excited. It was all I had, so I tried anyway. It did practically nothing, but it did give Corny a 30 minutes break.<\/p>\n
So in an effort to keep Fernando, Corny, and myself safe, I went to the twitch. I use a humane lip twitch. If you are unfamiliar with how twitching works, you are not alone! I haven’t found any definitive research about why lip twitching works. However, it has been proven to reduce stress in horses during procedures. Check out this scientific study<\/a> written up in The Horse.<\/i><\/p>\n Success! Fernando was able to finish shoeing Corny’s front feet and we didn’t get hurt. We kept the twitch on for trimming his hind feet, but the effects started to wear off as Fernando was finishing up and he had to dodge a couple kicks.<\/p>\n Drugs and twitching are not a substitute for proper training. Corny and I have some homework to do before his next farrier appointment in 8 weeks. Here’s a list of things I will do to prepare for a better experience for Corn Cob.<\/p>\n For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, here is some homework for you! Check your knowledge of parts of the horse’s foot by seeing if you can name parts 1-9 in the diagram here. Answers will be provided tomorrow, along with some discussion about the brothers’feet.<\/p>\n<\/a>Meanwhile, Fernando started working on Blue. This was possibly Blue’s first time being hot shoed. Don’t worry Blue, you’re only on fire a little bit!<\/i><\/p>\n<\/a>A blurry photo I took while holding the twitch on Corny’s lip.<\/i><\/p>\n\n