Sometimes when doing R+ with our horses, we run into problems when dealing with other people, and also with equine professionals like farriers and Veterinary surgeons.

In an ideal world, our cooperative care behaviours have been taught well and proofed, and our horse is an angel and the job is done without drama. Having our cooperative care behaviours already trained means OUR HORSE is calmer and way less stressed during their Vet or farrier visit

Sometimes we need that professional though, before our horse is ready.

This should be the exception – not the rule.

It is up to us to train the behaviours we need before we need them whenever possible.

It is NOT our farrier or our vets job to train a behaviour that we cannot get our own horse to do.

We need to value the safety of our equine professionals and have our horse as safe as we can train them. Vets and farriers have enough risk in their job anyway, without us adding to them. And I for one, ALWAYS want that farrier or Veterinary surgeon to agree to come back for a visit when needed, not say no because my horse was unsafe to handle in the past.

How-ever, we also need our horse professional to treat our horse kindly and with respect, and not reprimand them or get rough for ‘playing up’, which in most cases is due to OUR lack of preparation, NOT the horse being naughty.

Know your horses limitations and advise your professional accordingly.

I once needed a farrier for a hoof abscess, on a mare that was not accustomed to strangers and had only had hoof handling by me. She was a lovely mare and tried, but occasionally got worried when I worked with her. I advised the farrier of that, and stressed that she was to be treated kindly. If she needed her foot back he was to give it, we would wait a minute then start again.

I advised that at no stage was he to raise his voice or threaten her, if he did that he would be told to leave immediately (I can be belligerent!) I also advised him that I expected to, and was quite prepared to, pay him extra for the extra time that going slow would take.

My approach was we were going to do what the mare was comfortable with, go slowly and quietly, stop if we needed to then restart, and I was going to hand feed some pellets as we went along. My explanation was quiet, but non-negotiable. The farrier agreed.

It ended being a really deep hard to find abscess. The farrier was great and did as requested, the mare settled with his quiet and respectful approach, and we were able to lance that abscess and relieve the poor girls pain. Good outcome. I was very prepared to get tough with the farrier if I needed to, but I figured he understood english!

Knowing your animal and advising details helps – farriers and Vets meet lots of owners and animals who don’t understand and are not prepared, and the professionals are then subjected to un-safe work practises, and unsafe animal handling.

We shouldn’t expect the professionals to perform miracles that we can’t, but we can expect them to listen to our educated facts, and to treat our animals with kindness and respect

Written by Vicki Conroy of PPGA Equine sub-committee