Farrier Fail

   Today started out well.   I arrived at the ranch at 6:30 and took some pics of the cows, gave Phoenix her new salt block (which she started licking in my hands haha), and then turned her out in the arena.

Her feet are due

Phoenix had hives today

   She ran for like two minutes and then came over to me, so I took her out and groomed her.  Then I slipped on her headstall (jointed gag bit) and worked with her in the arena until the farrier came.  I worked her at a walk and trot around the barrels with the cones and then worked on picking up her left lead.  I had some trouble but Robin came over and told me to pick up my outside rein, lean on my right hip a little, and put  my outside leg into her.  It took two tries for me to get it right, but Phoenix did it and she listened well and had a smooth canter around the arena.
   I would've worked with her longer but the farrier had just pulled in through the gate, so I hopped off and went over to swap Phoenix's headstall for her halter.  I'm so glad she is getting her feet done.  She is a little past due and her hooves are starting to grow over her horse shoes (not too bad yet.)

   Robin had me cross tie Phoenix in the barn and then stand away from her so Phoenix wouldn't be babied and be a butt.  I met the farrier, Dick, who is really nice and he asked what I wanted and I asked him to put rims on her again since I am working a lot of barrels.  He started to take off Phoenix's front left shoe and she freaked herself out once and he had to jump out of the way, but she settled and he was able to get her shoe off and rasp and clip her feet.  

   When Phoenix's hoof was all ready for her shoe, Dick measured her hoof angles and worked the shoe until it was the proper fit for my baby girl.  He started nailing in her shoe and Phoenix freaked out and Dick was forced to jump out of the way so he wouldn't get hurt.  He tried several times and Phoenix kept doing the same thing and she even scratched her self a little in the belly with one of the nails.  Dick decided to pass up on shoeing Phoenix because he can't afford to get hurt due to how he makes his money.  I understand what he was saying but I was really frustrated.  Phoenix has never had any problems before and I can't figure out what was bothering her.  Weston was a great farrier and even if everyone around here seems to think different, I know he never drugged her. 

   Robin convinced Dick to try again as long as she used a stud chain on Phoenix.  Usually Phoenix listens very well with a stud chain under the chain and in extreme cases, over her nose, but they had to resort in using it as a lip chain to help keep her still when she started getting nervous about having her shoe nailed on.  

   Phoenix kept freaking out, so Robin ended up also looping a lead rope around her leg so that they could safely lift up and hold her leg, even if she started thrashing about.  Every thing started out fine as shown below.    

   But then we started encountering a lot of this.  

   Dick went back to rasping Phoenix's hoof and fitting on her shoe and when he had a nail through, Phoenix freaked out and got him good in the hand with it.  He ended up having part of his hand/finger ripped open a little and he probably had to get stitches.  I felt terribly bad and he cleaned up all the blood and slowly (it took several tries to finish it out) but surely finished Phoenix's shoe and then cleaned up.  

   I felt super bad and asked if Dick wanted me to pay for his time, but he just told me to learn from Robin and work with Phoenix and maybe he'd come out and finish in a few weeks.  It was frustrating because normally Phoenix is pretty good, but there was nothing I could do and she was being too dangerous.  Robin worked on having Phoenix pick up her feet nicely and stretching it with the rope to get her used to it.  She also lightly tapped a hammer on her shoes just to get her used to the noise.  

   Then Robin had me lead Phoenix around while she held one of her feet up with the rope to help her realized that she can still move with 3 legs.  She thinks that Phoenix might be freaking out because she feels trapped and thinks that with one leg up she can't escape if she needs too.  It took a few minutes, but she started hopping around and got used to it.  Robin said that I really need to work with Phoenix on being the alpha mare because she still thinks she is in charge of me.  Phoenix has gotten a lot better, but I still don't handle everything properly yet.  I need to be able to pick up her hooves when I want to and she should stand relaxed and wait until I put her foot down without kicking out.  

   We tied Phoenix up and fed to help her work on patience during feeding time and standing well.  Then my mom came to pick me up and I headed home.  Hopefully Phoenix gets her feet done soon