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Prepare for success. It's generally the safest approach.
We had already done some trimming on Dusty's front feet because they were badly chipped, but now it
was time to trim the whole group's. We could always accomplish this by muscling
a horse, however our objective was to do it quietly and leave the horse with
the impression that getting feet trimmed was no big deal.
Especially since two of these horses were three year olds that were still growing,
we felt that body awareness was just as important as keeping the horses' focus.
Plus Dusty had previously and consistently displayed some real reactivity around his
hind end and Spirit would instinctively cow kick if anyone attempted to hold his feet.
Hue rigged up a "body wrap" which helped each of these animals focus on various elements
of their bodies. The use of standing wraps instead of ropes provided a more passive
contact that tended to flow with the horse's movements. Each horse would be led around
over a couple of ground poles to get settled into the body wrap.
Hue wrapped Magic in the round pen. Since they both had reaction issues, we wrapped Dusty
and Spirit in the safe squeeze. All of the horses did quite well.
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KBR Horse Net
