Hi again, Abby is doing great! Hasnt foaled yet, but is friendly as everything & looking closer & closer to foaling. My question is though she needs trimmed BADLY! I dont know if she has ever had it done & ive been waiting to have her done till after she foals just in case she stresses... I have been working on lifting her front feet, but shes not really likeing it. I trim my other horses myself, but they arent drafts. Should i continue to wait a few more weeks till she foals or should i get them trimmed now before the cracking gets worse? oh ya, heres more pics of her too....
http://www.geocities.com/barja29/Abby.html

I'm new to the site and don't know how to post a new topic.Hence, I'm tagging onto this one.I've read several posts from people who've had little or no experience prior to adopting a horse, and I'm curious about the wisdom of such a decision. I've not been around horses much, much less owned one, but have been thinking seriously about the prospect. We live in Hunterdon County NJ, where most everyone around us has horses. And we have the barn and 3 acres, but that's about all. It seems to be a daunting responsibility and very expensive, in terms of both time and money. So...how does one gain enough experience to become a responsible owner? I want to be fair to the horse, not just satisfy my own needs. Although I would never race a horse, Barbaro's tragedy is making me do some very serious thinking.Should I first take riding lessons? Is that a good place to start? Any thoughts, experiences, advice, etc., that anyone would like to share would be very welcome. Thanks!
Linda

Barja,

I have a appy/perch cross that hated to have his feet worked on. At one point he even caused injury to the person handling him. We started coaxing him with the grain bucket. Everytime he lifted his foot he got grain. He now stands quite for the farrier without the grain bucket. I know some folks would cringe with this method, but it worked for us. It is a two person job in the beginning and we did it almost daily until he got the jist of it. It also helped him to get a very quite and patient farrier.