Had a mare last week that nearly kicked my head off over a hot nail

I was out in Kentucky last Tuesday working on a 4 year old Thoroughbred cross. The owner said she was "a bit sensitive" but I figured it was fine. Well I got the front left done and moved to the back right and she just EXPLODED. I mean she threw a shoe across the barn and nearly caught me square in the jaw. Turns out she had a really deep abscess I didn't see because the hoof was clean on the outside. I felt like an idiot. I've been doing this 6 years and I should have checked more carefully. Has anyone else had a horse act out because of an abscess you missed until it was too late?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wendy1mo ago

My buddy Mike had this happen with a Percheron draft horse up in Vermont. He'd been shoeing for like 10 years and thought he'd seen it all. The owner brought this mare in for a routine reset, said she was "just a little tense lately." Mike did the fronts, no issue. Soon as he picked up the back foot, she went ballistic. Kicked the farrier stand clear across the barn. Mike said he felt like a total rookie. Turned out she had a hairline crack with a nasty abscess tucked way up in the white line, totally invisible until he trimmed the foot way down. He said the smell when it finally popped was something else.

ryan_shah381mo ago

Yeah but did Mike ever figure out what caused the abscess in the first place? Was there like a puncture wound or a gravel bruise hidden up in there, or was it just one of those random things that happens with draft horses and their huge feet? I'm always curious about the root cause with stuff like that because it's easy to blame the horse for being a jerk when they were actually hurting the whole time.

thomas_torres1mo ago

You know @the_wendy, that story about Mike and the Percheron reminded me of a time I was working on a Tennessee Walker that had been dead quiet for years. One minute I'm trimming her front hoof, next thing she's dancing sideways and nearly put me through a stall wall. I pulled a half-inch rusty nail out of the frog two days later, hidden so deep you couldn't see anything from the outside. Horses sure know how to keep their secrets until they decide you need to learn a lesson.