Here is my dear sister on her new boy. Unfortunately she will not be able to ride him for a bit due to some hoof issues, but she intends to use the time on some groundwork
I think he's lovely.

he is beautiful!!!

heidi

He is gorgeous!

nice ...

is that a flaxen tail, and a dark mane?

Very nice!

He is absolutely beautiful!! She looks real cute on him, too. Marti

ooooooooooooooh!

Very lovely! where does that flax in his tail come from? Would love to see if it is in his mane as well. (BIG hint for more pics....) I am soooo subtle.

What a Looker !!!
His name fits him, like some suave deboniar Spaniard ...very cool

Beautiful boy!

Tanks, everybuddy! He has a two-tone tail - it's black at the top and goes silver at the bottom. I lurve him. I have only been owned by him since 6/13 and he already comes when he's called when out in the big paddock. (And they didn't call him Armando at the former barn, they called him Bunny. Can you imagine?) He is very good so far at the following and stopping exercise. I have just started doing the POny Boy exercises.

He is beeeotiful.
What is he? From the "Pasogirl" tag is he a paso fino?

Yes, he is a Paso Fino. And a pretty large one, too, I believe he's about 15 hands. I did NOT realize what it is like to have a 3 year old recentely gelded horse before I moved him to his new barn. What a handful!!

He's gorgeous!

Nice horse!!

Pasogirl... you are right about Paso Finos! Armondo is a very handsome boy. I can see the silver on his tail, just love his coloring!! Hope the hooves are better. Been there and still doing it!

Pasogirl, how is your handsome hunk doing? Marti

He's doing VERY well! Thanks for asking! Feet are all better now - we are keeping him barefoot. Went out on the trail this weekend and he did great! He was very nervous but kept turning his head around to touch my foot when we stopped - like he was looking for reassurance, which he got. When we are in the barn he follows me like a dog without me even touching him - walks where I walk, stops when I stop. We have made lots of progress. Lots of praise and reassurance.

That is great , he is looking to you for security. Good going, Pasogirl!! Marti

He sounds like he is bonding very nicely! I love that feeling.

So happy to hear that he is doing so well!

He is gorgeous!!!!! My guy will also follow me like a dog.........that's a great thing!!! And yeah - Armondo is such a better name for such a regal horse!!! Bunny???? EHHHHHH not so much!!!

I'm glad Armondo is doing so well!! I have hopes then for me and my girls. The RP is now ready, so it's back to school for my girls! And thanks for letting me know about trails and barefoot. I've been getting conflicting information. My Farrier said if Pocahantis (the teenager) and Tonaka (the baby) do not show sore feet on gravel or trails then do not shoe them.

Well not so fast. We now have new foot problems and I have fired my farrier. He was kind of stumbly on the trail (ARmando, not the farrier!) and now has a big cut in his right front hoof. My theory was that he is too tenderfooted to go out on rocky terrain without shoes - the pasture is rocky, he didn't have the cut when we got back from the trail ride. My now former farrier refused to shoe him because Armando is not the most cooperative horse to shoe. He also told me that Armando would never make a good trail horse because his feet were soo small and tender. The other farrier in the barn completely disagreed, and says he NEEDS to be shod because of his gaits and to go on the trails. So now we are waiting for the cut heals some, and then we are going to shoe him.

Keep me posted. And remember, you have company. My mare has to be sedated for shoeing because of previous buggy accidents. She has gaits and she is also tender on gravel road. The other two are barefoot and doing just fine. Hope the other Farrier can help. People don't realize how important Farrier's are to the long term health of their horse. And a good Farrier is really hard to find. I take very good care of ours because I know the work he does on Jess is really hard.

What kind of sedation do you use? Armando will probably need to be sedated, I did it once and it worked fairly well but I was not informed as to the type, dosage, etc.

Pasogirl &CBH,the right farrier/trimmer is vital for a healthy horse. If you find a good one, hang on, they are not a dime a dozen. I really appreciate mine! Marti

I will check my billing, but I know my vet uses what we call a Molitoph cocktail of drugs, throughout the shoeing, depending on Jess' reaction. Jess also gets morphine now because of the pain, and I have a polartec stable blanket to put on her when her muscles tire and she starts twitching. I will have to check on the dosages. The Vet will be here Monday, Nov 3, with the chiropractor and to take xrays for my Farrier. Do you need to know before then? If so, I can call her this week and hopefully get back to you before weekend. If you just need to know the type of drugs, those I have on my bill. - CBH

Thanks, CBH, that is so nice of you! But actually I am only interested in the type of sedation you use and if you know, how long it lasts. I am sure my current farrier will know what to do/how to administer it - he takes care of all of my trainer's horses. I just worry because the now-fired farrier said he won't use sedation because the horse could fall down on him and kill him. That seemed kind of wierd to me - wouldn't they know how much to use, depending on the size of the horse, so he wouldn't be over-sedated? My guy is pretty small - I don't think he's larger than 14 hands, and he's kind of skinny.

Equine podiatry
I am sending you this link because it seems like you have been having far more than your share of problems with his feet. I think this might be worth looking into, and I would also suggest you start a thread in the hoof section so you'll get more input. The folks here know more about feet than I ever will, but I learned a lot from them. There might be something you can find useful.
It seems like his feet need help

Hey Scannergirl, thanks for the info. I was just thinking along the lines of another thread so I'm glad you brought it up. Pasogirl, when the new thread is setup, I will post the drugs and also Jess' reaction to them. -CBH

And remember that until you have used a certain sedation on a horse, you really have no idea how he or she will react to it. Some horses are rather cheap drunks so to say, while others are harder. I would suggest starting with the lowest dosage that has the chance of relaxing your guy without making him totally out of it. You can always gove more if needed, but you can't take it away once given. In the meantime, I would suggest working consisitently with him on holding his feet, flexing and holding in the manner a farrier will position him, and building one success. You probably will still need some type of sedation the first few times, but do not stop working on this area. The goal eventually should be for him to be trimmed or shod without the need for sedation. Some horses take longer than other to get there, but it can be done.

There are several ways to work on this, and if you let us know how he handles having his feet handled, cleaned by you, etc, it will help us give you suggestions. Overcoming bad expereiences is harder than training a new horse, but it can be accomplished. And I sheepishly say this as my yearling was a total butt initially for the farrier today. But the farrier took it in stride, kept that foot in the air despite all the dancing until Cash relaxed and then he stood for having all his feet done. But what a fight he put up at first, trying to pop up on the poor guy, etc... And he has had his feet done before with no issues! He was just being a brat today. The farrier was a lot more patient with him than I thought he deserved, given his previous behavior with trimmings, but he is a very young horse and is entitled to acting up a bit. The farrier couldn't believe he is a yearling, and he was amazed at his size. He is almost 15 hands now, give or take an inch, and he is growing like a bad weed. He needs to learn to stand quietly before he gets too big to act up. So, more homework for us. Cash allows us to pick up and clean his feet with no problems, so we need to work on farrier positions more than we have. We got a little lazy with that as he is usually a pretty calm guy.

As do I...Asia was trimmed yesterday...she dropped her head, licked her lips and fell asleep...a FAR cry from what she did this spring...a good farrier is worth his weight in gold!

Originally, farriers wouldn't touch Asia. Before I bought her, the two trimmings prior to my purchase the farrier took one look at her and said they didn't need to be trimmed. Hmmm...and he wonders why she was lame?

In any case, I let my friend's farrier start working on her and, wow, she reared, she flipped, she kicked out at him, and she broke his foot by landing on him. Much to his credit, he stuck it out and didn't let her win and he refused to twitch her or sedate her. After that incident, it made me realize just how much homework she needed. Every time I visited her, I worked on her feet twice (beginning and ending of each visit). First I asked her to just lift...then I would ask her to hold a bit longer while I picked out our feet...then I would asked her to hold a bit longer while I brushed out all the dirt...then I would ask her to hold even longer while I applied hoof strengthener (not so much because she needed it but because she needed to feel different things)...then I would ask her to hold even longer while I gave her a nice stretch...short of trimming her, I'm running out of things to do with her hooves.

Fortunately, when trimmed yesterday, the first thing she did was drop her head, lick her lips and fall asleep. We spent the entire time talking about the new Eragon book and she was perfect.

That's great! Sometimes a lot of practice when having the feet dealt with is all that is needed. But a lot of folks aren't willing to put in the time. So glad you did and it paid off.

Wow! I'm envious... I know how much work you've put into this, just trying to touch my mare's legs without her striking and running off has been a huge accomplishment, let alone picking up the hoof. I just WISH she would fall asleep during trimming. I am very proud of you... that's alot of work and unless you've gone through it, folks can't really appreciate the time, effort, and patience. CBH

Pasogirl... I have to start a new topic on my abused mare this weekend so I figured I would put the tranquilizers on this thread for you. The cocktail of drugs remains the same, but the amount changes with each shoeing. Depends on her pain, stiffness, how hot or cold it is, how tired she is, which bad leg we start with, type of rehab shoe begin applied, lots of variables. And she is 'touched up' during the shoeing as well. So, I would highly recommend if you go with a mixture like this that you have someone there who is familiar with the drugs.

Dormosedan - Jess gets very 'drunk' if this drug is used by itself... she has a tendency to fall
Torbugesic 10mg/ml
Xylazine
Morphine Sulfate 15mg/ml - for pain because of her ulcers she shouldn't use bute or banamine unless necessary

Some of these drugs are fast acting and some are slow because Jess' shoeing generally takes a team of 4 people about 3 hours to complete. Hope this helps. Again, please use caution. You don't know how your horse will respond to the drugs. Even then, the same horse's response will differ with each showing depending on their physcial state at that time. - CBH

Hey CBH, can you touch her leg at all w/out her trying to kick you? Can you touch her w/a dressage whip? If you can't, you'll have to let her see first that it won't kill her. The way to do that is to just touch her w/it while holding her-or have her tied so she can't move too much. And, if she's trying to bite, this might be the best way to do this. Once she calms down, take the whip away. Keep doing this until you can touch her all over w/the whip w/out her getting upset-including on her legs. If the whip doesn't bother her, then you'll just be doing this on her legs. The idea is that this will keep you of of the strike zone until she gets to where she's not reacting.

Once she'll let you touch her legs w/the whip w/out reacting, then you'll start w/your hand. It's best to have her tied, and have someone else watching her body language. Don't rush it. Once you're able to touch her legs, then start working on picking her feet up. Most important things to remember, don't rush it and stay safe!