So, the snow arrives here in Maine as was bound to happen, and my farrier is playing hard to get and I still have regular shoes on all my equines. Not safe with snow and/or ice! So, I know I need to get shoes off right away and decide to pull them myself this morning. Now Louie has only had two sets of shoes in his whole life so has only had shoes pulled once but is fine having his feet handled so I didn't forsee any trouble despite the fact that I am no farrier and take much longer then the farrier to do this simple chore.
Louie got to go first. I started with the front and the first shoe came off fine with him standing nice and still. Second shoe, he is starting to get bored and want's to go out with the others and starts wiggling around a bit but, I get the shoe off without too much ado. By the time I get to foot #3, he is done and no longer want's to play 'pull the shoe with the non-farrier' game. He starts hopping around and getting obnoxious. At one point, he hops forward and I loose my grip on his back foot. I am standing with my back to him and the little squirt lifts that foot and ever so gently gives me the most gentle tiny slow motion kick you ever saw.
Actually, he gently placed his hoof on me and slowly pulled it away. It was actually funny except no lifting of the foot with attitude is allowed to go without concequence in my books. So, Louie still got the 3 seconds of death. And that was the end of that. He stood like the perfect boy while I removed his last 2 shoes after that. He does have a puncture wound on one back hoof that is a little sore so when he made very gentle requests to put that foot down, I did honor those requests to give him short breaks. Silly mule!
My horse Marie was the perfect lady of course. But, she is a seasoned 19 yr. old that's been with me since she was a baby. She knows how things work.
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