Sedating a Horse for Trimming or Shoeing

Julia wrote to ask if I had any experience in sedating hard to handle horses for a farrier. She wrote "Have you ever had to sedate horses so they could be handled safely for the farrier to trim their hooves? My farrier tells me that he won't try again to trim my mare's hooves unless we approve of him sedating her. He said he has done this before several times and everything worked out well. My husband and I are not so sure, but she came to us from a neglect case and her hooves really need to be trimmed."

I replied to Julia by e-mail and this is what I sent her:

No, while I have not personally had any experience in sedating my horses to be trimmed, it did go on in a large public barn I ran years ago. I have also had horse owners give their horses medication, Prozac rings a bell, for a couple days before the horse shoer came. But I have no direct knowledge of this and I can't imagine trying that myself especially when working with the horse to get good about handling his feet in a traditional manner has farther reaching effects than just being able to trim his hooves.

I think it's pretty clear that it is the responsibility of the horse owner to ensure their horses are safe for the horse shoer to trim or shoe. And providing a safe work environment as well. Owners made need some help in getting your horse safe for the horse shoer to handle their feet, and some horse shoers will work with the owner on just how to make that horse good on having their feet handled, but they will need to ne compensated. I know several shoers who have fired clients because their horses were just not safe.

However, I'm also sure there are circumstances where sedating a horse just makes sense. Maybe like your case where you just took in the horse and immediate foot care is necessary. A fellow I knew to be a hay broker had bought a stud horse and two mare's thinking he would get those mare's bred and turn a profit. Not something you can just decide to do, but he wanted me to work with his stud horse. I went over to an old feed lot where he kept the horses. I saw a 8-10 year old stud horse whose that hooves were horrible and the horse appeared to have an abscess on his hip and was pretty lame. I told him I would not touch that horse until he got a Veterinarian over to look at the horse and told him he ought to also have a horse shoer come at the same time so the Vet sedates the horse for an exam he could trim the feet.

I believe some or most state's have regulations governing the non Veterinarian possession of drugs for sedating live stock. I would think some horse shoer's have the confidence of a Veterinarian to have one or two doses of sedation medications prescribed to them on a case by case basis. I really don't know as I have never had my horses except for Veterinarian procedures like teeth floating for biopsies on suspicious masses.

I did call a horse shoer I knew and while he does not sedate horses for shoeing, he say's he has known a few shoer's who have sedated horses and he mentioned that he knew of a case where a horse was sedated every 7-8 weeks for a few trims, then the horse became better on his own about having his feet handled.  He aid he guesses the horse just became accustomed to it.   I would not count on medications doing the job of a horse owner, but again in the short term, for the horse's health and safety relating to getting his feet in shape, and for the safety of the horse shoer, it may be the best option. And better yet if you could get a Vet out when your shoer is there to do it. Depending on your shoeing schedule, that would give you 6-8 weeks to get your horse good on having his feet handled.

Lastly, there are some calming feed through supplements available from reputable companies such as Platinum Performance and Smart Pak. I don't know how or if these work, but it seems like it would be a low cost, safe option for some. Hope this helps and please let me know how you progress.