Val was a client’s horse. He was cryptorchid and still acted like a stallion when I first started trimming him. His feet were dead, depleted, and flat when I first started. The first day I met him he was spooky and aggressive so I decided to trim him without a halter in a 12’ X 12 stall. I kept him moving in figure eights in the stall when he wouldn’t let me pick up a foot. As soon as I got the frogs trimmed on his fronts he started to settle down. By the time I got to his hinds he was half asleep. When I was finished, I gathered up my tools. I had them in my left hand and I was standing in the corner. Val approached me peacefully and when he was about a foot away from me he lunged at me and bit me in the chest. My instinctive reaction was an overhand slap across his face with my right hand. That spooked him and he reared up and stepped back into the rails. He got himself back together and walked back up to me and apologetically set his forehead against my chest. The owner later told me they were getting rid of him because he bit his wife. I told him I would take him. They changed their minds and they decided to keep him. He never bit me again and he stood really well for the rest of his trims. One day the owner told me that he bit his wife again and they were ready to let him go. That’s how we ended up with Val. He came with high/low fronts and negative plantar angles on his hinds. He’s been making progress, but he has a way to go. Those NPAs take a while for a sustainable fix. Val was previously started as a 2 year old, which is way too young. The trainer was rough and gave him some bad habits. He set him up with some spook and trust issues. Val’s true nature is easy going and he connects really easily. He has learned to be difficult and now he doesn’t like being told what to do.

We haven’t had him long enough to realize his gifts or learn his lessons. We’ll get there. I will use the lessons I’ve learned from other horses with NPA to build his soft tissue because that is the sustainable way to fix that issue.

Val has been on 1-3 week trims for 2 years.