Sir Monty, I am born an animal lover. I am a farrier. It never set with me right to smack, chain, twitch, or drug a horse so I can service said horse. Unfortunately in the farrier biz, such practices are handed down from generations of misguided horse shoers to their apprentices as a text book on farrier justice in the eye of horse society. I do think that in horse society, justice is swift, to the point and over with as fast as it is administered. Problem with that is I could never figure out which ones I could smack. Some would get the desired affect, others wont let another farrier near them, some plot revenge and as you lye upside down against the stall wall pondering why the Star Ship Enterprise beamed you from the horse the the wall, the horse is thinkin’, ‘Justice served! When is that stall boy gonna feed me, lick and chew, lick and chew.’

 

So I get a new client, and I have to glue shoes on him. I have to hold the foot for about 7 to 10 minuets but he wont stand still. Glue is expensive and if he sticks his foot on the ground before its sets, somebody is eatin’ 30 dollars of glue. I shared this problem with Ada Gates and she told me, you need to get one of Monty’s Dually halters. I did, and It changed my whole approach to horses. I used it for several years with out any formal training with 100% success. I was so impressed with it that I went to Flag Is Up Farms to learn more for a week. It was the ice cream on the cake. I work on a lot of back yard horses, and I get the farrier rejects that no other farriers want to work on because they don’t understand anything other than violence. On average I can school a horse in ten minutes or less. I had one take a half hour and recently I had a 10 month old take 2 hours. You couldn’t catch the 10 month old at first, and when I was done he wouldn’t leave my side even after I took the halter off. I’ve had that happen a lot.

 

Horses are smart and they pick up fast. Today I had a new horse, a brood mare that had never had her feet worked on. The new owner wanted a gentle hand and heard tales about me. The mare looked like someone dropped her out of a 10 story building. Her feet looked like splattered eggs. I was thinkin’ drugs ’cause sometimes the feet hurt to much to stand while being trimmed. However I always try the Dually halter first. She was very smart and it took very light schooling to convince her to let me trim her. Her foal even nursed while I trimmed her. It was a beautiful thing. 

 

I’m sure that some day I will run into that ‘Charles Manson’ of horses that I should flee from but to date I have had nothing but 100% success. I am 53 winters old and I have never had 100% at anything but living.

 

I’m always humbled by the process and always wonder if its me or is it just the great spirit smiling through me? Personally, I think I’m too retarded. Thank God for the Great Spirit, “No pun intended” I couldn’t tell you how to put a saddle on a horse, but I can convince one to let me mess with its feet, the weakest link in a horse’s chain. My request is that you do more video on farrier approach to horses as well as owner approach to prepping a horse for the farrier. I have found that if I can convince the owner to pick up the feet as little as once a month, it makes a huge difference in my job.

 

Your ever grateful humble fan, Ponytale.

[Ponytale is an Indian name. I’ve been told that its translation is “closet thing to a horses ass.”]