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The stock should be a save haven, where they feel comfortable. Where you put it is very important. A quiet place, cool in summer, no wind in winter and not a nice view of the coutryside. Eliminate all factors that can spook. If you shoe, put your anvil in front of the horse so they can see what you are doing.
The key thing is taking much time to get them comfortabel in the stock and get used to you moving around. Stocks were they can walk through are handy, because at first that is what you do, you stop, close the front after that and so on. I take two weeks daily exercise before I even put a rope around a foot. Go slow and they will be comfortabel to work with.Mine are so at ease in their stock I have to wake them all the time when I want to change feet.
I use standard Kerckaert draft horse shoes and shoe 4 times a year.
I hotshoe my horses in a shoeing stock. Once a year the farrier who taught me comes and checks if everything is still as it should be. Shoeing and trimming is something you can not teach yourself from books, so take a course or even better take over gradually from your farrier. Not every farrier is a good teacher, but I had the luck mine is. Now when mine needs a extra pair of hands for trimming or holding horses which have not been shot before he gives a call and I go with him. This improves my skills (and even pays a little money).
The stock helps to do a better job.The feet don’t move and it saves your back.
This is a discussion which always makes me smile. Stephen poses the question, knowing the answers.. But the explications and the stories behind the choices which are interesting.
In my case for example, I owned a breed (brabançons) and started my market garden after moving to France. 2000 pound mares in the tiniest of market gardens looks a bit silly when starting, but I soon found out they can do anything if you can do it. They are not a matched team, one is speedy and pulls the cultivator like a big tree, so we take the other one for the delicate weeding of young plants. She walks slowly and more important puts her front feet down in a way that she does not throw up too much dirt on the young plants. Mrs speedy gets her share on the forecart hauling manure to the garden and produce back. We use them as a team for plowing and after a while the go well together. In winter they both go logging, where their power is more handy. Next year I hope to be working in wineyards too, which will be interesting regarding their differences.
George, That is a good explanation! To add, the same way George describes you can post photo’s from your own website (or others), weblog, add’s, etc, as long as “copy URL” is allowed.
For example I picked up the add from the top right of this page, by right clicking on it:
Very interesting to use when you see things or photos on the internet which might interest this community!
