Trimming Tuffy

First,  a thank you to all of you who offered advice on poor Jackson's feet.  The magnesium supplement is a wonderful thing -- that he already gets.  He also gets selenium, biotin, etc.  And I paint his feet with Dry Foot, Venice turpentine, Thrush XX...  I sprinkle them with Holy Water... okay, okay, I haven't tried that yet but I'm getting close.  I'm always open to advice so if you come up with something else, don't hesitate to throw it out there.

Today's post is about Tuff Stuff.  Tuffy needs to have his hooves trimmed but Tuffy hates the farrier.  The farrier hates Tuffy.  Last time Tuffy had his hooves trimmed, Brett was dragged hither and yon by Tuffy who was bucking and hopping and spinning and carrying on in the worst way.  Neither Brett nor the farrier cared to do a repeat performance.  Or Tuffy, for that matter.

So, I bought some farrier tools.  Our farrier gave me a quicky lesson (on Finessa).  I watched some videos and read some articles.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a deep breath and put a halter on Tuffy.  Brett was there to assist by holding the lead rope and sitting in his chair -- trying to convince Tuffy that this was no big deal.

It started out okay.  Tuffy calmly rested his hoof on my thigh.

Then he started getting restless, yanking his foot away and dancing around.

Me to Tuffy:  Come on bud; I know it doesn't hurt and it will make walking so much easier.  You can do this.  I know you can.      What Tuffy heard: blah blah blah blah

I only got one hoof done. 

The front one on the left.

 I think this is going to be a long process.  And it isn't going to be easy.  He's a very suspicious donkey.  Even though he trusts me, he isn't happy holding his foot up for more than the time it takes to clean them.  My plan is to spend time everyday holding his hooves up for longer and longer periods of time.

Maybe I could slip some Love Potion #9 into his water and into the farrier's as well.  Do you think that would work?