One of Brooke’s main objectives in achieving a radical change in working equid welfare is to train and equip animal owners, users, and handlers with better methods to improve their treatment of working animals. After it was proven that the new technique—using a fake hand on sticks to safely train horses that kick—is highly successful, Dr. Alaa Soliman (Head of Veterinary services) advised Dr Israa to teach farriers and some owners how to use this method with their aggressive horses. By doing so, they would no longer need to sedate or forcibly restrain their animals every time they wanted to shoe them. One case was Mohamed Khamees’s mare, known for aggressively kicking anyone or any horse that touched or even came near her hind limb. Every two weeks, Mohamed would bring her to the Brooke clinic to be sedated before shoeing. On one such visit, he was accompanied by Mahmoud, a farrier from Aswan, and his friend Shazley, a carriage driver from Luxor.

This time, Vet Israa told them firmly that the mare would not be drugged again. Instead, she would be trained to stand calmly during shoeing without the use of sedatives. The men were skeptical and did not believe it was possible. To demonstrate, Vet Israa showed them how to use the stick with a fake hand, rewarding the mare whenever she behaved well. To everyone’s surprise, the mare proved to be a quick learner. Within just 15 minutes of training, she stopped kicking and willingly allowed her hind limb to be lifted. Mahmoud and Shazley were then able to shoe her without even using a twitch, and she stood calmly throughout the entire process.

Amazed by the transformation, they expressed strong interest in adopting the technique themselves. Shazley even said: “I am going to teach my fellow friends and farriers in Luxor to use this method with kicking horses. I think it will help many animal owners in Luxor.