Dr. Israa: “Everyone knows that you should not walk too close behind a horse. It can kick very quickly with its hind leg. And that kick is usually a hit. There are horses who kick out of habit. Dealing with those types of animals is always a challenge for veterinarians and farriers. One can’t just explain to an animal that you are there to help it.

Malak, a 40-year-old vegetable seller, came to our clinic in Aswan with his 15-year-old mare. He said he bought her five months ago in Kom Ombo. She had shoes when Malak bought her, but after a few weeks the shoes wore out. He had to take her to three farriers in Aswan, but one after another refused to shoe her. She started kicking like crazy as soon as someone touched her back leg. Malak was referred to our clinic by the third farrier.

Malak was concerned because he didn’t want to let his mare run without horseshoes. He also suspected that she suffered from the horseshoe nails of the old shoes that protruded so far that they sometimes tore open her lower legs. The man begged us to help fit new horseshoes. Two assistants tried to calm the mare, first by stroking and soothing, then by using a pram around her nose, an ancient method of calming horses, but that didn’t work. Even when I sedated her, she kicked hard whenever a hind leg was touched.

A few months ago, Brooke-Nederland organised an online information session for us, the Egyptian Brooke veterinarians, with the Dutch horse behavior expert Annemarie van der Toorn, also known as the horse whisperer. We had indicated in advance that we would like to know how she thinks we should deal with difficult patients. Now I realize how valuable the session was. Annemarie told us how you can change negative behavior in an animal-friendly way. She suggested using a stick with a fake hand for aggressive animals, to touch the horse with the fake hand and to reward the animal if it stands still when touched. It seemed like a useful tool to me, also because Annemarie successfully demonstrated it in a video. But as a veterinarian you still tend to use your usual methods.

Only when our usual approach didn’t help did I make the stick with a padded glove on the end. I tried to touch the mare’s hind leg with the stick. For the first two minutes she did not accept it at all, but gradually she calmed down. Every time she stood still I rewarded her with a date. Then I slowly put the stick aside and tried to touch her with my own hand. At first she resisted, but she didn’t kick. Finally, she let me touch her joint and apply a soothing ointment to some wounds caused by old horseshoe nails. We were surprised that she was cooperative and didn’t kick. Malak didn’t know what he saw either! It was at the end of our workday, so I asked Malak to come back the next day with his animal. I repeated the trick with the stick and again the mare cooperated. Our Brooke farrier Hamdy skillfully removed the old shoes and horseshoe nails and installed new horseshoes. The mare took it easy. Malak could hardly believe that his horse finally had good new horseshoes. He thanked Hamdy and me ten times. I asked him to take his mare to the clinic again next time for new horseshoes, so that we could get her used to the touch for good. Our farrier Hamdy is enthusiastic about the stick method. We recorded everything on a film, and Hamdy will transfer this knowledge to all farriers in Aswan. He does this not only to help the animals, but also to protect his colleagues from the danger of kicking animals. It can be fatal. The effect of one Dutch information session!” You can see the video of Dr. Israa and Malak’s mare on our website www.brooke.nl