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Ironbender where is Slana?

When one lifts a horse up by the tail do you secure the back feet? Lead us down the thought process of using a come-along for castration. Intriguing solutions come out of necessity - and may come in handy for others some day.

It's halfway between Tok and Glennallen on the Tok cutoff.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Dan, no you don't have to secure the back feet. If I can find it I will dig out a 25-year-old photo and post it. If a horse's hind feet are off the ground they don't struggle at all. I put Shiloh in an alley that had a six-foot gate and a guillotine style alley gate. Pulled the alley gate to the top and secured it. Fastened the come-along up there, secured a rope to the stub of the tail and lifted just enough to get the hind feet a few inches off the ground. I then opened the six-foot gate and had room to work. The nice thing is gravity is on your side, too. Ray Hunt taught this to my friend Charley Snell but it is an old method, probably been used for hundreds of years.

Thanks - may come in handy to know on a hard to shoe the back right hoof type.

no drugs for the horse? What percentage result in paralyzed tails?

I've never heard of any problems using this method but its not widely used. The horse keeps a lot of its weight on its front feet so there isn't as much stress on the tail as one might think.

Thanks for the reply John. Is the horse anesthetized at all for this, or do they have to just tough it out through the cutting?

I think i'll leave the castrating to the vet with the biggest bag o'drugs!


I like a round pen for an uncooperative horse to give a "choice" for shoeing.

Cutting Shiloh, 1987. Charley Snell on left, advising me. Shiloh, by the way, is a unique horse in that he is a line-bred descendent of U.S. Cavalry Remount horses that crossed with a Paint mustang mare producing a line of Paints that were high percentage TB. His bottom side includes Rocket Bar, Go Man Go, and Sabre Twist.

My father castrated horses for everyone around. No drugs. But he did cut according to the stage of the moon. My late partner Lynne Taylor cut thousands of mustangs for the BLM. Again, no drugs. Just be clean, be careful, be quick but precise and get the horse on clean pasture with exercise. Most knife men today use Ace to quiet the horse mostly for the strain of having his feet tied not because of the actual castrating.

Interesting mtrancher. I'm really surprised how quiet the horse seems. I think having Ray Hunt help your horsemenship is (was) about as good as it gets.

I've not seen nor heard of that method before. Quite interesting.

I should point out that by saying "no drugs" I am not saying one shouldn't use an antiseptic to clean the scrotum and the tools. "Miracle Water" is popular up here. It is a mixture of distilled water with Shaklee's Basic H, Basic G and a pinch of salt. Also, some will give the horse a shot of antibiotic but just as many don't.
Charley is the fellow I mentioned in the thread months ago when we were discussing saddles. Charley learned his horsemanship directly under Ray and his saddlemaking from Dale Harwood.

"Miracle water" can be used on many things. Cuts, abrasions, sores, bites, etc... The recipe is one tablespoon of Basic H, one tablespoon of Basic G and 2 tablespoons of sea salt in a gallon of distilled water.

We have had good luck using 1 tablespoon GSE (grapefruit seed extract) to a spray bottle filled with water to treat rain scald or other fungal/bacterial skin problems.

Cheaper than vetracyn...