How do you teach a young horse to accept veterinary and farrier procedures from a young age?

Teaching a young horse to accept veterinary and farrier procedures is a training task that begins in the foal's first days and continues throughout the horse's early years, and doing it correctly produces a horse that is safe and cooperative for routine care for its entire life — saving significant stress, time, and expense over decades. Clinton Anderson teaches that the horse's acceptance of handling for veterinary and farrier care is not separate from general training but is part of the same desensitization and yielding framework that underlies all horsemanship. A horse that accepts being touched all over its body, that yields its feet willingly, that stands quietly when restrained, and that accepts unusual smells and sounds is a horse that will handle veterinary and farrier procedures with minimal drama. The specific skills needed for farrier care — picking up and holding all four feet, standing quietly when the foot is held, tolerating tapping and vibration on the hoof — should be developed as specific training goals rather than discovered at the first farrier visit. Anderson teaches handling the feet extensively from the foal period: picking them up, holding them, tapping them gently, running clippers over them, tapping with a hammer. A foal that has experienced these sensations from its first weeks of life will not be alarmed by them when the farrier arrives. For veterinary procedures, the key training investments are: accepting injections without significant reaction (simulated by pinching and pressing skin), accepting oral medication (simulated by the deworming-with-applesauce preparation Anderson teaches), accepting having the eyes, ears, and mouth examined, and standing quietly when being walked in circles or having its gait observed. Each of these can be introduced as low-key training exercises long before a veterinary need creates urgency around them.