Desperate Please Help

[Barcie]

My horse is getting worse re picking up his hooves for me.

I have tried softly softly, force in physically lifting the hoof, his front hooves are the worse he puts all his weigt on these and I try and shift his weight around but he makes sure that his weight is always there

I have had him about a month and he has never been very good at picking his feet up as I don not think he was ever taught it he is six.

I am at my wits end in dealing with this as we have to go through this every day him refusing to pick up his feet and me trying everything to encourage him to do so. Am i doing something wrong does anyone have any great tips in retraining him

[Merlinz gal]

are you sure theres nothing physically preventing him from picking them up or making it uncomfortable?

[Barcie]

No I cannot be sure I am due to have the farrier out shortly and maybe he can have a check

[Sooty]

Hello Barcie - assuming there is no pain associated with lifiting his legs then you may be right and he may just not be sure what he's supposed to be doing. When I first got my young mare she didn't seem to know what to do either and I had to be very clear in my signals. When you try to pick up the front legs stand facing his bottom and lean into his shoulder. Run your hand down the leg and say 'up' as you reach just above the hoof and put pressure on the front of it up and backwards. If he lifts, make a big fuss 'GOOD BOY!!!' hold for a moment and then gently lower back to the floor. Repeat for each foot, always do them in the same order. Eventually he should anticipate which one to lift next and it will be there, in mid-air, waiting for you :D

[shirley]

A method that helped us with my daughters mare when she was still young was to get a lead rope and put it around the fetlock, one end in each hand, stand safely to the side of the horse as you would for picking out feet and then using a gentle sawing motion gradually increasing the pressure until the foot is off the ground, hold it up and place your hand underneath to support the foot and if able rake out using hoof pick and then make a big fuss. We did this to every foot and gradually dispensed with the lead rope as she knew what we wanted. We did things in routine, i.e. front foot right side, back foot right side, front foot left side, back foot left side. Whatever pattern you use do this consistently and she will soon learn.
Using the lead rope was only a method to get her to lift up her foot, and give us a degree of safety as well.
Hope this helps.

[Jessey]

My horse was taught with a length of hose pipe by his breeder, the same idea as the lead rope and unfortunatly I have to say that although it did get him to lift his feet it now means he panic's if he gets the hose near him or anything round his legs, personally its not a method I would use.

There have been a few good ideas on here, one I remember is about using the chesnut as a 'lift the foot button' can't remember now how you get to that but if you do a search its on here somewhere.

I tend to teach mine by just sqeezing the leg gently or just tickling the feltlock, to start with don't try to hold it up just praise them for lifting the foot (picking out can be skipped in the short term to get it done in the long term) once they are doing that well move on to lifting the foot up and immediatly putting it back down then gradually increase the ammount of time you hold it for.

To be honest I would talk to your farrier and see if he can give you some tips as he will be able to try it out on your horse with you :D

J x

[laura jeanne]

There's lots of good advice on this thread.

http://www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41536&highlight=yield+feet+pick

[Zimbah]

Is there someone who can help you? It might help if someone stands at his head while you're picking up his foot, so they can praise him as soon as he picks it up. Otherwise it's quite hard to praise a horse (except verbally) whilst you're holding his foot.

[katefarmer]

I use the lead rope method - but spend a lot of time just moving each foot around before asking them to hold it up. Just get each foot to lift, then give it back. Gradually move to holding the rope a little longer so the foot is held up for a few seconds, then a bit longer etc. This way you desensitize to the rope and won't have any panic - the horse just learns to calmly give to the pressure and you never get into a fight.

When you can hold the foot up with the rope for several seconds, reach down and take the toe of the hoof with one hand, and stroke the leg with the other. You CAN praise while holding a foot up - just use the other hand -and it works better than stroking the face or neck, as you're stroking the bit that's doing the right thing! No patting, just long slow, reassuring strokes. (See pics under http://www.harmony-project.net/skin.asp?user=katefarmer&tab=weblogs&fid=0&nextdate=2%2F7%2F2003+5%3A59%3A53+AM&direction=n&bflag=#november02 and also try the desensitizing and yielding to pressure exercises under http://www.harmony-project.net/skin.asp?user=katefarmer&tab=weblogs&fid=0&nextdate=10%2F4%2F2003+5%3A29%3A38+AM&direction=n&bflag=#rope )

Good luck

Kate
www.harmony-project.net