Please Pick Your Feet Up

Handling advice to make the farrier experience much more enjoyable!

A frustrated owner writes in:

“My Belgian is horrible for lifting her feet. The farrier I had tried to do her but she was not having any of it. He could go to the leg, touch it, but when he tied to lift it she would dance around. He wanted to tranq her, I have found a wonderful farrier that has the patience of a saint. She ended up having to go around and get the worst of the hoof removed from the ground.”

Teaching a horse to pick up their feet takes some time and patience, but most importantly consistency.

For this task we must remember the principals of 1) the reward is in the release, and 2) Encounter, wait, and revisit as found in ‘Natural Horsemanship: Answering the What, Why, and How for ALL Disciplines.”

Our goal is to make the right thing comfortable and the wrong thing uncomfortable. By doing this we can show the horse what we want because the horse is rewarded with a release in pressure every time the horse does something we want.

First things first: let’s get your tools together. You will need a rope to use with your horse’s legs, and an arm extension stick (carrot stick) – as well your rope halter and lead rope.

These are the steps for teaching your horse to pick up his feet:

1) Rub your tools over the horse to make sure the horse is not afraid of your tools: Make sure you are able to rub all of the horse’s legs and the full length of the leg. If the horse starts to get tense or walk off, just keep rubbing gently in the same spot that you first noticed tension. Then as soon as the horse is standing still and showing signs of being less tense, immediately stop rubbing the horse. This is an example of the principal Encounter, Wait, and Revist.

By doing this you teach the horse that when he is still and quiet you will reward him, but if he is dancing about I will keep rubbing until he is still. This is where your arm extension comes in really handy because it is much easier to keep the stick rubbing the leg while you ask your horse to be still, instead of you trying to bend over and hold your hand on the horse’s leg as the horse is walking off. The arm extension stick gives you the confidence and ability to keep the rubbing happening until the horse is still.

Slowly advance the rubbing further down the legs until the horse is able to stand still while you rub the full length of all 4 legs. Do not advance to the next step until you rub the full length of all 4 of the horse’s legs easily.

2) Ask the horse to lift its leg: The purpose here is simply to ask the horse to lift his leg – it doesn’t matter if the horse put’s his leg back down right away again. You can ask the horse to lift his leg by squeezing gently above the knee/hock. You ask above the knee/hock because the natural response to pressure below the knee/hock is actually to press against the pressure. This means that the horse would first brace against you. It is easiest for the horse to learn what you want by gently squeezing above the knee/hock for the lift, and then as the horse understands you can move your hand down the leg to gently squeeze near the fetlock or desired location to ask the horse to lift his leg.

3) Ask the horse to hold his leg up: Once your horse understands that you can ask him to lift his hoof up, it is time to teach him to hold his leg up. The goal is to start by asking for just a few seconds of lifting his leg, and then each session increase the time until you can hold the hoof for 5 minutes or so (long enough for the farrier to work with the hoof).

Remember that the right thing needs to be comfortable and the wrong thing needs to be uncomfortable. To help make this possible I use my rope or extension string around the hoof. I use the rope around the hoof because I find a horse can start to walk away, or put a lot of pressure as they step down and this is all straining on your back if you are bending over trying to hold on to the hoof. It is important that you don’t let go of the hoof until the horse is doing what you want (holding their hoof up) – if you release pressure when the horse is being fidgety, etc then you will teach the horse not to stand still; this is the principal that the reward is in the release. When it is your hand trying to hold the hoof of a walking and uneducated horse, that can be quite tricky… but when you have a rope around the hoof applying pressure, it is easy to keep the pressure because you are standing in a normal posture and are better able to hold the rope against the hoof and wait for the horse to respond as you like. So you gently loop the rope around the pastern area (just above the hoof), then ask the horse to lift his leg, then hold the hoof up using the rope. If the horse pulls back down just keep the rope pressure until the horse lifts his hoof again. Hold for a few seconds and then release the pressure by letting the hoof go to the ground again. Repeat a few times on each leg until you can hold each hoof up for about 5-10 seconds.

The next session you can try holding each hoof up for longer than 10 seconds. You can even give the horse a treat or rubs while they are holding their hoof up for a longer period of time – this reinforces that the right thing is very comfortable.

When your horse is picking up his feet easily with the rope, you can then ask the horse to hold his hoof up with the rope, but then pass the hoof to your hand to hold so that the rope is no longer holding the hoof up at all… it is just your hands. Then you can gently put the hoof back down. Next try not using the rope at all… just ask your horse to lift his hoof, then hold the hoof, and then release after a few seconds. Try to make the length of time you hold the hoof different each time so that the horse doesn’t learn a routine. We want our horses able to adapt to new situations and to be constantly listening to us – if we fall into routines then our horses learn to ignore us and the horses can get quite upset when you try to change the routine. Routines are great for care and feeding of horses, but not for training.

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