I have a horse that lifts his legs when I try to polo wrap them before riding. Doesn’t appear to be in pain, he just seems to be misunderstanding and thinks he should lift his legs for hoof picking. Any advice on retraining a horse to not lift their legs for wrapping or putting their boots on?
You have to keep touching them until they put their foot down, then praise and keep wrapping. If you remove your hand/the boot/wrap when they pick up the foot, it’s teaching the horse that picking up = removal of stimulus.
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I just keep wrapping, like the previous poster. As long as the horse isn’t actually trying to kick, then I don’t make a big deal out of it. Other than being mildly annoying, there’s no real problem with it; I find a lot of horses do it out of anticipation of the “fun and games” to follow, but then my horses (Arabs) tend to have very strong work ethics.
My boy knows what weight on it means. I did this with putting his hoof boots on
The easiest thing to do is have someone pick up the opposite leg so he learns you want it down.
most of our guys were shown in hand so all we need to do is to square them up and they will stand with all four feet in place
I’m a clicker trainer so I first teach them to pick up the hoof and then put that on cue. As soon as they start to get it, before it becomes well established as The One and Only Answer, I go right on and teach them to leave the hoof down, and put that on cue. Only then do I start to refine each behavior so that they can become fluent at what each cue means.
Not only is it a fun project, but the horses love it.
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Love these ideas - reminds me of puppy class, when we learned to teach “stand” as well as “sit.”
Another question: do you wrap really tight? is he uncomfortable? does he do it for standing wraps or boots, or just polos before work? is he tacked up and ready to go? are you hurrying to get to a lesson? consider the environment when you make your plans to teach him his new skill (“stand”) so he will be successful and so you can break up any anticipation he might have created. I just noticed you have fjord in your screen name. Does he have really thick hair on his legs and do the wraps pull on it?
This is part of the reason why I taught my horse to pick up his feet from a tap, not from running my hand down their leg. I can touch all over his leg, rub and poke, ect, but until I tap his fetlock he won’t lift his foot. Very useful for not just wrapping, but also feeling for heat or swelling.
Maybe something you could integrate.
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perhaps use a different signal ( your body position and voice and hand )
he is trying to give you what you’re telling him you want
easily fixed …
It seems to me that this would be a great and fun entry task for the two of you to learn how to clicker-train.
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My horse lifts his legs when brushing them or putting on boots. What I started doing to get him over this is as long as he’s moving, I continue brushing, as soon as he stops moving, I stop and praise him. He’s a smart cookie and quickly figured it out and now only has to be reminded once in a while.
I’ve managed to (mostly unconsciously) teach all my horses that I tap their fetlock when I want them to pick it up, not just running my hand down their leg. I think it started with a horse who seemed to constantly have swelling and I needed to really get hands on his leg without him moving, and now I’ve got others to pick it up over the years. Sometimes I end up with the opposite problem, horses not picking up their feet (especially for other people), but it works better for me.
I do not run my hand down their legs. I didn’t even know it was a thing. I go into position lean a bit with my shoulder and they pick up their hoof. If they don’t I click which means walk or I tap their tummy. I do not pull on their hoof or leg.
For boots, bandages, checking swelling etc you squat down facing the leg, that is a completely different position and does not mean pick leg up.
