Does your horse stand quietly when you are grooming and tacking up? When you have a hoof in your hand does the horse grab it from you and put it down on the floor? Have you evaluated your horse for pain when you pick a hoof up? If your horse does something that you don’t like, do you use negative feedback, e.g. popping them on the belly with a hoof pick, hitting them, or yanking on the lead rope and yelling? Do you use sedative drugs? Does your farrier rush through the shoeing in hopes of avoiding problematic behavior?
I would not sedate a horse. They need to balance on 3 legs. You have not trained them to stand quietly with a hoof off the ground. A farrier who rushes through a shoeing can create real problems such as incorrect breakover, misshapen hoofs, and imbalance. They should be able to give you some advice or assistance.
If you want your horse to stand quietly you need to train them to do that. You want to substitute a desirable behavior for an undesirable behavior. Horses do not have a concept of right and wrong. They have a 3-second attention span and live in the moment. They get confused and overwhelmed if you work too fast. They respond to your cue – the question – with an answer. They give you what they think you want. It could be a guess if you are working on a new skill. Repeating the same cue will get a different guess until he figures out what works. Pick a hoof up. Put it back down before the horse grabs it from your hand and slams it down, or tries to kick. Reward what you want – “good boy,” stroking, a treat. Repetitions are important. Always stop at a good point. Do things exactly the same way every time you are with them. If you get a string of desirable responses, quit while you are ahead. Don’t try to extend the time the hoof is off the floor. It will come as you work each day. And don’t spend a half-hour working on this. A few minutes is enough. Then move on to something you know they can do without a problem.
I watched a retired senior citizen take up shoeing in order to prevent or cure lameness. The BO pestered me into trying him, and I was pissed off that I did. He charged $55 to replace the first shoe that fell off after 2 weeks. I apologized to my regular farrier, and she came a few days later to reshoe. The first problem this guy had was that he only used one method of shoeing on every horse. He used 2 hoof stands for everything, could not hold a hoof while he rasped, trimmed, or nailed a shoe. He couldn’t get close enough to the horse, so he pulled the leg too far away from the body which was uncomfortable. No wonder a horse grabbed his leg back and slammed it on the ground. Months later I was grooming and tacking up my horse in a stall every time this guy showed up. He recognized the truck when it came down the driveway. He was afraid of him. Maybe he felt sorry for his friends.
When you are working with horses you need to reward what you want and ignore what you don’t want, unless it is dangerous – biting and kicking. Remember the 3 second rule. I worked with a teenager and her new young mustang mare who wouldn’t stand quietly in crossties. She kept asking the mare to move her butt one way or the other, stand straight, move forward or back. We spent about 15-20 minutes with her rewarding what she wanted – the horse standing quietly – and ignoring what she didn’t want while slowing down the pace. That weekend I saw a different horse standing quietly in the cross ties. That continued over a month to standing quietly in the arena, including when she walked away. When she heard I had to put my horse down I had a nice note from her about how much that helped.
Horses figure things out, but you have to be consistent in your behavior. Fractious horses are usually a product of inappropriate training. Mark Rashid’s mostrecent book Does your horse stand quietly when you are grooming and tacking up? When you have a hoof in your hand does the horse grab it from you and put it down on the floor? Have you evaluated your horse for pain when you pick a hoof up? If your horse does something that you don’t like, do you use negative feedback, e.g. popping them on the belly with a hoof pick, hitting them, or yanking on the lead rope and yelling? Do you use sedative drugs? Does your farrier rush through the shoeing in hopes of avoiding problematic behavior?
I would not sedate a horse. They need to balance on 3 legs. You have not trained them to stand quietly with a hoof off the ground. A farrier who rushes through a shoeing can create real problems such as incorrect breakover, misshapen hoofs, and imbalance. They should be able to give you some advice or assistance.
If you want your horse to stand quietly you need to train them to do that. You want to substitute a desirable behavior for an undesirable behavior. Horses do not have a concept of right and wrong. They have a 3-second attention span and live in the moment. They get confused and overwhelmed if you work too fast. They respond to your cue – the question – with an answer. They give you what they think you want. It could be a guess if you are working on a new skill. Repeating the same cue will get a different guess until he figures out what works. Pick a hoof up. Put it back down before the horse grabs it from your hand and slams it down, or tries to kick. Reward what you want – “good boy,” stroking, a treat. Repetitions are important. Always stop at a good point. Do things exactly the same way every time you are with them. If you get a string of desirable responses, quit while you are ahead. Don’t try to extend the time the hoof is off the floor. It will come as you work each day. And don’t spend a half-hour working on this. A few minutes is enough. Then move on to something you know they can do without a problem.
I watched a retired senior citizen take up shoeing in order to prevent or cure lameness. The BO pestered me into trying him, and I was pissed off that I did. He charged $55 to replace the first shoe that fell off after 2 weeks. I apologized to my regular farrier, and she came a few days later to reshoe. The first problem this guy had was that he only used one method of shoeing on every horse. He used 2 hoof stands for everything, could not hold a hoof while he rasped, trimmed, or nailed a shoe. He couldn’t get close enough to the horse, so he pulled the leg too far away from the body which was uncomfortable. No wonder a horse grabbed his leg back and slammed it on the ground. Months later I was grooming and tacking up my horse in a stall every time this guy showed up. He recognized the truck when it came down the driveway. He was afraid of him. Maybe he felt sorry for his friends.
When you are working with horses you need to reward what you want and ignore what you don’t want, unless it is dangerous – biting and kicking. Remember the 3 second rule. I worked with a teenager and her new young mustang mare who wouldn’t stand quietly in crossties. She kept asking the mare to move her butt one way or the other, stand straight, move forward or back. We spent about 15-20 minutes with her rewarding what she wanted – the horse standing quietly – and ignoring what she didn’t want while slowing down the pace. That weekend I saw a different horse standing quietly in the cross ties. That continued over a month to standing quietly in the arena, including when she walked away. When she heard I had to put my horse down I had a nice note from her about how much that helped.
Horses figure things out, but you have to be consistent in your behavior. Does your horse stand quietly when you are grooming and tacking up? When you have a hoof in your hand does the horse grab it from you and put it down on the floor? Have you evaluated your horse for pain when you pick a hoof up? If your horse does something that you don’t like, do you use negative feedback, e.g. popping them on the belly with a hoof pick, hitting them, or yanking on the lead rope and yelling?
I would not sedate a horse. They need to balance on 3 legs. You have not trained them to stand quietly with a hoof off the ground. A farrier who rushes through a shoeing can create real problems such as incorrect breakover, misshapen hoofs, and imbalance. They should be able to give you some advice or assistance.
If you want your horse to stand quietly you need to train them to do that. You want to substitute a desirable behavior for an undesirable behavior. Horses do not have a concept of right and wrong. They have a 3-second attention span and live in the moment. They get confused and overwhelmed if you work too fast. They respond to your cue – the question – with an answer. They give you what they think you want. It could be a guess if you are working on a new skill. Repeating the same cue will get a different guess until he figures out what works. Pick a hoof up. Put it back down before the horse grabs it from your hand and slams it down, or tries to kick. Reward what you want – “good boy,” stroking, a treat. Repetitions are important. Always stop at a good point. Do things exactly the same way every time you are with them. If you get a string of desirable responses, quit while you are ahead. Don’t try to extend the time the hoof is off the floor. It will come as you work each day. And don’t spend a half-hour working on this. A few minutes is enough. Then move on to something you know they can do without a problem.
I watched a retired senior citizen take up shoeing in order to prevent or cure lameness. The BO pestered me into trying him, and I was pissed off that I did. He charged $55 to replace the first shoe that fell off after 2 weeks. I apologized to my regular farrier, and she came a few days later to reshoe. The first problem this guy had was that he only used one method of shoeing on every horse. He used 2 hoof stands for everything, could not hold a hoof while he rasped, trimmed, or nailed a shoe. He couldn’t get close enough to the horse, so he pulled the leg too far away from the body which was uncomfortable. No wonder a horse grabbed his leg back and slammed it on the ground. Months later I was grooming and tacking up my horse in a stall every time this guy showed up. He recognized the truck when it came down the driveway. He was afraid of him. Maybe he felt sorry for his friends.
When you are working with horses you need to reward what you want and ignore what you don’t want, unless it is dangerous – biting and kicking. Remember the 3 second rule. I worked with a teenager and her new young mustang mare who wouldn’t stand quietly in crossties. She kept asking the mare to move her butt one way or the other, stand straight, move forward or back. We spent about 15-20 minutes with her rewarding what she wanted – the horse standing quietly – and ignoring what she didn’t want while slowing down the pace. That weekend I saw a different horse standing quietly in the cross ties. That continued over a month to standing quietly in the arena, including when she walked away. When she heard I had to put my horse down I had a nice note from her about how much that helped.
Horses figure things out, but you have to be consistent in your behavior. Mark Rashid’s latest book is terrific. A lot to think about.
Mark Rashid - For the Love of the Horse
) and the use of dormosedan gel. Before any of that though, I made sure she was fine with me picking up her feet since she was most comfortable with me. She’d let me pick up, hold, and stretch all four. I practiced pounding on her sole with a hoofpick and putting her hoof between my legs.
