****** Question

[PerchJouster]

I have a 10 year-old draft mare who won't give foot. When I tug hard enough she'll pick up then plop right on my foot, unintentionaly of course. She's not mean just untrained. On top of that she's got cracked feet. Getting stocks is kind of out right now due to financial stuff. I would apreciate any ideas.
Thanks

[Mike Ferrara]

In general I find that the best is to work with the regularly and do a little more each time.

Pick her feet every day. If you can only do one foot at first then start with one. Each time or as you're able hold them up longer and move them around a bit more.

My wife got a yearling colt this spring who had never had his feet touched at all and needed it. By the time we had him 2 weeks...with her grooming, handling and working with his feet, I was able to trim him like he'd been doing it all his life.

I picked up a 5 year old, green broke mare a few weeks ago who tried to put a hind foot down on my head the first time I went to pick it up. I haven't tried to trim her yet but picking her feet up is no problem.


They need consistant work. The folks who let the farrier teach their horse to hold up their feet need to pay $100/trim (trim + training fees)...not that that's you of course but they're out there in droves.

BTW, don't assume that her foot landing on yours is an accident. I've seen a few who had a pretty good aim and rarely missed regardless of where you put your foot. LOL

[Robert Beene]

Mike's right, sounds like the main thing this horse needs is time spent working with her. Take your time and be patient, don’t get rough with this horse, a draft horse’s size eliminates the possibility of you winning in a tug of war.

[wundahoss]

Hi,

First it might be helpful to understand why untrained horses are unwilling to give their feet to us. A horse is a prey animal, who's primary defence is to run from danger. A human is a predator, and as such, we are direct line thinkers & most of us (even vegetarians<G>) come accross kind of aggressive, unless we consciously train ourselves not to. So, a huge part of a good horse/human relationship is about trust and us controlling our bodylanguage.

So... I'd advise that you definitely don't try to force the horse to lift her foot. Rather, apply just enough pressure to be a little uncomfortable and hold that pressure until she tries for you. You need to work in baby steps - that is why I say TRY, not lifts her foot. It needs to be easy for her and she needs to know that you will give her foot back to her. The first 'try' might be just shifting her weight onto her other legs. The instant you see this try, quit the pressure and reward her.

Repeat each baby step a number of times successfully before you ask for more. The steps will be; shifting her weight, picking up her foot for a split second, allowing you to hold her foot, holding it up for gradually longer each time, holding it in different positions....

Short, sweet sessions will be much more productive than perservering for a long time, as stress builds up & even a tiny bit of stress building over half an hour or so can become unmanageable for the horse and your training will go backwards. Far better to spend only a few minutes a number of times a day.

All this may sound very tedious, but if you put in the effort to begin with, you will be rewarded with a trusting horse, and each step, as well as other things you teach her will come quicker & quicker. Don't worry about the state of her feet right now. Sure, they will get a little worse in the meantime, but if you train her well so that she's easy to look after, she'll be better looked after in the not too distant future.

Respectfully
Wundahoss

[PerchJouster]

Thanks. I needed some good advice. Thankfully I have found a farrier that is willing to take on a challenge. I understand that farriers don't want to do trouble horses especially drafts. My father was a farrier before I was born, so once in a while I saw him do a horse, unfortunately he's not around now. But now I have an idea of how to make her less of a problem. She's really sweet and willing to please. We recently started riding her, after 8 years in harness she seems to take to leg commands and neck reigning, go figure. It takes a couple of tries but she gets it. Man horses are magical things. Thanks Again.