Best way to handle a horse that..

[hoofnhound]

Sits down on it's butt like a dog when you pick up a front foot?

[J.H. shoeing]

sell him to the circus?

[Phil Armitage]

Sits down on it's butt like a dog when you pick up a front foot?

Just one front foot or both?

[Red Amor]

thumb tacks :eek::p

First make sure he isnt in pain that might cause this cheeky buggar to perform like this ;)

jokes aside make it unpleasent for him to do so
ie get him up and off to work lunge him back him up
you could tie one front up and make him go forwards haveing some firm enough to bring him up behind
Also you could try to stand him bum first in a corner and just pick up fronts untill he gets the idear

[Thomas_Ride&Drive]

That is typically what youngsters will do..... Pull back and sit down.

I have one of my own - hand reared and grew to just over17 hands! that used to try to sit down on top of the farrier or person lifting his hind foot!!

Obviously rule out pain, and I've posted extensively on training to stand if you do a search.

I used to stand behind mine tapping with a length of poly-pipe when the farrier worked on him! But I hasten to add, this is not a typical horse - more like an attention seeking teenage boy totally in your face and with not a fear or concern in the world!!!!

[farriergodmother]

Tell him to pull up a seat and put a haybale under his rear end:D

[Gary Hill]

Make a positive out of a negative! Reward the sucker with an "All Right!" and cue the next behavior. The art of training an animal is exactly that! :cool:

[Bill Adams]

Just one front foot or both?

Phil,
If you pick up both front feet it will sit on it's face.
That's not what I wrote to you about though.
How about "our" Sox?!!

[Phil Armitage]

Phil,
If you pick up both front feet it will sit on it's face.
That's not what I wrote to you about though.
How about "our" Sox?!!

Smarty pants. :D

"Our" team is doing well, Cleveland is giveing them trouble but I have faith. Watching them right now game 3 in Cleveland. Dice K just needs to settle down.

[cdnshoechic]

Haha, my first horse did that to my farrier for the first year I owned him (10+ years ago). She finally hauled off and cracked him in the butt with the nippers and he never did it again. He was (is) just a pita! Now he just tries to undress me!

[John Emsley]

Hoofin, one thing that always works for me is to stand him with a wall right behind his butt, causes him to think, "What do I do now". ;) Make sure there's lots of room in case he decides to rear. A good holder is always a help.
John

[tbloomer]

But I hasten to add, this is not a typical horse - more like an attention seeking teenage boy totally in your face and with not a fear or concern in the world!!!!
LOL.

Give the boy A JOB! :D



.

[kim12786]

maybe hold a riding crop with you, so when he does go to sit down smack him on the bum, or better yet let him lay down and just do his feet laying down? hehe

[Ray_Knightley]

Sits down on it's butt like a dog when you pick up a front foot?

looking at your name ,maybe your horse thinks it a hound???:)

Ray

[vthorseshoe]

So far I have heard;

Make it comfy for him.. bale of hay-back to a wall-

make it un-comfy for him..plastic pipe-hit with nippers-put to work(move those legs)

teach him to move onto the next trick..cue him like a circus animal

Here is what I would suggest;

If your knee slips and your leg buckles and you start to fall...
what does your brain scream in your head ?
"Oh NO I am falling, I have to catch myself"!!

USE MY HARNESS with its special attachment and run my strap down the center of his back.
It has a ring sewed in the end. The other end attaches to the wither area of my syrcincle.

The strap goes down the center of the back and is put on the side of the tail opposite of the leg your working with.

Put a leg strap on his pastern and attach a long lead from the leg strap to the ring and back to the leg strap.
Making a pully system.

When the horse starts to back up or move back one step or more to sit down, HAUL THE LEG UP and watch him scramble to catch his balance.
Do this a couple of times when he tries his cute stunt and you will see him correct himself with out any hitting or screaming.

LET THE LEG DOWN the instant he scrambles to regain his balance.
DO NOT hold it so he falls and injures himself or his leg.

Simple premise' he is comfortable doing this- Make it UNCOMFORTABLE for him to do this.
He/she will teach themselves to stop doing this stunt.

my 2 cents worth ;)

[OLDTRUCK]

Sits down on it's butt like a dog when you pick up a front foot?

Back him up against a wall.:D

[vthorseshoe]

When you back him up against the wall just what the devil are you teaching
him ?

Also when you want to shoe him or trim him DO YOU CUT A HOLE IN THE WALL so you can hang through it to see his hoof and have room to work ?

my 2 cents worth ;)

[SlowShoe]

A good holder is always a help.


.....Jeff??

[SlowShoe]

When you back him up against the wall just what the devil are you teaching him?

I dont know what its teaching him other than that its not comfortable to sit, and chances are he wont be able to sit down, so he wont. It might work, it might not. Like your idea (which is pretty spot on for this horse) I'd say given the risks involved the chance of a catastrophic equine explosion depends on said horses temperament. Ones ability to get a good read on a horse might be the deciding factor on weather or not to attempt such a maneuver.

With that said..
I have a donkey that I trim. It used to be that he would randomly run straight ahead when I started trimming him. Usually running over the handler in the process. So I put a towel over his face and pointed him at a solid wall. While this might seem a bit cruel and unusual, he only ran out on me once after that and has stood like a champ since. Would I do this to a horse? Nope. But a donkeys, Shetland ponies and cockroaches will be only things left after the nuclear holocaust.

http://newenglandhorses.com/temp/blinddonkey.jpg
Any last requests?

[bumfoot SHOER]

So far I have heard;

Make it comfy for him.. bale of hay-back to a wall-

make it un-comfy for him..plastic pipe-hit with nippers-put to work(move those legs)

teach him to move onto the next trick..cue him like a circus animal

Here is what I would suggest;

If your knee slips and your leg buckles and you start to fall...
what does your brain scream in your head ?
"Oh NO I am falling, I have to catch myself"!!

USE MY HARNESS with its special attachment and run my strap down the center of his back.
It has a ring sewed in the end. The other end attaches to the wither area of my syrcincle.

The strap goes down the center of the back and is put on the side of the tail opposite of the leg your working with.

Put a leg strap on his pastern and attach a long lead from the leg strap to the ring and back to the leg strap.
Making a pully system.

When the horse starts to back up or move back one step or more to sit down, HAUL THE LEG UP and watch him scramble to catch his balance.
Do this a couple of times when he tries his cute stunt and you will see him correct himself with out any hitting or screaming.

LET THE LEG DOWN the instant he scrambles to regain his balance.
DO NOT hold it so he falls and injures himself or his leg.

Simple premise' he is comfortable doing this- Make it UNCOMFORTABLE for him to do this.
He/she will teach themselves to stop doing this stunt.

my 2 cents worth ;)and it the best 2 cents i have seen so far

[OLDTRUCK]

When you back him up against the wall just what the devil are you teaching
him ?

Also when you want to shoe him or trim him DO YOU CUT A HOLE IN THE WALL so you can hang through it to see his hoof and have room to work ?

my 2 cents worth ;)

It works when working on the front half. If he feels a wall on his rump they quit sitting and for the most part quit fighting as well. You get to do it a time or two and they quit giving you any grief in that department. The back half is another issue altogether. ;)

[JimBondra]

I would think that Bruce's TRAINING method would be the best way to handle this situation.

In my experience
Backing one into the corner works until they figure out how to leap forward.
Over top the holder, or you.

Carry some of Bruce's DVD's
Sell one to the owner when you encounter a bad acting horse.
Be sure to make a profit on the sale of said DVD.

I have no monetary interest in Bruce's DVD.
Nor do I play Bruce on tv.

It gives the owner a viable solution and quite possible keeps you from getting hurt.

[goeslikestink]

haha old fogi when i 1st got him used to sit down hated his toe nails being done or he used to lay down and tuck all four feet under him self
he only did tat when a farrier came at no time did he do it at all to have his feet picked out on a daily bases

what my farrier did when he sat was to still work on him, on foot at a time
if he sat hes still so used to hold the lead rope and take a front leg and bend it upwards and go with the pony, so as he got the leg up and bent the pony would try to get up, so he would go with him
sometimes he did one foot as he sat sometimes he would get up,
sometimes he would leave him to sit and do another pony and then come back to him to do another leg when up,
he never used force and he never hit or hurt him he did his feet in the ponies time and the result was in time the pony stood up and accepted his feet being done but it take a few times to get the message into him that he wasnt going to hurt him
the farrier at that time was frim but gentle and just followed the ponies movements as in went with him,
in the long term old fogi lived till 39 and was always watchful of farriers
but always offered his foot when asked and he did accept hot shoeing when he was broken in to ride
he was cheeky though one day i was working late and couldnt get there and he had lost a shoe the farrier knew the pony well at that time
as this peticular farrier moved away he said dont worry he will be alright with me,
well turns out farrier open his van and old fogi ran away with his tool box
eventually farrier picked up all the tools and the box and eventually caught old fogi up, and said your a cheeky git but they had a repour
by then so farrier took it as fun pony to do

[QuarterAranch]

I have handled several horses like this and is normally easy to fix unless the last person that confronted the problem taught him how to lay down on accident. I take a large diameter rope (to disperse the weight) put it around a foot and then throw the rope over its back and pull it underneath the horses stomach. I find that tieing the foot off solid teaches just as many bad habits (leaning) as it fixes. So I use the wrap around the horses mid section for friction and hold the rope in my hand, as the horse gives his foot I take the slack out. If the horse then decides to sit down you do everything you can to pressure the horse. When the horse stands up correctly and not leaning on the picked up foot you release the rope instantly letting the foot fall back to the ground. Again I do not reccomend tieing the foot off and stepping back because this will not allow the release that a horse needs to learn to be light and correct. I have gotten around multiple rude and a rank horses using this method.

[vthorseshoe]

Buy my DVD and you will find an easier method to do what you are describing.

You have the correct method and the correct mind set.
Would like to meet you sometime and compare methods and share concepts/idea's.

my 2 cents worth ;)

[QuarterAranch]

I love putting more tools in the tool box. If Im ever up that way I will make sure to look you up and if you are ever towards WI make sure to look me up. This way has seemed to work the best of most horses I have done. I have used a very interesting technique that a certain clinician told me to do that involved fire;) I was doubtful but it managed to get that horse to quit laying down everytime you saddled him even after I tried many other methods that before this particular horse never seemed to fail me.