Arsey about picking out

[Pippity]

One of the horses I help to look after is being a bit of a sod about getting his front feet picked out. I've spoken to the other people who look after him and they have the same problem - so tend to just leave the picking out to me... (Thanks!)

He's barefoot on his hinds and shod on his fores.

He's fine with me initially picking up his feet but, as soon as I use the hoofpick, he jerks away. (I try to hold on but generally lose!) Once his feet are down, he refuses to pick them up again unless I touch his chestnut. (Which I always do. He doesn't get to choose when his feet go down.)

At the moment, I'm just picking up to check for stones, brushing and lightly touching the sole, getting slightly firmer each time, then letting him go. On the couple of occasions when there have been stones, he's been quite happy for me to pry them out.

He's been like this since I started dealing with him in Jan/Feb, so I don't think it's spring grass. I've checked with others that I'm not being overly savage with the pick, and other horses are fine with me, so I don't think it's down to me hurting him, but could it be that he just has very thin soles and I am?

Otherwise, any suggestions?

 

[DreamingIsBelieving]

Maybe he just doesn't like having his hoof held up for long? By the time you've started picking out, he decides he's had enough and puts it down? Lift it up without the hoof pick and see if he keeps his leg up or if he jerks it back down after a few seconds.

Does he mind you fiddling with his feet without a hoof pick? Does he mind if you squeeze his frog or press his sole with your finger?

Maybe others have been too rough with him, so he anticipates it's going to be uncomfortable as soon as you get near with the hoof pick?

 

[Pippity]

I've held it up for about thirty seconds and he's been completely fine. It's just when the pick comes into play that he jerks away.

He's not entirely happy with me touching/brushing his frog and sole and does jerk away a little, but not so much that I can't keep his foot up.

 

[Boulty]

Does his frog area seem smelly, is there quite a deep cleft in the middle of the frog or does there seem to be a lot of flaps of softer, raggedy bits on his frogs? If so then could have a bit of thrush that could be making him more sensitive about having his feet messed with (I find NT dry seems to be good for toughening up soft frogs, also heard good things about red horse field paste which is designed for horses who don't get their feet picked out all that often). How is he with the backs?

 

[Pippity]

Well, the HHO vibes appear to have worked!

He jerked a little bit when I tapped the pick on his shoe but settled down quickly and was quite happy for me to pick his feet out!

It looks like, whatever his issue was, he's getting over it. Yay!

 

[LaurenBay]

When my mare started doing this is turned out she was lame on her hind. Because when you pick one foot up, they spread the weight out on the remaining 3 legs. She was unable to do this without pain so she just didn't pick her fronts up. Much better now