Exercise Ideas for teaching patience/calm

[Nasicus]

Just after some ideas to work on to teach the youngster to be a bit more patient/calm, particularly for when she's having her feet done. Not nasty, just gets bored/frustrated quickly and starts to fidget and snatch her feet back when she's decided she's done thankyouverymuch.
Farrier suggested trying some exercises to get her to relax and remain calm, so any suggestions please!

 

[BayWelshThing]

My horse can get bored quite quickly so used to be a bit fidgety and snatchy for the farrier and picking out feet. What helped the most was practice! I'd hold each food up in various positions for longer and longer, and make a massive fuss of him if he didn't snatch. If he did, I'd keep hold of the foot if possible and put it down once he'd stopped snatching. I also always tapped his leg and say 'foot up' so he learnt what I wanted and he now offers his feet at this. For him, I found telling him off for snatching wound him up more so I ignored him when he got a bit bolshy and focused on rewarding the good.
He's much better now, but if we've had to wait around before the farrier I give him a haynet as then he's far too busy eating to care what's happening to his feet!
Good luck

 

[Nasicus]

My horse can get bored quite quickly so used to be a bit fidgety and snatchy for the farrier and picking out feet. What helped the most was practice! I'd hold each food up in various positions for longer and longer, and make a massive fuss of him if he didn't snatch. If he did, I'd keep hold of the foot if possible and put it down once he'd stopped snatching. I also always tapped his leg and say 'foot up' so he learnt what I wanted and he now offers his feet at this. For him, I found telling him off for snatching wound him up more so I ignored him when he got a bit bolshy and focused on rewarding the good.
He's much better now, but if we've had to wait around before the farrier I give him a haynet as then he's far too busy eating to care what's happening to his feet!
Good luck

Thanks for the reply BWT, she's generally very good for me, as I've done pretty much what you've listed since day one at 7mo and she knows 'hoof up' and will offer her hooves, just isn't too keen on keeping them up in the air. I believe it's just an issue of typical youngster lack of balance, as she'll happily munch a net whilst still snatching and wobbling about. I just want to instill the tools to get her to stop and think about things

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Sometimes, if it is just a question of balance they need to stand next to a wall for security.

 

[Dave's Mam]

What age is the youngun?
I ask because Dave used to get snatchy when having his hinds done. Then it turned out he was having a growth spurt & his stifles were uncomfortable. It passed.

 

[Kezzabell2]

Just repetition, do it every day

I remember years ago my old farrier moaning that people with young horses don't do enough. He said something like for every day you don't pick up their feet, it sends them two days back. So he said people should do it daily, so they are used to it

 

[be positive]

Thanks for the reply BWT, she's generally very good for me, as I've done pretty much what you've listed since day one at 7mo and she knows 'hoof up' and will offer her hooves, just isn't too keen on keeping them up in the air. I believe it's just an issue of typical youngster lack of balance, as she'll happily munch a net whilst still snatching and wobbling about. I just want to instill the tools to get her to stop and think about things

I would not give her a net while you are doing her feet if you want her to be more focused on what is being done, she may offer her hooves to you but she then needs to allow you to keep them up, not too high to start with, move them around, put them down when you decide and learn that she can maintain her balance, I would not encourage her to pick them up unless you are holding them as that can lead to snatching, if she is trying to eat she will not concentrate, if she is genuinely hungry make sure she has eaten plenty before you start working with her or the farrier comes.
It shouldn't be hard to develop some patience in her attitude to life but the handler needs to be very clear, forget about it being boring a young horse may have a limited concentration span but should be able to remain still for a few minutes without needing to fidget, build up little by little and ensure there are as few distractions as possible, she should look to you for cues and if you remain still so should she, I don't like feeding to keep them still but will reward when they do, the reward may just be a pat but is just as likely to be a treat or being put out/ in the stable with their hay.

 

[Nasicus]

Thanks for replies all, reading back I worded my OP slightly wrong, she's not a terror for having her feet done, and is improving all the time, it was just supposed to be an example but reading it back I focused on it a bit too much!

OP Attempt #2:
I just want to teach her a few exercise to relax her, she can be easily frustrated/impatient in general, and whilst she isn't nasty or dangerous with it, it puts her in a difficult frame of mind to work with, bit like a toddler having a minor strop. Whilst I'm happy to just deal with it and wait it out as needed, I'm keenly aware that time is money for people such as the Barefoot Podiatrist, so I'd like to teach her some exercises or commands I can use to help get her back into a good frame of mind for working with and learning.
She's 4 in may, barefoot, and in general very eager to please and well mannered, just prone to toddler brain stropping!

 

[Cortez]

At the risk of sounding like a terrible old bat, I'm afraid the best way to get horses to do something is to just, well; make 'em. Make 'em stand, don't bribe them with a haynet (most farriers don't really appreciate getting hay down their underpants, any more than they "enjoy" horses nibbling their caps/backs/trousers), don't let them snatch feet away, etc. etc.

Standing tied quietly, picking up, and holding up, all 4 feet, leading, moving over, etc. are all requisites that have to be learned by horses, and should be some of the very first things taught to foals in the first few weeks of life. If that preparatory work hasn't been done it can take a while for some horses to learn to balance on three legs, so picking up each leg briefly - not too high or for too long - each and every time you handle the horse should work quite quickly. Just be persistent/insistent. A horse that understands what is required and knows the boundaries will be a relaxed horse; a stroppy horse is dangerous - it's not a toddler.

 

[debserofe]

You could try roping her feet, asking them for a foot and then placing it back, forward and to the side - the foot should feel heavy, if its light then they are holding it ready to snatch, rather than truly giving you the foot. When you can lead them around, off of a soft feel, by any of their feet, you shouldn't have any trouble with them picking up a foot and giving it to the farrier or anyone else. Roping their feet could also save their life someday as, if they have learnt to stay calm whenever a foot is held (by human, or other restraint - caught up in a fence, etc.), they will stand and wait quietly for someone to come untangle them - I know first hand that this saves lives - one horse got caught up in a rug and one in an electric fence (separate occasions), both stood and waited on me and, they were likely waiting quite some time!

 

[Nasicus]

Sounds like I need to dedicated some more time to holding her feet up for longer! Admittedly, whist it's been daily, checking her feet and picking out has been a quick in-n-out affair since the nights creeped in, which thinking about it, coincides with her sliding backwards slightly when being trimmed. For anyone thinking I'm being fluffy bunny with her, I certainly am not that kind of person, I am very much of the thinking that horses are big, strong and can injure us, so they better well bloody behave. I've had her since weaning, and whilst we've had our issues over the years, I can hand on heart say that I have a horse that ties, stands, will move over at voice and touch (one of our regular exercises is moving the hind quarters over and crossing the back legs until we've done a circle, back up a few steps, over in the other direction etc), clips without batting an eyelid, leads, manoeuvres around gates, and has recently started light backing (saddle up, sit on and walk up the field) without issue.

Now, on typing all that out, it's got me thinking. She was doing fantastically with her feet as a young 'un, but then she received a very nasty slicing injury to her right hind at around 1 1/2 yrs, necessitating 3 months of strict box rest, daily bandage changes, needles, debriding, poking, prodding. As you can imagine, towards the end of that, she was 100% done with having people around her legs. Could this still be a hang over from that period of time do you reckon? She did get very good at standing on two legs (NOT rearing, can't stress that enough, I mean you could lift and hold a front hoof to stop her waving her bandaged leg around whilst you tried to treat it, and she'd still lift it up, essentially balancing on two legs) and she wasn't afraid to kneel down onto her fronts either (although she used to do that as a weanling too, I just held on like 'whatever dude, still got your foot', which has always been my attitude towards holding her feet.)

Christ, I think I'm having a breakthrough here. She was absolutely awful for the vets for a period of time after this all, especially needles, but we worked on re-desensitising her to vets and needles and has been golden ever since (even allowed the vet to administer her first rasp without any sedation recently). She was awful to handle for a period of time afterwards too, but again, we went back to basics and worked on it, and shortly had her behaving again.

I'm starting to think this is possibly similar to those issues, but instead of addressing it like I did the other issues, over time I marked it down to her being awkward, possibly due to it being not quite as obvious. A lack of trust, lack of confidence? It could explain why she gets in a bit of a mental lather over it as well, if she's worried or concerned...

Either way, theory or no theory, the issue necessitates more extended hoof handling. I'm going to go and ponder this now, as I'm feeling a bit crap for not noticing the potential connection :/