He won't pick his feet up

[jxcharl]

I have recently got a 15hh fell. He has really bad hooves and won't allow me to pick them up. When the farrier comes he has to be sedated. Can anyone suggest any tips. He doesn't seem to be stressed he is just stubburn. Fortunately he is not at all lame.

 

[tazzle]

I have recently got a 15hh fell. He has really bad hooves and won't allow me to pick them up. When the farrier comes he has to be sedated. Can anyone suggest any tips. He doesn't seem to be stressed he is just stubburn. Fortunately he is not at all lame.

I found clicker training gave my welshie incentive to lift her own legs up and hold them there for as long as I have my one finger on her hoof

When I first got her she trusted no one with her feet !

 

[Miss L Toe]

I have recently got a 15hh fell. He has really bad hooves and won't allow me to pick them up. When the farrier comes he has to be sedated. Can anyone suggest any tips. He doesn't seem to be stressed he is just stubburn. Fortunately he is not at all lame.

I would expect a Fell to have good feet, supposing he is lame in two, or three or four feet, would this explain why he won't lift one off the ground.
Set out several sets of poles and do plenty of grid work in hand, you are asking him to become "body aware"
Tie him up outside his stable or have someone hold him with a hand lightly on his face, run a light schooling whip over all his body, are there any areas he objects to, if so keep working away daily with this exercise.
Run hands light yet firmly all over his legs individually and carefully inspect all hooves for heat, is he getting bored... good don't make any major sort of fuss of him.
Start on left front, run hands down back of leg, to fetlock, back up and feel the suspensory, will he lift his leg now? Lets hope he makes a little effort to help you out, if so, give him a praise. you need to ask him to move his feet and not allow him to ask you to move yours, this is the basis of horse pecking order, and you have to be the one in command and control. I would defo avoid any hard line attitude, but be consistent, not all fluffy and sweet one moment and hard nosed the next.
Ask farrier to do little friendly handling exercises every time he comes to the yard, not just when he need rasping. He may have been whacked for no good reason, and has now decided not to co-operate. Tie him up with a haynet near the farrier just to familiarise him. The farrier could also lend you a smelly old jumper of his, so he can get familiarised.

 

[JingleTingle]

I would expect a Fell to have good feet, supposing he is lame in two, or three or four feet, would this explain why he won't lift one off the ground.
Set out several sets of poles and do plenty of grid work in hand, you are asking him to become "body aware"
Tie him up outside his stable or have someone hold him with a hand lightly on his face, run a light schooling whip over all his body, are there any areas he objects to, if so keep working away daily with this exercise.
Run hands light yet firmly all over his legs individually and carefully inspect all hooves for heat, is he getting bored... good don't make any sort of fuss of him.
Start on left front, run hands down back of leg, to fetlock, back up and feel the suspensory, will he lift his leg now? Lets hope he makes a little effort to help you out, if so, give him a praise.
Ask farrier to do little friendly handling exercises every time he comes to the yard, not just when he need rasping. He may have been whacked for no good reason, and has now decided not to co-operate. The farrier could also lend you a smelly old jumper of his, so he can get familiarised.

ROFL!!!! My farrier would love you missus!

 

[Miss L Toe]

My farrier has done this for me, I had one which used to let you lift his leg until he could get in to a perfect position for a mega kick, he had six weeks of handling and then was OK, not a horse I could trust, but one that I could shoe!
It was the farrier who suggested the jumper.
Make sure you tie him up for grooming and ask him to move over when you have done one side, try to avoid avoiding him, ask him to move his body he should learn to be co-operative.

 

[Shysmum]

remember that the feet are ultra important to a horse - if he hasn't got control of them (as in you pick one up), he loses his ability to flee, and to a horse as a prey animal, that is MEGA. Therefore, the whole thing becomes a matter of total trust.

The shettie I have adopted took months before he would let me pick up his feet, but now, a year on, he is happy to bear his frogs up to the sky so the farrier can trim his nails. It took a lot of persistant patience, but we got there in the end.

Did the same with Shy, he'd never had his trotters touched, but he responded much more quickly, I'm pleased to say