Its a learning curve!

[Fjord]

Angel has now had all 4 feet trimmed, and another session is booked to tidy them up. I'm picking her feet out every day and she's been great with her fronts, with the backs improving.

I normally do them with her loose, after shes had her dinner, while she's stuffing her face with hay. Yesterday I decided to feed her, then put her halter on and move her away from the others to do a bit of groundwork and do feet. She was clearly not impressed at being able to see the others eating hay and got quite stroppy. She kicked out a couple of times and it took ages of circling and trying before I was able to get her to lift her feet calmly.

Tonight I fed them in the field shelter and let her eat hay. I picked all 4 feet out, lifted them multiple times and even practiced with the rasp, all without hassle.

So the moral of the story is, let Angel eat if you're going to mess with her feet! I'll wait till she's totally unbothered before trying it differently!

 

[saalsk]

That sounds fabulous !

My little Welsh guy has to either move his feet, or his mouth. You can do feet stuff if he is eating, and the only time he stops eating is when he is working ! One little tip - knock on the feet with a pick or rasp, so they get used to the idea of a hammer, if you aren't already. Mine are barefoot, but you never know when you may need to add shoes, and pre-warned is a good place to be in ! The other thing I do, is randomly stop (while walking to new field, walking too and from stable, on rides (assuming I can see something I can use to get back on from...) and just pick up a foot, and then move on. It becomes a random non-event, and isn't then tied to any other activity that they can get anxious or annoyed about, or start to anticipate. I'm all for making life easy for me and them both !

 

[Fjord]

Oh I love the idea of a random hoof lift! What a great idea, it also teaches them it's OK if they get a stone stuck whilst walking somewhere. I'll add that to the list!

 

[paddy555]

Oh I love the idea of a random hoof lift!

my haflinger did random hoof lifts. I trimmed him myself and also booted him so lots of feet picking up happened.
Then he got good at it, every time I went near a foot he helpfully picked it up just in case it may be required.

That was fine until the vet tried to X ray his feet. He certainly picked them up. Every time the vet tried to leave them down on the X ray plate.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

How would you feel if someone put your dinner plate in front of you and then immediately asked you to move away and do something you couldn't see the point of without eating it?

 

[Fjord]

How would you feel if someone put your dinner plate in front of you and then immediately asked you to move away and do something you couldn't see the point of without eating it?

I did let her eat her dinner and some hay first, I'm not that mean! She just clearly thought she hadn't had enough.