Keith_Beef
Novice equestrian, accomplished equichetrian
I have a theory, and wonder if there is anything in it. Or maybe I've misunderstood the behaviour of a some of the horses I've ridden these last four years.
The problem is with getting a horse to lift its hoof for cleaning.
I've noticed this with a few, but I'll take two particular horses as being the most archetypical of what I've seen.
The first has now left our riding centre (back in mid to late September), a Norman Cob gelding of about sixteen hands. He arrived after having spent between six and twelve months out in a field, quite out of condition and a bit stubborn.
He didn't pick up his feet when in his stabling, and so all his straw was pushed away from the centre leaving the bare concrete, and piled up around the walls and under his automatic water trough.
At first, I had great difficulty getting him to lift his hooves for cleaning. He would refuse at first, then seem to try, but then put the hoof back down.
What I found for the front hooves was that if I gave him a strong nudge from my shoulder against his, as I run my hand down his leg, was that he'd put his weight on the other leg, then I could grab the feathering around the fetclock and with a kind of lifting, rolling movement get him to show the sole, while keeping just the tip (toe?) on the ground, and I put my shoulder under his, taking a bit of his weight, thinking that this would reassure him that he wasn't going to topple over. Then I could lift his hoof from the floor. After doing this a few Saturdays, reducing the support I was giving him, he started lifting the front leg high enough all by himself, not needing any support.
For the back hooves, I nudged my shoulder against his rump, pulled on the feathering and rolled the hoof, as for the front, but didn't support any of his weight (I don't know how I could have, anyway). And he got the message as for the front hooves, and started lifting his hooves for me just fine.
But even after the weeks of getting him used to lifting his hooves, I found I needed to always ask for a front hoof first. After either front hoof, I could then ask for the other front or for either back hoof. But if I asked for a back hoof right off the bat, he'd make a half-hearted attempt at it, give up and then step away from me.
I don't know the breed of the second horse, she's a mare of about sixteen and a half hands, a former horseball competitor at quite a high level (so I'm told), who is described as "permanently hormonal and difficult"; she doesn't play at all nicely with other horses and can be stroppy with people, too... She's threatened to bite me a few times while getting her kitted up, but once the saddle is in place she takes the bridle fairly well and after that she's a wonderful mount: easy to get warmed up, obedient and well behaved as long as kept well out of biting and kicking distance of the others in the arena.
She'll refuse to give a front hoof and step away from me. So I clip my hoof pick to my belt and get a brush, maybe brush her mane or tail, then ask for the hoof again. Sometimes she'll refuse again, so I let her move a bit more, maybe brush her, speak in a stern voice and tell her to stand still (doesn't seem to matter what language I speak to her in). I might have to repeat this once more but usually on the second or third time she'll give me a front hoof. After that, she'll give the second quite easily, although when putting either front hoof down, she'll wave it as if she's going to scratch at the floor before putting it down heavily. I don't know if that's a behaviour of showing displeasure...
Now I can move to a back hoof... She'll give me a back hoof (so long as I go straight to it and don't touch her anywhere on the leg below the hip, see below), and if I'm quick I can get hold and clean it, but I have only about five to twelve seconds before she seems to lose balance and topple to the side with the raised hoof. She seems to me borderline panicking, now: nostrils flared, eyes wide, head up. She'll stomp about a bit and calm down quickly enough, but after that, there's no chance of getting hold of either rear hoof.
Brushing her back legs is next to impossible. Any contact below the hip joint gets rewarded with a threat to kick, and sometimes she follows through. But she'll allow anyone to brush the straw out of her tail.
After a lesson with her a couple of weeks ago in a very wet arena, I took her to the shower to get all the sand off her, and she stood perfectly still for me, even as I pinched the end of the hose to get a stronger jet of water, and played the jet over the lowers parts of the legs and hooves... We had been told by the instructor to make sure that we cleaned the horses well, to avoid any more cases of what is called in French "gale de boue" (maybe rainscald or dermatophilosis in English, I've not found a good translation).
So this second horse seems to have the added complication of not wanting any contact on the lower pat of her hind legs. But both seem to me to have a fear of not being able to stand on three legs for any length of time without falling over. Now if I take a front hoof, the horse seems reassured that standing on three legs without falling over is indeed possible.
So that's a very long post, really to demonstrate how I got to the (possibly wrong) theory: horses are scared of falling over when asked to stand on three legs. This fear can explain why some horses refuse to give up a hoof for cleaning They need reassurance that it's possible.
The problem is with getting a horse to lift its hoof for cleaning.
I've noticed this with a few, but I'll take two particular horses as being the most archetypical of what I've seen.
The first has now left our riding centre (back in mid to late September), a Norman Cob gelding of about sixteen hands. He arrived after having spent between six and twelve months out in a field, quite out of condition and a bit stubborn.
He didn't pick up his feet when in his stabling, and so all his straw was pushed away from the centre leaving the bare concrete, and piled up around the walls and under his automatic water trough.
At first, I had great difficulty getting him to lift his hooves for cleaning. He would refuse at first, then seem to try, but then put the hoof back down.
What I found for the front hooves was that if I gave him a strong nudge from my shoulder against his, as I run my hand down his leg, was that he'd put his weight on the other leg, then I could grab the feathering around the fetclock and with a kind of lifting, rolling movement get him to show the sole, while keeping just the tip (toe?) on the ground, and I put my shoulder under his, taking a bit of his weight, thinking that this would reassure him that he wasn't going to topple over. Then I could lift his hoof from the floor. After doing this a few Saturdays, reducing the support I was giving him, he started lifting the front leg high enough all by himself, not needing any support.
For the back hooves, I nudged my shoulder against his rump, pulled on the feathering and rolled the hoof, as for the front, but didn't support any of his weight (I don't know how I could have, anyway). And he got the message as for the front hooves, and started lifting his hooves for me just fine.
But even after the weeks of getting him used to lifting his hooves, I found I needed to always ask for a front hoof first. After either front hoof, I could then ask for the other front or for either back hoof. But if I asked for a back hoof right off the bat, he'd make a half-hearted attempt at it, give up and then step away from me.
I don't know the breed of the second horse, she's a mare of about sixteen and a half hands, a former horseball competitor at quite a high level (so I'm told), who is described as "permanently hormonal and difficult"; she doesn't play at all nicely with other horses and can be stroppy with people, too... She's threatened to bite me a few times while getting her kitted up, but once the saddle is in place she takes the bridle fairly well and after that she's a wonderful mount: easy to get warmed up, obedient and well behaved as long as kept well out of biting and kicking distance of the others in the arena.
She'll refuse to give a front hoof and step away from me. So I clip my hoof pick to my belt and get a brush, maybe brush her mane or tail, then ask for the hoof again. Sometimes she'll refuse again, so I let her move a bit more, maybe brush her, speak in a stern voice and tell her to stand still (doesn't seem to matter what language I speak to her in). I might have to repeat this once more but usually on the second or third time she'll give me a front hoof. After that, she'll give the second quite easily, although when putting either front hoof down, she'll wave it as if she's going to scratch at the floor before putting it down heavily. I don't know if that's a behaviour of showing displeasure...
Now I can move to a back hoof... She'll give me a back hoof (so long as I go straight to it and don't touch her anywhere on the leg below the hip, see below), and if I'm quick I can get hold and clean it, but I have only about five to twelve seconds before she seems to lose balance and topple to the side with the raised hoof. She seems to me borderline panicking, now: nostrils flared, eyes wide, head up. She'll stomp about a bit and calm down quickly enough, but after that, there's no chance of getting hold of either rear hoof.
Brushing her back legs is next to impossible. Any contact below the hip joint gets rewarded with a threat to kick, and sometimes she follows through. But she'll allow anyone to brush the straw out of her tail.
After a lesson with her a couple of weeks ago in a very wet arena, I took her to the shower to get all the sand off her, and she stood perfectly still for me, even as I pinched the end of the hose to get a stronger jet of water, and played the jet over the lowers parts of the legs and hooves... We had been told by the instructor to make sure that we cleaned the horses well, to avoid any more cases of what is called in French "gale de boue" (maybe rainscald or dermatophilosis in English, I've not found a good translation).
So this second horse seems to have the added complication of not wanting any contact on the lower pat of her hind legs. But both seem to me to have a fear of not being able to stand on three legs for any length of time without falling over. Now if I take a front hoof, the horse seems reassured that standing on three legs without falling over is indeed possible.
So that's a very long post, really to demonstrate how I got to the (possibly wrong) theory: horses are scared of falling over when asked to stand on three legs. This fear can explain why some horses refuse to give up a hoof for cleaning They need reassurance that it's possible.