Conquering the Back Feet

Today I only had half an hour of daylight (seems to happen a lot now that it's winter) and I was determined to make the most of it. The weather was a lot like yesterday, about 41 degrees Fahrenheit and foggy. Only today it was more rainy than foggy. That meant that the footing was a little worse. So instead of doing any longeing, I worked on Gambler's feet and did some mounting prep. Neither of those things require a lot of movement, much to Gambler's chagrin. Someone needs to explain to that horse that slippery muddy grass is bad for his legs.

I'm happy with how he did today. I picked out both of his front feet and with help from my mom, "picked up" Gambler's back feet.

Over the last few weeks I've been asking Gambler to pick up his back hooves by squeezing the cap of his hock. Pat Parelli encourages horse owners to teach their horses to pick up their own hooves by squeezing the chestnut (front legs) and the cap of the hock (back legs) to discourage the horse from leaning on them. I've found that it also discourages the horse from kicking at you.

Then when watching a helpful video blog on Youtube called To The Heart of a Mustang, I came upon another tactic and decided to try it out. That was what I did yesterday. I picked up Gambler's right front foot and every time he kicked or pulled away I backed him up a few steps and tried again. It worked so well that I decided to try it on the back feet.

I'll be honest, I've never liked picking out horses's back feet, even on well-trained animals. It has always made me nervous. That combined with the fact that I know Gambler kicks out made me unwilling to work on those back feet, but I know that I have to for his sake. So first I squeezed the cap of the hock, then I reached down and grabbed the hoof. If at any point he kicked out or pulled away, I had Mom back him up and then I tried again. I didn't get to the point of picking them out, but I did pick up each hoof a few inches off the ground and set it back down without any kicking, which I consider a success.

After that I tried some mounting prep, but Gambler really wasn't feeling it today. So we retreated and found a good note to end on.