Page 27 - Canada Spring 2022

EQUINE HEALTH
they were not helping that horse’s foot manners. I teach people to pick their horse’s feet up and hold them so the horse gets used to the idea
of having its foot held, and not just jerk it away.”
Horses are prey animals. They instinctively want to be ready to run away from predators. Escape is their self-defense, so they feel vulnerable if they don’t have control of their feet and legs. “Being able to move, to run away, is always a concern
for horses, even though most domestic horses live in an artificial environment without wolves or saber-toothed tigers. If you are picking up their foot and holding
it up, you are asking them to go against a hard-wired instinctive response. So having their foot held up has to be more pleasurable than the natural anxiety of having that foot trapped,” she says.
If the foal is nervous the first time, just hold the foot briefly rather than trying to hold onto the leg, and don’t hold it very high off the ground. This is less threatening to him at first.
“I always take plenty of time when working with foals and teach people how to run their hands down the leg and then pick up the foot.”
Dean Moshier, a farrier in Delaware, Ohio, says that with young foals he doesn’t hold the foot very high when he does the first trim, or even put a front foot between his legs if it’s a flighty youngster. “I don’t want that foal to feel restricted and trigger a fight,” he says.
“It’s easier to handle their feet
the first few times when they are still with the mare. For the first trim, it helps to have the youngster in the stall watching mommy get done. Then they have a clue about what is going on and it’s not such a foreign idea. It’s amazing how easy it is to train a horse if they have some idea about what is expected
of them. The same thing with feet. So, I trim the mare before I attempt to do the baby the first time. Then the baby has some idea about what I am doing, what I smell like, the tools, and what the tools sound
like. Nothing is scary; they can see that mom is calm about this. But
if their first trim doesn’t happen until they are weanlings, we’re at a disadvantage because we don’t have mom as a role model,” says Moshier.
Desensitizing the young horse, getting him used to being touched and realizing it won’t hurt him, may take longer with some horses than others. “When the horse is a baby, a lot of people like to touch it all over as soon as it’s born,” says Tommy Boudreau, a farrier in Texas. “I’ve had a lot of clients who try to imprint their foals and then don’t do anything else with them until they bring them in as weanlings to halter break. They can’t believe it when that colt is spooky and trying to get away from them and won’t let them pick its feet up.”
If imprinting is not done properly - continuing each action (ear handling, mouth handling,
According to farrier Dean Moshier, having the foal watch its mom get her feet done helps the foal feel more relaxed.
It is important to note that imprinting is very important and must be continued. Some half-way imprinted foals end up being headstrong and stubborn and harder to handle than one that wasn’t handled at birth at all.
foot handling, etc.) until the foal no longer resists and completely submits and is totally at ease with it - the result may be a youngster that is not afraid of people but hasn’t learned to submit to a person.
Some of these half-way imprinted foals end up being headstrong and stubborn and harder to handle than one that wasn’t handled at birth
at all. They may not be ticklish at
“If you are picking up their foot and holding it up, you are asking them to go against a hard-wired instinctive response. So, having their foot held up has to be more pleasurable than the natural anxiety of having that foot trapped.” – Dr. Tia Nelson
SPEEDHORSE CANADA Spring 2022 25
JANA THOMASON, SPEEDHORSE