[i’ve reread the forum rules about advertising and am about to make a specific product recommendation (probably to the point of raving abit), but I’m not selling this product and I have absolutely no clue as to who the author is, so I think its o.k.]
I think the classes are a great idea. Last summer/fall while the weather was good, I had a trainer that would come here and work with me and the horses. She helped me a lot. We would go step-by-step through things and just having someone watch me and tell me what I was doing wrong helped. But inevitably, as soon as she left, a horse would do something differently, and I’d be scratching my head thinking: Great what do I do now?
Have you thought about getting any books to help you? When I started I read here at the forum and on the internet, but the problem for me was that gave me a lot of information presented kind of willy-nilly in bits and pieces. My brain doesn’t work like that; I need structured information that starts at the beginning with the really simple stuff and progresses onward in a logical progression.
This isn’t meant to be a lecture (I’m way too analytical so bear with me) but I think the question you ask is tough for other people to answer in a forum. In short, you are asking how to pick up feet and mention that he is resisting by jumping and rearing. Well that brings up a whole bunch of background stuff before you even pick up the feet. For example, you say he’s tied tight and rearing... that raises questions like, is he tied correctly? Lead too long, too short, quick release knot in case things go wrong, etc. Heck, for that matter, how do you tie a quick release knot? (I practiced on a coffee table leg for the longest time. I’m an ex-sailor so you’d think I could tie a stupid knot, but that knot kicked my ‘you-know-what’ for awhile.)
As a beginner and to solve a specific problem without getting lost in various training methods and theories, I really like 101 Ground Training Exercises for every Horse & Handler; author: Cherry Hill. At Amazon you can “peek inside” and see the Table of Contents. I especially like this book because many ‘big horse’ training books have limited content on ground work and then focus on things that I can’t do with my minis, like riding. Most of this book addresses things that I can do with a mini, and coverage of the really basic things is all in there.
With the exception of a dozen or so introductory pages, the book consists of short exercises. So for your problem, I could flip to the section on Picking Up Feet and in 2 pages are: The equipment I’ll need and 10 step-by-steps on how to do it. There’s also some Key Points that explain further; there’s Common Problems and what to do that explain, for example, what to do if the horse kicks; it also refers me to other sections that go hand-in-hand with this section (if that makes sense; for example, it refers me to the Standing Still section which has how to tie the horse, including step-by-step pictures on how to tie that darn knot.) The exercises are grouped by relevancy, but you’re not faced with a big daunting book where you feel like you have to work through it start to finish and you can pick and choose what you want to do and when. For example, there’s a section Picking Up Foot with Rope. I wouldn’t even try that right now; I can see where I might want to do that by reading the Purpose part of the exercise, but for me at my level I can picture a big muddle of me and horse and rope that wouldn’t end well.
These exercises worked really well for Baby. When she was born I already had a feisty stallion and a Craigs-List mare that my husband was calling voodoo child. I was terrified that I would “ruin” Baby by doing things wrong; all I needed was a problem horse that behaved like the mare. But in the first few weeks we could touch Baby everywhere, clean her ears, boobies, etc., pick up feet and, etc. Going step-by-step, haltering was a breeze; took me longer to find a halter that fit than it took to put it on her. The first time leading (trainer supervised) she walked right with me; trainer had explained rump rope, but we didn’t even have to use it.
This book isn’t going to solve all your problems. For example, I’m still stuck on the first few sections with the mare but she came to us “screwed-up.” ...anyway, if you’re into using books this one is working really well for me.
