Setting a horse up for halter

[Tami]

I have a colt that I am going to be showing (I hope). But I can not get him to set up. The problem is his back legs. I have tried just stopping him so he stands good behind and trying to adjust him by just moving back and forth but I can't get him to do that. So I have tried placing his hind legs and that makes it worse. When I pick up the leg he won't put it back down. And when I do get him to finally set it down I can't get him to put weight on it. I have tried all the things that have worked the last 20 years for me. I try rocking his hip so he puts weight on it, that makes it worse. No matter what I try I can NOT get him to put weight on that back leg. He stands so straight and correct but when I try to set him up he stands horrible, and I do mean HORRIBLE. Any ideas?

 

[kaykay]

Hmm thats tough. I never ever start setting hind legs by hand because invariably for some odd reason they will refuse to put it down. I dont know why the back legs are so different then the front but its a common problem if you hand set them.

Youve probably tried it but have you put your thumb on his chest opposite of the back leg you want to move?? That usually works like a charm. You have to use quite a bit of pressure but then release as soon as they put the back leg in place.

Could you maybe give him a week off and work on something else?? I know when I get a horse really stumped on something we let it go for about a week and maybe just work on halter obstacle etc and then when we go back its like a light bulb goes on.

 

[susanne]

Have you tried clicker training? I've found it to be an incredible communication tool -- it tells them the second they are doing what you have asked.

I've only trained three at halter. Two learned to set up almost by osmosis. The third didn't have a clue what I was asking, but clicking did the trick.

Amy/ClickMini is extremely knowledgeable about clicker training and has used it quite successfully in training for halter, so hopefully she'll come on here and give a more thorough explanation.

 

[Riverdance]

Tami,

Keep working with him for aobut 5 to 10 minutes a day. Pick up his hind leg and set it in place, then with patience hold it till he wants to put it down then rock his hips to get him to put weight on that foot. If he does not, I lift the other foot to make him. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I start working with my boys (I do not have as much trouble with the girls on this as I do the boys), early in the year. Still, they will pull that at a show. I just try talking softly to them till they relax and put the foot down.

I know it can be really frustrating. They will turn their toes out, cow hock anything but stand straight in the rear.

 

[Leeana]

I tie my horses and just start messing with their feet teaching them to give their feet to me, i will just pick up the foot and put it down somewhere (not really trying to set them any certain way), if they fight i hold the foot and when they stop i put it on the ground. I've been doing this a lot with two colts that are in the barn and it has worked great for me. Then when i untie them and go to set them up they are great.

I do a lot of handsetting as i am so picky about legs, really to me, as long as the horse is standing how i want and legs look good that is what REALLY matters to me.

 

[TaylorMarie]

I have a colt that I am going to be showing (I hope). But I can not get him to set up. The problem is his back legs. I have tried just stopping him so he stands good behind and trying to adjust him by just moving back and forth but I can't get him to do that. So I have tried placing his hind legs and that makes it worse. When I pick up the leg he won't put it back down. And when I do get him to finally set it down I can't get him to put weight on it. I have tried all the things that have worked the last 20 years for me. I try rocking his hip so he puts weight on it, that makes it worse. No matter what I try I can NOT get him to put weight on that back leg. He stands so straight and correct but when I try to set him up he stands horrible, and I do mean HORRIBLE. Any ideas?

if he puts the foot down but doesn't put weight on it i will pick up the front foot on the same side and that usually makes them put weight on that hind foot. I have a mare in who wont put her front foot on the ground! you touch it and she will hold it the air forever lol!!!(I don't hand set her)

 

[Echo Acres]

I agree on lifting the front foot, or instead of the hips try gently giving a tug on the tail to offset the weight. A trainer showed me those 3 things for one of our fillies. I would try the hips then the tail, then the front foot if needed.

 

[Minimor]

After this year I can tell you that there are a few horses that none of those good "tricks" work on. I have a colt that stands good on his own, but as soon as I would ask him to set up he sticks one hind foot, usually the left one, out to the side and stands there all spraddle legged. If I did get him standing up properly, then he'd slump on one hind foot.

When it came to the slumping, nothing worked. I could push on his hip, and pull on his tail--I could tip him over quite far & he'd still slump--he'd just kind of rest his weight on the toe of the slumped foot & would just roll over that toe & still not put the foot down right. This isn't something I'd come across before--I'll have a horse that will slump now & again, but never on a regular basis. I could pick up either of his front feet & he still could stand there on the toe of that one foot. I finally tried shanking him, and that worked. A few times of that & he has pretty much quit slumping.

I have never found that it works real well to try & place the hind feet--just because they usually do then hold the offending foot up in the air & when you do push on the hip or pull on the tail or whatever to put the foot down, they put it down crooked anyway.

With this colt that was wanting to stand spraddle legged every time I set him up, I just kept working with him and it came down to finding the best way of asking him to position his hind feet. I usually stop the horse & use the right hind as his "anchor"--he stops and then I ask him to position the left hind--most often by moving it a small step back into place. I never ask for more than that one back step because if you back them a couple steps or more almost surely they will stand crooked, even if they have very not-crooked leg conformation. If that one little backward step with the left hind doesn't do it, then I step them forward & start from there.

With this colt that one little back step didn't work--that's when he would plunk that foot way out to the side. So, I just had to change my ways a bit and ask him to move a small step forward, rather than that one step backward. It doesn't always work first try--sometimes it took several tries--but now he's doing much better. I can now ask him to pose my usual way and he will stand up pretty good for me--straight, square and not slumped!

 

[Tami]

After this year I can tell you that there are a few horses that none of those good "tricks" work on. I have a colt that stands good on his own, but as soon as I would ask him to set up he sticks one hind foot, usually the left one, out to the side and stands there all spraddle legged. If I did get him standing up properly, then he'd slump on one hind foot.
When it came to the slumping, nothing worked. I could push on his hip, and pull on his tail--I could tip him over quite far & he'd still slump--he'd just kind of rest his weight on the toe of the slumped foot & would just roll over that toe & still not put the foot down right. This isn't something I'd come across before--I'll have a horse that will slump now & again, but never on a regular basis. I could pick up either of his front feet & he still could stand there on the toe of that one foot. I finally tried shanking him, and that worked. A few times of that & he has pretty much quit slumping.

That is exactly the problem I am/was having. Nothing worked and on his own he stands sooo nice. I could not get him to put weight on it by pushing the hip, pulling on the tail, rocking him, moving a front foot. Nothing worked, he just stood on the toe. And when I would stop him and try to get him to stand naturally it looked awful. I have been trying for a couple months and just didn't know what to do. Last night I went out to just try without touching his feet and we made a little progress which is amazing. I have never had one so hard to get set up when he stands so nice on his own. I guess I just needed to post and he started doing it.....lol.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

That is exactly the problem I am/was having. Nothing worked and on his own he stands sooo nice.

That's why clicker training is so useful. You mark when they do it on their own in the paddock or during grooming, add the voice cue eventually, and pretty soon they're offering you that pose as often as they can to try and get a goodie!

That's how I got a completely non-halter personality, laid back, badly-conformed driving gelding to impersonate a halter horse- I clicked him every time he put a foot where I wanted it, then taught him it had to be both back feet, then all four feet, then he had to give ears, then ears and neck. Voila! A bright-eyed, interested horse where once you could not get interest and a square stance no matter how hard you tried.

(Not that he wasn't interested, he just wasn't interested as long as you were asking for a pose. As soon as you relaxed and stopped asking he'd do it perfectly!

)

Leia