Grooming: Lift hooves higher!

You’ve started grooming your horse: brushed his hair, cleaned his body, gave him a healthy massage—but you haven’t groomed his hooves yet. Your horse isn't even lifting it an inch. What to do?

Unless your horse talks, you’ll never know the real situation by playing a tug-of-war between you and your horse. Instead of forcing your horse to give up the game and lift up its hooves, stop and assess the situation.

Image grabbed from Equisearch.

Check your horse for any signs of injury. If your horse seems to resist shifting his weight onto a foot, your horse might be in pain. If so, call your veterinarian to have him checked immediately, avoiding complications.If your horse indeed has a hoof injury, learn to do a first-aid hoof bandage process. After cleaning and drying the wound, cover it with a nonstick dressing, then cover the dressing with a veterinary wrap. With your thumb, keep the end of the wrap in place by pressing it to the hoof wall.Then, using a light amount of pressure, secure the wrap’s first layer by winding it around the coronary band and heels at least two times. Wrap it in a figure-8 motion to cover the hoof, then bringing the wrap down over one heel, up to the front of the toe, then down to the opposite heel, until almost all the wrap has been used. Make two final passes around the edge of the hoof wall, creating enough gap to drain the moisture. Cover the hoof’s surface with duct tape if you want to make it more durable.

If pain is not the problem, then you might as well give him a retraining. Teach him to lift his leg when given a signal. On a soft-leveled ground, stand in line with his shoulder, and face his tail. Brush your hand to his foreleg until you reach the chestnut, which is the growth inside of your horse’s leg, which is above his knee or below his hock. Afterwards, dig your fingertips into the leg below it. Do it back and forth until he shifts his weight to the opposite limb, and by then, you can lift his hoof. Do not forget to reinforce this behavior by rewarding him when he does this. Repeat until he lifts his leg just at the touch of your hand.

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Remember that when doing this activity, results don’t always come instantly. Be patient and soon after, lifting hooves won’t be much of a chore as it used to be.