Gelding Threatening to Kick When His Feet Are Picked Up

I have a feeling he has no intentions to kick and is picking them up for you. Amish do not tolerate kicking, at all. I've seen Amish buggy horses tied up in the barn. Three to a 12x12 stall and many tied in the aisle way while others brought horses in and out of the stalls, not one horse even lifted a leg up.
One gelding they had was used in a presentation on trimming (on of their worse horses), and he picked the foot up as soon as you got to that shoulder/hip. I thought the horse was planning to kick as well, and he never did.

Both my mares (ST and Lucky) either pick it up when I get there or pick it up rather swiftly when I give a squeeze. One of the leasers thought Luck was going to kick for the first time, but she never did. Lucky has horrible arthritis in her hocks, and I have to go slow with her or she'll yank it back out of pain.

I'd suggest standing to the side and picking the foot up. The general horse will kick out as opposed to the side the first kick (as per my experience), so you'll have time to drop and dodge out of the way and beat his ass for it.
The Amish I know will beat a horse for kicking, and none of their seasoned horses will even think about kicking, in any situation.
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I agree. Has anyone tried to take the leg when he had it raised?

My horse Storm is kind of the same. Storm was with people who were mean to her, then with someone who didn't discipline her. I am medium person. I don't beat my horses for doing wrong, but I don't do nothing. With her back legs she tries to kick. I had a neighbor help me once. He talked slowly and calmly while rubbing her leg for a minute. He tried picking up her leg and he said No in a voice that wasn't yelling but stern, he kept rubbing her leg and finally got the foot.

I usually try that way with her, but if that doesn't work after a few times if she tries to kick I smack her in the hindqaurters, say NO, and push her hindquarters away and make her turn a few circles. I try again. If she does the same thing then the same thing happens. If you can get to pick up the hoof for a second, put it down and give a TON of praise. Its going to be a slow process. Try looking some Clinton Anderson videos up. I know some are total anti Clinton Anderson but you could take a look at his methods. I watched his method of making them spin if they try to kick but he is of course more rough. So I toned it down and I use that method. Try the calm approach, and try the immediately moving their hindquarters approach.

I made this mistake with my Belgian mare! She wasn't good about picking her feet up AT ALL when I first got her. My trainer & I worked with her religiously (& our farrier is SO patient & wonderful!) & did clicker training (I know---it's somewhat controversial, but it really worked for us) to help her with this. It totally worked!

We got her to 'point' her hind feet so I could clean her feet. This is how I did it for many months & one day (recently), I grabbed onto her feathers & lifted. She lifted her foot up & I got nervous! It took me a few times to realize she's picking them up! When it finally clicked for me, I praised the hell out of her!

She is awesome with picking up her feet now...I can basically point at her foot & she'll lift before I even bend down (which is good for a 1500 lb horse!). She is really good for the farrier too now! He always comments about how she is a different horse these days!

My young Standardbred looks like he is threatening to kick when you ask for his back feet. First time I did his feet I got a heck of a scare.

My farrier said sometimes people are lazy and they teach the horse to pick up their feet by tapping/hitting them with a stick. This teaches them to jerk their foot up fast and high.

He showed me how to blocked it with my hand when asking and making him give it to me nicely. It's been about 7 months now and he is a lot better.
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Hobble one front to the back you're not picking up. He physically can't kick. Eventually he'll give up.

Horrible advice. OP please do not do this.
If he is threatneing to kick, making him regret even thinking about it is a far better option, shout, smack him, anything to make him regret it

A bit different, I had a horse that had significant problem picking up his back feet. Kicked me good once in the knee. Finally figured out he had a "hurt" problem and couldn't have them picked up and out to the side. Had to make sure they were picked up and back. Once this was figured out he has been good as gold.

Wouldn't this just make the horse think, every time you go to the haunches he needs to move out? If this horse is trying to kick, I don't think he knows what he is suppose to be doing. IMHO, desensitizing needs to be happening.

My mare also picks her hind feet up high and tenses or stretches them up really high under her belly. I just have to let her relax the foot back down. Her mother also did this.

For anyone wondering how this turned out,

We eventually found out what was going on. My BO talked to a couple people that worked with Amish people and their horses and learned that they beat their horses severely for moving their feet when they are being worked with (I'm assuming not ALL Amish people do!). My gelding, as it turns out, was doing the leg lifting to test us and see what we would do to him. My trainer corrected him with a crop twice when he lifted a leg and he hasn't tried it with her since. We made sure we had a crop and when we took him out and worked with him, we corrected him in the same way, and he hasn't tried again. He also visibly relaxed when he found out that this is all we're going to do. He was so full of nervous energy before, so this is a huge breakthrough for us.

Thanks for everyone's input, I really do appreciate people taking the time to read and respond!