Frustrations with feet...

During lunch today I have my new farrier trim Cobalt for the first time. I've been working with Cobalt diligently on his feet. I pick them up and hold them like a farrier would, hold them for long periods of time... ect. But when the farrier came to do his feet he was rotten! He kept tryign to dance away, and was pulling his feet away... a 20 min trim took 2x as long. Cobalt has a tendency to do this with anyone new working with him and its extremely frustrating.

New training plan:
Most of the time when I work w/ him I tie him up, but now I think I'll have my bf hold him for me and visa versa, I'll hold and he can pick them up.

I'm just at a loss if this doesn't work because he doesn't really misbehave with me and most of the time not with my bf. If this doesn't work, anyone else have any suggestions?

Ask other people to pick hoofs up. He probably is just too used to you cleaning them and doesn't like other people doing that.

Cobalt is a 2 yr old, yes? He just needs time and patience. To be honest if he stands for you WELL, then it is up to each person who deals with him to also be able to form a working relationship with him.

My DIL's mare was much like this only older. ;) She had a relationship with her regular farrier. When she came to stay at my place he no longer was trimming her as it was a distance problem. *Ok, he wanted to charge way too much for the trip.. My farrier at the time traveled as far and did not charge me a butt kicking trip fee.* Over a time span of a few years she got worse and worse. Over time we changed farriers etc and one of htem knew how to get her respect and 3 visits later she was pretty much over her tricks and has been fine since.

So yes, have different people work with his feet while you or your bf hold him. This will help a lot, but I am guessing the farrier/trimmer will also have to do a little bit of "gaining trust and respect" work.

Learn how to trim hoofs

You can also tap the hoof while your holding it with the side of the hoofpick, just so it's a bit different. :)

Thanks for all the encouragement!

*Learn how to trim hoofs *
I would do this but at the moment I'm already in school and don't have the time or money to put myself through school to learn. Plus I feel he really shouldn't act this way in the first place so I don't want to fuel the bad habit.

*You can also tap the hoof while your holding it with the side of the hoofpick, just so it's a bit different. *
Thanks for the suggestion! That will be a good idea for when I decide to put shoes on him. Right now he is barefoot but I'll start doing this!

*Over time we changed farriers etc and one of htem knew how to get her respect and 3 visits later she was pretty much over her tricks and has been fine since. *
Thanks for this encouragement! Cobalt just really likes to test so I'm hoping things will get better after a couple trims. Toward the end of the trim he was behaving very well, but the begining was horrid.