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Picking up feet..

898 views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  loosie 
#1 ·
Hey everyone!

Um so I have decided to teach my horse how to bow. Obviously this can be done a couple of ways but at this current moment I am stuck on this one particular part and that is teaching my horse to pick up his leg when I tap it with the whip.

He doesn't understand what I am asking but I can see him trying, I reward every little try but it just doesn't seem to be sticking...
I have tried just tapping his cannon bone..
Tapping it and then picking up his leg
And tapping and gently pushing his shoulder

Nothing seems to be working so if anyone knows any cool tips and tricks let me know!
 
#2 ·
I've not tried this before, so this is only a guess...
Try putting a rope around his ankle and using that to help you. Tap the leg, then apply upward pressure to the rope and release when he lifts.

I would also think the rope could be useful in teaching the rest of the bow.. I have used a rope to lay a horse down on a couple of occasions, so I'm sure you could teach it with a command (though you'd want to be very careful what command that was! LOL) And a bow is the same, you just wouldn't pull them over to their side. So yeah, I'd think you could teach the bow by using a rope (like a legit lariat) around the ankle, then dallied around the saddle horn, in such a way that you could feed rope and release the foot. I might consider teaching a horse to lead by a foot before teaching them to bow like that though... or maybe not I don't know. But now I'm interested. I might try this with one of the horses :D
 
#4 ·
Just be careful. Make sure you always have control of the horses head and be sure to not get in front of him and stay out of striking range. He could fight having the rope around his leg until he figures out how to give. I thought about this further today and i think i would actually use a big thick soft cotton rope a tie a hondo knot in one end. If I'm resorting to laying one down, I'm at the pount where i don't really care if his leg gets tore up from the rope I'm just worried about keeping myself safe.
 
#5 ·
I'd suggest using a clicker to mark the behavior, since it helps the horse learn faster. When teaching my horse to pick up her foot when I touch her puller leg and say "foot" I started with what she already knew: me bending down and asking for the foot as I would to clean it out. I clicked and treated when she lifted it even though she knows that well to get her interest and let her know we were learning something. I then started moving up the leg, so I would touch a little higher and reward for that and so on and so forth.

Once you get him lifting his foot for a touch on the place you want, you should be able to introduce the whip/stick you are using fairly easily. Start by standing as close as you would if asking for it with your hand and move back from there as he understands.
 
#7 ·
To teach a horse to respond to an abstract signal, such as tapping his leg, just do it at the same time as a signal he already knows - eg. you tap at the same time you ask him to pick up his foot the regular way. After a number of repetitions, start tapping just before you ask for it otherwise. Rinse & repeat more at the same time if he doesn't get this, until he links the signal with the behaviour.
 
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