My only horse finally lived out his days with me last fall. He died peacefully at the great old age of 32 years. He had been with me through thick and thin for 21 years, and was a sweetheart of a horse. He came to me completely broke and was always easy. His only issue was his hind feet–he just didn’t want anyone messing with them. Even for a trim we needed to tranquilize him, and it still wasn’t easy. He had to be drugged to the point of falling over before we could work on him. Sometimes it took two or three shots to complete a trim. I lived in fear of not being able to find a willing farrier. Once he got older, we usually just skipped his hind feet. The farrier told me that at his age, this behavior problem could be fixed, but would take a lot of work, and he would have a tendency to slip back.

Now I’m getting a new colt, about a year old, without much handling. He’s never had his feet done, so I want to get this on the right track from the start. I realize that it might be difficult to explain these things in a letter, but could you run through exactly what you would do to get this colt to stand for trimming and shoeing–step-by-step. Or can you send a video? Vern

 There are many different ways to do this; they all boil down to a few learning concepts and training procedures. What we find most useful is technically called systematic desensitization with positive reinforcement to gain compliance with a mildly aversive stimulus. Tolerance can be further shaped with positive reinforcement to get the horse to offer each foot on request (either a visual, verbal, or tactile cue). In “everyday speak,” you could call this procedure simply getting your horse used to something that’s new or slightly annoying–but not really all that bad–by patient, gentle, reassuring, and gradual introduction using rewards to show what you want him to do.

For each reward we use a food treat (small slice of carrot or apple, or a tablespoon of sweet feed) or verbal praise, or both simultaneously. We just ignore undesirable behavior or slip-ups along the way. Those “mistakes” should be expected; they are a natural part of the learning process, testing the contingencies. As in most types of training, necessary connections are made and trust is built most efficiently when reinforcement is the principal training tool