Clicker train your horse to lift his foot

Start training with a relaxed and attentive horse.

Picking hoofs can be a dangerous grooming job if your horse is uncooperative. Hoof picking problems are rampant, but easy to fix. Here's how to teach your horse to lift his foot, the first step to safer hoof-picking, and more complicated tricks like Spanish Walk, standing on a pedestal or bowing.

1. Start with a calm and attentive horse. If your horse isn’t in the right mood, give him an opportunity to release his energy and try again when he’s relaxed.

2. Take your training or carrot stick (dressage whip, bamboo cane or other similar training tool) and gently tap your horse’s foot. You can tap the front of the hoof or the back of the fetlock. You can try both and determine which cue is most effective for your horse. If you want to use a voice cue, go ahead and say your word. I say “up” but other people say “foot”, “hoof”, “lift”, or they might have a particular cluck or whistle.

3. Continue tapping until your horse does something. It could be very subtle, like shifting his weight, or he might pick his foot up right away. Whatever he does, click immediately and follow up with a good treat.

4. Tap again, click and reward even the slightest effort he makes. Continue tapping, clicking and rewarding the same hoof.

5. You’ll probably get him to lift his foot in the first session. When he does, give him a jackpot (extra special treat or impressive quantity of treats). Depending on how long it took you to get there, you might want to call it a day at that highly successful point. Start again the next day.

6. Next day tap, click and reward until you’re getting pretty consistent lifting of the same foot. Don’t worry about the quality of the lifting or the time he holds it up. That will come later.

7. Move on to another foot. It doesn’t matter which foot – whatever works best for you and your horse. Tap, click and reward until the second foot is lifted as consistently as the first. Big jackpot and stop for the day.

8. On day three, review the first two feet. If you need a little more practice, do it. Then move on to the third foot, and following this program, you’ll do the fourth foot when ready.

9. After you’ve got all four feet lifting consistently, you can perfect it by asking for a higher lift or longer hold time. You’ll do this by cueing and then withholding the click for a fraction of a second. Your horse will try harder the next time or try something different. In this way you will shape your horse’s performance little by little until it’s as perfect as can be!

Have questions? Send them to eve@tricknclick.com.