Laying Down

Question
My horse is 30 and she has a bad front knee.  It has been hurting her and I wanted to teach her to lie down so she could relieve some of the pressure and I could work with her knee more easily.  However, I do not have time to wait for her to roll and then praise her, she lives in a very grassy pasture and I can't use a dirt area to get her to roll.  I was hoping you would have some suggestions :)

Answer
Thank you for this question, I will try to answer it as best as I can.

You say the horse is now 30 years old, firstly  let me congratulate you on having a golden oldie, they are few and far between these days.

The first thing I must ask is  she having treatment from a vet for this problem,  and  secondly  is the problem a recent one or a long standing one?

There is no short cut in teaching a horse or any animal new things, patience is the key here.

One of the gentlest ways of doing this is  to do what I had to do with my aged gelding with the same problem.

I  got him in a head collar and lead rope, held quite loosely.  Then I gently tickled his legs with a schooling whip , saying 'lie down' in a firm but quite  soft tone.  It did take a while to get the message through, but we got there in the end, after a few days he would lie down quite happily in order for me to treat the leg in question.  A few treats as well to reinforce the lesson also helps.  A little gentle downward pressure on the  lead rope may also be required, but please very very gentle pressure, you don;t want to pull her over, just persuade her to lie down.


Hope this helps  please let me know if you need anything else