Horses standing

“Also, w/o benefit of a round pen or other smaller corral, how would you train your horses to stand untied for harnessing? I always have to tie mine to harness but want to get to having them stand untied to harness.
I’d like to hear thoughts on this.”

Geoff,
I am not a horse trainer, however I work with horses on a daily basis 7 months of the year. The one thing that each of these horses must do while I work on them is to stand still while I do my job (I braid fancy elite show horses). It is not my job to train any of them, however I have to get the squirrely ones to stand somehow so I will often take the time to try to develop a brief but positive relationship with them.

I always use their halter and a lead rope as a tool, usually I braid them in their stalls, but sometimes cross ties or ground tied. With a strange horse I will introduce myself (they sniff, I pat), halter them and find a good spot to stand them (usually with their near shoulder to the wall, manes are always braided on the off side). Once they are parked I just expect them to stand, these are not completely green horses otherwise they wouldn’t be at a show. If they try to move from their parking place I gently put them back where I need them, if they think about moving again I give them a whoa and put a hand to steady them. Sometimes they will persist for a while and I just keep re-enforcing where I need them to stand, eventually they get the picture, relax and snooze the rest of the event away.

Of course they are not all this easy. If they really have no sense of whoa or keep invading my space I will take the next step and use the box stall as a mini round pen. Holding the lead rope, I will ask the horse to walk around me in a very tiny space that is normally their private space. After just a couple laps I ask with voice an body for the horse to whoa, they usually do and I repeat a couple more times establishing that I am leader. If they want to stop I keep them moving until I decide it’s time to stop. It really doesn’t take more than a minute or two until they are good at it so I put them back in park with a firm whoa. Most horses at this point are happy to stand in park and may need a little reminder if they get a shifty with their weight.

Many of the veteran horses that I work with are used to standing still for long periods of time and will gladly ground time most anywhere. In this case I don’t actually drop the lead rope to the ground, I hold it between my knees while I work away. Again I just expect them to stay, if they act like they want to move I try to catch them before they do. If there is something distracting them, I don’t make a big deal about it, I catch their attention and remind them to whoa.

My favorite horse to work on is the one that I see the most often, and have known the longest. I enter his stall, he says hello and positions his self and I go to work, no halter no lead rope, just the slightest of touches with a finger tip to put his head at an ideal working height. I know when this horse is sore, upset, or happy just by the way that he stands. I tell the groom if he is going to treat his rider right that day or not and I am correct most of the time.

When I showed horses we trained our horses to ground tie for trail classes (often a required test) and for grooming and tacking/untacking. We worked a little with them every time we had to handle them. We would place them in the barn isle where the grooming area was, looped the lead through the halter just to keep it off the ground, if they moved we put them back. Once they get good at that, we would give a reminder whoa and go in the tack room for our saddles and such. It just became part of their routine. It came in handy at shows when the wash rack became muddy or was full. They would stand anywhere for a full bath, it was expected of them and it was the norm for them to just park it until further notice.

I suspect if you begin to make standing untied part of your animals routine they will make it part of theirs too. Try starting by grooming them untied (hold the end of lead for a while first), then build on that. When they take the initiative to move, or better yet think about moving, gently remind them what they were told to do, nothing. I hope that practicing this may carry over into your working them in harness.

Sorry to ramble so, I guess I killed the time I had to to get to work early. I hope my limited experience helped a little.

Erika

It’s an important tool for your team to have for sure. I too believe it’s learned gradually. Patience doesn’t come too easily for some of them.
I finally got to where I catch the young, fresh ones and they get tied up while I’m doing chores. Sometimes with harness on, sometimes without. Then they may get hitched to whatever I’m pulling while I go in and eat breakfast and look at this site!
They have to stand in the stackyards while I’m loading hay. At the grain shed while I’m loading grain or salt, etc. I also like to make it a point to stop at different times even if I don’t need to. Maybe to look my cows over and walk around the wagon or sled. It just gets them used to the idea of standing for a while and doing it in a relaxed manner.
I have two mules out of foxtrotter mares. They are fidgety little buggers and don’t like to stand for long. Another one I have is out of a percheron mare and he’ll give me just exactly enough time to put a whole wagon load of hay on and then he starts pawing the ground. The others are plumb content to stand. They are all so different. I’m inclined to think my mules will walk home on their own before a horse thinks of doing it.
Point is that it’s another thing I work at continually.

Do you folks use a ‘stand’ command apart from the ‘whoa’ or does the ‘whoa’ mean stand until released?

I think that the “Creeping” that Geoff was referring to while hitched IS related to work. I see Joel’s comment to be more about regular work exercises then about having tired horses stand.

I know that even though horses tend to know how to stand, if they are not regularly given the opportunity to practice it during work, they can become creepers. I see this quite often when I am concentrating purely on getting logs out, or getting a task completed, I can slip into a nonchalant utterance of whoa, without giving them the chance to actually stand and wait.

When working, and wanting the animals to stand it is important to use “whoa” with intention, and to allow them the chance to perform it to your expectations.

Carl

You can make a horse stand for groundwork or healthcare footwork etc. However when you are driving them and they don’t want to stand quietly you can only hold them for a brief amount of time if they really want to go. If they can’t go ahead they will go sideways or start backing up. If they try to start up we will remind them to stand a couple times verbally with a whoa and light line tension. If this doesn’t work we tell them to go and we go a while and then ask them to stand. If they stand we let them stand for quiet a while until they appear they might be ready to go again. Before they have the chance to make the decision we ask them to go and we go awhile and then stop and let them stand again. Once they get used to it they will stand regularly as long as you make it part of your routine. We plow alot and our horses are glad to stand because they know they should rest a few minutes. We get off the plow and pull their manes out of the collars and if others are here we might BS a few minutes before going again. Our horses all stand well and even stand unattended while we load manure but the lines are tied on the lever on the near side of the spreader just in case. It takes a while and alot of work to get them that good though.

Our vet has us trained 🙂 to give shots in the “brisket” – so far only vaccinations but they never even seem to fell it. Good soft tissue there and NO “Kickers”.