Training them to Stand

Not even sure how it happened in my case, but I don’t have much of an issue with any of my “Bigguns” staying put. many trips in the woods and doing errands I am sure helped to establish acceptable behavior. About once a month I go for a hay run at a local farmer’s and they stand and wait while loading and more importantly unloading the wagon. About a hundred bales worth. The unloading part has an electric tape relatively near their noses but nothing would stop them from backing away. I would estimate, at least 3/4 an hour to load and an hour and to unload the hay. All I can suggest is practice and then more practice. Even now, I trust but don’t trust. We have had mistakes and I always treat it as a dynamic situation but we are always comfortable. Best of luck.

tying them and letting stand is good for them be they young or older.if you keep them reined upgood they wont rub on your breast yoke so much.wet collar pads are good to teach them to stand where you put them.tying the back of a wagon to something solid works fine.when i brake mules i let them stand with the tongue tied to a post or tree. ronnie tucker

MN Mules-
I have horses, but spend just as much thinking about how to get them to stand. I have always had horses that have come to me at an older age so don’t know much about starting the training process when they are younger. However, I think a big part of the success I have had with my team is based on relationship building. I trust that they will stay put and they trust that I am going to keep them safe while they stand there, even with saws, falling trees, forwarders, and whatever else I subject them to in the woods and fields. This relationship takes time to build, and even the best teams are susceptible to moving or even bolting if they feel threatened or if the teamster does not establish kind but firm expectations for their behavior while at rest. When I am in the woods, I frequently leave them untied to fell or cut brush, move logs on to the bobsled, eat lunch, etc. If they stand still, I leave them be on a slack line, but if they move or creep, we back up to where we started and try again. This is not to say that I have not had runaways, but the two mishaps we had were both teamster errors – my fault!! I think that there are many ways to achieve quiet horses, but the result needs to be a solid and trusting relationship with your animals. A trusting animal is a quiet animal…
-Brad

The only trick I can think of is to get a clear understanding of what you are actually expecting from them, then to be consistent in your leadership.

Carl

Great Photo, Ah, the old days.

I have found it useful to utilize round pen/natural horsemanship techniques in the quest for the horses to stand. As far as natural horsemanship, I guess I would say I use a mix of natural horsemanship, with no set rules for any given animal. If I had to explain myself, I would say I use a mix of Doc Hammill (gentle, time consuming) Parelli (understanding the needs and psychology of a horse) and Clinton Anderson (loosen up the animal, train them quickly and get them to work)
This natural horsemanship is fundamental for our work horses, because it deals with the fear response a horse/mule has to stimuli, which often happens while the team is at rest. One horse moves, the other horse catches up, the implement is rollling with no line pressure, an voila, interesting stories result….
So before the time the animal is even in harness, they have learned that “whoaa” is a command given when they are at rest, without pressure; this differs from the “whoaa” command given while inflicting pain/pressure on the animals mouth.

For one team, we had a round pen climber, natural horsemanship was not working, and so we used a humane and carefully instituted running w with great results.
When the animal is in harness, I hitch a little loose. When we stop, the lines are wrapped/tied loosely to a piece of equipment, with slight tension. The team will inch back up in the harness to get out of the tension, giving a small amount of slack in the tugs.
If they move their head to scratch, they get pressure. If they move forward, they get pressure, without the implement moving behind them. I can be 20 steps away, and when I see a leg move, I bark “whoaa!” They feel pressure on their mouth, and return to zero position. It gets inside their head that I can control them from many steps away. Horses have to be loose to respond to pressure, instead of react against it, which is why I see flexion as a key training tool.

I have found that working the horses hard, and letting them enjoy a long rest is great. I don’t have time to sit and look at the sky. Usually my implements have buckets and fencing materials or hoof trimmers on them, so when we stop to rest I can do some alternate work and stretch my legs. To allow me to do this during the learning curve of a team, I have also attached the ends of the lines with a conway buckle, and snap on a piece of rope 30 ft. behind the implement. If they do get start to move, I can get to the rope. I also used to set a boat anchor in the ground, but now I just hitch a little looser and set the lines technically as mentioned earlier….
Its not foolproof, and I never trust them, but this is what I ‘ve come up with so far. I’m sure some methods will change over time….

Best, Kevin