Help for halting

[Carl Russell]

@Thecowboysgirl 34316 wrote:

…….They definitely know what whoa means. They just don’t want to stand still all by themselves……..

From my perspective, this is a big part of the source of your difficulty.

Whoa should not just mean stop….. it should mean stand. If all you want is for them to stop when you say whoa, then that is all you will get.

There have been many good suggestions in this thread about not trying to coerce them into standing, and Karl explained a very good process.

I would just add that it really helps to think clearly about the way you are sending messages to them.

Using pressure and release as the basis for all communication with horses, I condition my animals to prepare to move with pressure on the lines. This is not PRESSURE, just attention to the fact that the lines are now active in my hands. When they show me they are alert…ears back, heads up, I speak to them to move forward. While they are working they can feel my guidance through the slight constant contact on the bits.

When I want them to stop/stand, I release the lines and say whoa. They quickly learn that with pressure they move, and without they stand. It is really difficult to just train for standing and expect that the horse will stand from then on…. as has been said, it takes time to reinforce the conditioning through consistent repetition. Thinking like this will help immensely. Don’t lead yourself to believe that there is a trick that will teach them to stand. Be alert, and honest with yourself about the exact capability that the animal is showing you. They, and you are on a continuum, working forward.

If they have a lot of energy, or are distracted in any other way, and don’t feel like taking a rest, then you can run into difficulty with them developing poor standing habits. With this in mind it is good to have more on your mind than just standing. If you have a workout plan that includes standing, but focuses on other guidance oriented exercises that will tire them mentally, then when you ask them to stand they will be more willing. If you just focus on standing and they won’t, then all you are teaching them is to not stand when you ask them.

A person running after a run-away horse yelling whoa, is only teaching the horse to run away when they hear a person yelling whoa.

If you are having these difficulties while driving these horses I would definitely advise you to not work them together……. They have already showed you that they are more interested in each other than they are in you……. you should work on changing that first.

Good luck, Carl

[Thecowboysgirl]

Hey all– I wrote a response to this thread that apparently got deleted….but at any rate…I really appreciate & got insight from everyone’s comments and suggestions. One thing I think is that I tried to push the duration of the stand for longer than they could do (obviously since we failed) and so I intend to rewind and do smaller steps.

Today I put them both in the roundpen- as usual the gelding can’t wait to join up with me. Got some insight from him though- I asked him to stand and when I then ask him to walk off he wants to immediately turn and come back to me. This is a problem driving too. And when standing, he has the urge to pivot around and stand with me, which is what he was doing when I couldn’t get a good stand out of him driving. He wasn’t so much trying to walk off as trying to wiggle around to try and be closer to me. I was able to make it clear to him that I would like him to stand still and not follow me with his head as I walked around behind him, and then got him to walk away from me in a straight line (previously he would swing right back around to come to me). I will practice this all more naked in the roundpen (ha ha he is naked, no harness, not me!!!) before attempting it driving again. Really felt like it was a breakthrough for both of us, though.

Mare as usual will not join up with me, but she did seek me out for the first time. Normally if I take the pressure off her she will stand at the fenceline of the pen and not seek to come to me. This time she did come to me and make contact so that’s new. Her big issue is anxiety about noises so I tied the ole milk jug with gravel to her surcingle and asked her to walk along with me since we had this new kind of partnership and she walked calmly with me despite a concerned look on her face. If I stopped, she would stop. This is all I did with her, since she was able to be relaxed with the noise I took it off her and quit.

Her not wanting to stand was anxiety- which tells me like others said, she didn’t have confidence in me. Today I acutally felt like she had confidence in me and was working with me as opposed to “submitting” to me or tolerating me.

I am going to do these same sorts of things with them for awhile and then try it all ground driving once more and take it baby step by baby step out of the roundpen. I am super confident in the round pen, not so much outside, so we both have to do baby steps out of there till we’ve got it down.

Thanks so much for all the thoughtful responses…really gave me food for thought to go back to the drawing board and today the ponies were happy to work with me and we all felt great afterward. It may take us a year lol but someday they will drive for me!!

[Carl Russell]

@Thecowboysgirl 34437 wrote:

…… I will practice this all more naked in the roundpen (ha ha he is naked, no harness, not me!!!) before attempting it driving again. …….

I was going to say please post pictures….:p

Carl

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