Turning off the key on my haflinger

[Farmer Wayne]

I have a haflinger that I want to use in place of my #@!#!! three wheeler with the uncooperative pull start. While my ATV doesn’t always want to start it does stay put when I turn off the key. So far Gertie is standing reliably by the barn when I am loading manure on the stoneboat and she is not tied. She stands quietly where I unload and she is tied to a tree. But there are many more situations where I need her to stand and wait. Sometimes I need to unload where there is no place to tie and we are far away from the barn. I have a garden almost a half mile away where I want to take my tools and work for several hours. I have tied her to a tree there with the forecart hooked to her and she was very “rammy” and I was afraid she was going to bend the shafts. I wonder if I should somehow allow her to graze while I am asking her to wait for long periods of time or should I expect her to be patient. So I am looking for advice on how to train her to be as reliable as my ATV as far as standing and waiting in all kinds of situations: long time/short time; tied up/no place to tie etc. – I know she is not a machine but you know what I mean.

Mrs. Farmer Wayne

[goodcompanion]

I’m interested in the same question. I have a bakery wagon that I have taken into town and tied to a makeshift hitching post. The horse would lost patience with it and get twitchy.

I am not sure exactly how good, patient standing while tied is best trained for. I would guess that tying frequently and for successively longer periods would bring about the right results? I’m interested in others’ responses.

Erik

[Lanny Collins]

There is some earlier posts on this subject. If you go to the search option and type in “horses standing” it will bring up a few. There is one post in April 2009 with several threads. The use of hobbles was mentioned and earlier I saw a thread where the forecart was backed up to a tree and the back of the forecart was chained to the tree. This would keep the shafts from getting damaged. Anyway, the search option can really provide a lot of knowledge / thoughts from previous posts.:)

[sanhestar]

Hello,

I wouldn’t allow her grazing while hitched. You could consider unhitching her for grazing but don’t let her make the connection that grazing is allowed while “working” aka “being hitched.

Standing reliably has to be trained. Horses don’t generalize easily. If they stand one place, they have to relearn it on other places.

You could train her to certain markers, though.

Teach her to stand beside a pole that you put in the ground always, or ground tied to a dangling leading rope, or next to a traffic cone, etc.

Use that marker first at home next to the barn, then move the marker to other locations and retrain her there.

If there’s grazing around, make sure she’s not hungry – this makes it easier to train her. And take into consideration that after the winter they are so much more craving for anything fresh.

[Does’ Leap]

Over the course of 3 years of working my team they have gone from standing ok in most situations to excellent in all situations. There are still minor infractions at times which involve food (i.e. reaching for that hemlock branch or grass etc), but this is relatively rare and is met with a sharp reminder. Here is what has worked for me:

1. Make sure your horses are well fed before working them. If they still are reaching for grass, put a check on them. I agree with Sabine that horses should not be eating while harnessed.
2. Stop them in a variety of situations on a variety of different equipment and wait. If they move, reprimand. I gave a sharp tug on the lines with a low “hey”.
3. Get your horses sweaty and tired. They should be excited to stand. My first year haying I did fairly extensive repairs on equipment in the field with the horses waiting patiently. They relished the rest in work.
4. I use a retractable dog leash. As my horses began to stand better, I would load wood on a wagon, buck logs etc. by myself, and any infraction was met with a reprimand. At first they sensed I was away from the lines and were surprised with the reprimand that occurred from a distance.
5. I try not to tie my horses by their heads (I am the guy who was chained to the tree). I like to secure the cart to the tree. My horses learned to stand while I was felling trees while chained to a tree. One or two lurches in response to falling trees while my logging arch was secured to a tree and they stopped.
6. I don’t tolerate any bobbing, scratching, rubbing, etc. This is an invitation to a lost or caught bridle. Again, infractions are met with a reprimand. If my horses are doing a lot of this, I investigate to see if there is something making them uncomfortable.

Good luck.

George

[near horse]

George –

What reprimand do you use when your horses try to bob, scratch rub etc? I’m working on getting mine to stop that business but they interpret any feedback through the lines as a sign to step up or back. Just curious on that account.

For situations where there is no place to tie up w/ lead, I wonder about bringing along a home made anchor of sorts. Maybe a smaller bucket filled with concrete and an eye bolt anchored in it? I know the longterm goal is to not have to tie up at all and there are likely potential risks with my thinking, but in cases like Erik’s where you’re in town w/ the public around, it’s sort of insurance. A runaway there could be catastrophic.

[Does’ Leap]

Geoff, my reprimand is a sharp tug on the lines followed by “hey” if there is a duet going one or just “Don” or “Jim” (whatever the case may be) if it is just one horse. The sharp tug, followed by full release should minimize the confusion around backing up which tends to be more sustained pressure (at least for me) when backing.

Regarding the portable anchor, anything I can pick-up and muscle around, the horses can (and then some) even with their heads. I want to know when I do tie my horses to something, they are not leaving it, no matter what.

George

[grey]

I find that a check (I use a sidecheck) drastically cuts down on the amount of extracurricular fussing about that my horses try to engage in. Sometimes I let it out for working and shorten it while standing for long periods. Often, however, I disconnect it entirely when working and only clip it up while standing.

I never allow them to eat in harness, unless it is in a nose bag. The nose bag presents a specific situation that I feel allows them to fully understand and compartmentalize the exact time and place in which it is permitted to eat in harness.

I don’t like to tie solid to something in front of harnessed horses because it gives them a target against which to pit their boredom. I prefer it if they stand free, whenever possible.

I do sometimes hobble my very “busy” horse, especially if I have to get down in a vulnerable spot and clear a jam or work on something. That particular horse just doesn’t seem to be able to put her brain entirely in neutral unless the hobbles are on. She is a very sensitive horse; eager to please and is always ready for the smallest cue that I might give. Putting the hobbles on is the only way she can really relax while standing hitched.

I have an antique hiching weight that is a good 20lbs but I have never used it. On the rare occasion that I feel the need to tie my horses by their heads/mouths, I have always somehow managed to find an easier and more convenient way to do it…. a way that DOESN’T involve lugging a 20-lb chunk of iron around, securing it to the vehicle so it doesn’t slide around, removing it from the vehicle, attaching it to the horse, etc.

[sanhestar]

@Does’ Leap 25661 wrote:

Regarding the portable anchor, anything I can pick-up and muscle around, the horses can (and then some) even with their heads. I want to know when I do tie my horses to something, they are not leaving it, no matter what.

George

just for clarification.

I didn’t mean the horses to be tied to the “marker” but tought to stand quietly next to the marker without being tied. The marker is something that will help make them the generalisation that they have to stand quietly everywhere because they take a bit of “home” with them.

[Does’ Leap]

Sabine, makes sense to me. I was responding to Geoff’s comment about a portable anchor.

George

[near horse]

Thanks George. I’ve used similar reprimands – except my word is “quit!”. More recently, I’ve also let them stand if they’re resting but when the grousing around starts, it’s time to start working again. They’re starting to get the idea.

I agree that the anchor concept is not very good but I was trying to think of how one could safely tie a team in a situation like Erik’s (I’m making some assumptions) in which you’re team needs to stand quietly in a place where there are no hitching rails, trees etc while one conducts business (selling bread etc). I’m sure this was something delivery teamsters back in the day had to contend with – just trying to figure out what their methods may have been.

[Farmer Wayne]

Thanks everyone for your input. Now I have some ideas to work on!

Marieanne (Mrs. Farmer Wayne)

[Donn Hewes]

I try to make a distinction between standing while I do work; ie: logging. fixing something, loading something, and standing while I leave them alone so I can go do something else. In all of the first group I am in some position to impart my will (voice, lines, eyes). In the second group, I have given up all or most of the control over what is going on with them. I know there are horses that will stand for hours, I know there are horses that will stand unattened. I just don’t have the desire for a team that I can leave hooked to what ever and go in and talk on the phone and eat a snack. If I was going to spend more than an hour working in the garden and wanted them to wait for me I would tie them in the shade.

[OldKat]

Went to see an Amish guy that I know one time and found him cleaning out stalls and shoveling the stuff directly into a manure spreader which was sitting just outside the barn. He was throwing it through an open window and it was making a pretty big racket as it was hitting the far side of the spreader. What surprised me was that hitched to the spreader was one of his big Belgian mares and a younger Percheron that I knew he had only been working with about 3 weeks at that time. I looked out the window to see what they were tied to and they weren’t …tied that is. When I asked if he wasn’t afraid they would run away he told me to go outside and look a little closer. He had dropped one tug from the outside of eveners for each mare and snapped it into the keeper on the hip drop. He had also tied their lines to the upright on the seat that he had mounted on the spreader. Finally, he had cut out a set of chocks that followed the contour of the rear wheels and had chocked both rear wheels, in front of and behind the wheel.

I asked him what made this work and he said if they thought they could pull the spreader with their mouths, especially with the rear wheels chocked they were more than welcome to try. Then he said that the real secret though was get them real good and tired before you try something like that. They were not moving a muscle and stood there a good 45 minutes while he was working. He had been using them on a harrow all afternoon and they did look drained. Not sure I would ever try his method out, but it was interesting to look at.

[Author]

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