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Originally Posted by Brighteyes My granddad use to teach horses to tie and stay still by cross tying them between trees for an hour or two. They would paw and swirm, but they soon learned it was a waste of energy. He would watch, and as soon as they settled down he would come over the give them some hay and groom. If they started moving again, he would leave them for another 20 minutes or so. For really hard headed horses, it took about five or more times, but most got the message after two or three tries. Most of the time his method worked pretty well. |
This is the exact same method that my trainer uses and it seems very effective. She will tie them and make them stand there quietly before she will pay them any attention. She does it from time to time too just to remind the lesson horses that they need to stand patiently.
She also has hobble broke all of her horses. Not only does this seem to cut down on pawing, but teaches the horse patients as well as trust of their human handler. Its also a great safety thing, insuring that hopefully if a horse rolls and gets its leg stuck in the fence then it won't panic and seriously injure itself, instead it will hopefully wait for somebody to come and release it.
