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Discussion on Teaching a fidget to stand still! | |
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Posted on Wednesday, Jan 23, 2002 - 8:48 pm: Does anyone have any tips on how to teach a yearling colt to stand still in the show ring. I have a yearling quarter horse colt who is a terrible fidget. |
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Posted on Wednesday, Jan 23, 2002 - 9:45 pm: First key is that what ever you teach your horse to do at your barn will be what he does in the show ring.A basic truism for a yearling is they need lots of excercise (just plain old activity). Does he spend a lot of time in a stall? Try to turn him out more. Or spend more time excercising him. Give him a variety. One day at the lunge, another in the round pen. Try to keep him active, engaged, challenged and make sure he sweats and gets tired. Then he's happy and you ask him to stand. It might be just a minute at first. Then reward him. (or start at 30 secs). You need to have a success, whatever the length of time. Then increase the time to 2 minutes, then 3, then 5, etc. Each time you need to have a success. End on a success. Then you need to add distractions. It might be standing while other people are around and moving. He needs to stand still EVERY time you have the halter on him and are standing next to him with the lead rope regardless of what else is going on around. This sort of thing can take only a couple of weeks or it might take several months. Good luck. |
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Posted on Wednesday, Jan 23, 2002 - 11:48 pm: Thanks for your advice, Dennis. Our boy is in a stable of a night and out in a paddock with a 14yo gelding and a 2yo miniature shetland filly during the day. He's very active, spending most of the day chasing them around and gets heaps of exercise. This might sound like a really dumb question, but how do I actually increase the time for him to stand still? For example, what do I do when he moves before I want him to? Do I just try increasing the time limit by say 10 seconds at a time? I had been told that I should tie him to a tree for an hour and some people have even told me to tie him up for half a day. As he's still only a baby, I think that he needs the exercise and I'm not sure how effective tieing him for that length of time would be. |
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Posted on Thursday, Jan 24, 2002 - 6:27 am: The issue isn't what he does without you. He needs to learn to stand still when Mommy has him in hand. In the excercise and activity realm, he needs to be made tired, even exhausted. Then standing will be a relief not a punishment. My wife may have more insight than I can offer but she seems to think that staying up all hours reading these posts shouldn't be done at the sacrifice of sleep. Go figure. |
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Posted on Thursday, Jan 24, 2002 - 7:39 pm: Hi, Tracey,To teach a horse to stand, he first has to learn the move cue. Whenever your guy asks to move, direct him in a circle around you, continually giving him your voice cue and body language that means move. When you halt the move cue, he should be happy to stand still. If he decides to move again, continue to ask for movement (not roughly or in a way that will cause fear in him, but confidently and matter-of-factly) and when you sense that he is willing to stop the movement, cease the move cue and get into the position you will be in when you show him in hand. You will be giving him what he asks for, but you will be in charge and won't allow him to stop until you are ready to stop. Believe me, he will finally decide that just stopping and standing is a really nice thing to do. This is a training exercise that will help your horse, young or old, learn the difference between what the move cue is and what it means to work in hand, and what your halt cue is. Basically, halt is the stopping of the move cue. Holly |
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Posted on Monday, Jan 28, 2002 - 3:08 pm: I agree with Holly. I've found over the years that the easiest way to get a horse to stop doing something you don't want him to do is to change it to your idea. If your boy won't stand still, then make him move. Make it your idea. Keep him moving until he wants to stop. Then when he does stop, priaise him. I hope I'm explaining this right.It's always worked for my horses. If I have a horse that won't stand to be mounted then I keep him moving around me until he wants to stop. At that time I priaise him and if he stands to let me mount, I get on, if he starts to move, then I start circling him around me again. I learned this method many years ago before all the Natural Horsemen became popular. Just take anything your horse does that's his idea and make it your own. Hope this helps. Jeanne |
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Posted on Tuesday, Jan 29, 2002 - 9:50 pm: Thanks Holly and Jeanne. I'll try your suggestions and let you know how I go. |
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Posted on Friday, Feb 1, 2002 - 1:54 am: A horse generally does not set out to disobey. Horses like to please and like to do what they know their job to be. The problem is communication and an understanding of what is being asked.Keeping a horse moving until he wants to stop can result in very bad habits. Your horse needs to trust and respect you. Communication (cues) are to tell a horse what you want after he has learned what the cue means. When he does that, then thank him (loving tone, pat on his neck or a little treat can all say Thank You). If your horse won't stand still, he must be taught what standing still is. My earlier suggestion of heavy excercise was to address the particular age and training level of the horse and then to set the condition where he will want to stand. The teaching him to stand only comes after the excercise. You don't want your horse to think that the whole activity of moving and stopping is ONE thing. Move is one thing. Stand is another. You need to teach your horse what both mean as separate activities. Then when you ask him to stand, he stands. No other actions. Just stand. And when you want him to walk. He walks. Trot, he trots. Etc. Etc. |
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Posted on Saturday, Feb 2, 2002 - 5:00 pm: HiDennis,I think your saying the same thing that Holly & I are saying, only in a different way. Isn't that what horsemanship is all about. The training is basically the same, just explained differently. I also agree that if the horse won't stand, then you make it work a little more. I just think that if you can take what the horse wants to do and make it your idea of more work then you get the same results. I totally agree that all training must be done with love and respect. The days of brute force are long gone. I hope. Anyhow, Tracey, I hope all of our suggestions help you to formulate your own plan for your boy. Best of luck. Jeanne |
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