Getting my horse to stand still?

[badgerdog]

What's the best way of getting my horse to stand still? He was very bargy when I got him 4 months ago and in that time he has improved. Initially, it was difficult just getting on him but we have overcome that one. My problem now is when I groom him and tack him up, he just keeps wandering about on the end of the lead rope. He'll stand for a few seconds but then gets impatient. What's the best course of action? Shall I continue by being quiet and patient because this worked with my problems mounting him or do I need to do something else?

 

[OrangeEmpire]

My horse has the attention span of a gnat and has a habit of trying to wander off as i tack her up/ groom her. It isn't easy to sort as you don't want to get overly cross just before you go out on a ride as it doesn't exactly help with the whole calm happy thing!

I found with the moving about when being groomed it was best to just put her back where i want her to stant each time she moves and then repeatedly give the command 'stand' if she looked like moving followed by a 'good girl' if she stayed still. The tacking up is trickyer but i tend to give a single sharp tug on reins/headcollar with a growled 'stand' showing that i am very cross.

She is improving slowly! Alot of it is they don't realise that they are supposed to stand where you want until you say they can move. It helps to be consistently calmly firm. it has (just to make you depressed!) taken 2 years to establish that she will stand still 90% of the time!

 

[jumpthemoon]

It is annoying when they don't stand still. I would tie up fairly short, so it's harder for her to just wander about, and every time she does so much as move a hoof, put her back to where she was. My horse used to be a nightmare for this, but I spent about 2 weeks really working hard on making him go back to where he was if he moved and now he will stand on the yard not even tied up and not move an inch

It takes a bit of time and you have to be really petty about it but it works

 

[badgerdog]

Thanks for the advice. It seems that time and patience is the answer, I felt that this was the right road to go down but it's nice to hear that it's worked for other people!

 

[jinglejoys]

I taught Malaga by having him on a loose rope and asking him to come up to me and place himself while I stood on a tub.When he was in the correct position he got lots of lovely back scratches.Now I only have to stand on something and he's over,waiting for a scratch