Teaching a horse to stand whilst being groomed

[Supertrooper]

13yr old, shire x cob, not got a nasty bone in him but he is very stubborn and opinionated at times. We've had him since september so still early days but he is a pain to groom at times. He will stand well for so long but then he gets bored and starts twitching around, tossing his head therefore trying to break baler twine, oh and pulling anything he can reach over!

It's mainly attention seeking but it would be nice if he'd stand quietly! He isn't interested in a hay net even though he's very food motivated normally. It doesn't help that he's a mud monster so it takes ages to groom him.

So far we've reached a point of ignoring him for so long and then telling him off (by raising our voices) and he'll then stand and behave himself!!

 

[thinlizzy]

I'm doing this on moby so apolgise if I've missed anything or misspelt have you tried a haynet for him to pick at while standing ? My youngster went through a phase of not standing still for a bit I went back to basics he's in nights so even if I had no time to ride and there has been lots due to weather I've tied him up every day ie to watch me much out etc I used a haynet for a few weeks then I've started tying him up with out sometimes result ! Aiall keep on doing this though don't want him regressing oh yes and his favorite trick is untying himself and he's been really good