Jim Swanner

So your horse won’t stand still, not only for mounting but for saddling, picking up his feet for cleaning or for the ferrier, etc. This situation is  more common than you would think and a very unsafe situation.

There are many causes for this type of behavior. Training or lack of training; many horses haven’t been taught correctly to stand. If the horse continues to move as you do these things and you allow it to happen, it’s you that is causing the habit. You must fix this before it becomes a habit. But forcing the horse is not the way to do it.

Horses move from pressure and pain and this could be a cause when cinching up your horse or the pressure of you sitting in or getting in the saddle. So, discomfort is the cause. Make sure you have the right fitting saddle, the cinch is correct (length, size) and there isn’t any foreign object under the cinch causing discomfort. Make sure the skin doesn’t have any spots that would make the horse uncomfortable.

You can imagine the discomfort stepping in a stirrup and putting your weight on one side of the horse would cause. That’s the reason, whenever possible, I use a mounting block. To help take the pressure off the horse’s back and to help lessen the moving of the saddle.

Remember, teaching a horse anything is a process of creating good habits. So don’t try to move too fast and not to reprimand the horse. He’s not trying to do wrong, he just hasn’t been taught correctly. Remember the horse isn’t afraid of being hurt, he’s afraid of being killed. It won’t happen immediately. In teaching a horse to stand still is no different. It’s a process, when your horse tries to do the right thing, reward that. You reward that effort to do the thing you are wanting by gently stroking, rubbing slowly and taking the pressure off allowing the horse to think about what he just did to get the reward and him wanting to do it again.  That’s just plain basic horse training. Everyone who has a horse needs to know these basic things.

Some horses will require more time and some will learn very quickly. So take your time with your horse.

A suggestion for you if your horse walks off while mounting; put your foot in the stirrup for just a second without getting in the saddle then remove it. If the horse stands still reward him, if he doesn’t, move him around and then bring back to where you are and begin again. Each time progressing to getting to the saddle. Progress slowly; there is no reason to hurry. Each time your horse stand still, reward him, each time he walks off help him move then bring him back. After you have reached the saddle and the horse hasn’t moved don’t allow him to move for several minutes while you are setting in the saddle then dismount and start again, the next day. Set the pattern.

This is call making the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. I said difficult, not with aggression.

To fix a bad habit remember to take your time and fix it permanently and in a way the horse doesn’t become more afraid of you. A scared horse can hurt you really bad or worse. So, people, stop taking chances with your horses, stop riding your horses with your fingers crossed, hoping nobody gets hurt. Work on your relationship first. That’s the single most important thing you need to do.

There is a radio show ‘All About Horses’ each Monday morning from 9:30 – 10:00 central time on WKAC 1080 AM and streaming live at wkac1080.com. You may listen in as the host Jim Swanner talks with people from all around the horse industry. There is some local flavor (Athens, AL) as well as internationally known horse people, clinicians, authors, etc. Something for everybody who has or wants a horse.

You may visit the website jimswanner.com and click on the radio tab to hear past shows. We hope you enjoy listening in.

Becoming a horseman means you are beginning to understand the horse-human relationship. Most of the relationship happens on the ground. We do everything from the ground; feed them, groom them, load and unload them, deworm them, etc.

When a good rider isn’t a good horseman the foundation built on the ground is usually missing.

Doing ground work is where the human gains the respect of the horse and usually becomes the leader of the herd of two..

After the right to become the leader, a language must be built so the horse understands what you are asking him to do. Establishing the language is best done from the ground and is not that hard, if you follow the correct techniques.

The last place you should be is on the back of a horse you can’t control and it doesn’t matter if it’s your lack of leadership or the horses’ misunderstanding. The biggest mistake is when you try to conquer the horse by forcing your way of thinking on him. The best thing to do is play by the rules of the horse’s world. When you are with your horse, in his world, you are a herd of two. Once a horse is a part of a herd they feel the need to find out who is going to be the herd leader. This is done by horses playing dominance games by seeing if they can get each other to move or not move their feet.

So, if we are to be with horses we have to become the qualified leader. Read that again, it is very important you understand that statement. It is why the same horse can be wild and disrespectful with one person but attentive and behaved with another. The difference; it’s how the horse perceives the human’s leadership capabilities. I have seen this hundreds of times.

Usually, most horses don’t have a problem allowing the human become the leader of the team, but only if that human can prove to them in a language they understand that he or she is up to the job of leading and protecting them both, everyday-no exceptions. You have to establish yourself as the leader by using their language and be assertive, not aggressive.

It’s very smart to admit when you don’t know something; it may save your life one day.