# horse wont stand still while tied up!



## Phly (Nov 14, 2012)

How often is she tied? All ours are tied up almost daily. We have had new guys do that and it usually stops after a few days. Is it possible the halter is rubbing her wrong? My suggestion would be tie her (somewhere safe!) and let her stand there till she quits. Might wanna start early, could be a while. Neighing is annoying lol. We just tell ours "zip it" a million times. There not real talkers tho. In a nut shell, tie her and go about ur day till she's over it.
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## Soberanaforever (Jul 17, 2011)

Phly said:


> How often is she tied? All ours are tied up almost daily. We have had new guys do that and it usually stops after a few days. Is it possible the halter is rubbing her wrong? My suggestion would be tie her (somewhere safe!) and let her stand there till she quits. Might wanna start early, could be a while. Neighing is annoying lol. We just tell ours "zip it" a million times. There not real talkers tho. In a nut shell, tie her and go about ur day till she's over it.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


She gets tied up daily. and i have tried all kinds of halters including fuzzy ones and rope halters. I left her tied for about 4 hours and i have no idea how she has the energy to keep fidgeting! but she does! haha, and it gets way worse once she sees another horse being ridden or if the horse that was tied next to her leaves, then she has a fit!


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## Cowgirl140ty (Jan 7, 2010)

I would suggest leaving her tied till she stands as well. Even if it takes 8 hours!
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## Phly (Nov 14, 2012)

Sound like she may be a lil herd bound also. Does she ride off alone?
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## Soberanaforever (Jul 17, 2011)

Phly said:


> Sound like she may be a lil herd bound also. Does she ride off alone?
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


yep, she tries to dip her shoulder and go back to where her buddies are, but after she notices that im not putting up with that, the stops.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

This issue is often mentioned on HF. For millenia, horses have relied on their ability to sprint when a predator appears. Your horse is worried that it can't escape should one come sneaking around. Tying a nervous horse all teach will only cause him to shut down or zone out. You may think he's accepted being tied but he hasn't. He's accepted the fact that he could die. Horses like this need to be taught to stand still without a halter on in a small paddock. It starts with walking down his side turning away and going back to pop a treat in his mouth if he hasn't moved. Eventually he will stand while you make large circles or walk away and return. If he moves, don't put him back, just start again. No yelling at him, no hitting him. Try to work on this 3 days in a row as horses thrive on repitition. When he's real good at this, put his halter on and toss the lead rope over his back and start again. When you saddle him the barn, do as you've done and toss the rope over his neck just in front of the withers. Now that he knows he can escape that skulking predator, he'll likely stay. The rope is there to grab if you have to. Don't get angry, just walk him around and ask him to stand.


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## PunksTank (Jul 8, 2012)

So my mare actually ties really well - but I've been working on building a strong 'stand' command with her. So no matter where she is or what she's doing I can make her stop and stand still. I like to teach all my horses a very strong 'stand' in cases of emergencies - say I fall off on a trail or she gets out of her field (we live near a busy road). I need to be sure the sound of my voice saying "stand" is strong enough to stop her dead in her tracks.

Here's what I've done/am doing. 2 days ago I started. My mare already knows the basics of clicker training and knows that my smooching noise means she gets a treat. So I started (with her halter on and 8ft lead rope) I put my hand straight up and took a step back. At first she naturally followed me - I would stop and take another step back - after a few times she hesitated before she took her step, while she was still hesitating I smooched and treated. 
After about 2 minutes of that I was able to walk back to the end of my 8 ft lead with her standing solid. Now I started adding the word "stand" when I started to back up. That went well and really easy - she figured it out in minutes.
Then I began working on me moving around her. Her natural inclination was to turn to face me, but stay where she was. So I replaced her (I didn't need to put my hands on her to move her back over I just stepped back and she followed). I realized I was too far away from her to start with, so right up close to her head I started walking toward her hind end - with my hand up saying "Stand" - she stood still. I smooched and treated and repeated this until I could go all around her from any distance. The first time it took about 10 minutes to get to the point where I could walk closely to her body back to her hind end. The second session I started again - but by the end of the 10 minutes I was able to walk to her hind end fairly further away and even complete a circle around her whole body with her still.
The third session I worked on being able to walk all around, back and forth and around and have her stay still.
The next session (I started a bit of today but decided to let her think on it so we could work on it more tomorrow) I'm working on having her be walking and "Stand" at the word - despite whatever I'm doing. So If we're trotting but I say "stand" and keep running, she stands. That's my goal. Right now I can stand in front and tell her to 'come here' (which she knows) and stop her with a "stand" midway before she gets to me. So I'm pretty proud of her for just 3, 10 minute sessions 

I suggest training your horse a good solid stand. Many horses have anxiety being tied for reasons already stated. You can either 'break' them of it - by forcing them to give in to the fact that they have no control over their life - or train her a better "stand". Being tied is like giving up their feet- this is the scariest thing in the world for any horse. 

As for being herd bound - I found the best way to fix that issues is by making being with you more positive than being with her friends. I have a horse and a pony - when we first moved to our new home they were very upset because in when they were both out in their paddocks they couldn't see each other - so they hated their paddocks. But spending positive time with them each in their paddocks (mostly clicker training) they began to associate me and their paddocks with feeling good. Now they'll both go to their paddocks without a huff and especially love it when I go out there  Though the pony still throws hissy fits when he sees me doing CT with my mare xD jealous little boy!


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## Thunderspark (Oct 17, 2012)

to me it sounds like she's a little herd bound and also has to learn to stand when tied. I have a patience pole (Clinton Anderson uses those) and after a couple times on that they learn it is easier to stand still than to pace around worrying about where everyone else is.......


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## Mariss (Nov 16, 2012)

This is one thing that may be helpful...try just looping her lead over a tie rail a few times, so that shes still connected to something but that she isn't actually tied to it. 

I had a gelding that would pull back and freak out if he was tied, but if i just wrapped his lead around he would stand fine. What it was, was that when he tried to take a step back and felt that he was attached to something, it freaked him out. However, if he took a step back and didn't have resistance then he was fine. Try doing that while your close by your mare in case she just walks away haha, but that may give her the cue to stand without scaring her


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