Teaching horse to stand tied, alone

[marmarmar]

I love my horse. He’s perfect in almost every way. BUT… he is a worrier and he can’t handle being alone. This is something I’ve worked on with him, and it generally isn’t an issue (he’s usually always either with me or with another horse). I’ve accepted that it’s simply a part of his nature, that he has strong herd instincts and just is happiest around others. However, it does become an issue when he has to be tied somewhere he can’t see me or other horses.

He understands the limit of the rope and doesn’t set back. When I’m around, grooming or tacking up, etc., he stands like rock (although it did take some time for him to learn this) and knows better than to paw in front of me (he also doesn’t feel the need to paw in front of me). However, when he is tied and I walk away, he is content to dig a hole to the center of the earth. Part of me empathizes with him. He’s feeling trapped and anxious and vulnerable. The other half of me knows that it’s a tantrum. You can actually see him pause between pawing to listen for me coming back. I think I’ve inadvertently reinforced this behavior by punishing it in the past – he would paw and I would immediately stick my head out from the tack room to tell him off. And so he learned that by pawing, he could draw me back to him.

Today I tried tying him in his stall (someplace familiar, with hay, but where he can’t see me or the other horses) and “waiting it out”. It took about an hour while I was doing chores before I finally heard a break in the pawing. Peeked in and he had a foot cocked but was literally dripping sweat. I gave him pats for finally standing quietly and took him for a walk and a rinse. However, I feel so guilty over it. I don’t tiptoe around him but I also don’t want to cause him so much stress.

I want him to learn to stand quietly and patiently at all times, no matter what, but I don’t want to teach it in a traumatic way. I feel like today was more of a “learned helplessness” type session than actually helping him process his situation and be comfortable with it. He just got in his head with the pawing and stopped thinking. Like I said, it’s usually not really a problem for us, but I don’t want him to have this hole in his training. There may be times in the future where I really need him to be okay standing somewhere by himself. I should say that other than this, he has impeccable ground manners.

I know I’m not the first one to have this experience. Any tips on a) how to help him be more confident by himself and b) other ways to teach him to stand quietly when I’m not around? Obviously today’s session worked eventually, but at the cost of winding him up until he finally exhausted himself:(

[cattywampus]

Because STAND STILL and DON’T FUSS are huge for driving horses, there are a lot of resources to teach stand (starting on the ground) in driving land—I believe Coachman’s Delight has a protocol. Check out driving pages–it should translate well to other disciplines.

Teaching a sit/stay or long down to a dog is also a comparable exercise that can be adapted to stand for horses-- there are a LOT of resources out there, with the end result (stay where I put you until I say we’re done) achieved by breaking it down into small, low-key steps.

Sometimes, for both dogs and horses, using a visual cue at first is helpful–a bed or blanket for a dog, a line or rope on the ground for a horse: stand here. If you move, calmly back where you were, thank- you-very-much. Some people like clicker training; I am an habitual loser of small objects, so I use the verbal cue “good!” in lieu of a click.

As painful as it seems, lots of slow, dull repetition is the key to most behavioral modification, gradually increasing the time alone he can tolerate: if 15 seconds out of sight is his threshold, do 10 seconds a thousand times until he’s bored, then gradually increase.

[marmarmar]

@cattywampus

Because STAND STILL and DON’T FUSS are huge for driving horses, there are a lot of resources to teach stand (starting on the ground) in driving land—I believe Coachman’s Delight has a protocol. Check out driving pages–it should translate well to other disciplines.

Teaching a sit/stay or long down to a dog is also a comparable exercise that can be adapted to stand for horses-- there are a LOT of resources out there, with the end result (stay where I put you until I say we’re done) achieved by breaking it down into small, low-key steps.

Sometimes, for both dogs and horses, using a visual cue at first is helpful–a bed or blanket for a dog, a line or rope on the ground for a horse: stand here. If you move, calmly back where you were, thank- you-very-much. Some people like clicker training; I am an habitual loser of small objects, so I use the verbal cue “good!” in lieu of a click.

As painful as it seems, lots of slow, dull repetition is the key to most behavioral modification, gradually increasing the time alone he can tolerate: if 15 seconds out of sight is his threshold, do 10 seconds a thousand times until he’s bored, then gradually increase.

Thank you!! I hadn’t thought of driving resources. I’ll check some out!

I think the more gradual approach is what will get through to him over the “let them work it out themselves” method. I always hear of tying them to a tree or a patience pole until they give up, but I’m not sure he has the right mind to make the connection of “stand still” = “get untied” that way. He just continues to get amped up

[cattywampus]

Yes, I think the problem with flooding (which is basically what a patience pole is) as a training method is that some horses (dogs, people…) remain so amped up their brain sort of shuts down… then they stop reacting to the stimulus, we think “Aha! Success!” , but they haven’t actually LEARNED anything, and still don’t have the mental toolkit for next time.

To anthropomorphize it (I know, I know-- animals aren’t people), I do NOT LIKE small enclosed spaces. If someone helpfully locked me in a broom closet until I stopped kicking the door, I guarantee I learned sweet Fanny Adams about tolerating the trapped feeling–on the other hand, if I were gradually introduced to it with the door open, and perhaps given a whiskey sour for each successful event, I might learn to put up with it.

TLDR: I think you are on track with breaking it down into small steps-- takes longer, but ultimately far more successful.