Teaching a horse to stand still and relax has many benefits. When riding it has the benefit of making it possible to ride the horse from behind to forward. When handling it`s a great way to make sure we have the horse`s consensus when grooming, saddling or doing other stuff with them.
It's not hard to teach horses to stand quietly without being held. Horses are energy conservant and rather stand still than use lots of energy. But they also seek the least amount of pressure. If we hold a horse still, the pressure is happening when the horse is doing the right thing, which is standing still, and the horse will look for the release by wanting to move off.
If we need to hold our horse when saddling or mounting, teaching the horse to ground tie and stand on a loose rein is a great way to get this sorted. Get this right and before you know it you`ll be able to groom, saddle and even ride your horse at liberty.
Watch video below and get started with ground tying, which is when the horse has a place on the ground where he`s supposed to stand:
Thank you so much for watching! Hope this helps and if you try this out please let us know how it goes. If you want to learn more about how we can release our horses for standing still when mounting and why this benefits hind leg engagement when ridden, feel free to hit the button below and watch video how to teach horses to stand on loose reins when mounted.