Tie your horse up.
When horses come in for training, they spend a lot of time being cross-tied as well as straight tied to posts. For hours on end and days on end, every horse no matter their age and experience level spends time aimlessly standing until they learn patience and relaxation when standing. A lot of people have asked me why I do this. After a couple weeks people said I should just give up and let her "grow out of it" This filly is a perfect example of why I didn't want to give up. For six week this filly spent every morning tied for 4-5 hours and for every day of those 6 weeks, she was nervous and fidgety and couldn't keep all of her feet on the ground. If she was in her stall and the other horses were going outside, she would pace and run circles and put herself into a sweat. So I left her in her stall every morning too. Finally, last week, she started to stand quietly both in her stall and in the cross ties. This week, she cut her leg open and because of the location of the cut she is to remain completely immobile for 14 days which means standing in cross ties in her stall for 14 days without any walking or laying down. As you can see, she's taking it pretty well and I can only imagine the trouble we would be in if we hadn't spent so much time practicing. So, moral of the story, teaching you horse to tie comfortably and to relax when they're alone is worth it. Whether its you or the horse that learns patience from it, just do it Anyways.
