Teaching a Horse to Stand Still

A reader asked how to teach an enthusiastic, clicker-trained stallion to stand still for photographs. Teaching an action is easy; teaching immobility is harder. Standing on a plywood “mark” did not work because the horse treated it as a toy to paw on.

Its like teaching a dog to stay. Place the horse in a balanced, straight stance with all four feet square. Have a halter on him and lay the lead rope over his shoulder. Face him perpendicular between the tip of his head and his shoulder. Use a flat hand and give him the sign against his nose and say “stay”. Take a quick step backwards and then forwards again. Praise generously. Do it again but take two quick steps back and forwards. Praise him again. Add variations to your movement (towards his rear, out towards the front) but always return before he can move and stay facing him. You might have to move pretty fast!

If he moves any hoof, back him half a step immediately and say stay. If you find your horse’s attention wandering, be sure to keep his head straight forward. Position it gently. If he lowers his head, bring it back up again. Get him used to you leaving for longer periods of time. In dog training I used this to teach my lab to stay indefinitely, even if I was out of sight. The trick was to come back before the dog “failed” at staying and reward him for the effort it took to stay successfully, even if its for a second or two at first.