Walking off

[DEBZ]

How do I stop my rude boy walking off when I try to adjust my dressage girth and sometimes when mounting, other than shouting stand. That does work but I do get a few looks from other riders !!

[Nookster]

Carry on doing what works would be my opinion and don't bother with the people that look over

Voice commands are great for horses and praise

[coss]

persistance, go to get on and as he moves forwards, stop getting on and halt him, make him take the step back and try again until there is no movement.
For doing up the girth, don't do it immediately, lean forward as though you are going to and if he steps forwards, stop him, if not, reward with a pat or tel him he's good. repeat until you can do one strap and reward, then the other. it takes a while but thats what i did with my mare and if i can train a 28 yo then you can train your horse :)

[puzzles]

ditto Coss; when he moves off, go with him, repeating "stand" i na firm and clear (but not aggressive/angry) voice. wthe second he plants his feet, immediately praise him with your voice and/or a loving stroke on his neck/shoulder. when he walks off, turn him back to where he was and halt him again: right now he knows that, especially if he stops and starts whilst you are mounting/girthing, he still gets to whee he wants to go.
good luck!

[Joyscarer]

This is what I have been working on with Joy today :)

i started by doing a bit of join up to work off some energy and get her and me in the right mood ;)

Then what I did was to make sure that I caught her eye before I attempted to mount so that I wasn't trying to sneak on board and anything I did was with her full knowledge and permission. Then I would take each stage of mounting slowly so that I could identify exactly when it was that she wanted to walk off. I could get my foot into the stirup and stand next to her but couldn't bounce to mount without her trying to make off with me :o

I would take it as far as that point and make a point of a verbal confirmation that I am happy with her. Then I would try the bounce without actually wanting to mount at that stage and stop bouncing and going back to the begining again with the verbal confirmation that she was doing good when she stood still. I would take each subsiquent stage on a bit at a time and repeat until it went right and I could bounce next to her and then stop what I was doing and make a big fuss of Joy to show that she was doing the right thing. :D

I managed to get past the bounce stage and mount her without her moving off but as soon as my bum pressed into the saddle she was on the move :rolleyes:

So tomorrow will be more of the same as today in the hope that we get to the same stage as we did today and I can sit down and she will wait for me to ask her to move. Fingers crossed :D