Jodi Wilson - Train Horse To Sit

3 Easy Ways To Train Your To Horse Sit

There are three ways to teach a horse to sit and it depends on if you want your horse to sit on the ground or sit on an object. I am going to cover getting your horse to sit on the ground first. You will first need to teach your horse to lay down. I covered that in a previous article Teaching Your Horse to Lay Down. You may even find that your horse will offer to sit during that lesson.

With the horse laying down on his side, you will stand next to his back. Encourage him to go from his side to laying on his chest/belly (use your reins or voice, but do not use your cue to get up). If he tries to get up all the way bring his nose toward his side. When he relaxes let his head go back forward. If at any time the horse gets up, do not scold him, simply lay him back down. If he lays back down when you stop him from getting up, that is fine as well.

From here you will coax him to start getting up, but stop him as soon as he puts a front leg forward. (It should be under his chest.) Stop him as before by bringing his nose toward his side. If he lays all the way back down that is fine. Next time see if you can get him up a little higher so he can hold himself up. Pet him and let him know this is all you wanted. When he is calm, ask him to get up a little more controlling him with the bridle. He should start pushing himself with his front legs.

Again, if at any time the horse gets up, don't scold him, just lay him down again and start over. Keep working him up on the front legs a little bit at a time until he is sitting. Some like to keep the getting up cue for laying down different than for sitting. You can step around the horse when he is sitting as the cue to get up or stepping over him while laying down as the cue to get up. Be creative.

To get your horse to sit on an object you can start by piling up shavings in the corner of a box stall. You then back the horse into the shavings. He will peddle with his hind legs and you will release him as soon as you see him squat no matter how small. Let him back up with a cue to get up. Back him into the shavings again and look for him to squat. Continue this pattern until the horse drops his backend all the way down. Now ask him to stay down longer and longer always giving the cue to get up before letting him do so.

You can also teach the horse to sit on an object by using full shavings bags stacked into a corner. You will stack them high enough that the edge is at the point where the stifle bends and place them so they make a chute. This helps keep the horse from missing the stack by shifting left or right. Then repeat the process as before. I have also been able to teach a horse to sit using a hay bale, but you will need to cover it so the horse does not get poked by the hay as this will discourage him from sitting down. Again, the edge needs to hit the horse at the point in the stifle that bends to encourage him to sit.