[Liberty's Gal]

Sigh, well it's true. My new gelding Denali is not perfect almost though

He has pretty bad 'happy feet' when he is tied up in the barn and there are no other horses around. I assume this is an anxiety type behavior as I have seen him tied and standing perfectly when there are others around. Usually however he jigs in place. Not sure how else to state it, he is constantly picking up his feet and putting them down in place.

He does this when he his ring tied and in cross ties. He does not paw or any other behavior like that. Should I treat this like pawing? ie shout 'quit' or another negative reinforcement when he does it and give him attention/positive reinforcement when he stands still.

Or since it is probably anxiety based is there another approach to dealing with it?

[sorrell]

Yep, anxiety/nervous jitters. yelling or popping would make worse.
You can try playing music, feeding hay, grooming and talking in a low smooth voice or giving in and having a companion in sight, but gradually move them further away. Like have a friend take a horse out and bring back in and then take out...letting him know, that he isn't all alone in the world and friends will go and come, but all is well with the world.
This is a hard behavior to "cure". Sometimes age and familiarity and comfort level with the environment are the best "cures".

[PoochtheMighty]

How long have you had him?

It is anxious behavior... my gelding was (and is, whenever I move him to a new barn) the same way. Don't punish him for it- instead work on doing some in-hand ground exercises to get him to focus on you and learn to trust you and accept that whenever the boss mare is around, he's safe...

In other words, you have to be the safe place.
I worked on applying gentle pressure at the poll (and taking a firm grasp of his muzzle and moving it side to side if you have to) to ask him to lower his head... by doing this you will automatically cue his 'relax' signals... lowering his head allows endorphins to flow through his brain and calm him down.

It will also get him paying a little more attention to you.

There are several excercises you can do OUT of the crossties as well, but for now, just keep doing what you're doing. Don't reward or punish him for moving around in the crossties... he will eventually learn that it doesn't get him anywhere.

[Jenje!]

Page's sire does this. Fred does it too, to an extent... he gets in trouble, though, because he has a tendency to paw as well.

I personally don't mind the kind of behavior you've described... especially in a horse who has a lot of energy. My condition with my horses (and a couple of fresh OTTs I've worked with who came home WIRED) is that if you must fidget, you had better be fidgeting in place. The second that butt starts moving around or you start playing inchworm, you're in trouble.

[BluEyedCowgurl]

Hmm...I know my mare does the happy feet dance when she decides that she does not want something to be done to her- i.e. shots, soaking a hoof, anything around those lines. I discovered that with her, I literally have to just let her 'cool it.' I'll just stand there, or sit down, and let her spaz, and then when she realizes that nothing is being forced, she calms down. Sometimes it takes a while, but eventually she'll quit. I think she figures out that if she just stands still, it'll be over with faster. I think someone used to get rough with her when she acted up so she has panic attack episodes here and there.
Other than that I have never had to deal with it with another horse, so it's the only thing I know to do since it seems to work well for her. Plus, she gets better about those things everytime. I don't see the happy feet dance half as much as I used to.

[Madamoiselle]

Loki is really bad when it comes to that-as in pawing, loudly nickering to me if I'm not paying attention-dancing from side to side. I also take into consideration that he is an energizer bunny-two days off with 12 hour turnouot and he's a nightmare to handle-he's not on hot feed either.

I don't tolerate the pawing at all and normally a "quit" and he'll stop, when he's dancing excessively then I've found that A. he either has to pee B. there's something he's nervous about that he can't see.

I agree, put out hay, groom him in his stall, put out a toy like a likit or something.

[wyldterv]

I have a VERY different approach to this kind of nervous behavior as I can not STAND a horse that won't stand quietly when tied...

When they do the jig in place, take them OFF the tie and workie workie, time to move your hips over, shoulders over, back, whoa, etc... I give a very brisk 2-4 min work out and get them really paying attention to ME and LISTENING to ME and THEN I tie them back up.

If they stand quietly, they get tons of praise and no more work. The MOMENT they start up with the ants in the pants behavior... voila, work in hand again...

I do not yell, smack, etc, I just take them off and work their hinny until they decide that it's much nicer to just stand still and quietly