Standing Still

During the Soldier Reburial Ceremony today we had eight horses lined up for several hours. Normally, we only have them standing in formation for about an hour. An hour is a long time for a horse to stand still. Some have mastered the art and simply go to sleep while they're standing there. I remember once being on a horse named Peanut who fell asleep during a ceremony and was awoken when the band started playing. He whinnied and jumped a little but then remembered where he was and went back to sleep. Unfortunatley, some horses can't relax in formation and are constantly moving around. It makes a difference where the horse is in the formation also. Some horses are good on the ends of the line and we call them "anchor horses" because they keep the line in place. Otherwise, the line starts moving slowly away from the band or flags or whatever the horses don't like. Some horses have a real problem regardless of where they are. These horses will suddenly back out of the line and if they spin around can completely disrupt the entire formation. The rider on these horses has to be constantly moving his hands and feet to keep the horse from leaving the line. It's realy frustrating and the rider has to stay on top of the horse the whole time anticipating what he is going to do next. There is not cue for "stand still" but you can cue your horse to lower his head if he's getting antsy. The horse I was on today (Apache the Wonder Horse) was constantly bobbing his head and pawing at the ground which is not as bad as when they try to back out of the line but it is still distracting. I tried to keep him relaxed by asking him to lower his head but it is hard to give that cue when you have a saber in one hand. I need to come up with a one handed head down cue (other than whacking the horse on the head with the saber).