Drop the lead rope or not?

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=maunder;8921282]
I’ve seen horses with dropped leads step on the lead, try to lift their head and panic.

I always keep a hand on the lead.[/QUOTE]

We start colts with a bit of loose time in a small place with a soft cotton lead dragging, so they learn that those things are not dangerous and if they step on them, to keep their cool and step off the lead.

All we have used that have learned fine, no wrecks.
Day before yesterday a friend’s kid, had just finished riding his colt and was changing his saddle to the other colt.
The one being unsaddled scratched his sweaty head on the fence and slipped the rope off the fence and somehow it wrapped around his head and nose and he stepped on it less than a foot off the ground.
He was really caught there, we were expecting a wreck, the kid turned around at the time the colt did that and the rest of us noticed, leaned over, asked the colt to lower it’s head a bit more and unsnapped the lead.

Now, that was a tired colt, it was also a very well trained colt, to stand there and to cooperate to be helped.

That situation could have gone either way, just lucky nothing happened to injure anyone right there.

Even with horses used to dragging a lead rope, I would NOT do that in a larger space or on purpose, why take those kinds of chances?

Want to graze your horse in an open spot, stand there with it, or take the rope off?

[msj]

With one exception I always hold onto the lead. I keep an eye on it to make sure it isn’t drooping.

The exception was when I’d finished riding at one barn and hosed my horse off, I’d just turn him loose to graze and knew I didn’t have to worry that he’d leave the farm as there was a modest stream between the farm and road and a bridge that he’d have to cross. I knew he’d not cross the bridge on his own.

[Beck]

So the lead really stays on the withers or back if just ‘flipped’ up there? I have not seen this work for more than a moment in almost 50 years of being around horses. The rope always ends up dragging on the ground.

[inca]

If they have a lead line attached, you should be holding it. I occasionally let my trustworthy horse to graze outside his pasture on his own (halter, no lead rope.) But, I have my own place and it is perimeter fenced. And I am not that far away (usually doing barn chores) and can keep an eye on him.

[Foxtrot_s]

I agree with Bluey that horses should be used to a trailing rope and learn to carry their heads without tripping on it and not panicking. Just in case…

[Guilherme]

If I want to allow “open” grazing I’ll put hobbles on the horse and tie the lead rope around the neck in a cavalry knot. Over time a horse can cover a lot of distance in hobbles but if I’m “open” grazing it’s because I’m out keeping an eye on them.

We a more than 500 feet from a not heavily traveled road but I don’t allow “open” grazing along the drive that leads there. If, for any reason, I decided to do so I’d put a temporary electric strand up to keep them from going too far.

G.

[Bluey]

Also, our horses are very well used to a rope all over them, around their body and legs, before they are left to drag one, in a little pen or stall at first, not even as large as a small round pen.
The horse stepping on the rope and learning to give translates later in any little pull of the rein the horse already knows to give, handy for hackamore horses.

A panicky horse can hurt itself badly before we can take charge and stop it from it, if it gets scared of dragging a rope, so prepare it first, while in good control, before letting it drag one.

Letting a horse wander with a dragging rope is different than washing a horse and dropping the lead and the horse being ground tied, once it knows to do so.

I have seen plenty of people let horses loose with dragging ropes and nothing happens, but when it does, maybe the rope snags something that the horse then thinks is chasing it, it can get serious in a hurry, so why take chances?

[cayuse]

I think the first thing I had drilled into me when I was a kid was to never let go of the lead rope “no matter what” and that has stayed with me forever. That and if I dropped the lead rope on the little stinkers I have now they’d be gone like yesterday. Ponies

[dkcbr]

[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;8921784]
I agree with Bluey that horses should be used to a trailing rope and learn to carry their heads without tripping on it and not panicking. Just in case…[/QUOTE]

How do you train this?

[myleetlepony]

I broke it down by teaching first to give to pressure on the lead. Then by having her stand with one lead in my hand and a second on the ground. I’d also walk her on a lunge line touching her feet and legs with a whip (just touch, no taps). When she was all “meh” about it, I started letting her walk free in a closed arena with the lead trailing.

Horses are smart cookies…once they have the basics broken down they will put it all together if you patiently let them. Any time she stepped on her lead while grazing, she stopped and you could see her mind working through the problem. She’d then take a step back and try lifting her head. She’d keep doing that until her head was free and then she’d walk onto her next spot.

[Abbie.S]

I teach all my horses to immediately give to any and all pressure on their head. None of them panic if they were to step on the rope. They learn they can get themselves out of trouble by softening and stepping back.

When they demonstrate they can make this decision, then yes, I don’t have a problem letting the rope trail while they graze. But at that point I usually trust them enough that I just unclip the rope altogether.

[Foxtrot_s]

Also, they just learn by themselves the first time they break away while on the lunge - if that happens which would not be the plan

[demidq]

I agree that it is a useful thing to teach a horse to give to pressure. I spent a winter with a coach before backing my mare. She learned about standing tied, hobbles, not reacting to a rope around the leg, stepping on a lead attached to a rope halter all in a carefully controlled calm setting. Accidents happen, and she is far less likely to panic and hurt herself if caught up unexpectedly than a horse who has not been trained in this fashion. I will drop the lead when I am right there watching, (cleaning tack or something), and it is great to see her figure out which foot to lift when/if she steps on the rope. No way I would leave, tho, and we are a LONG way from the road. She is a greedy thing and is primarily interested in stuffing her face. I certainly wouldn’t do it if I had not specifically trained her about this. Just as an aside, she is a Hano cross, nice dressage mare. Not just a Western thing!

[charismaryllis]

Hold the rope. Don’t want them stepping on it and breaking something i’d have to pay for.

[Scribbler]

I have some locations off the property that are safe from traffic, don’t need to cross a rode to get back, and have great grazing in the summer. I’ve found that I can send my perpetually hungry mare alone into a stand of grass, and either toss the long cotton lead rope over her withers, or else take it off completely, and she will just stand and stuff her face. But she has very little startle or spook, and we have done a lot of ground work and liberty work, and when I do this, I keep a close eye on her to catch her again if she is getting restless. I wouldn’t do this with a less solid horse. For a while I used to let the rope trail, but that did damage to the rope. If this horse steps on her rope, she just calmly lifts her foot, and continues on. I wouldn’t count on a dragging lead rope to stop a bolting horse. Either the horse would be savvy enough to hold it’s head at an angle and not step on the rope, or else the horse would step on it, and trip itself.

I am careful about where I let my horse wander, though, because I know it makes almost everyone else nervous to see! And also the situation is different if you are around other horses. And I wouldn’t do it with most horses, either.

[tabula_rashah]

It depends on where I am what horse I’ve got. My 2 main ladies and my Arab gelding all know how to graze with the lead rope dragging and not step on it. Or if they do, they just back up and take their foot off it.

[Engage]

I drop the lead to groom and fuss. Lets him graze but not move too far off, as if he starts moving I can easily get to the lead. But I’m free to move around, get stuff out the tack room ect. He’s not bothered by it at all. If he stands on it, he’ll graze as much as he can there, then step off it and move further. If he wasn’t a greedy grump, he may have stepped off it first :lol:
When I’m done fussing, I unclip the lead and he can move more freely. He has run of the whole property during the day so isn’t bothered about going exploring and he stays near enough to come right away when he hears the first bit of grain hitting his bucket

[toady123]

If you don’t plan to hold on to the lead rope why have it on at all? Letting it drag (unless the horse is trained and sensible not to panic if they get tangled or step on it) is just an injury and/or broken equipment waiting to happen.

In either scenario I would want the horse in an area that is safe. Realistically if a horse takes off, you are not terribly likely to catch the end of an attached lead whipping around behind them.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=toady123;8925624]
If you don’t plan to hold on to the lead rope why have it on at all? Letting it drag (unless the horse is trained and sensible not to panic if they get tangled or step on it) is just an injury and/or broken equipment waiting to happen.

In either scenario I would want the horse in an area that is safe. Realistically if a horse takes off, you are not terribly likely to catch the end of an attached lead whipping around behind them.[/QUOTE]

Even the best trained horse may spook at times.
It was very windy day in the late fall, we were doctoring new cattle on wheat pasture and had roped and treated one.
My friend was back to his horse, rope put up and was closing his medicine bags, horse ground tied there, when my horse started alarming to an attack tumbleweed.

I warned him horses were spooking, he reached for the dragging rein, the tumbleweed beat him to it as it hit the horse’s shoulder and the rein somehow got tangled in it.

By then the horse was spooking sideways and every time he moved away, that tumbleweed attacked again!

The horse ended up running sideways and kicking at the attacker, that finally got loose and moved on to find another target, I assume.

The horse then took off for a bit, bucking and spreading medicine bottle and syringes and needles all over, stepped on a rein that broke just as he was about to somersault and circled back to us and stood there, shaking.

We checked him and he was ok, so we gathered all the syringes and needles and medicine bottles we found, repaired the rein and went on checking cattle.

If that tumbleweed had stayed after the horse any longer, he may just have gone thru fences and get seriously hurt somewhere.

That is how easily a wreck happens, that with that dragging rein, it could have killed that horse if it had not broken, but made the horse flip and break his neck.

The same can happen with a lead rope dragging along and snagging something scary to the horse, better be safe than sorry.

[saje]

All my horses learn to deal with stepping on a leadrope. I deliberately turn them loose with a well padded halter on, and a long, thick, cotton rope attached. This is best taught somewhere where there is lush grass for them to eat, and when they are not jumping out of their skins with pent-up energy.

Usually there are a couple of head-flinging WTF??? moments from the horse, but in every case they have learned to just move their feet and continue on grazing.

In my mind this is as essential a piece of ground manners/handling/safety training as learning to stand politely for foot handling, or being saddled and bridled.

As to the OP, well it depends on where I am and the surroundings. At a busy boarding barn with people all doing their own thing, I’d hang on to the rope. At a quiet barn when I knew where everyone was & what they were doing I’d probably let it drag but stay near, though in one small barn I was at for a while I’d let him graze with rope attached and go clean his stall and my tack while he nibbled and dried off. Never had a problem.