You train the horse you have today. Not the one you had last week.
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Yes donāt tie the horse where it can go up and hit its head unless you want a brain damaged horse. I knew one that did that. Really expensive Arabian mare. Never was right again. And one that fought it out on the cross ties, fell and hit its head broadside on the concrete floor. Brain swelled before vet could get there. Horse survived but never was right again. Very developmentally delayed - basically looked like a yearling all its life. So head injuries arenāt any better for a horse than for a person. Better to be patient than regret your actions the rest of your life.
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If you have bought the horse, why is she still with the seller? I would make arrangements to get her to where you are pronto so you can have hands-on control.
She is just being a horseā¦not wanting to leave buddies. Many, many go through that and come out the other (polite and quiet) side but she needs to be where you can work with her.
Susan
Yes, I would never choose to do this, not would I even have a low enough spot even if I wanted to do so. How very sad for that poor horse!
Just trying to think ahead! But yes, Iāll see what I have as she adjusts to her new home.
Right, I donāt want it to be a reinforced behavior by any means! Unfortunately her new home only has one option for turnout, as itās a very small private facility. But otherwise, I am a big fan of switching things up with young horses, within reason.
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Because I was taking care of a family member with cancer for a few months after her purchase. Itās no different than people who put their horses in training with any other trainer at a location other than their own barn. I am hoping it will indeed just be a young horse phase to work through.
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Unfortunately horses are herd animals: the turning out for the summer didnāt ruin her manners, her natural instincts just kicked in. Most horses are going to have herdbound moments at some point in their lives for whatever reason.
When Iām dealing with something like this, my first priority is to make coming into the barn a positive experience. For example, holding short training sessions after feeding time in the barnā the horse already wants to be there to eat, so use that to your advantage.
I also strongly believe in setting yourself up for success. Rearing in crossties is the negative behavior you want to correct, but trying to correct that with a horse alone in the barn while all her buddies are in the field is going to make the situation unnecessarily difficult. Itās so much easier to bring a friend or friends in with her while you reestablish the basics, then gradually remove them as her comfort and confidence improves.
With herdbound horses, I think routine routine routine. A little bit every day if you can. The worst thing you can do is bring them inside and work with them, then kick them out in the field for a week before trying to bring them in again.
Also, with cross-tie issues, I absolutely do not want to cross-tie a horse if I think there is a chance they will break the ties. I make sure the horse is reliable straight tying first. Then we stand in the cross-tie area until the horse is reliably quiet, essentially ground tying but I keep control of the shank while I groom. Then I introduce one side, with the shank still on. When I can trust the horse on one, I add the second with the shank on while grooming, etc. If thatās all good, then I start backing off and letting them get a bit of freedom on the cross-ties. Depending on the horse, this might all happen in one or two short sessions, or it might take a week or more.
The rearing itself, there isnāt too much you can do to directly correct that except maybe keep a chain over the horseās nose while cross-tied. But even then, a big correction might set the horse off more and make the problem worse. But, if you go back to basics and rebuild the horseās confidence and reassert cross-tie expectations, the rearing will likely correct itself.
Sorry for the novel. I guess I have a lot to say about herdbound horses on cross-ties. 
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Maybe the seller is not nice and she doesnt like him. 
#hardcoremare. Theres nothing you can do until you have her and you can work on confidence amd rules. Clearly she doesnt underatand pressure yet.
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Itās always a possibility. Or she doesnāt like men. I do think it might have to do with inconsistencies from when she was handled by working students. Iāve seen that be tough on many young horses.
I have a horse right now that the seller said used to ābreak out of the crossties and run awayā.
I have no idea what kind of crazy she tried with her.
She hasnt put a foot wrong since shes been with me and stands quietly on them.
Leadership matters.
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My friend had a horse that would just back up out of the blue and do the same. It started one day seemingly randomly, and that was all it took for him to continue doing it. In his case, it turned out to be kissing spines and he was dreading being ridden, poor guy.
The other horse I had would break the cross-ties when he was in a tizzy. He didnāt do it on purpose though; it would just happen because they broke away so easily so one little pop up and they would snap. He would just stand there afterwards or maybe sniff out the treat bag, but thatās it. His intent was never to run away, but more like he didnāt like feeling confined and was just acting out, and them breaking was happenstance. He would pop up in his stall, too, when alone or when he was very young, if I left his sight.
Iām a big proponent of cross-tying with breakawaysā¦
BUTā
They should never learn they can break them. Breaking them should be a big deal reserved for situations you canāt prepare for like errant cannon blasts and UFO landings in the barn aisle.
Unfortunately, horses do learn they can break stuff. It happens to most everyone. When it happens, you need to reestablish basics and put them in situations where they cannot get the satisfaction of breaking their ties just because they can. This might mean hard tying in a stall for a bit. It might mean not allowing the horse to be āfreeā in the cross-ties, instead always keeping a hand on a lead shank until they stop testing the situation. Switching to something like blocker tie rings can be helpful with some horses, because you can adjust the tension to make it harder or easier to pull the rope through. Or sometimes all you need to do is switch to a stronger breakaway. It just depends on the situation. Yet no matter what, donāt let the horse keep breaking free or else they will never respect being tied!
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Standing quietly in cross ties is actually a pretty advanced tieing/standing quietly skill. Especially for a young horse that is coming in from an outside situation.
Think abut what you are asking and expecting: the horse to stand quietly in trappy/confined area, they can only see forward not sideways, their head is closely restrained on both sides (and they have to respond to pressure from from 2 sides yet not move their body forward, backward, head up, head down or even turn to look at thinks.) Combined with environmental stimuli from a barn being a barn.
Go back to ground work basics and simple tie up situations: in a stall, to the trailer, to a post. Desensitize to stimuli in hand and then tied. When sheās quiet and confident to all this, then ground tie/lead over your arm in the cross tie area; rinse repeat. Now you can cross tie safety.
I personally will not cross tie my horses. They all ground tie or hobble.
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