I recently rescued an OTTB, and he is not used to being tied, as he was typically held by a person in his track life. He sets back and the pressure he exerts to free himself is astounding, and nerve racking,a s I am concerned he could hurt hismelf or someone else. I have been working on tying him and standing nearby and going away for short periods of time, like teaching a dog to sit and stay longer and longer. This has worked ok, but I’m not sure I am getting my point across. He gives to pressure on the ground, and by hand, but tying is a new concept to him. We ride on a drill team at a local rodeo and would like to be able to trust him to be tied for an hour with some hay and water, and just relax. Any suggestions? He is in a rope halter.
Please tell me that is a typo and you are not tying him in a rope halter. 
He can be re-trained, but it requires a flat, heavy duty nylon halter, a lunge line, a dressage or driving whip, a stationary pole and some common sense… 
John Lyons covered the retraining in one of his books. That’s the info I used to retrain my TB mare…
But first you must teach your horse to move forward on command. I did that with using the dressage whip to her hip. If you flail the horse with a whip and it doesn’t understand it is to go forward it won’t teach the horse a thing.
Your horse has to learn to give to the pressure (i.e. “give” at the poll).
I have had good luck in the past with a horse like this using a Blocker tie ring.
https://www.smartpakequine.com/blocker-tie-ring-6004p
And there’s nothing wrong with tying in a rope halter. If you want a breakable connection, use a baling twine connector in the line.
You can try to re-train, as Cherry has suggested. Start as soon as possible, so your horse does not lock in the habit.
Some horses remain unreliable despite extensive training, meaning, they will occasionally pull or sit hard.
Our horse is like that. He does it very rarely (like once a year, if that), but that still makes him unreliable enough to us.
We work around it by leaving him on the trailer and run errands first and by only tying him to a blocker tie ring (not making a knot).
When he is outside of the trailer and tied to a blocker ring (with a hay bag in front of him), we never go far and leave him unsupervised.
We train all our horses to tie with a belly rope. Horse can’t pull his neck with this set-up, to injure himself. I learned this method from Western Horseman magazine years ago, have had excellent results using it with NO damaged horses. Works well on a confirmed puller, halter breaker, in reschooling to tie successfully, though they will ALWAYS try out a rope the rest of their lives. If you ask around, you can probably find some help using this belly rope method for tying horses. It can get a little “western” at times if horse gets mad, but again, there is no pull on the horse head, neck area to damage his spine. Use a SOLID anchor point to tie horse with, that will take the strain of any pull, tie the rope high as the horse’s eye so pull is upward to change leverage point, not straight ahead. Use a quick release knot should you need to get horse untied fast.
Before any tying up Horse needs to have training about “give to pressure” and learn moving FORWARD will TAKE AWAY the restricted feeling of pull. This lesson is done in-hand, until he “gets it” and moves forward by himself when the pull is applied. Then you can move to the tying part.
I also do not think use of a rope halter is a good idea, it WILL leave marks that may not grow back. Burns from the rope halter do happen if horse won’t give up fighting, make nasty scars as well as just rubbing him bald in daily use. Rope is round, so there is actually little surface against his skin like with strap type halters that spread out the surface against his skin on face. Rope halters are a quicky, make-it-yourself, cheap shortcut to using real halters. In style at lots of Western activities, but not the best method of keeping a horse restrained.
Note on the Blocker ring. Be careful not to teach him that the Blocker ring means he can just pull the rope out and decamp. If you hold the free end of the rope you can safely hold the horse by leverage when he sets back with the assurance that you can easily let him go with no danger to yourself. The average person can hold a large horse easily enough that way and still break snaps and leather etc so I suggest while training him to stand with the Blocker you use heavy hardware and nylon halters as if he were tied fast.
A rope halter isn’t your best choice because you will cause pain - which encourages panic and fighting - and possible injury, pehaps crippling, to a very critical area of the horse; his poll.
Causing pain greatly slows learning, so swap out that halter.
Find or buy a strong, wide web nylon halter for your lessons. I am a fan of the brisket/belly rope at the girth method.
A blocker tie ring, pulley, or section of inner tube are all good tools, too. And have a sharp knife handy. Don’t go out of sight while learning - you may return to a horrible wreck.
Read these:
http://equusmagazine.com/article/teachtotie_071003
https://confidenthorsemanship.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/how-to-teach-your-horse-to-tie-safely-calmly/
And watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERUXaGkWO1Y
Gradual steps will get you there fastest.
Thanks for asking how to help your horse.
My horse only pulled back when tied in a rope halter and, in fact, broke many of the things he was tied to (before the time I owned him). The rope halter just gets tighter and causes more issues when tied. Nowadays, he doesn’t really need to be tied, but we only use nylon or leather halters.
Based on my own experiences I would say switching the halter might make a difference. My guy didn’t understand that the pulling was hurting his face so he kept pulling until it stopped i.e. the object broke. I would rather him break his halter than break his face.
But that was only our experience.
To clarify, I was not suggesting that the OP tie her horse up using a rope halter and let him struggle. I was merely responding to the poster who expressed horror at the thought that anyone would tie a horse up in a rope halter.
There is nothing wrong with tying a horse up in a rope halter. I do it all the time - but always with a baling twine connector or panic snap so I can get the horse loose if necessary.
We tie them high, hard and fast with a rope halter.
Oh weird, none of ours pull back! :lol:
ETA-some time spent giving to pressure and growing used to constant pressure is a good thing. Set him up to succeed.
A quick release knot in the lead rope is a good thing.
If you tie your rope halter correctly it can always be easily untied.
We have had several horses come to us that wanted to pull back but they caught on quickly.
[QUOTE=NoSuchPerson;8037785]
I have had good luck in the past with a horse like this using a Blocker tie ring.
https://www.smartpakequine.com/blocker-tie-ring-6004p
And there’s nothing wrong with tying in a rope halter. If you want a breakable connection, use a baling twine connector in the line.[/QUOTE]
And the “It will break” or “The equipment won’t break” is the big philosophical dividing line in various horsemen’s approaches to tying. Using the blocker ring can be seen as a compromise, though some purists of the “Tie 'em hard to teach them how to tie” will disagree.
Get a big tub of popcorn and a large drink and sit back for the show on various schools of though about tying. But do know where the basic divide is.
Another testimonial for The Clip, which works essentially the same way as the Tie Blocker.
When I got Oden, he didn’t really stand tied. He didn’t lay back like your horse, but he fretted, pawed, pulled, slung his weight around, rubbed his halter off his head, and was just ugly about it. And once he broke free in the instant that I unclipped him (but still had a hold of him) and cut my finger up badly.
I bought two Clips, one for each side of the cross tie. And, I’m sure he wasn’t cured instantly, but that’s how it is in my memory – like the problem just vanished instantly.
The Clip has enough give that they don’t panic, but enough drag that it hurts to keep pulling on it. When they stop pulling, the negative feedback stops instantly. In an outright emergency, the horse will not be able to pull the barn down.
[QUOTE=mvp;8038809]
And the “It will break” or “The equipment won’t break” is the big philosophical dividing line in various horsemen’s approaches to tying. [/QUOTE]
Yeah, I know.
I’m pretty bendy on the subject. Different rules for different horses/situations.
My mare was a very bad puller. So bad that before I started tying her to breakable connections, I was convinced every episode was the last time I would see her alive. I started tying her with breakable connections and it only made her worse. It made the situations safer, at least.
One day, one of the gals that helps with turnout had to tie her real quick b/c of an emergency (she forgot my mare wasn’t reliable at tying). My mare was wearing a rope halter and lead that didn’t have any hardware. She was tied to a solid hitching post. As the girl turned to run in the direction of the emergency, my mare spooked and pulled. HARD. All they could do was watch her for 2-3 minutes struggle. She was tied using a quick release knot, but she was thrashing so insanely, it wasn’t safe to get anywhere near her. Everyone thought she was going to snap her neck.
Finally, she stopped. She had zero injuries, even with the rope halter. They told me she stood there sweating and shaking for a good few minutes. They waited to make sure she was done before untying her. They had to cut the halter off it had gotten so tight.
She has never pulled since. It’s been 5 years. Not even an inclination to pull. Obviously, this is might not be something you would want to try (I say might, b/c a lot of cowboys around here truly believe in a hard tie to teach them). But for my mare, it literally took a come to the light experience for her to change her ways.
BUT, I still tie her with breakable connections. She just hasn’t tested it. I still tie her with a rope halter and baling twine around the hitching post b/c honestly I don’t think you can ever trust a puller 100%.
My SB gelding would cross tie just fine, but to single tie he would sit back and FIGHT.
I got the blocker tie ring and a REALLY long lead rope (12’) and started single tying him to the blocker tie ring.
He would pull/sit down and he wouldn’t have anything to pull/sit against, but yet was still “tied”. He didn’t get the reward he was looking for, freedom.
I went with this approach after watching a Clinton Anderson demo on horses that don’t tie. It was an interesting explanation that most horses will fight 6-8’ away from the tying spot and then calm down.
I don’t remember how long it took for my horse to single tie without putting up a fight, but it was nice that the tie ring took the drama away from any sitting back/pull episode. I would just walk over and pull the lead back to the length I wanted him to be tied.
An interesting idea on rope vs a wide halter (leather or nylon) is that if we are trying to get our horses to be able to respond to soft cues, we need to begin with soft cues. A wide halter is “softer” than a rope halter.
I don’t think there is a right or wrong method, though I do lean toward the “don’t tie them with anything that will break” camp. My limited experience comes from 2 of my horses with wildly different up-bringings.
Pony Mare: She was trained to tie when I got her as a 2 year old, but at a 4-H club meeting while tied to the trailer, she pulled back on the lead and snapped it when I tried to fly spray her (she wasn’t a fan of getting sprayed, but never pulled back like that at home). That one instance lead to several broken leads and a broken (cheap) nylon halter over the next few months. Knowing that she wasn’t afraid of tying (it was never a panic thing), I tied her fast to a tree with the belly rope. It was a bit dramatic- she pulled back hard and seemed to hang in mid air for a few seconds, tried again, and then stepped forward to release the pressure. That was it. No more broken leads, no more pulling (though for the next several months, I always held the quick-release tail of the lead when I sprayed just in case).
Crazy Gelding: This poor boy had a rough “ranch” start. The place we got him from basically leaves their babies semi-feral until they are yearlings and 2-year olds. This sweet boy (we saw him as a foal and we was very trusting and an “in your pocket” type) was taught to tie by tying him fast with a rope halter to a post and left there to figure it out. He still bears the physical scars of literally beating his head against that post for god-knows-how-long, and has definite mental issues from it. The next year when we went to visit, he would run from anyone who had a halter in their hand. Within 2 days of gentle working between my father and I, he was putting his nose into the halter on his own, letting hang off of his ear, and following us around on a loose lead. After we bought him and brought him home, I taught him to tie by teaching him pressure and release and sort of manually doing what the blocker tie does. He will NEVER be trustworthy in tying and I would never leave him tied unsupervised, but he’s come a long way over the years. This horse I would NEVER tie hard and fast, even with a belly rope, as he goes into a blind panic when trapped like that (I’m convinced that he suffered psychological and even brain damage from his initial tying experience.)
I prefer to teach them to give to pressure. The whole let-them-pull-back-and-figure-it-out-for-themselves thing is too risky for me. They don’t learn as well when pain and fear are involved.
JMHO.
As much as you don’t want to hear it, your horse is not halter broke. There natural response is to move into pressure not away from it. I would start by spending lots of time just getting him to yield to pressure from the halter.
They can get nerve damage from the rope halter pretty easily, so it is not always the best choice in some situations.
You have purchased an OTTB. It is likely he does tie, under the conditions that he is accustomed to, that is, in a stall. A TB horse is often more sensitive than riding bred horses, and often less secure, feels less safe under “normal” circumstances. His “flight” instincts have been selectively bred for. He is alert for stimulus that indicates that flight is called for. When surrounded with “structure”, a stall or grooming stall, he feels more relaxed, more contained, and safer. He feels that he is protected by that structure, therefore he is more likely to be relaxed, and accept being tied.
Attempting to tie an OTTB to a tree, or to a “hitching rail”, or to just about anything without “structure” and protection for the horse will result in that horse not feeling safe. This is not a matter of tying him so “hard” that he can not escape, and having him give up about pulling. Because he will OFTEN simply pull until something breaks, either the halter, the rope, the item he is tied to, or his neck. If this horse has already pulled as hard as you describe, it is likely that it has already hurt itself, and has pain issues that will only be associated with further attempts to tie it without structure, and result in even less relaxation about being tied, and even more pulling back. Get this checked out by a professional, looking for spinal or neck problems.
To tie the horse, start by establishing a good relationship with the horse. Gaining his trust (again- it likely was there to some extent before all this tying and pulling back business started, but is currently sorely lacking). Then, teach the horse to ground tie, in a confined area, a stall, or grooming stall. Slowly, you may be able to affix the tie, to a tie ring or cross tie, making sure that the horse reaches the structure before reaching the end of the tie rope. In time, you may be able to get the horse to once again tie in an area with structure. But unlikely that you will successfully make him feel safe enough to tie without structure, especially with what he has already experienced. Not all horses will learn to tie adequately. No horse will tie in ALL occasions, even if their owners think that they will. When a helicopter lands next to them while tied, even the best tying horse will usually feel unsafe, and pull back. Ask me how I know this FACT.
