Honest question - why do people use cross ties?
I live in ranch country and have never boarded, so I’ve never even seen cross ties - I just read about them here. Why would you not simply groom and tack a horse that’s tied to a sturdy fence rail, a ring driven into the side of the barn or a trailer? Or just ground tied?
I use the equi-pings for for tying and cross tying. They work great and I attach them to the barn cross ties with twine to make them long enough for my pony. So twine gets connected to the quick release standard crossties and my equipings connect to halter.
I typically leave a short lead rope attached to halter and over his neck. So no big deal if he disconnects himself.
@rockymouse that’s what I prefer.
I did have a horse that was great in the crossties but pulled back tied. Although I still always made sure there was breakaways-with any horse in crossties.
@Bluey I like your approach to bathing, and that’s so true about spraying near their face. I let them initiate. I’ll get a light spray going at their chest, so on their face they’re getting a gentle mist from the overspray. The ones that like it will lower their head into the spray on their own. My old gelding Kip (the Hungarian Hippo himself) would even grab the hose end with his mouth and give himself a good mouth rinse. :lol:
My guy likes to take the hose and get a drink. We are far from even trying a face spray.
Our barn was built in 2001 and it’s huge with an aisleway that is 14 feet wide and 200 feet long. I’m one of the original group who invested quite a bit of sweat equity to get everything installed. I took care of a lot of the crossties which are a bit lower because I’m short. We also set up some head ties.
I still take care of the hay string. My chilled out gelding is perfectly relaxed at the far end where he can gaze out the door. Until some dramatic noise spooks him. He pulls back and, depending on the degree of threat, sometimes pops the hay string. He prefers the crossties because he has a better view in both directions.
In the boarding barn where I have my horse (and most of the others I have used) crossties are set up in the aisle near the tackroom for tacking up. If there is a washstall, grooming there is discouraged as it should be available for washing and also there is excess hair and dirt that may clog the drain if you are not careful.
On nice days I like grooming my horse in his paddock, but I dont like grooming in the stall with the more limited light and space. You can single tie or ground tie if your horse is trained for it. I havent worked on it with mine so I crosstie. If single-tied he is too close to other horses (they can put their heads out) and moves around more.
While my horse ties and crossties well, I am not a fan of the setup. There are panic snaps at the horse end and baling twine at the wall. I have seen a horse get smacked by a crosstie breaking at the wall end and then running in panic with that long thing flailing around his legs! Not good.
My favorite setup is a Blocker ring or similar setup at the walls. Provides some give but keeps the horse attached if you knot off the end. Even better would be a spot with a wall behind, but not something I can do in my situation. Next choice is something breakable at the halter end.
I had this been there, done that TB warhorse who had quite the sense of humor. I boarded at this barn that used blocker rings on their cross ties. My horse was smart as a whip and figured out pretty quickly that slight ministrations of the rope would wiggle it loose. When I’d dart into the tack room to grab something, he’d start working on removing the ropes by tossing his head. When I’d come out, he’d stop and stand like a statue. It was all a big game to him. When he’d finally get them loose, he’d meet me at the door of the tack room with an expression that had to be the equine equivalent of a big, goofy grin.
The horse could also untie quick release knots with his mouth. I kid you not, he seemed to understand when was an appropriate time to set himself free for laughs and when he had to stay put.
I prefer them. my horse can’t really dance around and it is just easier to groom him and get him tacked up. I hate straight tying, bc if they panic, you cannot get to the quick release fast enough. Just personal preference. and when you have a good horse who stands nicely, it’s the easiest way to work. IMO.
I’m not sure if this has already been mentioned, but our barn strongly recommends break-away halters (you can get them in nylon or full leather with a breakable crown piece). We have the quick release cross ties but often enough they don’t release, and the halter ends up snapping. We’ve had several horses try to “hang” themselves in the cross ties, or spook, and the first thing that goes is the break-away halter. The breakable leather crown piece is replaceable too, so it’s not too hard on the wallet! Also beats walking around with bailer twine on your halter. 
Many of the barns I’ve seen have blankets/ boots/ halters etc. hanging in the aisle, so crosstying keeps horses in the middle of the barn aisle rather than getting into stuff on the sides. Tying to trailers isn’t really safe unless they’re hooked up and often there isn’t really a safe, quiet place to tie outside anyway (plus it sucks if it’s raining/ windy and it’s fiurther to haul stuff out). That said, I grew up with racehorses and we still always just straight tie the horses in stalls using breakaway halters and a length of chain. If I have a particularly wiggly horse I might improvise cross ties in the stall so that it learns to stand still for grooming/ tacking up.
At this barn most people either tack up and groom in the indoor arena (there are ties or blocker rings on the rail), outside on a hitching post or the cross ties (it’s an open stall with a door behind it.) We are not to groom in the wash rack.
If it’s quiet I usually ground tie. If it’s busier I will tie to a hitching post or blocker tie. If it’s REALLY busy I’ll ground tie him in his run or stall.
Local tradition and culture I think plays into it a lot. In my area weather is another factor. That in turn dictates how barns tend to get set up. I am in SE PA. My local area is heavily English riding and not much Western. Due to our normal climate barns are fully enclosed and tend towards a center aisle. The stalls normally have blanket racks on the front that have sheets or blankets on them from September to early May. During the summer there may be a saddle pad drying or a fly sheet hanging there. They are rarely empty. Many barns allow owner trunks in front of the stalls. It isn’t uncommon to have a Dutch door or a door with a yoke so the horses can hang their heads in the aisle.
This set up makes it hard to single tie without the tied horse being able talk to a stalled horse, poop on the blanket rack behind him or tack trunks. Or they are getting into stuff on the front of the stalls. Many barns have a few grooming stalls but we are in a high cost area so having too many grooming stalls reduces the number of stalls for paying boarders in that very expensive enclosed/insulated building. This leads to having some cross ties down the aisles for when a lot of people are there. It is common for the grooming stall to have a horse vacuum.
Wash stalls are inside with hot water and cross ties. Some have heat lamps/solariums. For the majority of the year it is not practical to have an outside wash area so they are set up inside.
I have never seen horses tied to the rail of a ring or indoor. The rings are not set up to accommodate this especially with many jumps in the ring.
At show barns most of the client’s don’t have their own trailers. If there is on-site trailer parking for the boarders the trailers are parked close together so there is no room to tie horses to a parked trailer. I have my own trailer and trail ride too. When I trail ride I will tie my horse to the trailer. But my trailer is parked at my house not the barn.
It is rare to groom in the horse’s stall especially for the after work crowd. I don’t want to be dodging manure and pee while I tack up. I also prefer that in general the stall is my horse’s bedroom. I prefer to give him peace and quiet in there as much as possible. Just like I don’t mess with a dog in their crate. Yes, I will switch blankets on a horse in his stall but still try to minimize contact while they are in their stall.
My trainer does ground tie a few of her horses in the aisle while she grooms/tacks them. Her horses all straight tie.
However it is rare for people in my area to teach their horses to straight tie well and certainly not ground tie.
For example I took my 5 year old OTTB to his first horse show and tied him to the trailer to tack him up. The other person I knew that was showing out of a trailer next to me was amazed he tied. Funny thing is I knew her 35 years ago when we were teenagers working at a hack barn. All those Western horses stood tied between rides for hours at a time and we didn’t think anything of it. But she had been in the English world for 30 years and the attitude towards tying is different.
I think the local tradition and culture show up in common trailer selection too. For the majority of English show people in our area we use straight loads with ramps. Other areas of the country seem to prefer step ups, stock trailers or slant loads. IMO how the trailers are set up are reflected in how horses are tied. If we show out of our trailer the horse is either held by a friend/groom or briefly tied up outside. When the horse is unattended they are normally put back on the trailer in their stall. This is less practical with a slant load or stock trailer if the front horse is the next to show. Therefore for a stock or slant load trailer it may be more practical to just leave them tied to the outside of the trailer so you teach them to tie well enough to leave them alone.
Breakaway halter taught my previous QH to Break out often. He just had to snap his head up and he was out. He did it 3 times, and then i put a nylon halter on him without a breakaway, and he tried again. i had to retrain him to stand nicely in crossties. I didn’t trust to just straight tie him. I refuse to use a damn breakaway halter ever again.
Some good posts above on this but I want to add - Tacking up in a snow drift during a blizzard is not a fun thing. Because of that it eliminates the whole fence rail, side of barn or trailer option.
No place in my part of the world that paid for an indoor ring and footing in an indoor ring ties horses in there while they are being tacked. The real estate in an indoor is way too important to have a horse tied there, where they are in the way of someone riding, if they paw they will ruin the footing and the manure and urine will be something else to deal with (or it will damage the footing). And I was not even at any snobby show barns. Just places that used their indoor for riding.
Those are all good reasons!
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