Hello everyone. My name is OverandOnward, and I own a pullback.
That is, a horse that can’t be tied because it will panic and throw itself back against the lead and halter in a mad scramble that can’t be controlled.
My pullback is the panic-explosion kind, not the mildly just-testing-you kind. If this linked post happened to him - if he were tied to anything fixed - the same fate might well occur. Death, or serious injury, to him and to humans as well. And possible damage to whatever he was tied to. (That thread & post are what inspired this thread.)
Back when I was a lesson kid there was a pullback in the barn. I saw what it was like, and I swore I would never live like that, I would not grow up to be the owner of such a travesty. But then things happened … there was this and there was that … and I guess I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was. Now I have this for-life horse and he’s a pullback. :no:
Thank you everyone, but – I don’t need help. I’m choosing to stay sick and addicted. :yes: I’m choosing not to try to cure my pullback any further than I’ve already done, training him to stand without being tied.
Because of the thread linked above about the death of a pullback horse who was tied to a tree by a trainer, panicked and broke his skull, I am writing out instructions on how to handle my horse if it must be done while I am not there. What to do to get his cooperation. What not to do for his safety and everyone else’s.
I am giving the written instructions to the BO and the BM. I’m not going to ask anyone to sign an agreement or anything that will probably make them uncomfortable. It’s enough that they have the instructions in writing.
I’m choosing to live with never-ever-ever tying him to anything. Not even with a quick release knot (which isn’t quick and doesn’t release after a horse has sat back against it and hardened it.) Not even with quick-release snaps, which I’ve found don’t always release, and anyway the horse already pulled back because his head was fastened.
My horse and I get along fine, happily enabling each other. He now stands cooperatively without tying for grooming and tacking. I can body-clip him with a rope over his neck. In fact, once I arrived at an event desperately late, about to miss my dressage start time, and he stood like a rock beside the trailer tack room door while I flung brushes and tack on him. Didn’t have to waste any seconds tying & untying, saved lots of steps to where he would have been tied. Bless him. (We finished 6th.)
By choosing to stay sick, I must also choose the far more difficult task of a lifetime (his) of making sure other people don’t tie him. I have to be there when the owners of other horses who tie can leave it to the barn management to handle some routine horse management tasks. I try always to take the responsibility for handling him myself. But I do go on vacation, or am just out-of-pocket when he abruptly needs something. There are the people who cluelessly forget and automatically tie a horse so they can get on with things. There are the people who don’t believe such a sweet calm face could do something like that. :eek:
But the biggest danger is the people who aren’t going to let a horse - any horse they handle - get away with refusing to be tied. They might be fellow boarders, farriers, trainers … They think they know better. They’ve secretly decided that while I’m not around and they must handle him, they are going to straighten him out.
I have learned the hard way that I have to assume that everyone has that potential unless, in my turn, I’ve secretly 
given them an in-depth psychological analysis to figure out where they really stand on the issue of tie vs. no-tie. When I hear “you don’t need to be there, we’ll handle him,” red flags go up. They might be sincere about that, but they might have another agenda in mind. There are people who think that all that’s needed is a firm hand, who perhaps can’t conceive of the destructiveness and danger of a real pullback like mine in full panic, or else think they can control it.
I’m writing instructions for the barn because it occurred to me that I can’t assume other people know how to prevent disaster. And especially because in this way I can indirectly confront those who have secretly decided they don’t believe in how I handle my pullback horse and they aren’t going to do it that way. Even though they’ve seen the effectiveness and it would be easier to just do what I do.
And frankly, in light of what happened at the Houston area barn resulting in the death of the horse, I want to be sure people are informed by more than a conversation with details they may later forget. I especially hope it will also impress on them that this is not negotiable. That it would be profoundly unwise to try to ‘train’ my horse when I didn’t ask them to.
Thanks everybody. :yes:
Now it’s the next pullback owner’s turn. Where are you in your addiction, and what are you doing about it? Are you seeking a cure or have you decided it makes more sense to just stay sick? Or - are you steadfastly maintaining denial? 
