There were a lot of advocates of using rope halters for fractious horses in the thread on leadrope chains. I have one and like it for days when I know my horse is likely to be fresh and I am handwalking, however I often don’t use it, because I don’t want to tie with it, and don’t want to deal with switching halters between grooming and handwalking.
Rope halter fans - WWYD?
I groom my horse at liberty in her stall/paddock, so that’s not a problem. And I actually find tying the halter to be second nature by now. If I want to tie her up in stall or washrack, I have a nylon halter and breakaway short trailer tie on my stall door too. I don’t want to tie up my good cotton lead ropes, maresy can work them loose too easily.
I have your solution: Hybrid Halters - rope nose and chin, leather or nylon web elsewhere. I can tie in mine safely, and also do groundwork. I even added a leather breakaway to mine. https://shop.horseeducation.com/
Make the crossties or whatever you’re tying with breakaway.
If you don’t want to switch out you could always lead with a training halter (which is a rope halter but it has two additional notes on the nose for added pressure) and then put a web halter on top of it for the cross ties.
I dont see a problem with a stud chain, if you know how to use one properly and your horse responds well to it then it seems fine to me!
Yep, tie the horse with some sort of breakaway.
There are plenty of advocates of hard tying in a rope halter, but the thin diameter combined with almost no weak points to break just gives me the heebie-jeebies. Some designs seem like they have more potential to “scalp” the skin in an emergency than others, but I’d rather just use a different style halter altogether when truly hard tying.
Similar problem here; I trailer my horse in a leather halter, but I like to have the rope one under my bridle when I am trail riding because it is less bulky, so I always have to swap them out. At home it’s not so much a problem because I just grab whichever one I need.
I always use rope halters, even with tbs. It’s silly to put a horse in a situation where he will break something - just teaches them to pull away - the result is they get free! Use a rope halter and tie to blocker ties if you don’t know how to train them to tie up.
Totally agree ^^^. Once a horse realizes it can pull back and break a cross tie, you have now taught your horse to break free and it will do it again.
I personally like to teach a horse to ground tie and to give to pressure first before putting in cross ties.
The blocker ring is a good teaching tool to teach a horse not to pull. I also like to put them in their stall with a lead dragging on the ground so they teach themselves to step forward.
A horse needs to know to yield to pressure to keep from panicking and getting injured if he is ever in a situation where his head is tied hard.
Thanks for this, I really like the look of these! What a good solution. Unfortunately the economy model is sold out of my horse’s size in the color I want but I’m definitely going to check back.
No. A VERY BAD IDEA!!!
Whenever you tie a horse to anything you tie it eye high, arm’s length, with and to something that won’t break. If you don’t in time (maybe not immediately, but eventually) circumstances will arise that will cause the horse to set back and when the restraint breaks you have the first of the three events that will cause the horse to develop a habit. Pulling back is an annoying and dangerous habit for a horse to develop. It’s a hazard to the horse (once loose they can run around and injure themselves in a myriad of ways) and it’s hazardous to the people who will be run down or knocked down or stepped by the loose horse.
I’ve had a few with this issue (they came to me that way). Two we were able to break of the habit using the “bad boy wall” and one we could not fix. That latter mare was well bred, well trained, and a easy horse under saddle and on on the ground. Except that when she was tied, cross or straight, she would decide that she had stood there long enough and wanted to go do something else. We broke the habit in the cross ties after she scraped herself up a couple of times (and we were using the above standard for tying). But we could NOT break it with straight tying, even using the bad boy wall. Interestingly, the one foal we had that developed this habit at about two months was hers. Maybe there’s a genetic component in this? The foal never saw her dam do this but she did it. After she got a couple of good cases of “road rash” she quit. We sold he and so far she’s not demonstrated the tendency for he new owner who rides her as an endurance horse.
Actually, I have a number of foals do this once or twice as they explored the world around them. But the one filly discussed above was much more “serious” about testing her restraints.
If you’re going to restrain a horse then RESTRAIN IT!!!
G.
P.S. It’s possible that there might (note the conditional) be extremely rare circumstances where the above rule might be softened. Right off hand I can’t think of any.
I’ve looked at these halters at Equine Affaire and like the leather model. Very nice quality. The only reason I haven’t bought one is that I have a good leather halter and a good rope halter.
I don’t use the rope halter that often, usually when he forgets that he isn’t supposed to pull me over to the grass for a snack when I bring him in. The theory of the rope halter is that they sort of self-train because the knots are in positions on the head that the horse responds to. When he pulls away he reacts to the pressure of the knots without you having to react.
I would never tie a horse in a rope halter because of amount and location of the pressure under the rope, particularly on the poll, if he pulls backs hard and nothing breaks. I know people who haul in rope halters and I would never do that. There must be some sort of breakaway. I leave the lead line on the ground and work on ground tying, which is a good skill for them t have.
Not sure which one you are looking for, but have you looked at Ridingwarehouse and Amazon?
G - since you’re probably going to be the lone voice here, thought I would join you and say I agree with all your points.
Another way to teach a horse to tie is to do a “high tie” with one end attached to the halter and the other end to a large tractor inner tube higher than horse’s head.
The line is tied to the horse’s halter at the nose then goes upwards to the roof joists and attached to a tractor tire inner tube that is firmly attached to a sturdy beam in preferably a small covered pen of some sort.
This is generally done in a contained space where the horse can be left in peace to sort things out. The horse soon learns that if it stands quietly, its head and neck are at a comfortabe, neutral position (horizontal to ground)…but if it pulls back, the high tie will lift his head to an uncomfortable height.
The inner tube has enough give that the horse does not hit a hard wall when it backs up initially. The horse eventually learns to “self-correct” and take a few steps forward and eventually will stand quietly in one place.
All horses should learn to hard-tie and not fight when they feel a head restraint as it can save them from some potentially dangerous situations. Which is why I also hobble train my horses…so they don’t freak out if they feel something wrapped around their legs.
Most people I know that use rope halters also use the blocker ties. I like those a lot and would highly recommend them.
That said, I don’t think tying with a rope halter is more problematic than tying with a nylon halter, which is honestly even less likely to break.
The blocker tie is a great solution for horses that have learned to pull back or do stupid things because they make the situation less dangerous without releasing the horse or giving the horse much in the way of instant gratification. The only downside to the blocker ties is that they’re pricier than I’d like and that they tend to rust in my climate, so I really should buy the stainless steel ones.
I think the safety risk of my horse not breaking his neck (hence tying to baling string) outweighs the possibility of him possibly learning to pull back. I would say the same for most well trained horses. YMMV.
I lucked out. I drove 90 minutes to a horse expo specifically .to buy the nylon hybrid halter with leather crown piece, and they didn’t have a large. I pouted…and they sold me the leather one for the nylon price!
I just throw the leather halter over the rope halter when I trailer. My friend uses her rope halter when she trailers but I have breakaways on my trailer ties.
I hard tie in certain situations. I will hard tie in a matted grooming stall. I do not like to hard tie if they are standing in crossties in an aisle on concrete. In the boarding barns I have been out it is common and accepted to walk horses under the crossties when a horse is crosstied. I don’t want to risk it going wrong and having a horse with shoes scrambling on concrete and panicing with another horse right next to him. I don’t tend to leave my horse long by himself in the aisle crossties but I do go in the tackroom or the bathroom with him there. It only takes a moment or two for things to go upside down in a hurry. I worry less when they are on mats since you just take out that slip factor if they are stupid and panic.
I don’t like to hard tie to a trailer. I have seen other horses get loose and try to run between the horse and the trailer. I would much rather something give than have two panicing horses stuck to a trailer. I use Equipings. On the other hand when my horse has gotten loose he doesn’t go anywhere. I may view it differently if I had a different horse.
Finnegan at another barn did decide that breaking the crossties was fun. I put a rope halter under his regular halter, crosstied him and let him break the ties and hit the rope halter. That cured that. It has been 7 years.
I consider “well trained” to include training for when things don’t go as planned.
You don’t know if a horse will step on some wire or on vines that wrap around their legs. Ever try to ride the capriole when some branches gets caught in the tail? Not fun.
I have seen a horse snag a halter on the hook for the water bucket, and on the snap for the hay net in a trailer.
That is why it is called “sh***t happens.” Ergo, you want a horse that has been pre-prepared for when things go south.
As you said…well-trained horse. Perhaps our definitions of that training differ.
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