Teaching to tie.

[ayrabz]

well…our young filly (will be 2 in July) is finally (!!) 7 miles down the road.
I have a lot of work to do. I will now be able to take many opportunities to handle, get to know, observe, and slowly work with her.
In teaching one to tie…I know everyone’s approach is different…but I’m not one to ‘want the baling twine’ to easily break…because I fear the ‘lesson’ learned. I also do NOT want to injure her in anyway. so, I guess I want a ‘tie’ spot that will restrict going up and over, but also have some give without breaking and freeing each time of resistance?

I know I’m certainly ‘asking for it’ in asking everyone’s different approaches and opinions. but I promise I’ll read and listen to each.

I do know this: I am going to spend my time getting to know her FIRST…getting her respect, and she gaining mine as well…on things I do NOT fear may go badly…just for awhile. Hourly visits of handling, grooming, leading, talking to her…etc, etc…until I feel I know her well and can ‘know’ when she’s fried, or time to close the lesson, and end on a good note…etc.

thanks guys!

[Bluey]

We taught all to tie, from newborn foals to older feral horses, by getting a hold of them with a neckrope or better halter and teaching them first to give to a very slight pull.

Once they understood to give well and to follow thru with requests, then we would wrap the rope on a pipe or post and ask to give to it, with us controlling the release, so it was a learning experience, not a scary situation they had to react to.

Once they were comfortable trying to figure what was happening, takes all of a few pulls and some minutes, you can feel if your horse is ready to tie solid or you want to do more for a few days.
Then you tie them and it should be a non-event, they will hit the end of the rope when tied and give as taught.

With foals, we used a butt rope to help them, also desensitized them to being touched in other places.

When halter-breaking, you are also teaching that when working with and around humans, horses have to pay attention and that what is happening does make sense if they listen.
That is what you have to teach, as much as any one special way like giving or standing tied.

It all ties in with, for the horse, learning to navigate the world around them when with humans.

Our mares with day old foals were tied to the fence while we cleaned their pens and all along as the foals were older, like this one, before turning them out once the mare was bred back.

Tied like this, the rope does has some give, it slips back and forth on the pipe for a few inches, the foal can’t get to the knot to untie itself but we can easily, if something were to go wrong, without being in harm’s way if a horse were to trash around:

[ayrabz]

Thank you Bluey. I appreciate the time you took to really outline your approach. Yes, I think I’m in a weird phase of…‘if I had been with her younger’ I would have done a lot of this different. Now, she’s getting big, and doesn’t have this skill set, and is also? now in a new place with new horses and new ‘handlers’…so, its a bit of backing up…but with a much bigger/stronger girl!

[beowulf]

i prefer teaching to ground tie first, personally. YMMV. we had two PMUs both that we had to teach to tie (one unhandled yearling, the other a wee 4 m/o).

i’d start with the rope halter like bluey, teaching them to yield to the pressure, move, etc. once they had a good understanding of how leading and the rope halter worked i’d ask them to stand in a given place.

if they stepped forward they were corrected by ‘molding’ them back to where they had been before they moved. when they stood still they were given treats.

once i was happy with their manners with ground tying they graduated to one ‘cross tie’ in our stall (we do not have a tacking area, horses are tied to twine that is tied to the fences), and then the other.

neither ever resisted after they learned to ground tie… though one day i did have the big PMU baby (baby bighead, as he was called - we assume a perchxTB heinz57) storm through the twine and fence alike when a ‘b-52’ giant horsefly landed on his croup. he didn’t even pull back… just plowed down the fence :eek: he was fine, though i had to put the fence back together after… :lol:

[VTMorgan06]

I think the blocker tie ring is an amazing device for tying! My horse came from a farm where he was always tied in bays, and had walls on all sides and behind him. If he got wiggly he would bump into a solid wall and straighten himself out. When I bought him and took him home suddenly cross tying in the aisle was terrifying. He would back up and nothing stopped him, so he continued and then ran out of length on the crossties and would panic! Like fly backwards, sit down, twist sideways, breaks things and get loose. It was awful. I could work with him and give him a smack when he started going backwards, but I really worried about tying to a trailer. I can’t spend all of my time keeping him straight when he’s tied, and I bought a blocker tie ring. When he has a little panic moment the ring provides just enough “give” that he doesn’t feel trapped and won’t continue to try to go backwards.

I can understand the thought of not wanting to offer breakable things like twine, and there is always the possibility that the horse learns how to break things! The blocker tie ring has 3 levels of resistance so you can adjust it to suit your horse. I swear Im not a sales person for them, I just really like this product and can’t imagine trailer tying my horse without it!

[2enduraceriders]

Bluey said it very well! Even the 7 year old untouched stallion was halter broke this way. Teahign the give first is a lot less stressful and painful for everyone involved.

[Cindyg]

Second the Tie Blocker ring. I used The Clip, which is a similar product.

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.

And I don’t just use it for training. I use it in the cross ties, in the trailer, etc. I consider it a safety device.

My horse didn’t stand tied when I got him, and The Clip resolved the problem almost instantly.

[wateryglen]

I third the tie blocker rings. Let her pull back some but then reel her in sorta thing. Keep sessions shorter at first and gradually lengthen times tied. Stay with her doing stuff to her (like brushing) and step away and gradually increase away time/outa sight time etc. It’s a gradual process imho. Let her fidget at first or walk around. DON’T do cross ties until she’s a good tie to a single point. That’s a higher level skill. Stay in view at first until she tolerates you stepping away. Teach her it’s no big thing by not making it a big thing!
Best wishes and Congratulations!! Youngsters can be trying! Be patient!

[OveroHunter]

We use pretty much the exact same method that Bluey described. It’s been working well for my MIL who has been breeding AQHA and APHA horses for 20+ years.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Bluey’s method and I’m just commenting to add I also like to tie high.

I absolutely don’t want anything breaking away (twine) when I’m teaching to tie. I would teach them to give to pressure (as Bluey described) before using a blocker tie or any tying at all. YMMV.

I have owned a halter breaker–he learned (prior to me) if he pulled back hard enough he got free. Not good. I was never able to completely fix it (if he panicked he pulled back) and the blocker tie was the only way to ever safely tie that horse, but I don’t feel like that’s a tie-to-the-trailer-at-the-show solution because they can still get loose. But this horse would rather break his neck than stay tied, so it was the safest solution for a dangerous behavior.

[TBROCKS]

You can make something very, very similar to a Blocker tie ring from a snaffle bit and some basic welding skills, for a fraction of the price.

[finneas]

My filly turned two in September. I taught her to tie around 13 months by first teaching her to give to/yield to pressure, and then to ground tie. After she successfully learned those skills actually tying her, and crosstieing her were not an issue at all. She never broke a halter or ties and does not “test” them.

[Flash44]

What bluey said. And read this
http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-training/train-your-horse-to-tie.aspx

I always start tying in the stall, where the horse is already comfortable and quiet. Then I progress to other areas to get them comfortable tying in busier places.

I tie my horses up every day that I ride just to give them practice. I tie them all up, tack them all up, then take all 2 or 3 down to a large maple tree next to the ring that has a heavy chain wrapped around it about 6’ up. They all clip into the chain with a blocker tie and then I ride them in the nearby ring one at a time. If the weather is not good or it’s muddy, they tie up in the barn and I take them to the ring one at a time. But they are all tacked at the same time, and stay tacked until the last one is ridden, usually about 2-3 hours. They develop patience, and when I trailer to a competition or lesson, they don’t become agitated at having to wait around.

[clanter]

not much to add but we have always used the monkey see monkey do way of teaching by having an older well behaved horse demonstrate what we are going to teach… from ground manors to side steps to loading… once our horses have seen what we want, they seem to say OK.

[SuzieQNutter]

Rather than teach them to ground tie, I teach them to 'stand still '. Which is virtually the same except they stand with or without a halter or bridle.

From there they are taught to give to pressure. So the rope is wrapped around a post or tree or spare tyre on the float.

From there it is wrapped around their knee or fetlock and they should lift their leg and drop their head until the pressure is dropped.

This teaches them what to do if they stand on a lead rope or if the lead rope gets caught around something when tied. Tying is then pretty much a non event and can be tied to baling twine. This can be done at any age.

[roseymare]

While I think the blocker rings really do have there place for panic stricken nontyers, I don’t think they should replace the methods given in this thread.

[clanter]

[QUOTE=SuzieQNutter;8073458]
Rather than teach them to ground tie, I teach them to 'stand still '. Which is virtually the same except they stand with or without a halter or bridle.
.[/QUOTE]

We initially taught our horses to ground tie so that the rider could replace jump rails that had gotten knocked down, later the training paid off in that it possibility saved our daughter life.

She was running one of the horses through a jump course she had set up when she decided to turn to re-jump a jumps, horse slid down falling with her, her right foot became entangled with the stirrup. Horse got up but remained in place. If the horse run off our daughter most likely would not have survived.

[SuzieQNutter]

Yes the training pays off a lot later in life. Mine are also taught to stand still if they get a fright - it has saved me more than once on horseback.

A plastic bag coming around the corner of the house and landing on his face.

Dog between two neighbours relaxing on horseback chatting when their dog touched the electric fence and yelped continuously while skedadling. Their horse spun and disappeared with it. My boy spun and then stood still.

A whirly whirly wind picking up a kids pool and taking it around and around being demolished by a fence with each whirl through a fence. He stood still and watched.

A feed bag coming towards us in unpredictable wind that absolutely scattered our herd of cattle who don’t usually spook at anything. I moved him and moved him and moved him and gave up as each time the wind changed and it was coming towards us again. It went by us 1 foot away and he didn’t move a hoof.

Each time without the training I might not still be here…

[exvet]

What Flash 44 said. I do have and use a blocker tie ring but it isn’t really all that necessary with the way we introduce it to our ponies/cobs. Ours graduate from stand still, ‘ground tie’, actually tied in the stall, tied to the hitching post to… tied to the trailer.

I haul in/out to most shows and don’t stall (yes, I’m cheap). I will take everything a year and over to the show if I have room on the trailer. They will all stand tied to the trailer the entire day if that is how long I’m there showing. I get compliments all the time on how well my horses behave stand tied to the trailer, etc. This includes more than one stallion in mixed company. I also trail ride a lot and everyone hauls and stands tied to the trailer when we’re not in the saddle.

I’m on my third generation of horses having been handled this way. It may not work for other people; but, I have found these methods work well for me and mine :winkgrin:

[quietann]

I think you have a lot of good advice here.

Learning “give to pressure” is Horse 101. And I love Love LOVE the blocker tie rings. For my filly, “give to pressure” was one of the first things she learned, as a very young foal, before leading or just about anything else. The breeder uses a Blocker tie ring up high to teach tying, and because the filly knew “give to pressure” already, she learned to tie and stay put quickly. “Give to pressure” is also at the center of the breeder’s way of starting a young horse under saddle, with great results.

Also, I’d had a couple of episodes of my generally well-trained mare breaking loose while tied to the trailer with a safety knot – always provoked in some way, she doesn’t just pull back for fun. I started using the blocker rings (which she was used to from old barn’s cross-ties having them) and she has been FABULOUS ever since. But this is an older horse who understands “give to pressure” very well. With a safety knot, the pressure was instant and HARD when she pulled back, and she’s pretty claustrophobic so that caused her to panic until something broke (not her, thank g-d). The Blocker causes just a little bit of pressure at first, and she doesn’t panic; she just seems to think “oh, pressure” and knows what to do to get it to stop. I do use a very long lead rope when tying her to the trailer, so if she does gradually pull back it will take her a long time to get loose. This takes advantage of another bit of the training she got before I had her; if she steps on her lead rope and it causes pressure, she stops and stands perfectly still.