This sounds perfect for you. Never a dull moment without a problem to solve. Update us on the next chapter because I need to keep your solution in my back pocket.
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Well, I ordered two rope halters (my intention is to split the load so it doesn’t go into her mouth like it almost did/might have done last night - she pulls HARD and the stretch in the halter allowed it to do that) and 100 feet of yacht line with 14,000# tensile strength.
The next time we address this in a week or so - I don’t want her sore when we go for it again, she needs no extra excuses to be a weiner - I need a zero percent chance she’s getting off the tie. She’s clearly learned something bad, I need it to never reward her again.
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I think with her it was a combo.
When she pulled back in the crossties at the beginning she hit her head on the ceiling (loft is above the aisleway). I think that surprised her, and instead of saying “s@#$ I better cut this out” she doubled down and broke her halter.
Then in the arena with the rope halter and the blocker she thought “oh I’ve got this worked out - pull = release = free!” and she’s pretty simple minded so kept trying it over and over and over until she got the desired result. 25’ worth of trying.
I caught her and worked on coming forward from poll pressure. She 100% knew what to do with poll pressure, she was leaping forward from it in hand.
But then I went to tie her again, and she pulled the same stunt. At this point I’m sure she knew I was not happy with her, so there was an edge present.
Way back when she was 3 she did that same type of surge-pull thing, and successfully pulled me off my feet a couple of times. She will do it backwards, and to the side. Her track connections warned me that despite her being sweet she could get “big” and that she knew how big she was.
She’s not a terribly sensitive mare as far as halter pressure. It’s something we always are plinking away at.
At any rate - I’m sure she has a sore poll, a headache, and a sore neck and back today from all the yanking she did last night. I will give it a few days/a week while waiting for the new tools to come in, and then I will address this with a zero percent chance of her getting a reward for being a stinker.
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I have never had to try this myself.
In “Schooling for Young Riders” by John Richard Young he describes what he did to solve a similar problem on a long yearling pony stallion who learned how to break halters as well as being totally spoiled and pretty dangerous.
He tied a rope around the base of the dock of the horse’s tail and threaded it through the ring on the halter. He wrote it took only a few times before the pony decided to stop trying to breaking his halter.
That book is chock full of successful strategies for dealing with a spoiled horse who was just not that into people or the idea of behaving.
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I don’t think I’m there yet - my thought process will go as follows:
Try the blocker ring again with double rope halter and looooong rope. I honestly am iffy on this strategy though, as the way she pulls back is so surge-y that she’s giving herself a relief in between every pull, and not being forced to stand where tied. Regardless, I’ve never seen a horse who failed on the blocker ring, so I’m going to try it again.
Should that not work…
Inner tube, where the only place she gets her desired relief is where she was originally tied.
I just need to be 100% sure that these halters don’t stretch and end up in her mouth. That’s why I want to double them - if the load is split, maybe they won’t stretch so much. It was a close call last night.
Bottom line though, is she MUST tie. That is not a negotiation I’m willing to make with her. She clearly knows exactly how strong she is, and believes she knows how to “solve” the problem… ugh, horses lol
I have found with horses like this, IF I have multiple solutions ranked in my mind from the mildest to the most dire, I rarely have to go through all my options.
The highest I ever had to go was the rope around the belly tied up higher on a strong, deeply seated pole. That works just fine, but the pole the horse is tied to must be deeply seated and strong.
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I’ve looked into belly ropes too. That would be an absolute last resort. I also have hobbling in my mind, to take away some of her pulling power. But correctly hobble breaking takes a long time and it would have to be a sideline hobble to prevent the rearing.
Something tells me that this isn’t the first time this mare has played this trick. She had so much conviction in what she was doing. Ah well. I’m going to try and let it go for now, as it will be a week or so before I get a real chance to address it again. I’m sure that getting off the tie multiple times last night only made her convictions stronger, so I’m steeling myself for a rodeo on the next attempt.
Long ago, our old vet used to tell us, do NOT use the rope around the belly.
He lost count of how many horses with injured withers he had to treat from that at one time very popular way to tie horses that sat back.
Bad enough the poll, neck and back injuries of horses that really pull back, don’t add to that with possible wither injuries.
Horses that pull back are considered dangerous to themselves and all around them, for good reason.
Good luck whatever you try, that is a serious problem. 
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I’ll get it resolved. There’s so so much risk for injury when they go with such conviction. However, for what I like to do, a horse must tie. Non-negotiable.
I’ve never seen her do what I saw last night - maybe (hopefully) it was just a bad day. Once she’s healed up a little, it will be something I work on every day until resolved.
She’s tied in her stall all the time without issue. She’s been tied to the trailer a million times without issue. It’s the arena tying that elicited the visceral reaction. Admittedly I haven’t worked on that, but it shows there’s a gigantic hole in her understanding of what “tied” really means.
As far as the blocker goes, how thick is your rope? Thicker ropes are harder to pull through. With the long rope, perhaps try the third position with you on the (far) end, where you can somewhat regulate how much slack she can get?
I’ve seen quite a few horses go through remedial tying training after learning to break away… it’s always hairy and there’s so much potential for injury.
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It’s a standard width yacht rope, I think it came from Knotty Girls? The new, longer rope I ordered is also yacht rope, which claims to have a little “bounce” to it.
I’m going to boot her up and bell boots on all 4 for the next round, as I am expecting some gnarly attempts to get free.
I’m stunned though. I’ve never had a horse flunk out of a blocker ring. She’s making me rethink a lot of stuff, due to the “style” in which she pulls back. The surge pulling is so bizarre, and it just appears so intentional.
The blocker was on the “second” setting, as I couldn’t remember what the third setting was. Sometimes when I would return to the blocker though, it had mysteriously gone to the first setting, likely due to the rope jumping as she pulled/released/pulled/released.
She’s a head case sometimes, and other times the sweetest, most agreeable thing. I want to nip this in the bud on the next round, as I fully believe she will remember what happened last night in her head, loud and clear.
I was the daily dumb yesterday. I was at my “desk” at home and saw both horses go traipsing across the front lawn on their way to the street. Luckily this is a gravel road and very quiet so no traffic. I bolt out of the house and grab a halter and a carrot and run after them. They went to the neighbor’s property who has a whole side yard full of lush grass and they were happily grazing on it until I show up. They got past me and trot back down the street and go back to eating grass across from our property. The horses turn and go onto our property and go to the back. The neighbor shows up in her car and asks if she can help. I direct her to one side of the house and I head for the other. When they see me coming, they think about going back down the driveway and back to the street but see our neighbor and thought better of it. They turn and head into the barn and into their stalls. I locked them in and told them they lost pasture privileges for now.
Turns out they had discovered a gate that was left open (my bad) and made good use of the escape. Later I went to turn them out again, after closing said gate, and the first thing they do is head for that gate and were very annoyed when they found it closed. Usually it’s my husband that is guilty of letting them escape
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Five-year-olds are the worst! They’ve developed enough balance to perform asshat maneuvers and have figured out that you aren’t omnipotent and that they outweigh you, to boot. Jerks!
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What is this talk about “construction” in coordination with “brain”? I don’t understand…
JK for you, Bluey.
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So funny that they remembered which gate. Stinkers!
I know! They made a beeline for it as soon as I let them loose. Ran to it in fact. I laughed out loud at their consternation. Priceless looks.
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That’s what we used with my puller. He’d learned he could do it, and he’d take any chance: leading, tying, longing, you name it. I got a ‘no pull’ halter, which was a rope halter with metal studs at the crown and nose, and rings that allowed the halter to close around the head when under pressure. He got loose with that on once, and was doing his merry chase around the grounds, stepped on the lead rope, and I’ve never seen a horse drop his head that fast. So I figured that part worked.
Then the bungee tie arrived. He tried pulling back a couple times in that, but then stopped.
The local cowboy would recommend tying the horse well above head height – the “tie” end of the rope up in a tree. Horse fights it at eye level, but when they rear, nothing happens, but they do’n’t get loose, either. Short of dropping to the ground and trying to roll their way loose, they can’t get undone. He would do this for an hour or so at a time, leave them tied, “let them learn patience”. A thought.
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Yep, I have an ultra high place in mind but need to run it by the barn owner first. The arena is lined with telephone poles so it should not be a problem, I just need permission to rig something to allow me to hook the tie that high.
Can you show me what bungee thing and halter you’re talking about? I admit that I’m leery of anything with hardware as she is VERY strong. I can’t afford for her to break free not even one more time. Maybe one line on the bungee thing, then another on a blocker or something?
The “third” one is really just the second, but with the tail thrown across the top of the other half of the rope to affect the leverage (which is why I mentioned maybe having you on the end of it, to provide add’l leverage). Odd that it was coming undone, maybe give it a few good downward yanks on both ends to lock it in better? I understand the not wanting her to get away even once more.
I agree that multiple ropes are a good idea - if she breaks out of one, the second may deflate her ‘reward’ moment. You might also look into tying her with an additional bum rope and mull over how you think she would react to that. I’ve used it on a few horses who were negatively reacting to halter pressure (mostly in loading situations) where I didn’t have time to completely retraining leading skills.
This is what’s weird. She leads great. Loads great. She knows what poll pressure means as far as come forward and head down (I’m too short to deal with a horse who won’t readily put their head down). When she’s reluctant to move forward due to something scary or what have you, just a light tug and she’s moving her feet in the right direction. I can easily get her to trot next to me, etc.
It was just last night that all hell broke loose.
I think the butt rope is a good idea. I think she will kick out at it, but if she’s kicking out then she’s not pulling back. I’ll take it.
Maybe it was a one-off for her. Regardless, the next time I go for it, I’m going to be armed to the teeth so I can get the point across. Even last night when it was falling apart, she’d come up from the pressure once in awhile and I’d praise the heck out of her (maybe saying "my goodness, what a nice bathmat you would make! in a happy tone, but I digress).
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