Lol oh I know. I feel the exact same as you. I was actually giving you a “hell yeah”. Sorry if I offended you
They aren’t stupid at all, but I wouldn’t say the situations are the same. The context is different, and the action on the halter is very different. Think about directions of force and where those forces take action on a properly fitted halter, when a horse is pulling on a wall vs a human pulling straight down. It’s really a wonder that horses know what we want, at all, when we muddle all the signals so often.
Regardless, this wasn’t mean to be a training discussion or judgment. You are free to imply that I do not educate my horses, or that I am utterly ridiculous for not teaching them to tolerate a human practically swinging from the halter like Tarzan 
I’m cool with it! I just wanted to know how other people might choose to intervene.
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I mean, I trust the cross ties or the post or whatever to stay still and let the horse release the pressure. Randos that think they gotta have a death grip on the lead, not so much.
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This is generally how I am at clinics unless I know the tech well.
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I use a University teaching hospital for all my equine vet work, and that almost always means there will be vet students with varying levels of horse experience at my appointments. I know this is part of the learning process for them, and a tradeoff I accept for using this clinic. 3 of my 4 horses are great for the vet, and I am willing to let the students learn to take vitals, draw blood, give vaccines, and even float teeth on these 3. I will sometimes give additional direction if needed (one is partially blind, so I always advise that they speak to him or keep a hand on him when operating on his blind side). My 4th mare is very needle shy (has been since she was a weanling) and I do no allow students or techs to handle her. Thankfully my vet knows me and my horse well, and usually explains to the students before they even arrive that the red mare is extra and that I will be the one handling her.
If I see handling that concerns me, I usually try to let the vet address it first. If they do not or they don’t see it, then I may give a quick bit of advice to the handler and see if that helps. If not, I have no problem taking the lead rope back. I even had to do this with an intern that was trying to treat one of my horses: horse had had enough and started barging through everyone. This poor intern was tiny and I think was trying to not correct my horse in front of me, so I took over and made the correction.
I’m happy to let experienced techs handle my horse most of the time, and I have seen my fair share of owners who could not handle their own horse, so I can understand why a clinic would prefer to have their own staff handle for appointments. I am thankful that the vets that I use on a regular basis know me and my level of horsemanship and are happy for me to step in when things get a bit hairy.
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Same. My vet of many, many years made me promise she could have my horses if something happened to me. They all have impeccable manners and are sweet kids. When I had to change vets after she moved out of state, I was pleased with where we landed. Good handlers and if I do see something that gives me pause, then I calmly and confidently speak up. Chip was shown in hand a lot as a baby twh and he’ll start to park out in response to some handling techniques. I just chuckle and offer to get him out of Park. Folks tend to chuckle and it’s all an easy conversation.
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I intervene and speak up & I’ve had to before. I have to take said horse home and I want next time not be a nightmare. I always try to set my guys up for success.
I have one mare that I got as a 3 yr old- she’s 20 now. Sold for several years and I got her back and she’s retired now. She’s a nightmare to give vaccines to unless you’re quiet and patient. First year I had her she tried to mow down the vet. Over the years she’s gotten to the point where if you’re quiet and slow she’s totally fine. I’ve had a couple stabby, jabby nervous, young vets try to vaccinate her over the last few years and she gets all muscled up and nervous and mad and wants to run them over. We now have a system where I go in her stall myself and vaccinate her in front of them instead. I’m glad we have that kind of relationship. I can poke her by myself on a loose lead rope but I’m quiet and give her a moment to settle and she knows me.
But I can’t blame vets & techs for not believing owners- not everyone tells the truth haha. I’m sure- how many times have they been bitten, kicked, run down after owner says oh darling fluffy would never…
But I’m never afraid to speak up for my animals well being since I have to deal with my animals long term not just today.
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Clearly you didn’t get the pretty basic point the if the horse is taught properly to yield to pressure to keep itself safe there wouldn’t be any Tarzan shenanigans because the horse would have said, “wtf? That’s excessive but clearly you’re an idiot so ima drop my head to get away from your kindergarten block letter neon yelling communication style because I know that yielding to pressure gets me a release from this kind of bullshit” and the horse would have done thusly and left “Tarzan” with no weight in their hands.
If you don’t want to teach your horse that basic concept, fine, but expect a few more idiots to ruffle your feathers along the way instead of having your horse show them just how uneducated they are.
I’m really not interested in arguing with you.
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Too tired and cold to read all the replies, but I’d have had words with the tech and curtly explained why the horse was resistant, and if that did not suffice, words with the DVM.
The liability insurance carriers do NOT want owners handling their animals, because if something goes wrong, the owner can sue the DVM for injuries sustained by their own animal.
Some DVMs overlook that, many do not.
+
Years ago, I trailered my stallion over to the vet school for a semen collection.
The repro tech came out and put a chain over his nose to lead him into the shed.
I told her in a conversational tone of voice, “You won’t be able to collect him with a chain over his nose.”
She replied that it was SOP.
I told her I understood that, but that this particular horse would not perform with a chain over his nose, and I just wanted to let her know that.
To be fair, she had no way of knowing I wasn’t just some nutjob owner.
While we were going back and forth over this, Dr, Hinrichs came out and asked, “What’s the holdup?”
Tech: “This lady said I couldn’t put a chain over her stallion’s nose.”
Me: “No; I said he wouldn’t ejaculate with a chain over his nose.”
Dr. H: “Who is it?” Then she looked over at the horse.
Dr. H: “Oh, it’s him. Don’t worry about the chain.”
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Um… No. That is not how any of this works.
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It is an truly ideal world where every horse that shows up at a vet clinic is one that yields promptly to pressure. Must be on some other planet, actually.
Every clinic is going to get it’s share of pullbacks, poorly trained, anxious, high-headed horses, kite-string horses, and horses barely trained at all. To handle them all knowledgeably has to go beyond just a standard routine “we do it the same with every horse”. I’m sure every clinic and vet tech knows this.
People can say whatever they want to about the abomination of a horse with a pullback habit (sets back against the halter lead when hard-tied, may panic and thrash). That won’t make them disappear. They are still turning up at vet clinics. Rather than go into a tie-or-die training session which is not the purpose of a clinic visit, the clinic can simply take the easiest and safest path and avoid having an incident.
A clinic near me has a national reputation handles a lot of sport horses and racehorses.One of their largest, most lucrative customers is a racehorse training stable that knows eff-all about training any horse. I’ve been at the clinic with my own horse when they show up with a stock trailer with four to six appendix youngsters, who all behave with chronic adrenalized anxiety. With whip urging they leap off and later back on the trailer.
They dance and pivot while one of the guys maneuvers them to a tie ring bolted to a wall, where they are tied fairly short and “stand” moving back and forth trying to see more to either side. Etc. and so on. I guess they can get them into stocks, because I have no idea how else a vet could even vaccinate one, much less treat them.
The life of a vet … I’m sure those are long, difficult days when that customer shows up, almost always with several, because the customer doesn’t think the trip is worthwhile with only one. But they pay many thousands annually to that clinic to keep their horses going, so on it goes.
A few years ago on this board a small group of racing afficianados who were based primarily in KY claimed that all racehorses were well-started and pooh-pooh’ed the idea that any exist that are not. They clearly have not been out to the dusty backwater training facilities out here, states away from KY and high-end stakes racing.
Anyway. Some vet is treating these indifferently handled horses, too. The clinic needs a lot of horsemanship along with their experience and book knowledge to do it, and maintain a high-paying customer.
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Sounds familiar. I’ve also seen a vet walk into a stock trailer with a loose, practically feral horse that had been run into the trailer in order to sedate it and get it off the trailer, or do whatever it was they were there to do while in the trailer.
That was interesting to watch.
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That must be fun to watch. “I don’t know what you want, so I’ll park. How do you like me now!” 
You have to love horses.
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The first time I took my Hackney pony out on the road (with my trainer not getting near us; she was mounted on her trustworthy Arabian), I accidentally cued my pony to park out. I still don’t know what I did to cue him. My trainer commented on it, and I asked “how do you get him back into Drive?” Except, of course, this pony’s biggest problem was that he had no brakes.
Rebecca
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I tripped on a stall mat lip whilst putting Archie’s blanket on (he was eating in his stall, no hotwire within reach if he shifted his weight 
) anywho I smashed into his right flank and he steadied himself to brace against me. Thank goodness I haven’t trained the brains out of him so he did not, in fact, instantly “yield to Tarzan” levels of pressure.
Good boy, Archpodamous.
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I hear what you’re saying, but the apology approach gets on my nerves, as I get older and more confident. You are a good person for not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings, but, I might offer going straight to, “Hang on; let’s try something different,” and show the assistant what works.
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yeah I’m not good with that either. I’m a very direct person, especially when it comes to my animals.
