tying problems

[horselover710]

I have a young horse who I am training. I have been working with her in tying. She will stand good for about ten minutes but after ten minutes is up she freaks out and pulls back with all her might. i am afraid she is going to hurt herself. i have been tying her in short increments and gradually increasing time to see how that would work for a couple of months. it doesn't seem to be helping, does anyone know what else i can do?

[Harry Hobbes]

i have been tying her in short increments and gradually increasing time to see how that would work for a couple of months. it doesn't seem to be helping, does anyone know what else i can do?
Hopefully, you are not immediately going to her and releasing her when she pulls back, or otherwise acts out. This action would "positively reinforce" her behavior; and she will repeat any behavior that is reinforced.

Your working up the amount of time is appropriate. However, there are many methods to train a horse to stand tied.

For example, you can:

1. Halter train the horse to lead properly; with a very light feel. This trains the horse to yield to pressure, and not to engage in the "opposition reflex". Most of the "natural horseman" methods can accomplish this. (Parelli, Lyons, etc.)

2. Use a "high line" (picket line), which is a horizontal cable approximately eight feet off of the ground. Drop tie points of about three feet in length and tie the horse to those dropped tie points, so that the horse has enough slack that it can just lower its' head to a horizontal top line (but cannot easily get a foot over the tie line.) The horse may pull back, but cannot get up any power, because the tie point is eight feet overhead, and the high line tends to "give" somewhat. More likely, when the horse must move, rather than pull back, it will travel forward, come to the end of the dropped tie point and then turn around, breaking over its' hindquarters, in the equivalent of the famous "one rein stop". (This is the method the "Californios" used to tie-train their horses in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - they used overhead tree branches. Some of the current natural horsemen have "re-discovered" this method.)

3. Use your current method of tying the horse; but tie her high, and preferably tied to a smooth wall, so she can't get tangled up, or wrapped around anything. Or, a single telephone pole in the middle of an open area, with a high tie point is also optimum, as long as she cannot wrap around it tightly. (The higher that she is tied, the less power she can use to pull back, thereby mitigating the risk of hurting her neck/poll.) There should be nothing in proximity that she can get injured upon. Also, you can put an automobile inner tube on the actual tie point, and tie her lead rope to the inner tube, which serves to "give" a little. (But, again, the tie point should be high.)

But, she now has learned to pull back (according to your post), so whatever method that you choose, make sure that she is under observation, and that when she pulls back, paws, whinnies, or whatever, do not pay any attention to her; and, stay away from her. She must learn to stand calmly and quietly, rather than learn that she can act out to cause release. Go to her and untie her only when she is standing quietly; otherwise stay away from her, and ignore her.

You should only intervene should she get into a (potentially) dangerous situation, or be in definate risk of injury. But, if you set up the tie facilities properly, you should not encounter any safety issues.

Best regards,
Harry

P.S. We typically train horses to stand tied by not intervening when they act out, and working up to a four-to-six hour period of time standing tied. These horses learn to get comfortable, quiet, and calm; once they understand that pulling back gets them nothing.

[horselover710]

thanks i will try some of your methods. i do parelli with her and she moves away from pressure really well, but i don't know, she doesn't like being tied. Thanks again.

[katieB]

Hi, my horse went through a stage of this a while ago. I tried a few different things but I couldnt figure out why she was actually pulling back. After she had been doing it a while I would just thread the leadrope through the bailing twine so she thought she was tied up but if she pulled back she wouldnt hurt herself or break another headcollar. After watching her a few times I realised that what she didnt like was that point where the rope becomes taught, she would pull back, stop when the rope tightened but then would panic and pull back again. I am only on a small yard so I was able to continue threading the leadrope through and not actually tying her up so when she did pull back there was no snap of the rope tightening and she stopped. You do need a longer leadrope though or you run out of rope and have a loose horse! I dont know if this would work for you, it depends on why she's pulling back, but it worked great for me and I can tie up again now with no pulling back at all :)

[horselover710]

That is exactly what my horse does, she pulls a little and feels the tension and freaks out. Thanks a lot I'll try that. Thanks again.