Horse Training – Tying a Quick Release to a Trailer D Ring

From time to time when trailering horses from one place to another you’ll have reason to tie up your horse in order to do things. You probably want to have the trailer stopped before you tie your horse up to it, and un-tie him before you move the trailer again,.....come on that's supposed to be humor. Althought I've heard about a moron not closing his trailer door and losing a horse on the higway, I have never seen nor heard of someone driving off with the trailer and a horse tied to it. Anyway, most trailers have “D” rings, attached to the sides for ths purpose or for hanging buckets on, or, bars of a stock trailer can be used to tie a horse too.

I always tie horses either with a quick release, so in case that horse gets in trouble I can quickly get control, or as just a simple and fast way to un-tie.
I have also used snap-rings or The Clip type devices that feeds the rope around a stem or post that allows a gradual release of slack in case that horse pulls back.

In fact I have trained horses that pull back, not to be so ready to pull back by using one of these devices so when they do pull back they find a release and figure out that they didn’t need to pull back in the first place. Sometimes I'll intentionally spook a horse to faciliate him learning this. I like to think it teaches them to think.

I have used trailer bungees in the past, but will not use them again as they dry rot, the stiches come un-done and the hardware can break The idea is much the same as a snap-ring or The Clip. A horse can pull backs and the bungee stretches giving them time to think. But the bungee can break and fling a fast moving piece of hardware right at the horses head. Then you think the problems you had before with pulling back will be minor.

This is a better picture of The Clip, available at http://www.smarttieproducts.com/












Watch the video below to see my easy quick release knot on a Trailer D ring.