Tying Up Young Horses

Sometimes people will contact me and ask about the Functional Tie Rings, sometimes just to make sure they are still available or they are skeptical about ordering on line. Having been scammed before, I get it, and I always enjoy those conversations anyway. I always follow up a phone call with a email to lessen the chance of our conversation being taken out context, especially when it comes to using a Tie Ring or addressing other issues with horses. So in that vein I am including most of an e-mail response I sent to a lady named Colleen who was asking "when is it appropriate agewise to use a Tie Ring on a horse?" Apparently she was told that it is generally okay to start tying up young horses so they can get used to stand being tied. And although she has a Clinton Anderson tie ring, she has not used it yet nor does she know anybody in her circle who uses tie rings. The horse in the photo at right is tied using a Functional Tie Ring, but for the first 6 months or so of saddling him, I did not tie him at all, instead I would lay the lead rope over my arm or simply lay it on the ground as in ground tying. I highy valye a horsee that is comfortable at ground tying so I work at this. So bottom line is that I would highly suggest never saddling a green horse when he is tied.

Unfortunately it's pretty routine to see tying mistakes. Some of the common one's are: hard tying to non-anchored points like temporary panel fencing; hard typing without a quick release; and, hard tying horse's who have never been tied much nor stand tied well - and this can be a tragic mistake when a young horse's seeming calmness belies his lack of experience. I have seen or know about several young horse's that were hard tied and pulled back flipping over or falling and injuring themselves badly.

And I can't talk about tying horses without this story. I was doing a demonstration and clinic a few years ago at an indoor arena. I entered the arena and hard tied my horse (with a quick release) to the permanent rail fencing. He was the only horse in the arena. Shortly, a rider attending the clinic entered and tied her mare up just feet away next to my gelding despite having plenty of room to tie elsewhere. Her mare started turning her butt towards and trying to kick my horse. The rider returned to move her horse but ended up tying the mare to a long hinged gate on wheels. Her horse started pulling back and pulling the gate towards herself. The rider got in between the gate and her horse and every time she reached for her horse, the horse would pull back and slam her with the gate knocking her down. This happened a couple times until she was able to get to the side of her horse's head. Anyway, could have ended up with more than just embarrassment.

It's not the age of a horse that dictates when they are ready to be tied, either hard tied or using a tie ring, but their ability to understand coming off of pressure. When a horse pulls back, or even when we pull on a horse from the front, the biggest part of that pressure they feel is from the halter (rope or web halter) on their poll - on the neck behind the ears. Again your horse needs to come off of pressure from the halter before you tie him up, so at a minimum this would be if you pull the lead rope taunt and the horse changes his body weight forward or takes a step forward towards you, to relieve the pressure. I'd like them even much better than this, so when they feel that pressure it's always a step forward to obtain their own release. And even then I like to use a Functional Tie Ring for weeks or months before I start hard tying.

If you are beginning to lead your horse and you have to bump on the lead rope until he starts moving forward, he is not giving to pressure very well and you need to do more work on getting him to follow the feel of the lead rope willingly and in a timely manner. Sure, in the beginning of ground work on a green horse you will likely have to bump him some to follow the feel, but you don't start right off bumping him. Instead, you would draw a loose lead rope taunt slowly and allow a chance for the horse to understand before you start bumping him.

The Clinton Anderson Tie Ring, previously known as the Blocker Tie Ring will work just fine. Just remember the hinged center bar falls away from you. If you insert the lead rope with the hinged bar rotating towards you then push the bar up to the magnetic lock, a small amount of pressure on the lead rope by the horse will pull the hinged bar down and the horse is loose. Should not be a problem to remember to use it correctly and with any tie ring you have to be concerned of where your fingers are if the horse pulls back when you are securing the lead rope! I know two people who have lost the tip of a finger tying a horse and having the horse pull back. One of them owned up to not paying attention, the other guy blamed a pretty girl diverting his attention. The results were the same, loss of a tip of a finger and it could have been the good finger that you use to clean your ears out with.

The sequence of photos above (click on the photo to enlarge) show: Figure 1 - Normal hookup of the lead rope using the Functional Tie Ring. This allows for the rope to feed through the tie ting if or when the horse pulls back. The lead rope I am using in the photo is a Double Diamond standard lead rope and it will start moving through the tie ring around 15-18 pounds of pressure. Figure 2 - the arrows depict pulling the bite of the lead rope that is through the tie ring around the bottom of the tie ring which creates a girth hitch and a hard tie. This is wrong if your intention is to tie a young horse or any horse who has pull back issues. Figure 3 - using a girth hitch on the lead rope with a tie ring, again, creates a hard tie. Make sure if you use it this way that your horse is good about being hard tied.

To saddle a tied horse or not?

Garrett asked me "if it's a good idea or bad idea to tie up        horses when saddling them, and if I tie them do I suggest hard tying them or use one of my Functional Tie Rings?" I can't remember the last time when I saddled a horse hard tied to a       tie rail or D ring on outside of a trailer. Having horses tied     when saddling is useful as some horses, especially younger horses will move their back ends around and having the horse secured makes it easier to put them back into position.    Sometimes I have just looped the lead rope over a tie rail, but most of the time I just use my Functional Tie Rings, because      it's easy and safe for me and the horse if he pulls back. But I       do not tie horses if they do not have an understanding of    yielding to pressure.

You never see a good hand saddle a colt for the first few times having tied that horse up. And I know old cowboys who never tie a horse when saddling. You have to be pretty sure about that horse staying ground tied to do that, especially when in a pasture where that horse could spook and bolt. In fact, one of my buddy's had a young Arab, he was putting miles on to eventually ride him in endurance races, and his horse spooked while saddling without being tied. That Arab took off and it took my friend a half a day to catch that horse.

The horse in the photo at top right, Hays, is fairly new having just been on the ranch for the past 7 weeks. I'll be writing more on him in the coming months but when I got him he did not give to pressure, instead pulling back and rearing up when he felt the pressure of the halter on his poll. I was warned that he did not trailer well, and he did pull back and rear when I tried to lead him into the trailer the first time. I worked him for a few minutes on giving to pressure and got him to step into the trailer. After a 10 hour trailer ride home, the first thing I did when I unloaded him was work with him for a short time, handling his feet and trying to give him a beginning understanding of giving to pressure. Again, all horses have to have that understanding before you tie them, with or without any type of tie ring.

In the photo you see the lead rope laying on the ground and Hays is ground tying well. However, this is a temporary position. I tell riders in my clinics to consider this a neutral position like the gear shift in your car. The horse learns neutral, when there is no pressure or no feel on his lead or reins, and learns that this is a rest position for him. In my ground work as I try to give the horse an understanding of feel in the lead rope and connect that lead rope to his feet, I'll get the horse to move his feet based on that feel which he sorts out from the different angles. I get the horse to back up on the feel and when he is good with that, and comes forward on feel, then he can understand the lack of feel, or the neutral position, and stayed ground tied.

Once a horse backs up really well on the feel of the lead, you can let him back up until the lead rope goes taunt which increases pressure on the poll, and once the horse is good about giving to pressure, he'll stop backing and shift his weight forward or take a step forward to alleviate that pressure - now he is giving to pressure and can be tied. On Hays, I have been saddling him without tying him just to give him more experience in staying ground tied, because as he becomes good at this he'll also be good at understanding the feel of the lead rope or reins from the different angles I present to him to direct his feet.

I suggest in the beginning try grooming a horse or picking up his feet while holding onto the lead line, either in your hand or the end in the crook on your arm. Much like you would do when working with a horse to get comfortable with picking his feet up in the beginning. You'll get better about moving around and managing the lead rope so it doesn't wrap around your or the horse's legs, so you can later saddle him by holding onto the lead as a fail safe.

But all horse's need to be able to be tied (as well as stand ground tied). If I'm using a Functional Tie Ring and I have to leave the immediate area, I'll put a half hitch in the open end of the lead, just to ensure he doesn't walk off when I'm gone. I have seen many riders attending the clinics that won't leave their horse' tied. Some will say he just doesn't tie well. When I suggest we work on that, often I'll be told that their horse just doesn't like being tied. Well, horses are predisposed to not like a lot of things we do with them until we present it in a way they can understand.  If hey never get a release, then they can't begin to understand.  

Backing and Drawing a Horse from the Ground

Why might you want or need to back a horse from the ground? By this I mean the handler standing still and moving the horse back using a voice command or a feel of the rein. Why would you need to be able to drop the reins and have your horse stand still while you walked away a bit? And why might you need to draw or bring the horse towards you using a voice command or a feel of the reins?

In the annual arena competition I have hosted for the past four years, this year I had a task where the rider had to dismount, step into a 2x2 foot box and ask his horse to back. Riders could use their reins, get down rope, the lead end of a mecate or even just a voice command to get their horse to back but they had to stay in the box. Then the rider had to drop the reins or get down rope and walk around a barrel maybe 20 feet away, demonstrating the horse's ability to ground tie (even if it is momentarily), then walk back to the box, pick up the rein and draw their horse to them. The riders had the option of tying the reins up after they dismount and solely use voice commands if they wanted.

There were 42 entries in this competition and I believe only 3, maybe 4 riders/horses could do all three - backing the horse; horse ground tying and not moving off; and drawing the horse back to you. No offense to the competitors, but a few of these tries were not pretty. Horse's flying backwards with head's high and pushing with their front end; horse not ground tying even for a moment; and even a few horse's not wanting to come back to their rider having the reins jerked to get them to back up. I didn't see alot of jerking on the reins but even once is too much and I'm going to address that in a different article.

The reason for not doing these things well is that some riders don't have a use for their horses to do this. While I consider it an extension of being broke to lead and necessary for my horses to stand still as you dismount and move forward, move to you on command or through the change in feel of a rein, and back up on command or through the change in feel of a rein when you have a loop on a calf and have to dismount to reposition the loop needing slack on the rope then having it re-tightened.

Backing a horse on the ground comes in handy when leading a horse to a gate and it opens towards you so you have to back the horse up. Or when you are throwing feed and the horse wants to hang his head over the feeder. Or when you are on the ground and checking someone else's saddle or bridle and don't want your horse pushing you into the other horse.....and there are dozens of other situations.

Having a horse ground tie is very handy when you are changing bridles or have to dismount to do something like check on a float valve. It is just a natural follow on from having your horse lead up well. In the video below I brought out a horse towards the end of a session with some riders that we were filming and one asked me if I could show her how I get my horse to back, ground tie and come to me on command. Getting a horse to back away from you on a lead line, or rein, is the easier part. Having them stand still - stay ground tied, and drawing them towards you on the change of feel on the lead/rein is just a bit more difficult. Young horses will want to come to you before you ask them. Don't make it federal offense if they come before being asked, just back them up and ask them to stand again. When drawing the horse towards you, try to see just how little pressure or difference in feel of that lead or rein it will take to get that horse to come to you. As with everything, reward the horse's beginning of that effort - don't give the horse a pause between your asking so he can absorb the lesson.

Ground Tying Your Horse

I was talking to a client on the phone about tips using the Functional Tie Ring when he asked me about also teaching a horse to ground tie. Ground tying is simply looping the reins over the saddle horn or neck of the horse, or dropping the lead line on the ground (or both if you using a mecate) and walking away with the horse standing still and not following you or wandering off. Some will loop the mecate over the saddle horn as well when ground tying. This works and would likely be the preferred method if you were using horse hair reins or if the ground was muddy.

Ground tying obviously has many concerns - your horse running off and getting the reins caught on something and jerking the bit through his mouth, often cutting his tounge; the reins slipping so the horse gets a front foot through them with the same results - okay you get the idea. So there are some things my horses need to do well before I start ground tying.

Your horse has absolutely has to be broke to lead and this is where the beginning of ground tying are anyway. Your horse should lead up where you want him at a slow or fast walk; stop when you stop; back off a feel on the lead and move to you on the feel of a lead rope when you ask. What I mean by feel of the lead rope is a change in what the horse feels. If my horse is standing 10 feet away from me on a loose rein, I want to be able to slightly pickup the lead rope, changing the weight slightly on what he feels through the halter. I'll click or whistle as a verbal signal as well, and coil the lead rope up, keeping it slack, as he approaches me. In the beginning the lead line may be taunt, not pulling - just taunt, the horse will eventually step forward releasing the pressure on his poll and this is beginning of himself learning to get the release of pressure on his poll. In some cases, if the horse does not step forward to get a release from the taunt lead line, it helps to have someone stand behind the horse (out of kicking distance) and when you ask him to come forward your helper will put a little pressure on the horse - often it is enough just to step towards the horse. See Figure 1 through 4 below. You can see the difference in the still slack lead rope as the horse moves forward.

I need him to back off a feel as well, and I do that by shaking the lead rope in a back and forth, side to side motion, feeding the rope out as he backs. I use the verbal cue, "back", as well. This is something they learn quick. I'll start up close to the horse and shake the lead rope and when the horse changes his balance as if he preparing to back, I'll stop and give him a few seconds before asking again and building on that asking for one step, then two. The verbal cue comes in real handy when you want to back a horse off the feed bin when you are throwing feed or really anything where you hands are occupied. See Figure 5 through 8 below.

The client from the beginning of this conversation asked what does standing still have to do with moving forward or moving back? Its the feel of the lead rope when asking him to move forward or move back, and the inbetween or the absence of that feel associated with not moving or standing  ground tied. Kind of like not being able to teach a horse to stop, until you have him moving forward.

If my horse leads well then I need him to stand tied well before moving on to ground tying. This is where I use the Functional Tie Ring and stimulating the horse to pull back and getting a release from the pressure of the halter on his poll when his feet are moving in temporary suspension. Once my horses are good with that, I leave them alone tied, using the tie ring, for increasing longer period of time. One minute the first time is not too short. If I'm moving off out of sight, I often put a daisy chain or a simple slip knot in the lead rope so the lead won't pull through.

I think a person will know when the horse is ready for ground tying. It's basics in ground work, so the horse's will be learning it in the round pen or the arena at first. Same deal as being tied,......let him stand ground tied for a short period in the beginning and increasing that time. One time I had a client working on my obstacle course and he called to me for help getting his horse to cross a bridge. I dropped the lead line and left a horse in the round pen and went to help. Thirty minutes later I returned to the round pen and the horse was standing in the same spot. And why not? Nobody was asking anything of him, so he just took a break. So what do you do when the horse starts to walk off when ground tied? I use a voice command to disrupt his thought and focus on me. I won't wait too long before I approach him, rub on him and ask him to stand still again and walk off.

Being broke to ground tie also comes in handy when I have to dismount for a short period of time and be out of range of the lead rope of my mecate even if it's just in the arena so I can change up some poles, cones or barrels. And even though my horses do well ground tying, it just doesn't make sense to me to ground tie them in an uncontained area, at least not walking away from them where is no fence or barrier to contain them if they do run off. That's what using hobbles are good for. This is a story I'm not proud of - I was up in the mountains riding to a historic site, two buildings and cemetery, to check out sign of vandalism. I let a guest ride my good Sorrel horse Junior. When we got to the first old structure, we dismounted and tied the reins to the saddle horns and let the horse graze while I walked around cutting sign for trespassers. We spooked a small groups of Mule Deer in the brush and they in turn spooked the horses who ran down the trail. After a three mile jog, I got to the horses to discover the reins has slipped off Junior and he had stepped on the bit cutting his tongue badly. That happened about 10-11 years ago, and ever since I haven't ridden him in anything but a hackamore - by the way, Martin Black makes great hackamores, most of mine I bought from him.

Getting a horse to ground tie, even for short periods of time, while you walk off and right back, is just a good thing to get a horse to do.