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.

Horse Training - Using Nose Chains

Some people use Nose Chains in conjunction with halters in order to control their horse through more 'bite" or pain. The user needs to understand the severity of using a chain and the potential injury you can cause to the soft cartilage in the horse's nose.

You see nose chains hooked to lead lines on halters for race horse. These horse's are kinda "bred to bolt" and run as fast as they can, as such they are hopped up on high energy feed and using nose chains in the hands of professional handlers makes sense. The average horse owner needs to be careful using nose chains.

I would much rather use a rope halter with a rawhide band across the nose if I had to go to anything more severe than just a plain rope halter. The solution to most of the horse that are hard to handle leading on the ground is more ground work.

If you are going to use nose chains, be real careful. Do not ever tie up your horse with a lead line hooked to a nose chain. If they pull back they will cause tremendous damage to their nose - and it will be your fault.

Horse Training – Horse that won’t Lead Up

Joyce from Alberta, Canada has a horse named Chief, that won’t lead up properly. She says he walks past her when she stops, and, when she is leading Chief and stops to chat with someone, Chief is fidgety.

First of Joyce, the fact that you are in Alberta caught my eye so I decided to respond to you right off because my Grandfather and Father left Montana to build a ranch north of Edmonton, circa 1910 – 1915, until they lost out and came back to the States. People and Horses in your part of the country are tough and hardy.

Anyway, you did not say how old you horse is, his breed or if he is a stud horse or a gelding. Shouldn’t matter too much. A young horse needs to lead up properly and stand still when you want him to. A stud horse can be a problem if he’s around mares in season. Some horses get lazy in ground manners, mainly because we as horse owners aren't communicating to them effectively or often enough.

If I’m leading a horse who walks past me when I stop, I bump the lead line to make him stop, then back him up to the position I want him to stop at, which is a few feet behind me to my Right. In fact, every time you stop, whether it’s leading on the ground or in the saddle, it’s a good idea to get him to back a few steps immediately. This will translate to better stops at speed. Once he does this at your normal walking speed, then start stopping real sudden like, then progress to stopping at a jog (Trot) then at a lope (Canter). Chief will be a much better horse for it.

If Chief can stand still then you need to teach him that standing still is good. That it’s the easy thing to do. If I have a horse that won’t stand still I move him around on a horse bit on the lead line, one or two circles then give him a chance to stand still again. At first, he probably stand still for 30 seconds or so then get fidgety again. Move him around some more, then give him another chance. They’ll learn soon enough that stand still is easier than getting moved around.

I shot a short video for you, see below. I picked an old horse (Roy) and shot this video right when they were expecting to get fed hoping for him to be more concerned with feed than ground manners. I actually shot this video several times as I hoping Roy would act up enough so it would more evident to you, and Roy just wasn't that cooperative in walking past me or moving around when I wanted him to stand still. I guess I've gotten most of that behavior out of him, none-the-less the techniques I'm telling you and showing you about are still valid.