Training a Horse to Tie

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Created on Wednesday, 30 November 2011 15:00

by Sharon Biggs

One of the worst vices a horse can have is the inability to tie. A horse that refuses to stand tied is a liability and often dangerous. Untie-able horses eventually learn to fight so hard that they develop a habit of sitting back to break free.

Standing tied is not a natural instinct for a horse; fighting constraint is. The fight or flight response is what has kept the equine species alive for so long. Your horse is not stupid if he doesn't know how to tie. It is as simple as the fact that someone has never taken the time to teach him. But there is good news: all horses can be retrained to tie.

Wendy Hilton, owner of Cornerstone Ranch, is a certified John Lyons trainer. Teaching horses to tie is one of her specialties.

Tying Don'ts

-- Never tie a horse to a big tree and let him fight it out. A horse will not learn by exhausting himself.

-- Never teach your horse to tie by using an inner tube. Says Wendy, "This training concept is still extremely risky and the fact is that your goal is to teach a horse to yield to pressure. It doesn't make a lot of sense to let him sit back to teach him not to sit back. To me you are just reinforcing the behavior."

-- Don't tie using a "bungee" tie. "If your horse sits back, it can break and since it's a bungee, it's going to act like a rubber band and it can spring back and the broken snap can hit him or you."

Basic Steps of Tying

Do not progress to the next step until your horse has mastered each exercise. Be sure to fit your horse in a simple halter that is adjusted correctly.

1. Dropping his head. Put a bit of pressure on the lead rope by pulling gently. Then, walk your hand down the rope and wait for your horse to drop his head. As soon as he does, release the pressure and pat him. "I'll drill this cue in by repeating over and over," says Wendy. "And then when I'm certain they understand yielding to pressure, I take out all the slack by stamping on the rope really hard-as if the horse were stepping on it. I want him to react by dropping his head instead of throwing his head up."

2. Rope over the poll. It's a disaster when a horse tied with too long of a lead gets the slack caught over his poll. Even the "Steady Eddie" of the world will panic and sit back. Simulate this by putting the rope up and over your horse's poll and teach them to yield that pressure. But of course, without tying!

3. Turning and facing. "For this exercise, I'll attach a lunge line to the halter and put him into an enclosed area such as a round pen. I'll send the horse off away from me at a walk then add pressure to the rope and ask him to turn and face me, immediately yielding to pressure. A lot of horses, when they feel the pressure will immediately drag you off! If that happens, then it's a sure sign you might not want to tie them. Then I'll repeat the lesson on both sides at the trot and the lope.

4. Turning to pressure. "Let's say I'm standing on the left side in the middle of the round pen, I'll put the rope up and over the right side of the horse's body - over their head, around their hip. Then I'll turn them and teach them to follow the pull of the rope. When you first do this, you might find that you have to step around on the same side of the horse-especially if they get panicked about the rope being around their hips. I do this exercise at a stand still and then at walk, trot, and lope with the horse circles around me."

5. Tying test. Make sure you take lots of time on all of the other steps, getting them solid before you attempt this final exercise. Using a long lariat rope or lunge line, find a safe fence, like a pipe fence or round pen panel, and make one loop with the rope through the top rail. This simulates the horse standing tied. Stand in the middle of the pen (behind the horse but out of kicking range!) holding the end of the line. Flip the rope back and forth up and over your horse's body, from one side to the other. Expect that your horse will be nervous about this and want to move away. As they do this, they will take up the slack of the rope. "If you've done your work with the other four exercises, your horse will give to the pressure. If your horse gets in a panic you can release the rope, wait for them to relax, and repeat the exercise or back track to one of the other exercises."

Caveat: Make sure you simulate tying (by looping the rope and holding the end) before you actually attempt to tie your horse. Each horse works on his own timetable. It may take several hours or several weeks to move through all of the exercises. Give your horse every opportunity to regress before you tie him.

If all is well, and you feel comfortable with the fact that it's second nature for your horse to yield to pressure, go ahead and tie or cross-tie your horse. If you've been diligent about your homework, tying him should be a slam-dunk. And now you'll have a safe happy horse that ties!