Those of us who have also done NATRC can tell you the proper
> length
Personally, I don't think there's an exact proper length and would resent
someone dictating one. I'll admit though that I have seen some very
careless people for whom any advice would have been an improvement. Some
horses never get a foot over, and then there's the ones who lift a foot
when they eat or paw who will. I will tie accordingly.
Even though you tie a horse the proper length, a horse can get a hind
foot over the rope when he needs to scratch his head. I've had 2 to do
this and got nasty rope burns. One ended up permanently lame as he
picked up a strep infection that went to his hock. One day he was
sound and the next day he could not put his foot on the ground. Vet was
treating his swollen hock as an injury and by the time he decided to
check for infection the damage was done.
I really do not believe there is a complete safe way to stall or tie
your horse. We just have to try the best way we know.
Dolly
