Re: Pulling when tied

[flemmerl@rcbhsc.wvu.edu (Flemmer, Linda)]

Angie Orr wrote:

> My Arab gelding used to pull when he was tied until what ever he was
> pulling on broke somewhere. I hid behind my trailer beings he wouldn't
> do it unless I wasn't around and when he started I'd come around with my
> lunge whip and smack him on the butt.  I only had to do this twice and
> then I never had a problem again.  Maybe I was just lucky but, it worked
> for me.

We did the same thing with Rocket - he'd never been tied to anything solid
in his life when we got him as a 9 year old!  We would disappear around the
back of the barn and wait for the "Opportunity".  I would pop out in front &
say "Stand up!" and Mike (my husband) would tap him with a driving whip on
the rear.  I swear that the horse learned to look & see where the whip was
before he'd pull!  It took us two months of vigilance before he settled
down.  If there is a break where we don't tie him for more than a few months
(pasture turn out in summer, after injury, etc.) he will try to pull back at
least once, just to test the situation.  (We, being the smarter creatures (I
hope), always have the whip at hand.)

Now that he has learned to stand tied, pulling back is definitely a
calculated move on his part to get free & graze.  We use stout cross ties
with large boat snaps and a triple-thick nylon halter now, but we started
with bungee ties and a leather halter for safety reasons.

A caution to folks - if a horse is truely crazed and pulling back in fear,
it can be very dangerous to approach him!  Our farrier had his lower leg
shattered because he jumped in to untie a panicked horse several years ago.
(I hated seeing him under horses, shoeing, with a cast on!)

All of this thread on tieing still doesn't solve my one horse's propensity
to untie himself from the trailer and come visit us at the awards dinner -
begging for coffee and anything else he can get!  (Obviously not very people
oriented.)  We've taken to tieing him with 2 ropes, lately.

Linda Flemmer