I really like this photo I took - it reminds me of a scene out of an old west movie. Speaking of movies, I'm excited to see the movie "Buck" a movie that was created to "move people to make changes in how they deal with horses and life's challenges. "HERE" is a website if you are looking for more information. I love the b&w photos that are on the page I linked.
A book I am reading and enjoying now is "The Soul of a Horse" by Joe Camp. He also has a blog HERE. I find it very interesting that the common hitching post is really quite dangerous - and a simple solution could be done to correct this! Just saw off the ends that stick out - the horses rope or rein often gets looped around and the horse becomes fearful when he finds he has a very short rope. In his book, Joe Camp describes how his horse pulled back in sheer panic and took out the entire post, concrete and all...
The solution... a Blocker Tie Ring. Does anyone reading this have one or ever heard of one? I know there are break-a-way halters, but this ring seems even better. I can only imagine if my horse got away, it would be easier to catch him if he had a halter on...
I've built our hitching rails with no ends sticking out, thanks to advice from a more experienced horseman, but there are some at a horse camp in the national forest near us where the vertical ends stick up, and I like those. They keep the rope from falling around to the bottom of the post, which is also a dangerous situation.
ReplyDeleteI like the Blocker rings. I keep them in my trailer (no broken necks if they happen to fall) and on posts that I'm not sure are strong enough to hold a pulling horse, like on my round pen. (If a horse breaks away with the post or rail attached to their rope then it's chasing them - not a good situation at all.) My good horses do well with the Blocker rings. I have one bad horse who knows he can get away from them so he gets tied fast.
I would never tie a horse in a breakaway halter, they'll just learn they can break away. I also don't use web halters or metal clips on my leads as a general rule. The metal breaks and people get hurt, plus the horse learns to break away.
I think the key to good tying is teaching them to give to halter pressure before you do anything else, and making sure they're consistent with it to the point where it's automatic. Then I start tying by wrapping the rope around the rail and standing with them, holding on to the other end of the rope. That way I can give if they panic. The Blocker ring works in the same way. Eventually I tie them to a sturdy spot with a rope halter and lead and if they pull back they learn it doesn't do them any good. But with all that prep work they almost never pull back. When something crazy happens and they do pull back, I just get out of the way and quietly wait for them to quit pulling. The key is not to panic. If they don't quit pulling I guess you'd have to cut the rope or release your quick release knot. I haven't had that happen, but I know there are horses that will pull until they pass out.
Some people will flag them and sack them out when they're tied. I haven't done that.
I guess I'm pretty long winded this morning. :)
OH, thank you for your long windedness! I so appreciate this and I know I will come back to it sometime in the future and re-read this wonderful advice! :)
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