• Ground Tie
• Single Tie
• Cross Tie

Well trained horses should be able to stand tied.

Well trained horses should be able to stand tied. Not only is this a practical necessity for attending to our many horse chores, but it is an important building block for the future education of your horse. For example, when a horse learns to stand tied, he must learn to give to pressure so that he doesn't pull back and break ties. Knowing how to give in to pressure is also a fundamental basic the horse must learn to be able to respond to the bit correctly and to steer. Often people don't give enough thought or time into educating horses to stand tied, so the horses may panic, pull back and break free. I have seen horses doing this flip over backwards and injure themselves.(If we are near the horse when it panics and breaks free we also risk being injured.) Once a horse realizes it can break free, it will continue to do so.

Some feel that the best way to teach a horse to tie is to get an unbreakable halter and rope, tie the horse to something solid and unbreakable, and let the horse thrash around until the horse gives in. This method can get a horse to stand tied. However, this can be quite traumatic for the horse. An aggressive type horse can battle to the point of breaking his neck. (Unfortunately, I have seen this happen.) Others use the above method but they soften up the process by tying the horse to an inner-tube that is secured to something strong. This can work on a less aggressive horse, but it is still very frightening for most horses and there is still risk of serious injury.

My goal when training horses is to present lessons in a practical sequence so that the horses are not traumatized or frightened. Horses cannot learn if they are upset and scared. Even though the above methods may work in some cases, I personally do not recommend them because of the trauma and anxiety it may cause. Developing calmness is more important, and to me it's just not worth taking chances.

There are several basic lessons that a horse should learn and be comfortable with before attempting to tie. First and foremost, for your own safety, your horse must learn to respect you and accept you as the dominant partner in your relationship. Your horse needs to like being with you. He should not be scared of you. He should bond, enjoy being near and willingly follow you. There are a variety of methods for achieving these results such as round-penning, or using a halter and rope with the "natural" horsemanship methods.

Second, you must teach your horse to lead correctly. If you went through the above lessons successfully, the horse is usually cooperative about following where we lead. But eventually the horse will get distracted, or may just want to test us and will refuse to lead. Here is where you may need to apply pressure on the halter, holding the pressure until the horse gives in and starts leading again.

Applying pressure from the side is best because it can slightly unbalance the horse and causes him to move a front leg to re-balance. In this way, he has taken a step in the right direction (toward the pull of the lead). Immediately go to him and praise him so he understands he did the right thing. Some horses may try backing, pulling against the pressure, rearing, or other evasions to get away from the pressure. The pressure should not be released until the horse takes a step toward the pull of the lead. Always let the horse know he did the correct thing by rewarding him with immediate release and praise.

Step three involves teaching your horse to disengage his hindquarters.(This is when you ask the horse to turn sharply so that one back leg steps under and crosses in front of the other back leg.) To ask your horse to disengage to the left, you would step toward his left hip, and with the lead line in your left hand pull your horse's face toward you. At the same time your right hand should push his flank away from you. The horse should respond by turning towards you and crossing it's back left leg in front of it's back right leg.

Pushing the horse’s hindquarters away helps the horse turn toward you and teaches the horse to give to pressure laterally. This is the horses second exposure to "giving to pressure". The repetition of this concept is very helpful to the horse. It sets up the stage for the horse to tie successfully, give to the bit and prepares the horse for steering. So far, your horse respects you as dominant, is willing to follow you, likes to be near you, and has learned to give to pressure. The fourth step is very important, and that is to teach your horse to stand. You can't teach your horse to stand tied quietly until you teach him to stand quietly.

He's probably already standing quietly for you when you are with him. Now you have to expand his skill by detaching from him. That can be tricky because up until now you've been teaching your horse to follow you. To detach from you horse, signal him to stand while you step away. At first, step away only one step and quickly return to him before he decides to follow you. Immediately reprimand him if he moves, and praise him lavishly if he stays still. Gradually you will be able to move farther and farther away.

As you detach from your horse, let the middle of your lead lay on the ground while you hold only the end of it. When your horse stands still and you can leave his side and walk all around him, challenge him by using a longer rope (20-22 ft) and moving even farther away. Remember to always let the rope lay on the ground as you practice this lesson. Once this is mastered, your horse will be pretty much trained to "Ground-tie". You must teach your horse to ground-tie before you teach him to tie.

Now your horse is finally ready to be tied. To prepare for this you need to have a tie ring on a wall (secured to a stud) or put a ring on a strong rope tied around a post. The ring should be hung slightly higher than the horses head (similar height to cross-ties). Lead the horse to the tie ring and practice ground-tying there first. (You'll definitely need a long rope for this.) Try to detach a good distance away. If your horse is okay doing this by the wall or post, the it's time to run the rope through the ring. don't tie the rope yet. When horses are scared, instinct directs them to run away. If they can't run away instinct will direct them to fight. If you tie your horse right away and it gets scared, the restraint will cause it to fight to break free. At this point, the horse becomes dangerous to handle and approach.

To prevent this scenario, pass the rope thru the tie ring and hold onto the end of it. This allows you to give just enough release on the rope when needed to keep the horse from panicking. The horse can pull back and not feel complete restraint, but you must keep the pressure on the halter. Not so much pressure to make the horse fight, but enough for him to want to step forward for relief.

Once the horse can stand without struggling, start detaching just a few steps at a time so that you make it easy for your horse to respond correctly. (You will still be holding the the end of the rope passed thru the tie-ring). Always take a moment to praise your horse when it does well.

Gradually you should practice moving farther and farther away. You may need to repeat this lesson several times before moving to the next step. Start with short sessions (5 minutes) initially, and gradually lengthen how long you want your horse to stand. To get your horse ready for cross-ties, you can attach the rope to the side of the halter instead of under the face. This feels different to the horse and he needs to get used to it. Then, a second tie ring and an assistant on the other side if available is very helpful. The assistant should be using the same techniques on the other side of the horse. You should repeat these sessions until your horse will stand calmly without pulling.

Now your horse is ready for the real thing. Just in case, make sure you are familiar with tying quick-release knots, or use panic-snaps on your crossties. (Available at any tack shop or catalog.) Make sure you have the panic snaps attached to the wall end of the ties and not on the halter end. If your horse panics and is upset, it may be dangerous to get close to him to release the panic snaps. Approaching a wall to release them is safer. I recommend using fairly long cross-ties in the beginning. (Your horse should be able to lower his head to his knees.) Whenever you tie or cross-tie your horse in a new spot make sure you practice ground-tying there first. If that goes OK, then it's time to tie-up. First only tie to one side of the halter. Keep the lead rope on the bottom ring of the halter,and use it to reprimand your horse if he wants to move around. If you want to cross-tie, cross-tie one side only, attach your lead to the other side and see how your horse responds. If all goes well, next session cross-tie both sides but still leave your lead on the bottom ring of the halter so that you can correct your horse if needed. Also, if he should panic for any reason and break loose from the cross-ties, you can still keep him from running off. The horse must learn he can not get free.

I also recommend that you enforce certain rules as acceptable and unacceptable behaviors while you are going through this training process with your horse. Whether in the round-pen, on a lead line, ground-tying or cross-tying: whinnying to other horses, pawing, biting the ties, excessive movement, smashing into the wall etc. are all unacceptable behaviors. You must be consistent with enforcing these rules.

I have found that following this sequence of lessons successfully prepares most horses to cooperate fully and greatly reduces panic, fear, and breaking of ties. This method is thorough and time-consuming but totally well-worth every minute of effort you will put into it. Your horse will be calm, trusting and will not mind standing quietly tied for you.

Time, practice, repetition and patience are absolutely necessary for success. After all, if you don't have the patience to invest the time for this process, how can you expect your horse to have the patience to stand around tied for you?