My horse simply will not tie up. Each time i try he simply pull until either whatever he is tied to pretty much snaps/break/pulls out of the ground. He's only young (3 years) and it's not like his response is that he's scared, it's more he'd rather follow me around than stand in one spot.
A little frustrating for when you want to hose him down or saddle him up.
Hi Jordyn, I went through this with my last boy. I found that the easiest thing to do was to lay the lead rope over his fence while I was grooming him (as that was the only thing he would stand for anyway) and just brushed him a little more often than usual. After a couple of weeks i'd slide it through a piece of baling twine so that if he did pull it wouldn't catch. After a couple more weeks I was able to tie him to bale twine (which we use as a safety measure in case they do) and he quite hapilly ties up now. He never did stand still for baths though. He had a problem with the hose even though he'd only ever seen them used for drinking, filling water troughs and hosing off the big horses who enjoyed a shower no matter the weather. :-)
Hi Jordyn,
From what you describe I gather your young horse could benefit from some good Duallywork. If you watch the Dually- lessons on standing still on this Uni, he might learn to find value in standing still, and have you working around him. This way you "tie him to the ground", without the risk of him pulling into pressure. Next step could be as Denea states above using bale twine, so it would break in case he panics.
If you watch the lessons by Florian Oberparleiter, he shows what he calls the "parked horse",
which could help you, too, to overcome his restlessness.
Don't expect to much to soon, work in small incremental steps.
Please let us know how things work out,
Miriam
Hi Jordyn, great advice from all; for extreme cases there is a section in Montys book about horses that pull back; he uses an elasticated bungee cord and makes sure there is a wall or something solid behind them so they touch that before the rope runs out of stretch - they learn that there is no benefit to the pulling. No result: No desire to continue the behaviour :-) I would read the bok carefully though because the measurements are precise; you don't want the horse pinging off the bungee!!! I suggest rather than baling twine that you have a look at the Equi-ping as a safety measure, but only with all the lessons that everyone has suggested in place otherwise the more he breaks his tie the more ingrained the behaviour will become. Good luck, keep us posted :-)
How do we teach Haltering a 2 year old that bites? Also teaching him to back from the ground on a lead rope. My email merci.silverb@gmail.com. Thank you!
Can you explain a bit more please, does he wear a halter at all? When you say "teach haltering" I'm not sure what you mean. Whatever else, you need a Dually and to work through all the Dually lessons for leading and handling. Some more info would help us to give a more detailed response. :-)
Hi. I assume this is 2 year old colt. Yes, you need a dually and the Uni plus From My Hands To Yours. Stop any feeding by hand. Put treats in a bucket. When he tries to bite distract him. My colt is 15 months and does not bit, despite my habit of feeding carrots and mints by hand. I used to blow "raspberries" at him and that worked. Monty suggests gently bumping him on the shin with your foot when he tries to bite. Teaching him the value of standing still is also a useful distraction. Keep us posted how you are getting on.