“Recently I have been trying to find more secure places to tie him, but he pulls the halter so hard that he gets it stuck in his mouth,”………

I have a 13 yr. old Quarter horse paint. He is a gelding, and is generally well behaved and sweet. I have been working with him now for almost a year, and have slowly been working through all of the problems that he has had. Recently however, I have had problems tying him to the hitching post. I generally tied him semi-loose, with some slack hanging and he was fine. He would stand all day that way if I wanted him to. We have done it a million times but something scared him and he pulled back, panicked, and undid my knot and pulled the rope so hard that he melted parts of it. He has also pulled up two hitching posts, both of which were set in concrete. Recently I have been trying to find more secure places to tie him, but he pulls the halter so hard that he gets it stuck in his mouth, which causes him to freak out even more. The halter is a rope halter, and it fits him very well. I started asking around and my aunt told me about something she uses called a “patience pole”. Hers has a hub on the top that allows it to spin 360 degrees. I have never encountered one of these before, and I don’t know how safe they are. Any tips or advice?  Thanks,

Janelle Nelson’s Answer:

Kate,

Your horse has a pull back problem that is going to take some time and consistency to correct. I imagine that when you lead him and the rope comes taut unexpectedly that he will stop and pull also.  You will need to go back to the very fundamentals of halter breaking and re-establish “giving” to the rope.  If you are handy at ponying horses this can be a good way to help with this problem.  ( do this only if you are confident with the horse that is being ridden, you have a sturdy saddle with roping horn and can “keep going” when he stops and pulls.) If there is a natural horsemanship trainer you may want to enlist their help. I can’t stress strongly enough the value of getting help in any problem situation….. you do not want to risk things getting worse.

Your aunt is correct about the patience pole.  We have been using this for teaching horses to stand and tie and also to learn to give the hindquartes.  You can ‘google” where to find one, however the “cowboy” version is to tie a ring at the end of a rope and hang it from a very sturdy limb.  Your horses head should be at a comfortable level when tied to the ring however when he attempts to pull back his head will go up and he will not be able to get his weight behind him.  At one natural horsemanship facility I trained at, we “hung” all of the horses every morning after they had breakfast and something to drink.  When we walked by them during the day we would ask the horse to “give” and to cross over. It was one of the most effective and easy ways to teach this I have found.

Always tie your horse as high as possible in any situation and please make sure you never tie to something that will give way.

Clinton Anderson and Richard Winters both have some very good articles on these methods.

I am confident that you can overcome this with time and consistency.  please feel free to contact me again if you need further explanation.