07/08/2025
Learning to tie- an important skill.
There are a lot of methods/ideas to teach young horses to tie quietly- from patience poles to standing next to them feeding them cookies when they stand still.
This is Tex, a 3 year old who is just recently halter broke. He’s worked briefly on tying prior to this picture but not much. Today, I tied him while I cleaned his paddock. Note- the use of a flat halter to tie, I chose this instead of a rope halter in anticipation of the horse moving or testing the tie. I wanted to avoid excess pressure on the facial nerves if at all possible.
I chose this spot to tie and to tie in his paddock for several reasons:
1. The paddock is large enough for the horse and I to be safe of things go poorly.
2. If any equipment fails, I will only have a loose, kind of halter broke 3 year old in a reasonable space.
3. He feels safe in his paddock- less anxiety for new skills!
4. He is familiar with standing in this location because it’s where he is fed regularly.
The idea is to build as many positive experiences being tied as I possibly can. I can observe from a safe distance while not actively engaging with him. Today’s tying practice was very positive- we stood relatively still and relaxed for about 10 minutes.
There are some environmental safety hazards that I don’t love in this spot.
1. The hot wire fencing directly behind (I did remember to turn it off prior to starting).
2. Page wire wrapping the shelter post.
3. Possibility of getting wrapped around the post.
4. I tied a bit looser than I should have
5. Possibility to get hung up in the hay net- mitigated by tying to binder twine
