Teaching Ben to stand quietly when tied up

[Mary Poppins]

Ben has never been great at being tied up. I normally groom him and tack him up in his stable without tying him up, but recently I have decided that I would like him to have better manners whilst being tied outside his stable.

He isn't really that naughty, but he has this annoying habit of leaning back on his leadrope and looks like he is trying to slip his headcollar. He has never broken the string, but I think that this is luck rather than anything else. He doesn't voliently pull back, he just puts his weight backwards and leans on the rope. This means that he is putting lots of pressure on his poll from his headcollar - he looks really uncomfortable but he will happily stand like this for ages.

I have tried tying him up on a short rope or a long rope and he still does it. I have tried moving him forward and around when he does it, but as soon as I leave him alone he starts leaning again. I have tried not tying him up and just holding the leadrope, but this just makes him follow me around as I brush him. I have also tried not fastening the leadrope so he doesn't have anything to pull against, but then he got lose and I feared he would take himself off to the field.

He also keeps wanting to play with the horse in the stable next door. Even though he can't actually reach him, it doesn't stop him wanting to lick the other horse. He has a thing about licking both horses and humans!!

Any suggestions?

 

[domane]

Years ago a friend of mine had a gadget that fastened around her boy's rear end so that if he pulled back it would work in reverse and encourage him forwards. It wasn't something manufactured, she worked as a groom and one of the other grooms from a different country had made it for her. It worked brilliantly, without fear, the horse just worked out that if he pulled back, he'd feel like he was being pushed forwards.

Jack won't tie. He pulls back and breaks twine, his is a general panic about being restrained. The trouble is, he's trained ME because I know he'll pull back on the rare occasions I have tried to tie him, so I use minimal twine, which doesn't take a lot to snap - being the size he is, I didn't want him to slip and go down, risking injury. Have tried using a lunge line looped through the ring with me holding the other end and as he fears lines down his body, that worked well whilst I groomed his front end, but trying to reach his quarters and tail meant that the line had to stretch down his body and that, in itself, is reason for him to panic and pull back... so a no-win there for us too. In the end I just gave up and either pop him in his stable or have someone hold him.

To be honest, I've never heard of a horse behaving like Ben, just standing and pulling - perhaps in his case, you holding a lunge line would be useful as he wouldn't have anything to brace against with you on the other end. Interesting why he does it though..... I could suggest a rope halter but that would only make him more uncomfortable to achieve the desired result. I'm really curious to know why he does it..... :unsure:

 

[Flipo's Mum]

Haynet?

 

[Mary Poppins]

Haynet?

He will stand very happily eating a haynet, but I want to teach him to stand still without one.

 

[Joyscarer]

I've never cracked Joys tying issues. Most if the time she's ok but she's prone to fidgeting and will pull back and break away too.

I've never entirely cured her of her problems with being contained indoors. She never would even go in the barn, let alone stay there, and stabling was never going to happen. I got there with her and can do it without Littles being there too.

All I do is manage things. At all times I'm calm, I don't get upset, I'll move her back to where I want her without a fuss. She's better tied up outside. I don't use a haynet as its no more calming for her and so achieves nothing except a fatter pony!

Something has clearly happened in her past and I've got things as good as they are going to be with her. I don't think it helped that she'd be stood for hours tied up in tack with no food or water at the riding school. Poor thing.

 

[sjp1]

Does he understand about giving to pressure? Horses naturally lean INTO pressure, whereas what you want to teach them really is to move away from pressure.

Having said that, Tobes is a proper fidget, and whilst he doesn't pull away from being tied up, he gets bored and tries to climb up the half wall, investigating everything around. So I use a haynet!!!

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

I am actually really relieved to hear that other people have tying problems.

Ziggy has a habit of pulling back because worried, scaring himself more and then breaking twine/leadrope/pulling gate off hinges. Which is why I do most things with him loose, or just twirl the rope around something so that it will pull free immediately if he plays silly buggers.

So ideas for overcoming it very welcome! MP, you are not alone!

 

[OwnedbyChanter]

MP and Jane I understand the problem I tie up with a net at comps but at home they are only brought in unrugged, groomed anf tackup I do not give a net for this as I think they should be able to stand quietly for this amount of time.

Have you tried putting the hay net up when he sets in and removing it at earlier and earlier for example groom and put saddle on then remove net before you put the bridle on.

next time groom then remove the net before you tack up etc etc.

Not sure it would work but maybe worth a shot

 

[Trewsers]

Storm ties up fine with or without a net but does prefer a net! Chloe can be quite a fidget and has broken loose a couple of times. With her I have found nets don't really work - she somehow just looks like she wants to move around! She can be distracted by a bale on the floor - we do this when we have to do her mud fever etc - realise this isn't the most practical on a yard! Wonder if Ben needs a distraction? Could you tie him then find his favourite itchy parts? Then once he relaxes carry on normal grooming?

 

[Yann]

Does he understand about giving to pressure? Horses naturally lean INTO pressure, whereas what you want to teach them really is to move away from pressure

Sounds simple but I agree, this might be part of the problem. We do a lot of things with horses that we assume they should know about but sometimes they've not been taught properly and filled in the gaps themselves. So I'd try a little groundwork using pressure and release, and also teach standing still (clicker / reward is good for this), because some horses don't really understand that either

Little loan pony was a fidget at first, although she didn't pull back, I just used to patiently put her back where I wanted her and then actively or passively reward her for it, she soon cottoned on. Rio will very occasionally test the string to see if it'll snap when she's decided she'd really rather be somewhere else, but it's a very rare occurence and completely calculated

I think it's also important not to expect miracles, if you're tying up somewhere that's stressful or distracting for the horse then it's to be expected that they might be animated. And although it's nice not to have to use a net, sometimes you just need to get by.