Today we are talking about the importance of tying your horse.

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I get asked, “how do you get your horses so patient?” Horses that can’t hang out in a stall, horses that can’t stand still, patience, patience post tying is ingrained in our system. Every single time we ride a horse we’re going to bathe the horse like they are a show horse and after the bathing process they’re going to stand and dry. That’s a bare minimum of an hour, to hour and a half tied up while they’re drying. Then, if we come around the corner with the next horse that we just worked that we’re about to wash and they’re still dancing, prancing, and moving around, we’ll leave them for an additional hour while we work the next horse.

You have to remember horses; they are like sharks. They’re always constantly meandering. When you see them in the field, you think that they’re completely relaxed, they’re always meandering. When you take that meandering away, a lot of times you’ll have the pawing and the dancing around.

Places To Tie Your Horse

We’re going to show you a couple of places where we like to tie the horses. Right over here, you’ll notice that we have a horse that we just washed. He is tied to the H, and he’s been bathed and cleaned. We have a couple colts in the barn, under the fans. Notice everybody’s in the shade.

Then another tie you could have, if you don’t have an H, is a line in the tree. We have this guy from a line on the tree that I just tossed up. I like to put a swivel in it, then you can tie the horse to the swivel. It makes it pretty easy. Again, all this stuff is just for the overall patience of the horse. There are so many people that wait until they get to a trail and then they try to tie their horse up to the trailer. They don’t know why their horse can’t stand still. Or the first time the horse is asked to stand still is on the trailer, en route to somewhere. If they just spend time just hanging out, they will get to relaxing.

TYING WORKS ON PATIENCE

One of the best horses you’re ever going to see is an Amish horse. Amish horses hang out in tie stalls when they’re not working. They are clipped up and they hang out there with the hay and they stand all day. Then they get turned out at night. They have hay and water, just like they’re in a stall, but they’re tied. The reason for this is they’re working horses. They have to be able to get hooked up to a load, go from here to there, a to b, a five-minute little walk, and then they must stand still while the trailers are getting loaded and unloaded. They can’t move or be dancing around. Standing still is how they work on patience.

Same way as the cowboys and the ranch workers. The cowboy wakes up, puts his britches on and puts his saddle on the horse. He’s either working, or the horse is tied or hobbled somewhere hanging out waiting while the cowboys working. You’ll ride a good ranch horse; you’ll be cantering and the second you stop and drop the reins they’re already going to sleep. They do this because they know they must hang out and be patient all day long. They have an amazing ability to turn on and turn off.

Shade, Sturdy Place, Let Them Relax

We’re going to take you around and show you some of the other places where we tie our horses. Basically, you’re going to see the same thing. Places that they can’t break or pop. So, we’re not tying with clips, we’re not tying with metal. We want them to have a rope halter on and we’re tying to things that they’re not going to move. Hitching posts, telephone posts, trees, things like that. They learn how to be patient. If they’re out and about, we like to put fly spray on them. We like to have them in the shade if it’s in the summer. We like to just let them relax. Follow me and we’ll go see some places.

Exhibit A, surprise, a Quarter horse waiting to be worked today. Hanging out in our tack room until I get back to him. He got saddled up and he’s hanging out here waiting. Again, notice, everywhere that we go there’s going to be shade and the horse is going to be tied to something that the horse can’t get away from. We can feel confident leaving him there and he’s going to become very patient just waiting around for us. On to the next one.

Tie To Something Secure

Out here beside the thunder dome, we have places and telephone poles to hook to. The big thing is, I don’t really like to tie to four-by-fours unless they’re really concreted into the ground. Around the railing here there are six-by-sixes and they’re concreted in. I have all the horses that I’ve already worked today, they’re hanging out here. They will spend an hour or two getting some shade and spending some time outdoors. I love to have the horse out there getting more patient. They are getting more relaxed, seeing traffic, seeing all the horses pass by them. When they’re over here on the deck they have horse people walking right past them. They hear horses getting worked in the round pen. All this stuff makes them easier and more forgiving horses.

Guys, thank you so much for reading. Trust me, tie your horse more, and you’ll make a more forgiving horse.

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