Stopping the Lead Rope Breaker

There are many horses that have found the best way to get out of working, is to sit back and break their rope, halter, bridle, reins, etc. They learn that if the break it, then they will be put back in their stall or out to pasture, while you go hunt down a spare or go buy a new one. How you handle this situation, however, will also be the start of new habits for your horse, either good or bad.

The key to this situation is finding out the core of the problem. Why does your horse rear back when he is tied? Many horses know that this is a way of getting out of work, while other horses may be reacting out of fear. When you tie your horse, you are taking away his ability of flight. Horses are innate fight or flight animals and the majority of them prefer to fly. Many people have used numerous tricks to keep their horses from breaking their equipment. From stronger lead ropes to bungee cords, people have tied their horses up and try to make them “get used to it.” Everything is more frightening to a horse when they are tied up, from sneezes to phone calls, just about anything will set these horses off. They are often usually leery of being tied up from bad experiences as colts or they may have never been taught to yield to pressure or how to tie properly.

Many horses that rear back have never really been halter broke and may have never really learned about responding to pressure properly. Many people will halter their colts and figure the colt is halter broke because they follow them around like puppies. This is not necessarily the case, the first time that colt feels pressure on his head, he is going to have a fit and rear back. You will first want to begin by teaching the horse to respond to light pressure from the halter. You want them to learn to follow a feel. You will begin by applying slight pressure to the halter from the lead rope, the instant the horse reacts you will give him slack. You don’t want to pull strongly on the halter as this will only result in a brace and lean from the horse. You just want the horse to learn to follow a feel and teach him that his reaction does not have to be dramatic.

The key is to teach your horse to be confident, work with him and apply pressure in a variety of ways. You may also want to begin teaching your horse to tie by standing still and not tied to anything at all. If you are afraid the horse is going to wonder off, just loop your lead rope around your fence pole once. This will supply enough pressure to keep him in one place, but if he feels the need to rear back he won’t meet any resistance. This will also keep you from having to buy a new halter.

As your horse gains confidence, you will start exposing him to new situations and activities, but always allow him to feel as if he can come and go as he pleases. This will allow him to approach things that he is curious about without having to commit. Soon, the horse will become used to a lot of new sounds and objects and very few things will excite him or scare him.


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Happy Trails and Training


Equineman