The old cowboy way, at night when the horses were done for the day they were fitted with front hobbles so they could move around and graze without going too far away.
When you tie a youngster to a post the horse may panic and pull back with enough force to cause damage to the neck, soft tissue and vertebra.
Ground tieing is a great thing for a horse to learn, however, in the good old cowboy days, if the horse did spook, they may be just feet from a road. More and more barns are being surrounded by urban areas, the barn of the future is in a town or city. New York City and Washington both have one or two barns, in the city. A horse standing ground tied could spook and be in a major traffic roadway in a flash.
Cross ties do not imply that the horse will only get worked from one side. In fact it is a good place to start teaching the idea to yield their hips and shoulder from the human.
With the wall behind them they can not get enough force to pull and damage the neck. Rubber mats are the floor in all of my grooming stalls. The horses learn that I can work from both sides, they very, very quickly learn to shift over away from my body, not into it.
They cannot get enought height to flip over, the pull is even across the entire noseband, instead of just one side.
A horse in a very short period of time learns to stand tied, give away from pressure asking them to move over, allow us humans to move all around them. I always talk a lot when I am working around a horse, and I always introduce new things slowly. We use a vacuum on the horses. After you curry all the dry dirt and bring the scruff up to the top of the hair shaft the vacuum picks it all up. It also causes the hair root to pruduce more oil and you get a lovely glowing coat. Most horses get used to this in just a few minutes. In cross ties I can introduce them to the vacuum, first I just turn it on, it has a low setting. They know they can not move away from you sideways or pull back away, so they are willing to allow me to start with the end backwards so they do not feel the suction, just a rub on the shoulder and neck. Horses see very well behind them, they just need to raise their heads to see what is back there. I start on low once they are used to the noise, feel and the hose going back to the machine.
I can not think of one horse I have started that was not willing to stand happy in cross ties, and they learn the vacuum feels good.
By the way, when you trailer your horse, mostly in a head to head, they will be cross-tied, and they MUST be able to press on the back wall. It really helps them balance.
I do teach all my horses to stand ground tied. This is in the riding ring, gate closed and I often have to get off and re-set jumps or grids. I would not ground tie my horse in a situation where if spooked they could quickly get to a road, or even a drive way.
Safety first, safety halter, safety ties, panic ends on cross ties, not too long, yet long enough to feel the back wall, slow introduction to new things. A cross tie gives me a good place to work around my horse in a safe manner. I have never had one to learn to panic and run backwards, and the ones that come here for training that know that trick, very quickly learn the cross ties are a safe place for them as well.
Jay