I am working on getting my horse to stand tied nice and quiet and relaxed. He tends to paw, dance around a little, and stand at the end of the rope sometimes. I have found that he is a little more relaxed if he is tied a bit longer. Not long enough to get his head all the way to the ground though. I tie him with a slip release knot in case he should really get into trouble.

Yesterday, I left him tied with a hay bag. That seemed to help. It kept him from standing at the end of the rope. He did spook at something & took a few steps sideways once. I did not leave him unattended, but was doing other things outside.

My questions are:
How long should I leave him tied at a time while teaching him this?
Should I be visible to him?
Should I be putting hay in front of him?
Is the length I tie him okay...should I shorten it up gradually?

Can ANY horse, even a curious, cautious, a little bit on the spooky side horse learn to tie relaxed and quiet? I wouldn't say he's a ball of nerves, he just seems anxious when tied, especially when tied shorter like with a trailer tie.

I think you're doing fine... Also, you can practice tying him at the END of a work/ride session, so he is not as any...

I am a great proponent for tying horses out until they become quiet and patient. My favorite tying place is a nylon rope with a big swivel bull snap hung down from a big tree limb. I want the rope to be about long enough for the snap to reach just below the height of the horse’s withers.

I tie my horses out until I can just tie them out any time and they just stand there, hind leg cocked and completely relaxed. It may take one 5 or 6 hour day or it may take several days, but I won’t ride them or try to teach them anything else until they can be tied up and are completely relaxed.

I completely ignore them and I never put feed out for them. If it is hot, I will offer them water once or twice. If they don’t drink, I don’t worry about it.

I’ve had them dig holes that had to be filled up with the tractor and front-end loader every night. I’ve had them dig holes that were so deep they were standing on their tiptoes with no slack in the rope. But, you know what? A couple of days later, they had all learned to stand quietly and relax when they were tied up. They tailored better and they trained better.

Over the years, I have gotten to where I don’t even try to train on a horse that is fidgeting and fussing when they are brought out and tied up. I’ll just leave them tied up somewhere and ride a different horse until they get their mind straight. They learn so much more and so much quicker if they are settled. If they are all nervous and fussy, it will carry over into the riding session. You spend most of your time trying to get them settled down under saddle. Your training session will probably be fruitless and may even go backwards.

I don’t care if they are Arabians, TBs off of the track to a cow-bred colt. Their first lesson will be to stand tied quietly.

EVERY horse should be able to stand tied quietly, no questions asked. If not, they NEED to be taught to.. Which comes with "practice". Tie them in a safe quiet place and let them figure it out.. Most figure it out fairly quickly. And then there are others that don’t get it for a day or so.. They are much better in the long run when they learn patience.

Being tied is just as important as being caught, you can’t ride if you can’t catch you horse or tie it to tack up. There are a few people that i know that think its cruel and unusual punishment to leave them tied UNTIL they can behave. But i find it much worse to put up with the cruel and unusual human punishment they put them selves through just dealing with their ill/no mannered horses on a daily basis. It’s easier to solve the problem in the beginning than deal with it everyday.

the way i train to stand tied is:

day one; work in the round pen tie to something strong, once the horse stands still un tie and let loose (put another horse with it)

day two: give 5 minutes and untie if the horse if standing quietly (if doesn't wait till he stands even for 2 seconds)

day three: same as day two

once the horse can stand tied for 5 minutes go to ten then 20 and so on...

It sounds like you know what you're doing and everyone here gives good advice. Thanks for the info. I think patience helps too with the process.

This is a major problem we are having with our 15 month old stud colt. Thanks for the great tips. We are trying them each day.

When we started tying the horses out, we did it gradually, first making sure that they were good with being tied up for grooming, as well as standing in cross ties. When it came to tying them outside to graze, especially with young horses, we first either exercised them or gave them some free time to run in the paddock - young horses need to get those kinks out, kick up their heels and run. Only when they had all the "beans" out of their system, would we then collect them and tie them out for a while. By that point, they were usually very happy to calm down and do some grazing.

We started this slow... Just leading the horse out and standing there to let him graze. Eventually, we put them on a lunge line (sp) and let them work out into a larger and larger circle. From there, we would tie them out but stay with them, just letting it seem commonplace. We often would work on other projects nearby, cleaning saddles, etc... gradually moving away from them as we went about doing chores and then coming back, making the period of time between returns longer and longer.

It worked beautifully

My husband and I both ride very energetick arabs that we have taught to tie Quitly to a tree/trailer ect we tie them kind of long as we have endurance horses that will sleep tied so they need to lay down any way i give them a hay net and watter but leave them their long enough and frequently enough to be comfortable with it the6y dont mind it at all because i usaly choose then to give them their rice bran etc I would aslo sugest working on it after a ride or lunging them first jamie

How do you teach a horse to stand tied if they have already learned to pull back? How do you keep them from breaking more lead ropes , halters or hurting themselves?
Cathy C