Alternatives to baler twine

That idolo thing wouldn't work for my mare. She pulls back slowly and steadily until something breaks then comes to find me :rolleyes: She's not done it for ages though, but when I first got her I couldn't go out of her line of sight without her following me
 
skewbaldmillie said:
Today my mare was tied up to baler twine (only one relatively thin piece) and she stepped over her lead rope as was eating and tied long. Being Millie she panicked and spun and ended up going down. She was stuck up against a rotten shed full of wood. Luckily there was a plank of wood wedged under her so we were able to roll her back over when she was stuck on her back.Throughout this the baler twine didn't break and my leadrope became stuck in it as it was gripping the ripe. Millie would have been fine if the baler twine had broken. Does anybody tie up to anything else, I know people very rarely have issues but have completely lost my nerve tieing up to it now.
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There was an article I read a few years ago on this very subject. Apparently, the way baler twine is made nowadays it’s much stronger, so doesn’t break as easily. In the article, they recommend ‘splitting’ the twine so it’s much thinner, and will break easily when tugged hard. It works! I have a serial string snapper! It would cost me a fortune if I used anything other than baler twine! Cheaper than buying all the bungee/equi ping thingys! I cringe when I see trailers and horseboxes at comps with haylage twine on the tie rings! That’s even worse as it’s so much thicker and would be the last thing to break, jarring the horses neck really badly in a struggle 😏
 
tankgirl1 said:
That idolo thing wouldn't work for my mare. She pulls back slowly and steadily until something breaks then comes to find me :rolleyes: She's not done it for ages though, but when I first got her I couldn't go out of her line of sight without her following me
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At least she comes to find you 😃
 
flying_high said:
And? My Saddler recommended the idolo so searched for when had been discussed and commented.

Why does age of thread matter when discussing ways to tie up?
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You are dragging up someones 3yr old post to add information thats no longer required by the person who was asking for advice. It wasnt a general discussion about the merits of idolo which would at least make sense.
 
Leo Walker said:
You are dragging up someones 3yr old post to add information thats no longer required by the person who was asking for advice. It wasnt a general discussion about the merits of idolo which would at least make sense.
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No I am not. I am interested in using Idolo ties, and I have refreshed an old discussion to do so. I am under no illusion this is relevant to the original poster of the thread three years ago. I am not entirely sure why you feel the need to make the point re the age of the thread?

Tying horses securely so they don't get loose but don't injure themselves is startled and pull back suddenly is a time old problem, which isn't going away anytime soon.
 
I use Ídolo with a long rope. There are 2 ways to loop the rope so it is either easy to pull through or harder. I use the ‘harder’ option. I don’t think it would help in a real panic situation, but then that’s the point I guess. I find them very effective.
 
chocolategirl said:
There was an article I read a few years ago on this very subject. Apparently, the way baler twine is made nowadays it’s much stronger, so doesn’t break as easily. In the article, they recommend ‘splitting’ the twine so it’s much thinner, and will break easily when tugged hard. It works! I have a serial string snapper! It would cost me a fortune if I used anything other than baler twine! Cheaper than buying all the bungee/equi ping thingys! I cringe when I see trailers and horseboxes at comps with haylage twine on the tie rings! That’s even worse as it’s so much thicker and would be the last thing to break, jarring the horses neck really badly in a struggle 😏
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The problem I have is if it is easy to snap twine my horse does it for fun when shaking his head. It is hard to snap he panics and explodes when feels constraint, with the Idolo and a long leadrope, he typically seems to have forgotten why he was trying to pull back before he pulls all of my rope out of the Idolo <fingers crossed>. He has also learnt to hit the end of where he is tied, and explode to get free from twine, being able to slowly slide a bit more length seems to calm him.
 
cold_feet said:
I use Ídolo with a long rope. There are 2 ways to loop the rope so it is either easy to pull through or harder. I use the ‘harder’ option. I don’t think it would help in a real panic situation, but then that’s the point I guess. I find them very effective.
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Agree horse would pull free still in absolute panic as the end of the rope slid out of the device, but potentially handler would have more time to catch the tail end with the Idolo.

I would have though with an observant handler and a very long rope, it would be fairly easy to train a horse there is no benefit of pulling back to escape with an Idolo
 
EventingMum said:
I've swapped all my outside tie up rings from bailer twine to the Idolo tether tie:

http://idolotethertie.com/

To save time we leave a suitable lead rein on the tether tie and just clip the horse on to it when we want to tie up, so far they've been excellent, no more twine to replace and since we got them last September I think we've only had one loose horse as they stop pulling before the rope comes completely free.
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Just to say, be careful clipping a horse onto a rope that's already tied to something, especially without Idolo etc.
I saw a little girl do this, her pony yanked its head back as she clipped, and off she went to hospital with the hook of the snap clip embedded between her finger and thumb...
 
GreyMane said:
Just to say, be careful clipping a horse onto a rope that's already tied to something, especially without Idolo etc.
I saw a little girl do this, her pony yanked its head back as she clipped, and off she went to hospital with the hook of the snap clip embedded between her finger and thumb...
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Sounds like a nasty accident, but I am not sure would deter me from clipping horse's head collar to an already tied rope. Sounds more like an unlucky accident.

Irrespective of how I tie up, I unclip and reclip leadrope from headcollar when putting bridle and breastplate on, when tacking up tied up. Doesn't seem any more risky?
 
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