Horses Being 'Swung'?

ladyt25

ladyt25

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Can anyone explain to me exactly what this entails? Has anyone any experience of this themselves?

I believe I have some understanding of it but just wanted to hear what others' experiences have been and what your thoughts are on it?
 
It refers to haltering and tying up an unhandled horse for the first time, they sometimes rear and throw themselves about hence the term. I'd say it's used by driving, dealing and travellers more than riding people.
 
Yeah, that was sort of my understanding - do they just tie them to a fixed ring on a post in general?

As you say is usually used by driving, dealers and travellers do you think that it's not now a usual practice then?

I guess I should say, the reason for my question is my youngster was apparently sent to be 'swung' by the previous owners (I got him aged 15 mths, they had him from 6 mths). He is 3 now and doing well, am just backing him. I just guess I was wondering what he may have experienced being put through this.
 
No, mine seems fine and has always tied up well (although he has recently worked out how to snap the string!! Grr)

I am wondering of anyone's acrtually done it or worked for anyone who has so I can get some better idea of the process I guess.
 
I have seen a horse swung, if I am thinking of the same thing. A young, particularly self destructive TB.

She was tied up with a shortened lunge line, a clip at each end. One clip on her head collar. The other end was passed through the tie up ring and behind the horse and then back onto the ring. If she pulled back, she went into the rope.
It only took the once to cure her of her silliness and it really wasn't too bad to watch. For one so stupid, she caught on pretty quick!

This must've been about 18 years ago, not seen it done since.
 
Yowsers - didnt realise that sort of thing still went on :(

It can result in being headshy at best and broken/crushed bones in the poll/nose at worst, along with the obvious mental trauma of being unable to escape for a flight animal.
 
We used to have a Bull ring in the wall on our yard years ago and the unhandled/plain rude horses/ponies used to et tied to this! Once they realised the ring wouldn't give way and they were better standing still they soon behaved! Seen some horses go crazy but it was usually a quick lesson learnt!
 
TigerTail said:
Yowsers - didnt realise that sort of thing still went on :(

It can result in being headshy at best and broken/crushed bones in the poll/nose at worst, along with the obvious mental trauma of being unable to escape for a flight animal.
Click to expand...

Blimey! Not good.

Thankfully mine doesn't seem to have any of these issues. So, essentially it is just a case of tying the horse to a fixed ring basically? How long do they leave them for?
 
From what I have seen the horse would be tied to a solid object and left to figure out that he needs to stand still to avoid pressure from the headcollar, once he learns this he can be taught to lead without pulling the handler about too much.
Same as anything else, if the trainer has common sense it can be successful and they do learn to tie up very quietly, however it does have obvious risks and I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone do it with anything much older than twelve months.
Also with the pressure halters that are widely available, the results of tying an unhandled youngster (or anything else) with these would almost certainly be disastrous.

To be honest, horses that come from driving/traveller backgrounds do tend to be very easy to manage, the really divvy ones probably wouldn't survive the first three years(!)
Hence why Gypsy Cobs are so sensible...
 
quirky said:
I have seen a horse swung, if I am thinking of the same thing. A young, particularly self destructive TB.

She was tied up with a shortened lunge line, a clip at each end. One clip on her head collar. The other end was passed through the tie up ring and behind the horse and then back onto the ring. If she pulled back, she went into the rope.
It only took the once to cure her of her silliness and it really wasn't too bad to watch. For one so stupid, she caught on pretty quick!

This must've been about 18 years ago, not seen it done since.
Click to expand...

Yikes I'm not sure I'd dare do that, however these dangerous techniques can be successful for those who know what they are doing and what might go wrong,at the end of the day horses are big powerful animals, and one that can't tie up imo is pretty much useless.
 
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