Pulling back

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Sarah6

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Hi i have got a 5year old exmoor who has been well handled but never tied up, he doesn't pull back to break away he just pulls back so the rope is tight and hes leaning on it,it looks very uncomfortable and i don't no what to do about it, any ideas?
 
My youngster had started doing something like this as well - I think she is just trying to test the boudaries basically. I have spent a bit of time with her an every time she starts to get close to bringing the lead rope tight I keep asking her to move back towards the point she is tied up to. Just so anytime she is close to leaning on the leadrope I just ask her to move over / forward so that she isn't leaning on it.
I don't know if this is going to help in the long run, as this is the first horse that I have had doing this, but I think that she is getting better.

A prime example of what not to do, is what had been done to my mare I recently sold, before I had brought her. She didn't like being tied up and kept pulling back and breaking free. So her previous owner tied her up to a granite gatepost with a length of chain until she learnt to stay there and not pull. Needless to say she had huge sores all over her face from where the headcollar had bitten into her face. Then the owner wondered why the mare didn't like having a headcollar put on by him!!!
 
I had heard of a method that can allegedly help to stop horses from pulling back....I think what you do is tie the horse using two leadropes, one longer than the other, tied to separate pieces of baling twine. When the horse pulls back, it will pull until it snaps the first loop, but then 'forget' that it is still tied by the second one....thus the pulling back will not have achieved anything, as horse will find itself still tied up, and will ultimately not have done what it set out to do! I dont know if this works, I dont know anyone who has used it, but I remember reading it in a very very very ancient horsemanship book somewhere!
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Tie him up with a rubber type bungee, fieldguard.co.uk used to sell them, I had a mare that used to pull back and lean then it progressed to pulling back to break away so I bought a tie up bungee which is a thick (2" diameter) rubber bungee about 2ft long with a clip either end, when a horse pulls back it has a maximum stretch of 6ft!! she realised she couldn't get away from it so she gave in and from then on she would tie up on a lead rope once again.
 
oh god not those bungee ties
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, I once saw a horse tied up with one, it pulled back and the bungee stretched as it should and then it snapped and it was under so much pressure that it catalpulted into the horse cutting his chest
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Mine used to do this but actually pulled until it broke. I just quietly tied her back up again everytime without talking to her. Don't know if that was what I'm meant to do or not as she is my first horse but now she ties up and will stand while I get on with anything I need to do, with her or away from her.
 
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