Horse Problem - Pull-Back - Horse pulls back/freaks out when tied (solution for all pull back problems)

He usually rears back and then gives up after one try, but he pulls very violently and then the next time he's tied it's the same thing all over again, especially if he can't see his pasture mate. I've tried tying him to a high line and he does the same thing. I have considered tying an inner tube to a tree, and also considered tying him to a tree above wither height with a 2' rope, but I'm not sure I want to do this because of the chance of injury, and if he were to get into trouble I'd be afraid to approach him. Some people say to just snub him and let him figure it out. There are "pull-back" halters with a rope loop that puts pressure on the poll - I haven't tried those. I have a knotted rope halter for teaching him to lead (he's gotten better about that), but I think if he pulled it the knots would tighten and the halter would loosen, and he'd fall out of it, so I never tie him with that halter. I need to solve this problem so I can take him places and tie to the trailer. I don't want to create a worse problem by doing something stupid, and I don't want him to get injured, but I do realize it may come to a choice of taking a risk in order for him to learn to stand tied. Any suggestions you could make would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

This "pull-back" problem occurs when a horse hasn't been properly taught yet how to "yield to pressure." A horse that does not know how to yield to pressure yet will exhibit that behavior exactly as you described: they cannot be tied or they freak out, pull back, and many of them when being led or worked with on the lead rope can even suddenly pull back so hard, no human this side of the Incredible Hulk can hang onto that rope! And it's quite dangerous to tie a horse who does not know how to yield to pressure yet. So, rule of thumb: never tie a horse with a regular halter/lead (or even an NH halter/lead) until they fully know how to yield to pressure.

We actually had a horse die recently in a pull-back accident here in Blacksburg, VA, where I live (not one of my clients!) at a local stable -- semi-trained horse had been tied without knowing how to yield to pressure first, then pulled back, freaked, came up, the tie bar broke, horse fell over, came down and broke his neck. Died on the spot. Horribly tragic incident which never should have happened had the horse been taught to yield to pressure properly before being tied. Showing you that so that you take this problem quite seriously and don't tie him yet until you back up and retrain him to thoroughly give to pressure!

Here's the natural horsemanship method I use to back up and re-teach that "give to pressure" lesson better if a horse has a serious enough problem with pull-back issues like you've got there (and this is for a pull-back problem when you're working with them on a lead rope, as well -- same solution, it's all the same problem). You need something called a "belly rope" for this exercise, which you can make yourself. Here's how: Go to a hardware supply store (like Home Depot or Lowe's) and get them to cut about a 20-foot length of nylon rope (have them burn/melt the ends so they don't fray). Do not use cotton rope for this as it can hang up and not loosen properly when it is supposed to. Stick to "more slippery" nylon rope for this purpose.

Here's how to turn that into a belly rope and how to put it on the horse for this lesson/retraining (I would do this in the round pen or some such safely enclosed area with enough room to move around for a start, but where the horse can't get away):

• Tie a permanent small loop in one end of that rope.
• Put a strong web halter on your horse that has a ring underneath the chin (that a lead rope usually clips to -- don't have a lead rope on there, just the halter).
• Make sure your horse is desensitized to ropes first, rubbing the wadded up nylon rope all over the horse with that being no big deal.
• Stand on one side of the horse, by his shoulder. Now take the looped end of the 20-foot belly rope and run it over the horse's back just below his withers, and around and under his belly with the looped end ending up right under the smallest part of his forward belly (where the cinch usually goes, which technically is the horse's chest, where his lungs are).
• Next, run the non-looped end of the rope through the loop you made earlier on the other end, and then bring it up between his front legs as you draw out all the slack. Make sure that the loop is positioned exactly in the middle of his chest down there underneath, not off to the side, and that the rope end you just drew between his legs is exactly evenly in the middle there.
• Next, run the loose end of the belly rope that is now between those front legs up and through the metal ring under the chin of his halter.
• Draw all the slack out through that ring until the rope is snugly around the horse's chest. Double check to make sure everything is even and rope intersection is exactly in the middle of the chest area.
• If your horse is rope shy, you'll need to do all this carefully, rubbing him a bit with the rope first to get him used to it and perhaps even ongoingly until you've got it all "hooked up." Slow movements are better than fast ones there. Just have a "ho-hum" attitude there and the horse will pick up on it.
• Stop and bond with the horse to keep them relaxed and rational. Here are horse whispering bonding techniques: http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/TrainingTips58.html

Here's what the belly rope will look like once it's on the horse. I got my young paint, Doc, to pose for these quicky pictures because I know that sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. This is not Doc's halter, by the way. I just grabbed one that was laying around the tack room for this demo purposes and didn't realize I'd grabbed a draft size until out in pasture with it, and being too lazy to walk a mile to get another, just used this one -- that halter there is really too big for Doc; you'd want to use one there that is not too big or loose, nor one too small/too tight either -- Doc doesn't have a pull-back problem so it really wasn't an issue there; just wanted to show the belly rope for this teaching purpose here:

Now the belly rope is on the horse and you're going to use it to re-school the pull-back horse to yield to pressure, but with a more effective tool this time so that pulling back will no longer work for them. And this is in the natural horsemanship tenet category of: make the right thing easy, the wrong thing hard. Everything we do with horses when training the natural horsemanship way follows specific tenets of NH. The more you learn the tenets, the better you'll get at training your horse.

The reason the belly rope works as a great tool to re-school the horse with pull-back problems is: You're going to start by practicing leading the horse with it and if he resists and pulls back, well, when the lead tightens as he pulls back, it simultaneously tightens around the horse's chest and he suddenly feels like it's harder to breathe and instinctively will step forward to try to release the chest pressure so he can breathe easier again. Voila, that's when you release your pressure (put slack in the rope) instantly to show: "right answer, you yielded to the lead rope pressure!" And when you release, the rope around his chest instantly loosens and makes the horse comfortable again. (This is also why you need to use a nylon rope there, not cotton; cotton ropes tend to remain tight there instead of releasing/loosening instantly when you release the pressure by putting slack in the rope.)

Good idea to wear gloves for this lesson with a real serious pull-back problem horse, at least in the beginning, so that you can get a better grip on the rope as the horse tests the new expectations. And a pull back horse will indeed test it! You WANT him to test it. You want him to hit that "wall" and see that it no longer works to pull back and that yielding is what gives him relief.

Here's how to start off there:

Step back away from the horse, in front of him toward the end of the rope, pulling all slack out. Now, hold steady, strong pressure there, starting with mild pressure and build up incrementally to more pressure if needed. Always start low on the pressure every time so that the horse has a chance to succeed "lower down the Volume" of pressure. And build up from there.

Chances are, the pull-back horse is going to resist at first and try to pull back; however...that route only tightens the rope around his chest (i.e., his lungs) and makes it harder for him to breathe. Since pulling back isn't succeeding for him there, instinctively he will automatically step forward at some point to see if that will release the pressure, so he can breathe easier. Be quickly perceptive to this step forward moment, because the second he does that, RELEASE the pressure, let slack go in the rope. Instantly!

Notice in the picture above that my release timing is so quick there (slack in the rope) that I've released before the horse has even set his foot back down from the "give/yield forward." My release came there the very second he leaned forward ready to take that step. Real important to do that, to trigger your release for the second the horse starts the right behavior, not after he has completed it. The quicker your release timing, the quicker the horse learns. All horses learn from the release of pressure what it is you want, not the pressure itself, so it's crucial that you get your release timing split-second accurate the second the horse yields to pressure/gives the right answer there. After the horse yields, pause, let him think about it a moment (very important to at first allow the horse time to think about what just happened. Via thinking, they learn).

Above is the pause as Doc stands there focusing on me with full attention, thinking, waiting for next instructions.

After the pause, repeat. Soon, he'll be stepping forward at every pull pressure you apply there. Reward with the release every single time the horse yields forward there. But reward with the release, also, for the smallest try, the slightest change in the right direction. Reward those baby step efforts! Meaning: even a lean-forward on the part of the horse at first, reward with the release. If you reward for the smallest try, the slightest change early on the learning curve, the horse gets there faster.

On the other hand, make sure you DO NOT release when the horse is fighting it, pulling back, or, you will accidentally teach him: pulling back works (to reap the release). Remember: they learn from the release, so don't release when they are hard/fighting it; only release, putting slack in the rope when he comes forward/yields to pressure. So...the exercise goes like this:

• Ask (apply the pressure)
• Anticipate (the response)
• Get Compliance (the horse "gives" forward)
• Release (instantly! - for the desired response)
• Reward (in this case the release is the reward for the most part as the rope loosens around the horse's chest and he breathes easier now, though with a really freaking out horse, after he's yielded, it never hurts to go up and stroke and bond for reward; hand on the horse can sometimes speed along the learning process tremendously)

Do this for a good while the first lesson, then go for a walk with the belly rope as your lead rope. Don't tip-toe around this problem. If anything, work to try to flush the pull-back problem out so that you are afforded the opportunity to let the horse run into that "wall" all by himself and be able to relearn there that this no longer works for him and that he must yield to pressure from now on.

At the end of that lesson, reward the horse bigtime with lots of love and stroking/bonding to let him know what a great job he did there. And end the lesson on a high positive with the horse succeeding at the new behavior expectation. When you end a lesson on a positive, the horse will come back into next lessons often farther along the learning curve than where you left them last because their brains kept working on it!

After that first lesson, for the next two weeks or so after that, only lead him around using the belly rope. He needs to learn that he must give to pressure always, everywhere, not just sometimes, and that's the best way to do it: take a couple of weeks of only leading him around (like in from pasture, etc.) with the belly rope in place. DO NOT TIE HIM YET!

After a couple of weeks (for a horse with this problem bad enough -- it is a "feel" thing for knowing when the right time is to go to the next level -- he should be consistently yielding to pressure at all times with the belly rope and never pulling back before you start this next phase), next, put on a natural horsemanship halter/12-foot lead rope combo underneath the web halter/belly rope. You're working now on weaning him off the belly rope to show him that yielding to pressure is yielding to pressure always, no matter what. Start with pulling the NH halter lead rope first, holding the pressure steady; if you don't get the yield right away, getting the step forward, don't release, but reinforce now with the back-up belly rope. And so on, until he's yielding nicely, softly, compliantly to just the regular NH lead rope only, with no need to pull on the belly rope at all.

I've fixed many a pull-back problem horse going this route and it works every time. Even with the really big drafty horses out there that are immensely strong (stronger than any human!) and even some of which are used for pulling competitions! They simply can't usually fight the belly rope and succeed - not with me most of the time and I'm small - 5'4" - and not a weight lifting champ by any means.

Incidentally, here's a tip: Any time you are training a horse, not just when using belly rope, etc, but even just-starting horses you might be working, if they ever pull back suddenly, quickly bend your elbows so that your biceps (the strongest part of your arm) takes the brunt of the pull, not your elbows stretched out. I'm afraid I had to learn that one the hard way and I don't want others to have to. With elbows stretched out and the arm pulled on, you can sustain elbow injury/damage. I've had elbow operations on both my elbows (for "ulner neuropathy" -- that's where your "funny bone" nerve comes off it's track in the elbow compartment because the nerve got too stretched out and it slips off and gets pinched in there causing part of your hand to go numb because that ulner nerve travels from your neck, through your elbow and into your hand; they repair ulner neuropathy by replanting the nerve on the inside of your arm where it lives from then on), but this problem is caused by years of training the most difficult horses out there and had I learned long ago (this damage was done a long time ago) how important it is to keep your elbows bent when a horse pulls back or out, I might have headed off trouble there earlier. I'd like others to learn from my experience there so they won't have this problem in the future. So...the second the horse pulls suddenly, bend your elbows instantly. You'll have far more strength if you do that anyhow. And you'll be protecting your elbow joints and ulner nerve there.

If a horse really pulls back hard, even with the belly rope, you can also bend your elbows & brace the rope behind one hip, while still holding it with both hands. This will give you sustaining holding power there since you're now drawing strength from your whole body, not just your arms. Believe me, it's far more uncomfortable suddenly for the horse than it is for you if he pulls back there in the belly rope (doesn't hurt him, just makes it harder to breathe suddenly). Remember that and just hold on waiting for the opportunity to release for a come forward yield if they do explode and pull back.

Safety Rule - while we're on the subject of hanging onto ropes: never wrap ropes around your hands or arms when working with horses. Never ever. You never want to be put in a situation where a horse is dragging you -- you, tangled in ropes. Stay safe there, just hold the rope in your hand, not wrapped, and glance down at your arms/hands often if things ever get lively, to make sure the rope hasn't suddenly wound around your hand or arm there accidentally.

This is also why I prefer the first lessons for retraining a pull-back horse to take place in a round pen, the ideal being a 60-foot round pen. If I had to, to keep myself safe if the rope slipped out of my hand or things were getting out of control there (far less likely with a belly rope), I can always just let go of the rope, but then ask the horse to "take some laps" (as your gym teacher used to say!) around the round pen to remind them of your lead mare status, or, putting them to work "digging ditches" for acting up there. Making the right thing easy, the wrong thing harder. While the rope drags behind him at liberty (won't hurt anything, don't worry, if it's a belly rope or NH halter/lead combo!) he's getting desensitized to ropes dragging/around his feet. Then you can turn him a lot at liberty there and quickly he'll realize the standing by you spot, with you working on the yielding with him, is the far more comfortable spot! And he'll quickly ask to be with you to try again. Again, the break-away rarely happens if you're using a belly rope and I've used it with some pretty big, strong buggers, one even a pulling champ and they just don't get away from me! The dynamics of the belly rope work quite well to have a horse give up the pull-back response pretty fast.

This belly rope route to fix any pull back problem is incredibly effective. It quickly connects in their brains that they are causing the shortness of breath briefly themselves when they pull back and they learn to give to pressure. So it works! They hit "a wall" with that behavior once & for all, and it no longer works for them. But take your time, be patient, and don't be so quick to switch halters/leads until he's well past the problem in your assessment.

When you feel he's got it down well, after a couple of weeks with the belly rope leading him everywhere you're ready to move onto the next phase. It potentially is going to take that amount of time to unlearn a behavior he has unfortunately learned -- yep learned -- so take your time with this so he can unlearn it! "Take your watch off" as we say in NH.

Once you feel he's got all that down well, all the above, then and ONLY then attempt to tie him, but tie him with the belly rope the first time -- and NOT to cross ties just yet. Nor even a tie bar, etc. Tie him somewhere safe, with no obstacles around if you can. Often a free-standing, strongly-planted telephone pole works best for this, or a tree trunk. Tie high. And tie with a quick-release knot. And keep a knife handy in case you ever had to get in to cut him loose there for any reason, which is why I carry a leatherman on me at all times when training; the leatherman is a super-handy tool for all kinds of emergencies.

The Leatherman multi-purpose tool

After you've tied the horse with the belly rope to the sturdy structure like a secure telephone pole or maybe a tall, strong tree trunk, use a little pressure like with a plastic bag on the end of a training wand and get him to test the behavior now. In other words, go ahead and flush out any potential remnants of the problem behavior now. As/if he gets a little spooked with your added pressure, plastic waving on end of wand (start low, build upward), he'll try to pull back, but when he feels the pressure on his chest from the belly rope, he'll invariably come forward instantly, yielding to that pressure, like he has now learned to do. Stop your pressure at this point instantly when he yields, drop the wand down low (or drop it on the ground if needed), and go up and reward for the right response there: yielding. And stroke, bond, relax him, "good boy!" Finger in corner of his mouth, feathering his tongue to get him working his mouth helps to relax him.

And repeat, until you are fully convinced he's not going to pull back when tied, but will instead yield consistently to the pressure now, every single time, even when he's spooked.

Then...the first few times you tie him (for feeding/grooming, etc.) at the usual tie posts, still use the belly rope for a while, but do homework alongside that with the regular NH halter/lead by themselves in a safe confined place as well, reinforcing that the yielding rules apply there as well, even with just the NH halter/lead alone. Not until he fully yields to pressure with just the NH halter/lead (after the belly rope retraining), at all times on the ground, should you ever consider tying a former pull-back horse with that/anything else. But this route will get you there, I assure you. I fix this problem every day, and that's the route to go! Never seen it not work yet.

One last note about fixing pull-back problems: if you have a horse with a VERY serious issue there, I would also advise (along with still doing all the above) using a "Blocker Tie Ring" to tie him to, even as you reschool him. And the Blocker Tie Ring is also an excellent idea for use inside or outside your horse trailer, keeping the horse safer when on the road. You can learn more about and order the Blocker Tie Ring here (click on the picture):

But I also wanted to say....overall you need a better plan in place there. A horse with pull-back problems generally has lots of fears and nonconfidence issues, which is the real root of the problem that caused him to learn the pull-back behavior in the first place, so he still has other holes in his foundation, many you are probably not even aware of, and I have some suggestions to get you on a far better, safer path there in general.

And here's where I would suggest applying horse whispering/natural horsemanship training techniques in a very clear step by step program, which you can learn more about in my DVD set, the Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System, and you can order that here: CLICK HERE

After watching the videos, and after learning and applying the methods, you, as the horse's primary teacher will have taught the horse:

• How to be bonded to you more deeply so that he trusts you to the max and he will be far more willing to do whatever you ask, even when he is in doubt;
• That you both have a "bonding place" (a "safety zone") to come back to always, from then on, if he's ever upset or afraid, on the ground (or later, in the saddle); we plant a one-rein stop in the foundation of every horse, on the ground first, so that in the saddle, it is automatic. This keeps you safer and the horse more rational, and feeling supported, bonded, connected more deeply emotionally to you.
• How to relax him when he is tense about something before he is called upon to react negatively.
• How to have him yield easily, in any direction when asked -- he'll learn how to yield properly to pressure to receive the release of pressure. All horses learn from the release of pressure what it is you want, not from the pressure itself;
• How to progress bonding to even deeper levels to the point of downright intimacy; makes a horse feel like he never had it so good being with his owner!
• How to move him from the rear, and him learning to do that rationally, which is so important to teach a horse to do before you ever ride them, and which you'll be using for a lot of other things like trailer loading, going in and out of a gate, into a stall, and so many other places/situations; this also teaches a horse that you are in charge of their feet.
• How to address effectively any fears (and his reactions to them) that you flush out in his behavior at any given time; my program focuses greatly on finding the fears before they find you and fixing them -- safely on the ground first! Even lay folks can do this. It's all about: safety. This then builds a far more rational, confident, happy horse, because, in essence, you have effectively raised his "fear/anxiety bar." And you will have taught him simultaneously in the process, how to turn to you for nurturance support when/if he is ever afraid or upset.
• How to do all this first on the ground, then later in the saddle, in that order.
• How to keep you safe and the horse safe at all times, throughout all of this --- always my biggest training focus.

This video set will help you to lay down an even stronger, more solid and trusting foundation under your horse there that will then serve you well, tremendously, actually, when you do step up into the saddle. By the time you complete the steps, you will have a transformed horse. The final steps are in the saddle and those exercises will more deeply plant into your horse's foundation the one-rein stop/the "safety zone," and more, that will turn him into a far, far more rational, trusting, happier -- and safer -- horse in saddle as well.

And you can do this yourself if you just back up and learn a few things yourself there. This video set will get you there the fastest with your horse, which is why I'm recommending this route. It's designed for anyone on any level, horse or human, to get professional trainer-like results.

And incidentally...my Whispering Way Complete Training Package contains all my videos and training tools that you need to train or retrain your horse yourself the natural horsemanship Whispering Way. You can check out/order the Whispering Way Complete Training Package on my web site here: CLICK HERE

I'm a very strong believer that every horse owner is their horse's primary teacher/trainer whether they realize it or not. Every time you are with your horse, he is learning something. You just want to make sure he's learning what you want him to learn, not what you don't want him to learn! Natural horsemanship training techniques are gentle, effective, and powerful. Works with every horse every time!

But it's real important to back up and break down all teaching steps in a way that you are releasing baby-gives, allowing the horse to feel the release for the right answers incrementally, so that they learn that's really what you want.

This route will absolutely get your horse past all of those issues, and more, I assure you.

One last link on my own web site that I think might help you there -- to learn a little more about natural horsemanship and prey animal psychology in general -- my "What is Natural Horsemanship" link here:

http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/WhatIsNH.html

This route I'm advising overall will get you the safer cooperative horse I know you want there. I hope this helps, and let me know if I can be of any further help to you there. Keep me posted how it goes. Good luck to ya! Stay safe! And thanks again for writing.

 

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