01/23/2021
People frequently use this growth chart to discuss riding ethicality under a certain age but today I’m going to use it for something different.
Something I have had the displeasure of seeing rampantly online, particularly on Tiktok, is videos depicting young horses pulling back violently whilst tied and having it framed as a learning experience for teaching horses how to learn to tie “politely”. The horses in such videos are hard tied, often in non-breakaway halters. This is incredibly dangerous and hard on their neck if they pull back hard, especially the younger they are. Such a method can cause lasting damage, whether you notice or not, and not just physically but also mentally.
When horses have panic responses that cause them to fight violently in attempts of escape and then miraculously “calm” even when none of the pressure has been evaded, what you’re witnessing is a learned helplessness response. This isn’t training and you don’t need to risk neck injury or cause your horse mass amounts of anxiety to teach them to tie. It is such a stupidly unnecessary risk when you can teach them to tie without the idea of ever pulling back hard coming into their heads by instilling confidence into them. In which case, you can happily use breakaway ties for safety purposes because, after all, you have a flippin’ flight animal that could have a panic response and may run into a scenario where they absolutely should be able to flee if needed (ie: instances of actual danger, not just “spookiness”)
Aside from hard tying for training purposes, even with well trained and experienced horses, you should always consider using breakaway ties or halters when you’re tying them up in the event of accidents. Horses can fall, pull, get a leg over or do a whole number of miraculous things to maim themselves when you least expect it and these are very real concerns when tying horses. I will never tie horses without breakaway halters or by tying to a piece of twine for the sole purpose of safety; I’ve seen way to many avoidable accidents to endorse it even without worrying object damage to young necks.
Accidents are best avoided and tying horses safely is one of the easiest things you can do. If your horse ties as well as you think, using a breakaway tie should not matter because they won’t try to to break it. I’ve seen way too many silly justifications that serve only to put down people who practice tying safety precautions under the guise of them having more poorly trained horses and it’s an utterly illogical statement because horses who tie well should be able to be tied to a string without pulling back to leave. If they’ll run off when not hard tied, perhaps it is time to ask yourself why they want to get away from you so badly.
Your horse is your partner and takes care of you, take care of them and remember that no matter how highly trained, they are a flight animal and always have the potential to have an innate flight response.
