Teaching Your Horse to Stand Tied

By Darlene M. Cox---darlc5@aol.com

One of the most fundamental parts of training your horse is teaching him to stand tied. Regardless of the discipline in which you use your horse (showing, eventing, trail riding, etc.), standing quietly while tied is universal. I am sure many have heard the adage, "You must walk before you run". Well, in the horse world, your horse must learn to stand before he can be tied.

Throughout my many years around horses and different horse people, I have seen some amazingly dangerous methods utilized to teach a horse to stand tied. From short-snubbing a horse to a rail, or tying the rope to a tractor wheel, these methods invoked fear as the horse fought the rope and tire trying to escape. I have actually seen a horse die by breaking its neck from thrashing around and pulling hard on the rope. This comes as no surprise as one of the weakest areas on a horse's body is where the poll (head) joins the neck.

Before even thinking about teaching your horse to stand tied you must first teach him to lead and stand in hand, because this is where he first begins to understand giving to the pressure of the lead rope. He will have a general understanding of what the lead rope is and that the pressure is off when he moves forward. Pressure can be applied in two methods: pulling down the lead rope and placing pressure across the poll, applying pressure at the side causing your horse to become off balanced, yet taking a step toward the lead. Each time he responds to the pressure remember to immediately release the pressure and praise him.

Once you have your horse leading, you can then move on to teaching him to stand, and from there to stand tied. Up until this point, your horse has been used to following you. Now, he must get used to standing while you move away. This can be effectively taught by leading your horse to a point and asking him to stand. Once he is standing with you beside him, take a step or two away from him. If he tries to follow, quickly correct him by backing him up a few steps and then moving him forward and again asking him to stand. You may have to repeat this several times, and each time move further away. He will understand what you are asking him and will begin to stand quietly. This training method will also effectively work in ground tying your horse.

Once you have taught your horse to stand, he can now be taught to stand tied. Always incorporate a break-away halter while training. It is better to have a broken leather strap than a broken neck. The safest way to incorporate tying is to place a tie ring in a wall stud slightly higher than head level. Put the rope through the ring and hold onto the end. Do not tie it. This will allow your horse to move away from the ring if he becomes scared and will not invoke his fight or flight instinct to battle the rope to free himself. By holding the rope end, you can apply pressure and release it if your horse becomes frightened.

As with teaching your horse to stand, you will want to move away from your horse gradually increasing the distance. With rope in hand, you will still be able to apply pressure or release if your horse becomes combative and frightened.

Once your horse is standing quietly with the rope through the ring and you holding the end, it is time to move on to actually tying the rope. Incorporate a "quick release knot" (illustration above) and provide slack in the rope, but not enough to entangle his legs. You can expect your horse to test the rope. If he pulls back a little on it, move to his side and apply pressure causing him to take a step forward to regain balance, and thus releasing pressure on the rope. This teaches him to step up and remove the pressure. If he panics, quickly pull on the rope to quickly release the knot.


After several sessions, your horse will be standing quietly and you can be assured the training you have successfully finished will remain with him throughout his life.

Happy trails!