Cross Ties - Rick Gore Horsemanship

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

I am a new horse owner, and yes I do have my big girl panties on lol so give me all you got.  I value honesty for me and my horse so if I am doing something wrong please tell me before I hurt my self or my horse.  First I love your videos and your site.  I think I have gotten through Just about all of them.  The horse I just purchased is a lead horse and reminds me of MR.T.  Right now we are working on learning that I am the lead horse and it is going very well.  I took your advice and got established that bond right from the beginning and never let him now that there was any other way.
I was reading your site about tieing a horse and watching the video where you talked about pressure and release and it just so happens that same night I had the fierier over to do Nick's feet ( that's my horse) and he got spooked in the cross ties. it caused him to break his halter.  Now from watching your video I understand that because of him getting a release he is apt to try and pull every time he is put in the cross ties.  I generally do not cross tie but I do not want him to be afraid of the cross times if we need to put him in them.  How should I start the posses of putting him back in it?  I want to make sure I do this right for him and not make a stupid human mistake.  He deserves better them that.  But I also want to help him face his fear of this.  Any advice on the next proper step would be great.  I have searched your video's but I was not able to come up with one on cross tieing.  If you tell me that you have one.  I will continue to watch them.  I enjoy watching them anyway.  

Thank you for what you do for the horse.

ANSWER: Your fault no horse problems here. First he did not break his halter, you bought some cheap POS and probably used snaps, nylon halter, cheap rope and cheap cross ties and YOU set the horse up to fail from your lack of knowledge and preparation. So now YOU taught your horse that if he pulls, he can get free. Obviously you did not read my Rope Halter Page: http://www.thinklikeahorse.org/index-4.html

On top of that you said yourself that you normally don't cross tie??? Hello..... so in all your knowledge you decide to do something that traps a horse more than he is used to, that you have not practiced and worked with the horse on, you have spent time teaching the horse it is ok to be cross tied and then on top of that you decide to do this when you have a stranger (farrier) come and start further restricting the horse by picking up his feet and making the horse more insecure. Don't write me back and tell me how the farrier is not a stranger and the horse knows him, he is not around the horse and handling the horse all the time so it is new, different and strange to the horse.

You may have watched my videos but you either do not get it, did not learn much or missed the boat. You are not thinking like a horse and considering the horse before you are act.

Here is what your horse was thinking since you obviously can't figure it out or just too busy or too lazy to try.

Horse Talking: what the hell is going on, why am I being tied here today, why do I have two tie ropes instead of one on my face that I normally have, why is my head restricted, why can't I turn my head and see behind me, I feel trapped, what is going on, I am nervous, this is new, I don't know what to expect, why is this happening, what is going to happen next, NO wait, NOW WHAT, who is this strange guy, why is here here, what is he going to do, I feel trapped, I am nervous, why is this guy wanting me to pick my feet up, what is going on, is he going to trap me more, I already feel trapped, why is this happening, I don't trust either of these idiots for putting me in this situation without preparing me, I am getting out here before these idiots get me killed, I have to get free, I am going to fight to survive and not just stand here trapped so these two idiots can kill me..... (now horse rears, goes into opposition reflex, fights to get away and does).  Now horse says: Whew that was close, good thing I fought to get free or these idiots would have killed me, obviously these two are weak dumb humans that don't understand me so I better not trust them in the future and the next time I get trapped or tied I better fight and pull to get free other wise no telling what these idiots will do to me. I better be more alert now (stupid humans will call this spooky), I better not follow these idiots without being sure I am able to get free, now I have learned to watch out and protect myself, if I let these idiots do what they want I could die.

Congratulations, you are now an official horse trainer, hope you can see all the lessons you taught this horse. Since you are trying to teach your horse to pull and get away, and are off to a pretty good start, here are some tips to advance his pulling training, tie him with a hay string so when he pulls he gets free, tie him to things that he can pull like a plastic lawn chair or a water bucket, and anytime he rears or pulls when you are leading him, let go of the rope and let him run off, if do these things, along with your previous training, your horse will be an expert puller in no time.

Save the email about how this did not help you fix this and all I did was be mean to you. If you did this and caused this and can't see what you did or how bad it was, then nothing I tell you will matter since you don't get it and are looking for fast and easy, just like the cross tying, instead of teaching, taking the time it takes to prepare and do it right, you in your grand wisdom decide to just try and see if it works and now the horse has learned many bad lessons that it did not know before. And now you want me to fix it over an email. You have not watched all my videos and have not read my web site or you would not be asking this. Probably just too busy and don't have the time. Like many, no one has the time to do it right, but they always have the time to do wrong and do it over and over again.

And another thing, cross ties are for idiots, they are some English BS that dummies use since they can't control their horse or teach their horse how to tie and stand where they want them to without using a trapping and restricting the head device like cross ties. No Horseman will need or use cross ties since they understand a horse and know that they would not like to be trapped like that if they were a horse, another concept that has obviously escaped you.

And if you think I am being too hard, Tough! Your horse had to pay for your actions and if you get your feelings hurt too bad. What you did to your horse was a lot worse and did much more damage than what I am saying to you. I don't care about how your feelings and neither does your horse. Suck it up, you screwed up and let your horse down, learn from it, fix it, educate yourself, accept what you did and how bad it was, don't repeat it and next time you want to take a short cut of do something without thinking, perhaps you will remember this lesson and be grateful that you or your horse did not get hurt THIS TIME, and maybe it will cause you stop, slow down, think and listen to your horse. I assure you your horse was telling you and yelling he was not ready for this and was about to blow, but you either do not know how to listen or were too busy being the smarter dumb animal.  

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: brutal and honest... I guess what was needed and Expected from your video's.  you are a 100% right.  all my fault.  I new that before writing.  I guess that answers my question on cross ties.  as I stated I am a new horse person and have very basic knowledge of horse's. on your site you comments about you some times ask people to rate there horse knowledge and you rate your self at a 3 or 4 well I would rate my self at a zero at or a 1 very basic.  yes I know pretty obvious.  in No way did I ever think that this was nick's fault in in way.  My Fierier thought that it was best to cross tie him and since his previous owner stated that he had been cross tied before then I did not think it would be an issue.  I know my fault for not thinking.  So note to self no cross ties in the future.
I value your opinion and no way did I take your comments personal or find them rude I found them helpful  Thank you again.

Answer
Good, don't let your horse down again and don't listen to other people, like farriers, ex-owners, experts, vets or so called horse whisperers. Your horse your responsibility. Accepting that it is your fault is only one small part. Knowing and understanding why and what happened and knowing how to prevent it and knowing how to slow down and teach the horse to succeed is worth much more than just accepting responsibility and saying it is your fault.  Fault is not a concern to the horse. who cares about fault, all I care is I know it is not the horse's fault yet the horse has to pay.  What you do is all that matters. Intent, love, try, meaning well, listening to others all do not mean anything. In the end YOUR horse pays for what you do.

Being new is not an excuse to set your horse up to fail. This could have just as easily ended in your horse flipping over, banging his head, causing brain damage and causing him to be killed (the nice way of putting him to sleep). Tears and feeling bad afterwards do not matter either. This horse could have reared and ran you over, hurt you, put you in coma or a wheel chair and you would saying from the wheel chair, I was only doing what the farrier told me?  How does that sound?

If a horse puts his trust in you, don't abuse that trust and give it to others that want to give you advice or tell you things that can get you or your horse hurt.

Your answer should have been, I have not seen or done training on my horse with cross ties and until them I am not going to use them and set my horse up to fail. I am going to stick with what I know and what my horse knows.

Not to say you can't train your horse to use them, but it takes time, steps, slow progress. I could cross tie either of my horses even thou they have not been cross tied. Why, because they know how to give to pressure, they know how to listen, they know how to deal with their fear, they know how to deal with being trapped or restricted, they know how to listen to me when scared, they have been sacked out, they have been taught to deal with many fearful situations and they don't get loose when I tie them so they don't try and get loose. Getting a horse there is a PROCESS not an event. You do not train a horse tie, training is not compartmentalized, all training ties together and all other training helps or hurts future training. You have learn and train yourself to think like a horse so you can predict success and failure and predict what horses will do in different situations.

If it was easy everyone would be good at it, which is not the case. Not that I want to encourage this, but this can be a good thing. This may prevent you from doing others dangerous things in the future, this may make the point that I try and make and really make you see, nothing is easy, nothing is routine and no matter what you think, things can go bad fast, so be prepared, think ahead, prepare your horse with lots of time and work and effort and learning.

Don't look for an answer in an email or expect anyone to help you with an easy answer.  If you take care of your horsemanship, your horsemanship will take care of you and your horse.

Glad you could see past my directness and my protectionism of the horse and realize what I was saying is meant to open your eyes and mind to help you and your horse in the future.

Rick