Rearing and teaching a horse to tie

Question
Rick,
I have a 15 Year old gelding he is half Arabian and half quarter horse. I am in the process of breaking him right now. When he was about two years old he was green broke but didn't get any more training until the last few months. I have been going out there everyday after work to work with him and he has been doing really great and we are good buds. He stays in a pasture with a quarter horse mare that has not been worked with yet. But my only problem is when i have him tied and practicing putting a saddle on him and picking up his feet (stuff we do on a normal basis) he will act like he has been spooked and try to pull himself off, he hasn't got off yet and i am hoping that he never does. I just let him mellow out for about five minutes after he is done freaking out but i want this kind of behavior to stop. Please if you have any advice I will take it
Thanks,
Nate in UT.

Answer
Hey Nate, when you say pull himself off, I think you mean rears and pulls back, trying to break away from the tie.  If this is the case, I hope he does not get lose either or he will learn to keep pulling.  If you using a lead rope with a snap, I would suggest you get a rope and rope halter.  I have a page on my web site that explains this.  Don't react to his pulling and freak out, stay calm, talk to him calmly, and continue what you were doing.  If you stop when he acts out, you will teach him to act out to get you to stop.  So keep doing, calmly, what you are doing and only stop when he is calm and standing still.  Then he learns if he stands still you will stop.  Make sure you have a good tie point and if he is testing your tie point, tie to the pole and not to a hook or ring that may give.  

You can also move behind the horse when he pulls (NOT close enough to get kicked) but wave your arms and put pressure from the rear to make him move forward.  He will learn to move forward to make the halter pressure go away.  Another option is to have a second rope, tie it to the tie point and then run the other end through the bottom halter ring and then around the horses head (behind the ears).  Tie this with a bowline knot so it can not tighten on the horse's neck.  Then when he pulls, that rope will tighten and put pressure behind his ears and not on the halter or clip, he will not pull for long or too hard.  I have two pages on this on my site, take a look at them, one is tying a horse and rope halters.

Let me know if I need to clear up anything I said.

Good luck,

Rick