Summary:

It is important to learn how to tie your horse correctly to reduce injury for the horse and to your property in the event that the horse becomes spooked. In this tutorial, professional Horseman Brad Barkemeyer from Barkemeyer Performance Horses shows us how to properly tie your horse to a stationary object.

What You will Need:

Halter

Lead rope

Step 1: Halter Your Horse

Before you tie your horse to a stationary object, you need to put a halter on your horse’s head. There are three basic types of halters available to purchase, rope, nylon and leather, however, to learn how to halter your horse with a rope halter, visit our tutorial Fitting and Tying a Rope Horse Halter. Attach a lead rope to the loop of your halter that hangs below your horse’s chin.

Step 2: Picking the Right Location and Starting to Tie

Once you have a halter and lead rope on your horse, find a stationary object that is sturdy and does not have anything loose or sharp around it that could potentially harm your horse. Objects that are ideal for tying a horse would be a hitching post, the side of your horse trailer, or the bars of your stall wall panel. To start the tying process, take the end of your lead rope and loop it around the stationary object. You want the length in-between the horse’s head and the stationary object to be about arms-length or roughly 3 feet. If the length of lead rope is too long, your horse can potentially get one of their front legs tangled in the dragging rope.

Step 3: Tying a Safety Knot - First Loop

There are many safety knots out there, but we chose to teach how to tie the Bowline knot because it is easy and effective. This means, if your horse struggles, you can easily untie it. To begin to tie your knot, take the side of the lead rope that is closer to your horse’s head close to the stationary object and make a small loop within itself.

Step 4: Tying Your Knot - Second Loop

Next, take the other side of the lead rope (the side that is not attached to the horse) and slide it part of the way (about 8 inches) through the loop that you made in the previous step to make an additional loop.

Step 5: Tying Your Knot - Loop 3

Take the end of your lead rope one more time and loop it through the second loop that you made in the previous step. Once you have pulled your third loop through the second loop, pull gently to tighten the loop. This knot it commonly referred to as a “Slip knot”.

Step 6: Organizing the Tail of the Lead Rope

Finally, to keep the tail end of the remaining part of the lead rope looking neat, or preventing your horse from grabbing it with their teeth, place the tail end through the third loop or slip knot for a nice clean look. Now your horse is tied safely!

If you want to untie your horse, simply tug on the end of the lead rope that is not attached to your horse to release the knot and remove the lead rope from around the stationary object.