Horse Secrets

by A. S. Alexander

Secret of Stopping Halter Pulling.

There are many different ways of managing halter pullers and of these the following methods seem most effective:

Take a strong but thin rope about 20 feet long. Put the middle of it under the horse’s tail like a crupper. Bring the two ends forward along the back, knotting them together at the loins and withers. Then pass one on each side of the neck, through the ring of the halter and tie to the manger along with the halter shank.

Pass the end of tie rope or halter over the manger and tie it to one fore foot, so that the pull is equal on the head and foot. This is simple, safe and efficient.

Put a good strong halter on the horse with a rope that he cannot break; then put him either on a plank floor that is about 4 inches higher behind than in front, or on a hard earth floor of the same slope. Have the floor very smooth, and wet it a little to make it slippery, if he is a bad one, and pad the sides of the stall with old sacks or blankets, tying them on with binder twine. As soon as the horse finds that he cannot keep his feet he will give up pulling.

Use a good halter and 10 or 12 feet of strong rope or strap. Tie one end of the rope around the pastern of a front foot and pass the other end through the halter ring and fasten to a stout post or manger and let the horse pull. This will cure an ordinary case. If it does not cure a bad one, tie the rope to a hind leg, passing it through the halter ring and between the fore legs to the hind pastern.

Tie a rope around the hind leg at the pastern and pass the rope to the opposite side of the body; run it around the neck where the collar rests and tie the foot up so that it will not touch the floor. Put a good halter on the horse and he will not pull very hard.

Mr. J. S. Teesdale, of Multnomah County, Oregon, contributed the following amusing account of the curing of a halter puller to the Breeders’ Gazette: “I owned a horse that pulled back every time he was tied up in or out of his stable. I got very tired of it. I took him one day to a wharf over a river. There was, as is usual, a wall on the dock a few feet from its edge. I led him on so that his face was near the wall and his tail toward the water; and I stood him with his right side close up to a partition that ran from the wall to the edge of the wharf. I stood with my body close to his left eye, hiding the river from his view, so that he could not see the water from either side. The river was a very silent one. I held him in that position almost an hour until I thought he had forgotten the river entirely, then I tied him to a ring in the wall, holding a sharp knife in my teeth as I did so. As soon as I had tied him he hung back as badly as ever. I cut the rope. He turned a back somersault and dropped 10 feet into the river. When he came to the surface and recovered from his daze, he swam down stream to the end of the dock and landed. He never hung back again so far as I know, although he was tied a thousand times.”