During her lesson, we approached things a little differently. I had her hold onto the very end of her rope, letting a few feet of rope between her and her horse drag on the ground. Because of what we had done in previous lessons, she was able to keep him at that distance while leading him around. She entered the wash stall and he followed. She took her time — having him pause partway into the wash stall. Once he could reliably settle there, she brought him in further. Again once he was settled, she turned him around. She did all of this on a long lead — exiting and entering the stall multiple times. By the time she was ready to start bathing him, she made the point that she didn’t even need the cross ties at this point. He was so calm and was hanging out with his head drooped on a completely loose lead. Another one of her astute observations was that she had been using the cross ties as a “containment system.” With things working well between them and her horse in a good emotional state, she no longer needed him to be contained, because he was containing himself.

The horse needs to be in an emotional state where they can contain themselves. That is the point of handling them on a loose lead rope. And riding them on a loose rein. My students practice leading their horses everywhere by the very tail end of their ropes. In and out of the horses stall. In and out of the paddock. Through the barn. Down the trail. While tacking up. When the farrier is trimming. While bathing, etc. Most of my students tell me that they cannot believe the emotional shift they see in their horse as soon as they put some distance between them. They are able to offer a high level of clarity to their horse – rather than constantly bumping the horse under the chin by accident on a short rope or literally bumping into the horse because they are so close in proximity. This clarity creates an immediate calming effect.

The other reason it works so spectacularly is that the handler cannot “cheat.” With 14 feet of rope between the handler and the horse, the handler has to pay attention to their horse’s emotional state, instead of attempting to push through stressful situations. If the horse isn’t attentive and calm enough to stand while being tacked, the horse doesn’t get tacked up. If the horse isn’t attentive and calm enough to walk itself down the trail, they don’t go down the trail. There are so many situations where accidents and dangerous outcomes could be avoided if we let go of the idea that we just have to push through and make something happen – and instead learn how to read and react to the horse. Of course, the miraculous thing is that once this level of clarity is introduced, my students are largely able to achieve their goals in a much quicker timeline.

I was in a lesson with a newer student last fall, and she mused that this was all fine and good at home, but that is when she went to a show, she would have to gather her rope back up and hold it by its usual position about 4 inches from her horse’s chin. When asked why, she told me that she would need the better control (and also, it would look weird and out of place). I pointed out to her that there was no way she was actually going to be able to physically control her 16.2hh horse no matter how short she had the lead. And that learning how to proactively read, and react to her horse’s emotional state would actually give her far superior control. For me, this is really the profound shift in thinking that has made such a big difference in my horsemanship.

Videos of my student leading her horses, Jackpot and Colby, by the tail end of the rope around her cul-de-sac and in the woods.