Horses That Pull When Tied

continue after taking note of how well he is coping. If the signs escalate amber alert I cannot proceed until the intensity of his actions decreases back to green alert. If I fail to notice how stressed the horse has become and I continue then I have been the cause of the horses red alert frame of mind.
For example if I have a horse tied up and he is mildly fidgety I will proceed with caution aware of what I may possibly cause. If I then try to saddle that tied horse and his actions intensify I must stop or untie him so he can increase his movement to compensate for the amount of stress he feels. If I ignore the signs and do not untie him continue to saddle him and he blows up whose fault is it? I need to make sure that the horse can easily cope with whatever amount of stress I impose without being tied before I can expect him to deal with it when he is tied.
The solution to pulling is to prepare your horse to deal with stress by using movement. Allow him the time to deal with what is stressing him and then he will stand quietly by himself. When he is standing still without coercion he is ready to deal with being tied. He should not be tied when introducing anything new in terms of stress this is when he needs to be able to move his feet the most. Being tied up is not a natural thing for a horse to deal with. All his instincts tell him that being trapped is life threatening. Do not trap your horse by tying him until you are aware of what he can handle in terms of stress. If he cannot handle much when he is not tied it will not get better if you restrain him. If he already pulls you have a fair bit of retraining to do before you can change the behaviour.