Installing the parking brake

Nearly ten years ago, I enjoyed a fun riding with my friend, Trisha, at her family farm in Wellington, Colorado. We tacked up our horses - I was on her Fjord, Jacob - and went to the ring. At that point, I realized I'd forgotten something crucial. I started to lead him back to the barn, and Trisha stopped me.

"He ground ties," she said. "Just leave him where he is."

I was dubious, but I did as I was told. When I got back to the ring, Jacob was where I'd left him. 

I was extremely impressed and told Trish as much. She agreed that it was awesome, adding, "I train all my horses to do this."

Right then I decided that if I ever got a horse of my own, it would ground tie, too.

In November 2021, I got Olive.

Sure enough, I taught her to ground tie.

I'd never done that before, but there are lots of online articles and videos that explain the process. Like everything else, it's mostly consistency and patience.

Also, realistic expectations. After all, horses aren't robots.

Olive's ground tie was solid, but sometimes things happened.

Heh.

Most of the time, however, I could leave her somewhere, and that's where she'd be when I came back.

So satisfying!

Also, so useful. Of course, I wanted to teach Winslow that, too.

This was hard for him. Winslow is such a friendly, people oriented horse. He doesn't want space between him and his people. He'd rather follow and touch.

For a while, I thought it wasn't going to happen, but we just kept plugging away, practicing for a few minutes every day and rewarding even the smallest stays. 

Then one day, the light bulb went on over his head.

Suddenly, I could walk half way around him.

Then all the way around him.

He's not completely solid yet.

If my attention wanders, he will, too.

That's okay. After all, he's a horse, not a robot.

Still, I'm pretty pleased with this.

Thanks for the inspiration, Trisha. Like you, I now train all "my" horses to do this!