Blocker Tie Ring II

This post isn't sponsored, just a personal review of a product I love. I hope that other equestrians find it useful. 

When I owned Gambler, I always talked about purchasing one of the tie rings. I believe I heard of them first from some Clinton Anderson enthusiasts. I'm not Clinton's biggest fan, I think he is over-merchandised and sensationalized. However, he is a more talented and experienced horse person than I am and I have learned more than a few useful things from him. That disclaimer aside, I was visiting a friends house one day and I witnessed their new mare flipping herself over multiple times to avoid standing tied. She wasn't hurt and they have since trained her to stand, but the experience was horrifying. A day or two later I tied Avalon at the barn and she started pulling. Flashbacks ensued and I got on Amazon that night determined to avoid ever teaching my horse to flip over to escape pressure. 

This is what I found: the Blocker Tie Ring II. It comes with the tie ring, a clip, and another solid ring you can screw into a wall or post. Since I don't own the barn Avalon is at, I opted to clip the tie ring wherever I want to use it. There is a conveniently placed ring on the hitching post that is perfect for that purpose. You can also tie the ring to a solid object with twine. 

You can't see the tie ring here, it's clipped onto the twine behind the panel .

There are multiple ways to use the tie ring, but I have only ever used one of them. The tongue of the tie ring is magnetic, so you pull it open and put the lead through. It holds quite snugly.

You can see the setup well in this pic.

If the horse pulls just a little, the rope holds as if it were tied normally. However, if a horse goes to pull, the rope slips through. That means that they can't brace against it and get the claustrophobic feeling. I'm sure that there are many smart horses that learn to pull the entire lead through the ring and get free. But Avalon is not a seasoned escape artist. She is just a young horse who is learning. My hope is that by keeping her from bracing she will learn to give to pressure and smoothly transition to being tied without an issue. 

I use the Tie Blocker II as a training tool by using it to tie Avalon and then encouraging her to pull. I might do desensitizing exercises like jumping in her face or beside her, smacking the ground with the stick and string, or bringing her spooky objects. She can pull the lead through the ring, but she can't brace and pull so very quickly she learned not to pull at all. Now she will dance away, or turn her body, but give to any pressure from her halter. 

The only criticism I have of this product is that it has rusted. I keep it in the barn and have left it out in the rain and snow. I'm sure if it was oiled regularly and kept dry it wouldn't have rusted as much, but it is something to be aware of.

**Edit: I discovered that the setup pictured above is flawed. If Avalon tosses her head while she spooks, the clip hits the ring on the hitching post just right and unclips itself from the hitching post entirely. I resolved this problem by tying twine to the hitching post and clipping the tie ring to the loop of twine.**

It's Colt Starting Season

Between blizzards, negative 50 degree (Fahrenheit) temperatures, and downpouring rain, we have had some of the most fascinatingly strange weather here in western Wisconsin! I'm not going to complain - God knows I do too much of that already. However, it goes without saying that none of those conditions make it easy to visit the barn. 

Flooding at my school

Totally worth wading through pond-sized puddles

I was impatiently waiting for the water to subside so I could begin spring training when I contracted the flu. I was sick in bed for the entire week of spring break. Not ideal, but when I dragged myself out to the barn the snow was (mostly) gone and so was the flooding (again mostly). And with that Avalon is back in work!

As I've mentioned before, Avalon holds on to her training way more than Gambler did. I've barely worked her all winter and she hasn't regressed at all in her training. She is herd bound, due to months of rest with her buddies, but I expected that. The first day I spent refreshing her circling game/longeing. I brought her to the outdoor arena (which is the scariest place ever due to wind and a lack of horse buddies) to work on respect and focus. 

Ava is an incredibly smart horse. She has figured out that she can slowly move the circle away from the side of the arena she doesn't like toward the gate. When I refused to let her do that she started stopping in the circle and backing toward the gate. So clever. Whenever she tried that escape I either kept pushing her until she moved forward again or made her back up faster and farther than she wanted to. We ended the session on a good note, calmly walking and trotting on cue on her least favorite side of the arena. 

The next session, we spent time in the round pen. When I stopped training in the fall, Avalon had developed an annoying vice in the round pen. While I was asking her to circle in one direction, she would only move in half of a circle and then when she was facing away from the gate she would roll back and change directions to the outside. She would travel half a circle and then do the same thing again. Every time she would get faster and listen to me less. Thankfully, that vice has completely disappeared on its own. At least she hasn't tried it yet this year (fingers crossed!). She does sometimes decide to switch directions on her own or turn to the outside, but I correct her and move on. Most of the time she gets it right. 

She is such a dork.

I'm way behind in posting (typical), so there will be more Ava updates soon.