How to Cure a Horse Who Pulls Back (not a recommended method)

A couple of days ago I alluded to Phantom kind of knowing how to undo panic snaps. Here's the tale.

When I first started working with her she had an occasional pull back issue. No specific thing would set it off, but there were a few broken halters over the first 3 or 4 years. One time we were at a clinic and she was tied in the barn aisle, she pulled back, and pulled right out of her halter. Neat trick.

Because of these incidents, I bought Tie-Blocker rings to use when tying to the trailer.

The Tie Blocker Ring. Expensive, but I got them for a good deal online. 

I used to lease Phantom over the winter months, and would board her at a full facility, and then in the summer we would return to her then owner's acreage. When tacking up I would generally tie to a fence post on the round pen.

One summer the owner had a couple of young horses, one of which was Cisco, that needed to learn how to be tied. I picked up a trailer tie, a nylon web one that has a panic snap at one end and a bull snap at the other end, and we attached that to the fence post using bale twine, just in case one of the young guys had a panic attack while learning how to tie. The panic snap end was the end that would attach to the halter (I don't want a strap attached to the horse with a large clip flapping around on the end of it).

An unimpressed Phantom tied to the trailer with the Tie Blocker ring after returning home from a lesson a few years ago. 

I used that trailer tie to secure Phantom for most of the summer with no issue. One day, she took a dislike to a bird flying by (or some other stupid thing) and pulled back. The panic snap released, the halter didn't break, and she didn't leave. I clipped her back up and she was fine for the rest of the day.

On to the next day. She was clipped to the trailer tie and I started grooming. Again, something caused her serious offense, so she pulled back. The snap released, nothing broke, she stayed.

I hooked her back up. Two minutes later, she pulled back again.

I hooked her up once more. I swear to God, 30 seconds later, she looked at me, slightly rocked back, and the panic snap released. And she stood there with a huge shit-eating grin on her face. You horse people know what I mean. That smug look of pride they get when they think they've been smart.

I thought "fuck this" and hard tied her to that post with the lead shank.  A minute later she rocked back again.

This time though, there was no panic snap to release. Instead, the halter tightened on her head. She went "aww, crap" and took a step forward.

And she hasn't pulled back since.

Not even last week, when I walked away from her after tying her to a stall in the aisle, and she looked in the stall and saw the scariest thing inside that she's ever seen in a stall - a poofy dog bed. She danced around at the end of the shank, but didn't set back and didn't break the halter.

The horse eating dog bed.

Note that I do not recommend this method of curing a horse who pulls back. But for some reason it worked for Phantom!