Question:

Thanks for the great evening [EBH Virtual Clinic October 2022]. I would like more details on the oak tree trick. More close up pictures?

Thanks, Galen via email

Answer from Martin Black:

There are many different advantages to a high tie, whether it be a patient pole, wire strung between to post as a high tie, or a limb from a large tree such as an oak tree. There are applications to help young horses being tied up for the first time, and even having a halter on for the first time There are also applications for starting or refining a bridle horse.
Regardless, in any case the higher above the withers they are tied the better.

If they pull hard when they are tied above the withers it raises their shoulders off the ground eliminating the leverage, and their hind end slides underneath them decreasing the affect of their strength. It would be like pulling on a swinging chandelier, the harder you pull up to the side the more weight transfers to the chandelier from the floor and decreases the affect of your strength.

Tied below the withers allows them to drop their hip and give them the benefit of their weight and strength and leveraging their shoulders as a fulcrum point multiplying the pressure to their neck and increasing the possibility of injury. Think about dragging something heavy on the ground. You can lean back and use your weight with gravity, and pull with your arms and push with your legs to use the majority of the strength in your body.

In a more refined scenario, if the horses nose comes forward and up, and to the side, it opens the atlas and rotates the axis. If this area is supple the lumbar will be supple, they work together.

There are ways to supple stiff, heavy ranch horses and make them soft and light in your hands with the proper configuration tied to a elevated point.

There are many different applications for different purposes for using an elevated point in tiring horses, and science can back it up.

Good luck.

Martin Black