My young mare needs cross tie help!!?

It sounds like your mare is in need of some serious desensitization in order to help her cope with a busy environment as well as to have faith in you and herself. Many think it's just for trianing young horses but it's something that should be done to horses of all ages, no matter what their history or behavior is like. With her assocaiting the incident with cross ties, it's a good idea to either hold on to her or have an experienced person hold her for when you groom and tack up, until she is properly desensitized. From there you can start puttin her on one tie and then on both once she is comfortable.

Desensitization is a process of repetition. It's introducing and removing an object from the horse, whether it's touching the horse or simply having in it in close proximity. The idea is to desensitize certain areas of your horse to touch (the head, ears, legs, belly and hindquarters) while leaving certain parts slightly sensitive (the sides of the neck for neck reining and the ribcage for leg pressure).

The simplest way to begin desensitizing is by using a spare lead rope. While your horse is standing in a farily open area such as around pen or arena, hold onto the horse's lead with one hand and swing the spare lead rope gently at the horse's legs in a one-two motion, lightly touching the horse. Instinct will make the horse flinch pr even move away from you but keep up the swinging, nice and steady, hitting the same spot until the horse doesn't respond. Don't foce the horse to stop, just keep suggesting it but gently tugging at their halter and speaking softly to them. As the horse becomes accustomed to that rope hitting that spot, move higher up on the body to hit the belly, over the back, the neck and the rump. By the end your horse should look bored, and sometimes even sleepy.

I never do this more than ten to twenty minutes for a session, depending on the horse's level of comfort. If you can't touch her with the rope all over her body, get to a point where she is standing quietly while havign the rope touch her and then call it a day. Once the horse isn't bothered by a lead rope, I move onto other things including plastic and paper feed bags, towels, stirrup leathers, saddle pads and even an over sized stuffed duck that quacks when you hit the horse with it. By the end, I have yearlings able to stand with a tarp covering their body while I shake it and they don't even blink.

Most horses I work with can get used to all of those items within a month or two. I also like to teach them that pressure on their sides, where your heel will be once you begin riding, means for them to move over. All it takes is a thumbnail between a pair of ribs, somewhat like a blunt spur, and the second they move over, you remove your thumb. This is something all horses should be able to do without hesitation. You shouldn't have to smack your horse to move him over in cross-ties.

Although tedious work, it definitely pays off. They are a breeze for clipping and batheing and when they begin ground work and early under saddle work the following year, they exude confidence. In the end, you get a quiet, even-minded horse that doesn't understand why some of his fellow horses freak out at tarp that rattles.

For any horse, if they become frightened of something while you lead them or while you're riding them, don't show them whatever it was that scared them and make them focus on it! This SENSITIZES your horse to whatever it was. Take them away from whatever it was by either backing up or making a big circle and then pass the object again but do not pay attention to it. If the horse reacts again, distract the horse again, move away from the object and do something else. If leading them, do some quick lead rope work, gently hitting their legs, sides and neck just as if you were playing with desensitization. If riding them ask them to perform something they need to focus to accomplish, such as bending their head laterally to the left and then the right, circle with their head tipped to the outside, etc. You can pass whatever scared them again, again, not paying any mind to it. Repeat the process until the horse ignores it as well.

It's the same concept as sacking them out with the ropes and other objects, exposing and removing something from the horse's focus.

You were right. You can't blame the lesson girl too much because she probably just didn't know any better. She should know now. The barn owner should have a talk with the girl, and all the other lesson students, about the proper way to handle things if someone wants to get by their horse while in cross ties.

My horse does the same thing.

Instead of putting him in them, I have someone hold him.

Eventually, I think she will be fine.

:) Good luck!