Thoughts on CA's patience pole?

Wow. I've been really busy lately and hadn't checked this thread in a while. Looks like I started a real debate. Cool! Lol

Well, I have made a bit of progress with Sahara. I have been tying her up after training, just for like 10 to 15 minutes or so and that combined with other methods to work on her being barn sour has made a difference. I feel much safer while riding her and enjoy my experience a lot more because she isn't constantly turning back and even doing "mini rears" to get back to the barn. I think that tying up has helped her learn that the end of the riding doesn't mean dinner time and I will continue to increase the time she spends tyed up so she isn't so impatient.

As far as her learning to not respond to negative pressure, such as standing even though being caught in an electric fence......well, I can't say I see how that is going to happen. She isn't being electrified while standing there. I also tie her in a way that when she pulls on the rope, it will give her some room, like with CA's ring.

Can I just say how excited I am at the progress she has made? Really excited! Thanks everyone for your input. Let's keep this going so it can help more people.

I tried tying my 9 y/o Palomino QH to a post on the barn for his 'thinking time' after his training. He ripped the front wall of the barn off and bolted all around the pasture with the wall bouncing on the ground behind him. Not pretty. We don't do that anymore. It is not a tying issue, because we had been tying them to posts all week with no issues.

Well since this thread has been brought back to life...I shall put in my two-cents.

The pole CA sells is not a new idea, I rode for a cutting horse trainer years ago that had these. We tied all of our horses out there on them. I would saddle horses...get cattle in...trainer shows up...I started loping horses, hand them off to him to work, back to me to cool out..put back on the pole. In between lopin horses I would take horses off the poles and washed, dried and put back in pens. None of those horses ever thought about going to a gate or back to a stall. They knew that just because we were done working it was over. Horses don't think that being saddled and tied is punishment, they only do if the have been spoiled by put back straight away. (I will say some horse are more prone to this than others,in my opinion). They are happy to stand tied without having to do anything...horses are lazy by nature.

I also saddle all my horses, tie them in the arena, work one, tie him back to fence, work another, tie him back to fence..and so on. This also teaches that the arena is not a place of constant work. Their cinches get loosened and they get to relax and not work. My horses walk calmly into an arena and don't leak towards the gate. Same concept.

I would rather practice to prevent a problem rather than try to fix one later...

I have a huge mare who hates being tied. She can't stand her head being down... Personally, I would love a patience pole for before working with the horse or one days I can't ride and want them to learn something.