Lead by the leg payoff

Today the lead by the leg tasks really paid off.
I had tied Garbo low (I usually always tie him high now) but it was about to rain (never did in the end) and I had to get all the mud off before putting his cover on, and the low tie was under the roof more.

After I did all that, Garbo had managed to untie himself so I tied his rope back up again and collected the buckets. I was two yards away from him when I noticed that he had managed to get his leg over the rope from pawing and at the same time he had backed up so his leg was up, suspended by the lead rope - he was looking at his leg wondering how to get out of it. I saw it and dropped the buckets and ran (quietly with low energy) back to the wash bay. When I got there I had expected him to have pulled back and panicked but no - he was just standing there (not completely relaxed but certainly not stressing) looking at his leg and sniffing the rope - trying to figure what game I was playing I think!!

I reached down and undid his snap (the pressure was pulling his head down at the same time) and he just calmly straightened himself up again. I was sooooo proud of him.

Never using those low ties again -they are so dangerous for horses that talk with their feet! Some people use them and tie their horses up using about 1ft of rope so the horse can't look around, itch himself or anything. The high ones are great - you can use lots of rope and the horse can't get tangled.

Maraschino did once though (of course) he went under the rope and it went over his head and he panicked as it got tighter. But he's a baby - still learning these things won't hurt him.