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Martingales & Tiedowns

© Caryn A. Tate

The purpose of martingales and tie-downs used with a horse is to keep his nose down in a favorable position. A horse is much easier to work with when his nose is tucked down, when his poll (the spot just behind his ears) is flexed, in the correct position. However, there are pros and cons to using these training tools, and we'll discuss them both here.

We'll start with tiedowns. A typical, simple tiedown is a strap that can be made of a variety of materials that usually attaches one end to the bit or a noseband on the underside of the horse's jaw, and the other end snaps down to a buckle on the front of the cinch under the horse's belly. The meaning of a tiedown, of course, is to keep the horse's head down at a good level; the strap can be adjusted to whatever length you may desire. If the horse attempts to throw his head up in the air, he hits the end of the tie down and cannot do so.

I personally don't recommend tiedowns. My philosophy is that a horse naturally needs to raise his head at times, usually when he is doing something strenuous. For instance, in barrel racing, when a horse digs in his back feet to get around a barrel, his nose will naturally come up a bit more than you would probably like him to in the show ring. But it's essential for his complete body movement. A tie down can do its purpose, especially in a place like the show ring where your horse isn't generally doing very strenuous exercises; however, I feel that in general, it's too restraining for a horse. Being a set length, it doesn't have any "give."

Now let's look at martingales. A simple martingale consists of a strap that attaches around the horse's neck; on one side it has a single adjustable strap, and on the other side, two straps with rings at the ends. The single strap goes down between the horse's front legs to snap to the front buckle of the cinch, the same way the tiedown does. The two straps on the front end of the martingale attach to your reins. You simply run each rein through the rings on the end of the straps.

The great thing about martingales is those rings. Instead of being a set length that your horse must learn not to go past, the reins running through the rings allow the horse to learn to give to YOUR pressure on the reins. For instance, if you're teaching your horse to keep his head down while backing up, he learns simply by touch: when you pull back on the reins, many horses' initial reaction is to throw their head up. With a martingale, when he starts to do this, those rings keep his head down--but to the height that you choose by your pressure on the reins. In short, martingales teach a horse to pay more attention to his rider's hands and not just the restrictions of a training tool.

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