I have never highlined a horse and have only seen pictures of it done, so I don't know too much about it.  My question is, can you give them enough length to lie down. I have a three year old who will be going camping for the first time in the Fall, and he still likes to take naps lying down. I'm not worried about my older horse, but I want to make sure the young one gets plenty of rest. Also, if you have any other ideas or opinions on highlining, I would sure like to hear about them. Where I'm going, there are stalls, but I have had some bad luck with horses getting sick after being in them. My horses are all vaccinated, which helps, but it's not perfect. Anyway, let me here what you folks have to say.

We just returned from a trip out west and stayed at little elden near flagstaff.  All they have are high lines.  People camping near us had their lead long so their horse could rest at night and poor thing became tangled during the night.  When morning came she had been in ropes for several hours.  Thought she would be ok but the ordeal whas too much and she dropped dead in the camground. 

We use spring tethers which are availalbe at www.springtether.com. They cost $20.00 each but my horses are worth more than that. We highline all the time and make sure if we do use the leads to shorten them when you are not watching (especially at night) Horses to not need to sit down to rest and leaving the lines long at night are not necessary.  But be sure to tie your youngster at home several times to get him accusotmed to it before traveling. Do not leave buckets and hay bags overnight--they can tangle in them.  Make sure horses are far enough apart so they cannot tangle. Make sure no branches or debris is anywhere near enough to tangle in ropes.    

Hope this info helps.

I will agree with the response already posted. If you are leaving any horse while you are not watching they should be tied short. Equines can sleep just fine standing up!

I recommend that you keep the distance of leadrope from halter to (7 foot tall) highline at 17" and make certain that there is a swivel somewhere. This assumes a horse size of 14-15 hands high, you could go a little longer for a short horse or taller highline. In case you didn't see my webpage about highline construction here is a link: http://pkrigerjr.tripod.com/highline.html

We always highline our horses long to allow them to lie down. Some tips, make sure the horse end snap is at least 5 inches off the ground, swivel is good.  We use adjustable cross ties that have a panic snap at the end.  Check a couple times a day that the tension in the highline hasn't stretched and is allowing the horse end snap to come to close to the ground.  The only time we've ever had a problem, was a young horse scratching an ear with a hind leg.  Got that hind leg caught, but we were standing right there.  I double check my length every night before bed and make sure everybody gets a good ear scratch after a ride.  Highlining long, has worked well for us.  We also peek out the windows during the night periodically.  I see the horses lie down alot.  I have also heard of people who put jingle bells on the lines.  The reasoning is, if a horse starts really thrashing around, you'll hear the bells really going off.

Thanks for the responses. I most likely will only allow the horses the extra lenght if I'm there watching. As far as during the night, I probably wouldn't sleep very well worrying about it, so I'll keep them at a normal hitching width.  Thanks again and I hope to hear from more of you.

I camp a lot with my horses and frequently highline them. I give them just enough lead so they stretch down and reach the ground to eat. But not enough to get a leg over the line.

If they lay down, they just hold their head up and it's 2-3 feet off the ground.

I like the bells idea. I often tie a Cylum light stick to the horses halter. I can look out the window of the trailer or tent and count the number of glowing lights at night.  If I see two or three lights bouncing around in excitment I know a horse is loose and the others want to join him. With the cylum sticks I don't have to turn on a flashlight and loose my night vision with a bright light.  And if a horse is loose, I can spot him walking around the camp pretty easy.

Last fall Elk hunting, I heard the horses and looked out. All the lights were there in the dark, but the horses were excited. I got up and went out. There was a extra horse tasting my hay and everybody was excited about him. As I watched he walked over by my buddy's ATV trailer and layed down and rolled.  As he rolled he banged the trailer with his feet and actually rolled under their trailer. As he tried to get up he banged his head on the trailer frame and knocked himself out cold.  My buddies hearing and feeling the banging got up and came out in their undies to see what was going on. I was laughing so hard at the thought of what they must be thinking about being so rudely awakened, that I could tell them what had happened, or hask for help as I tried to pull the horse out from under the tongue of their trailer before he wake up again. In fact for a moment I though we had a dead horse under the hitch and was wondering how we would ever move it so we could hook up and go home. 

Luckily I was able to drag the horses head out from under the trailer and roll him over before he came to.  He jumped up and trotted off. In the morning  I stopped by a camp about a 1/2 mile down the road and spotted the horse on their highline. He had a pretty skinned up head. I asked them what had happened to him and they didn't have any idea. I told his owners that they needed to tie better knots as he had come to visit us that past night.

I highline alot too. I like the idea of the coiled tie - lets them stretch to lie down, but can't be so long as to allow tangling. Good idea. What I do is make sure the horse can just barely reach the ground with his nose when he stretches a bungy-type trailer tie. I have the quick release end up high so I can reach it more easily in an emergency. You have to be careful with the bungies...once they get old I've heard they can break and have the snap hit the horse pretty good in the head or eye! I also learned from an experienced endurance rider that if you pass the line through the upper throat latch before you attach it to the halter ring (or loop with natural horse type halters)then the rope doesn't sag so much and has less chance getting caught on something.

I'm also a checkaholic. I check the highline for tightening frequently. It's amazing how much they can stretch! I check the horse and area for potential problems many times. I have a remote control lantern outside for midnight (or worse!)noises to check. Oh, and I always, always, always have a sharp(really sharp!) knife handy - in my pocket during the day and at the trailer door at night. I've never had to use it with any of my horses, but I've used it lots of times on other people's horses. A rope is never more valuable than a horse!

All that said, I now own a portable corral and am loving it! If I'm ever in a place I need to highline I can still do that too.

I use a cross tie bungee - it seems to help keep the horse from getting tangled up. I have pretty much quit using picket lines, now I take my electric portable corral.

I use a portable electric corral a lot also,  They are easy to pack in and set up in the meadow. I let the horses graze all day when I can see them. But I tie them up at dark. It's just too easy for them to walk through a portable fence when they are at a new and strange location.  And if not the horse, I've had several elk charge right through the meadow and knock down the hot wire several times. The wild game are used to crossing the meadow at night and don't even see the hot wire or tape. I don't want to wake up in the morning and find out my horses are waiting for me at the trailer 10 miles away.

Here are the horses out in 4 Lakes Basin.  See the barely visable white fiberglass rods.

Hmmmmm. That's the second time I've posted and it didn't show up. Anyhow, I wanted to say how absolutely beautiful that picture is! I hope your horses know how lucky they are to visit places like that. Lots of their kin go from box stall to arena, box stall to arena, box stall to arena......Not much scenery in that.

What kind of portable corral do you have? Electric? Solar?

That's what I own a horse for. Mine have never seen a box stall and rarely an arena. I just use one of those "YELLOW JACKETS" or similar products that run on 4 "D" cell batteries. When I've used them at home the batteries last about 6 weeks of being left on continously. More than enough for a couple of weekends. I take a 1/4 mile of poly string and 40 or so fiberglass rods. In the picture above we used two rolls of string or about 1/2 mile. We turned 19 horses out in it every day. Then highline them at dark. I can't count the number of times deer and elk have knocked it down at night. That's another reason I use the poly string instead of a wire or heavier tape. At least if the elk gets caught in the string it will probably break.

We call it "picket line" around here, but I also keep my horses tied short so that they can't tangle in the night.  My son's mare can always figure out how to lay down though!  She stretches the heck out of the line!  I like the idea of the bell and the lights on halters.  I also think the idea of running the lead rope through the side of the halter first then the loop would help with getting tangled up as well.

Thanks to the person for sharing those beautiful pictures!!!  How did you get a photo into the message?  I only saw where you can put a link to a web page. 

Diane

You have to have the picture hosted at another site. Your own or something like VillagePhoto. But it has to be online 24 hours a day. Websites such as this one don't want to store unlimited graphics/pictures, so they only allow links from your message to the location of the photo. Create you message, submit it, then edit it to include the link.  On the edit menu is a icon  (4th from the right) where you enter the link address.

One you do this the photo will appear IN THE MESSAGE

Be careful to SHRINK the size of any photo.  Nobody wants to be downloading large photos.  Since computer screens only display 72dpi. Don't save a photo with 300 or 600 dpi You need the higher resolution for printing, but not for the monitor.

Scarey story about your Arab and the hay bag.  Glad to hear he'll be ok.  We don't use hay nets anymore for a similiar reason with a mare we had.  If we hadn't had the knife, we would have lost her.  She was drenced in sweat and had given up.

We do use hay bags still.  I find with a hay net, you can fill them really full.  When completely full, they hang higher.  As the net is emptied, it starts to stretch out and hang lower and lower.  Eventually, it's too low and a horse can get caught in it.  If I do have to use a net, once it's about half empty, I retie it.  Running the long tie loops down through the bottom hole of the net to shorten it up a bunch and draw it up higher.

Hi Mike,

You know that might just work... to add another Prussic. I hadn't thought about it before, but you have have engaged my "mind gears"...

I will probably keep the tensioning system in place in case I need to tighten it up (rare, when you get it TIGHT to start with). I think I'll have to give that a try and it would make the final tie-off a whole lot easier. I realize it is a little hard to describe, but I can visualize your idea.

Thanks for adding to my Rope Repertoire!

Pete

http://pkrigerjr.tripod.com/highline.html