Worried your horse might step on their lead rope while grazing? Of course you are! What responsible, caring horse owner isn’t? Well fear no more my friends!
That’s right! No longer will you have to pay attention to those pesky lead ropes! Now you can text and graze with ease! By using this ingenious brilliant stupendous fan-fucking-tastic device you can prevent dangerous spooks, serious falls and even broken legs!
It’s the AHHHHHH-mazing Hand Grazing Surcingle from Dura-Tech!
(skip to 1:53 for the relevant part… couldn’t find a shorter clip)
Wow. The geniuses at Dura-Tech must think people are really, really dumb. I mean, come on! It’s a surcingle with a cleat thingy (technical term) instead of a ring (not that I’m sure that’s a superior feature, but we’ll discuss that later). Wanna bet there’s someone reading this and they’re all, “Bitch! I bought that and it’s the best thing I ever got Fluffy because now he never steps on his lead rope. Before I bought this he stepped on it all the freaking time and would get so scared! You don’t know me!” (complete with the snaking of the head and three accompanying snaps).
Because paying attention to your horse and what you’re doing isn’t an option…
Hey, it’s later. So, cleat-thingy vs. ring. Um, I vote ring. The cleat holds the lead rope and you can quickly get it to release by pulling back (away from the horse’s head) and then out. Of course, if you’re at the wrong angle, this isn’t going to work all that well. What if the horse chooses to look in the opposite direction but doesn’t have enough line? Presumably that’ll tighten the cleat’s hold on the line, making it that much harder to pull back and release. Hrmmm, flaw?
Not sure how to use your new contraption? The good people at Dura-Tech have painstakingly put together this informative, four step, guide! Click here!
Disclaimer: I realize this product is advertised on Schneider’s Tack and that I recently featured their ad in a post and this might seem a bit incongruous. Make no mistake, I’m not saying anything bad about the store or anything like that – I’m referring to this product, and this product alone.
31 Comments
Find a need and fill it…or invent something that NO ONE needs and make it anyway so people will buy it and have yet another dust collector in their garage. You know what I do when my horse steps on his lead rope when I am hand grazing him? First, I dont run around waving my arms in the air, yelling, “OH MY GOD, HE’S ON HIS LEAD ROPE, HE’S ON HIS LEAD ROPE…HELP ME JESUS, CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT…OH THE HUMANITY!!!”. Second, I move him off of it. Very difficult maneuver.
Oh, jeez. It’s a surcingle! I toss the lead over a mare’s back as she’s grazing, and if it slips off she’s careful enough not to step on it. Horses know where their feet are, and if they don’t, stepping on a lead rope is the least of your problems. Even if you wanted to use a surcingle to hold the lead rope, you certainly don’t need to buy a SPECIAL surcingle just for grazing. There’s a sucker born ever minute.
Same here, I just toss it over her back and let her do whatever while I do some quick chores like sweeping hoof-dirt or picking poo out of the cross-tie area. She generally just stays in one place or meanders around a bit. Sometimes she’ll come over and see what I’m doing. I would never leave her unsupervised, but I hardly see the danger of stepping on the lead unless she’s going mach-five around the property. It has dropped from her neck a few times and she has stepped on it. She ignores it. She ignores stepping on hoses, too, much to the dismay of the hoses. Makes bath-time difficult sometimes.
This is a product for lazy irresponsible people who tie their horses out to graze and are tired of untangling “Sugar” every half hour or so, carefully protected against lawsuits with the phrase “Horses should not be left unsupervised while using this product.”
As there seems to be no shortage of lazy, irresponsible horse owners, I expect this product will sell.
Pretty sure I’ve seen this contraption elsewhere. Was it COTH?
Anyway, the horse folks opinions were pretty much the same as mine. This is a waste of money. Anyway of finds this worth buying really needs to get off their lazy ass.
*Anyone who finds
Gee, blonde day much? *facepalm*
So the horse gets its front leg over the lead rope, so there is pressure forward on the cleat, and it is not possible to get the lead line out? Brilliant.
I like that they suggest it for broods with foals. I can see bitty baby trying to run under mom’s neck and causing a hell of a lot of issues as well.
I can imagine the foal clothes-lining itself. Which, if the foal was a cartoon, would be hilarious!
Geesh I don’t own a horse, but if I’ve been hand grazing one and it steps on the lead rope and freaks, I see it as a learning opportunity. I figure it should drag it around and step on it a few more times to figure out its not an evil horse-eating snake.
Don’t you want them to learn to think ‘oh my… seems I’ve stepped on my lead rope… I guess I should move my foot?’
Uh, if a horse i was grazing I’d worry about him breaking the halter, not freaking over stepping on a rope. I don’t think I’d even want to have a horse who would freak out over stepping on lead rope. stepping on a garden hose and freaking out I could understand, a lead rope? Not so much.
I just hook my lead rope to the cheek ring that is already on the halter……
I always let my horses step on the lead.. they figure out rather quickly not to panic and simply pick up their feet and continue eating. It also is helpful if you “god forbid” drop a rein and they accidently step on it. I have had my gelding quitely realize he was stepping on his rein and he simply moved his foot, without snapping rein or headstall.
This is exactly what I have taught my horses to do. Imagine, being able to step on something and NOT FREAK OUT!
That’d be too simple Lucy
Wow, whenever I see something like this I have to roll my eyes. If I ever used anything this stupid in front of my old instructor, she would have run over and told me to quit being a lazy dumbass and do it the ‘old fashioned’ way.
I have a solution…put in a few electric fence stakes, you know the ones you can step on and in they will go.. then you put up a single strand of electric.. NOW here comes the hard part. Turn off the electric fence, attach the wire OR tie on the gate hook, then tie the other end to the electric… put your horse in, SANS a lead rope…and go turn on the electric fencer.
Poof… a pretty good way to let your horse graze outside its paddock with out worry it will step on its lead rope.
If you are going to go through ALLL that trouble to buy the stupid contraption, go and get your horse, put its halter and lead rope ON.. then put the contraption on.. AND THEN… go put the lead rope through that and walk away…
Why not just set up a small pen and let the horse eat there OR.. better yet.. but a grazing muzzle on him/her and let them into a fenced grassy paddock so they can eat the grass.
Now some one will make the point that “Fluffy” the horse is being hand grazed due to an injury, and might run if they put them in a paddock…
You nullify the argument when you put the stupid contraption on “fluffy” and just stand or sit and not control the horse… they could spook for any reason and take off. You have no control over them if you have put the lead rope on the horse’s back OR onto the contraption.
If you create a small pen out of electric fence stakes, or a portable corral, you at least are trying to limit “fluffys” movement.
If you just want to take “fluffy” for a walk and let them eat grass… you nullify your argument when you remove control of your horse by taking the lead rope out of your control, IE on the horses back, on the ground or on the stupid contraption… It would be better served to create a small pen, or put a grazing muzzle on (if needed) and simply let them be in a grassy paddock that is fully fenced.
Gee Willakers.. that is a stupid thing to buy!!
This contraption is attempting to make the dreaded Lead Rope Snake an endangered species. How dare they??
[/sarcasm]
Sadly, somewhere out there some stupid bastard is squealing with delight over this item. “ZOMG, this is gr8!!!
HA! Lead Rope Snake! love it
I saw this a few months ago in their catalog and laughed my ass off, I was thinking “seriously, someone out there is going to buy this, and SS Tack will be laughing itself to the bank” Me, I’m one step lazier, I take my lawn chair out there, put the grazing hobbles on my horses front legs, and turn her loose, then turn to my book.
Grazing hobbles is better than what I do- I simply drop the lead and let my horse wander while I daydream. My horse learned many years ago that if he steps on the lead and can’t move his head, he simply has to move each foot until he’s free. No fuss, no muss. I find it’s a great way for them to learn to give to pressure.
I help with chores at the barn I board at, which usually means either turning horses out or in, usually leading two horses at a time which can be a handful sometimes, and you wouldn’t believe the number of horses that will lose their $#!+ if you accidentally drop the lead and they step on it, causing pressure to be put on the halter. It’s ridiculous.
My mare is a few scoops short of a sundae if you know what I mean, so she never got far enough (in her 24 years of life so far) to learn that she can, indeed, free herself when she steps on the lead. If she’s grazing and steps on it, she ignores it, but if she’s walking around, the second that halter puts pressure on her face she stops dead. Then when I look up from what I’m doing to make sure she hasn’t maimed herself somehow (this is a mare that got a 5″ puncture wound in her shoulder and we have NO idea how she did it) I’m greeted with a “Mommy, I’m stuck please help Q~Q” look. She’s got those big quarter horse eyes, too. I’ve tried just leaving her and seeing if she could figure it out. Nope. Just stands there until someone comes to her rescue. Absolutely pitiful, but my gosh I love her.
Why not teach the horse that stepping on the lead rope isn’t a huge issue???
Never underestimate the stupidity of lazy people with too much money.
Oh, ha ha ha!
Yeah, I’m just like the person who said they read a book… i go to hand graze my pony, basically I let the lead drop, sit down beside the end of it and read my book. If the lead moves, I have lightening reaction… I reach out and grab it to stop horse leaving. If the horse steps on the lead rope… I sit and watch my pony figure out what to do, then praise her when she gets it. Much better I think, you teach the horse a good life skill, (about pressure release) its cheaper and easier. Plus, as we all know, the more weird bits of rope and leather (*contraptions*) we put on a horse, the more risk for injury! For example, what if they were to put a foot over that lead?
I agree with those who say let the darn horse learn not to be afraid of the pressure and to figure it out. At our barn of trail riders, pretty much every horse out there is immune to the dreaded lead rope snake. I had actually forgotten about those times from the fancy barns I rode at, when the horse lost his fluffy bunny mind when he accidentally found himself “trapped” by the rope under his own foot.
That being said, it really annoys me when people leave their horses alone for more than a minute or two dragging a line. I’m respectful enough to tie my horse when I’m doing something with him, and if I’m busy for a minute, he better just stand there, tied, and be patient. We have people who will sit and chit chat whilst their horse drags a line for hours, then the horse spooks (or just gets bored) and runs around unattended. Awesome. Thanks so much for that. IF he is going to be out for a while, maybe we should put him back in the pasture? I was always taught that if the horse is grazing, I should be on the other end of that line, just in case…hand grazing can be bonding time with your pony
If not, he really should be put safely in a proper fence!! Rant ended…
This is dumb. If you are too damn lazy to actually hold a lead rope, maybe you shouldn’t have a horse.
Of course, when my mare steps on her lead rope, which she seems to do if I look away for .00076 seconds, she stops and looks at me to fix it. Never had one freak out over that one.
haha ya my boy does that too. I refuse – being of the mindset that he created the problem so he can damn well fix it. It’s a momentary staring contest that he wins when I tell him which leg to lift and he goes about his business (of grass eating, of course).
*facepalm*
Can you not just throw the lead over the horse’s back? I’ve done this, left my horse alone while I go sweep up after untacking (only with a couple of particular horses who I trust to not freak out or run off, though most of the horses will run to their paddocks or the barn if something spooks them, so it’s not a big deal anyway), and when I go back outside, hey look, my horse is still alive. Sometimes he’ll have stepped on the lead, but more often, it’s just slid down his neck and is hooked over his ears. And either way, does he care? Not a bit. Heck, there’s one horse I’ll put out there with just a halter and no lead sometimes, if I can’t find a decent one (occasionally all our leads seem to mysteriously disappear and if you’re not fast enough, you get left with the option of a longe line, a weird little one-foot-long thing, a lead with a broken clip, or one of the stupid cheap ones that tend to break at the drop of a hat).
I’ve had horses step on their lead ropes and they’ll either move their foot OFF the lead rope, or wait until I walk over and push them off of it. These are the horses I trust not to blow up and have a coniption and act like the world just ended. Than again it’s like people buying the trainer carrot sticks (with their name on it), when I can make one and it would cost me 1/2 of it. And you know SOMEONE is going to BUY it and thus said person will keep MAKING them. People who buy stupid crap like this need to be smacked a few times and maybe their brain would function…..
….am I weird that, while “hand grazing” I purposefully drag the lead between legs, in awkward positions, under feet, etc etc so that they get used to these things, rather than spook at them? I rather enjoy the fact that when either of my Percherons steps on their lead, feels that specific downward tug on their faces, they actually stop and basically look down to see what they’re caught on?