Blocker tie rings are a great way to tie horses and to teach horses to tie without the associated risk of a horse setting back and pulling. They are a great way to reform a puller and prevent a young or nervous horse from learning to pull back. They work on the principle of teaching the horse not to panic due to feeling restrained and claustrophobic. The horse is not tied hard. The rope slides if the horse sets back and over a remarkably short time the animal learns that he is not restrained in a hard tie and can move if he wants. The result is that almost 100% of horses will stand calmly and will not set back - even former hard pullers. They are a VERY useful and safe tool. They can be used everywhere you tie horses including cross ties and trailers.

HOWEVER they cost a bundle. Usually around $25 to $32 bucks each. If you are only buying one that's not so bad. But once you see how well they work you will want more and if you have a stable or farm you'll need plenty if you decide to implement them. I have a farm and expenses are huge. I must be careful in my expenditures. I have learned to make a lot of my own tack and tools over the years and I must say that often what I make is SUPERIOR to anything I can buy and WAY CHEAPER.

You can make a tie ring for around six bucks or so. And in fact in my opinion they ARE BETTER than the original blocker tie ring. They are even safer and easier to use and much less likely for a horse to play out of it.

side diameter steel ring. It should be about one quarter inch thick with a good weld. Also get a 4.5" double ended snap. The ring should easily fit into both ends of the snap. (see photos). To use it you attach the snapped ring to either a fixed ring such as in a trailer or cross tie etc, or attach it to a nylon web dog collar (small will do, and the collar will usually have it's own little ring attached to snap to) and the dog collar can be wrapped around a pipe corral rail or whatever. The bottom end of the snap can remain snapped into the ring or left unsnapped so that you can easily slide the rope in or out. That's the way I do it and because of the design of the snap the horse cannot play out of the tie unless they go all the way to the end of the rope which is not so likely. With the blocker tie ring the tongue in the middle of the tie is loose (unless you buy the even more expensive magnetic variety) and the horse can in fact work a rope out of the tie ring.

OK so here are some photos. If anyone has any questions just let me know.