08/18/2025
I have used "patience poles or trees" in my past. Take a lesson from Maya Angelou, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."
Buckle up. It's a long one. Let’s talk about patience poles.
You’ve probably seen it on TikTok - a horse tied to a post or tree, short and high, left to “figure it out.”
The goal? To “teach patience.”
The result? Often misunderstood, and sometimes deeply harmful.
Here’s what’s actually happening.
A patience pole (some people use a tree) is typically a tall, fixed object where a horse is tied for extended periods.
It's often used to "break" fidgeting, pawing, pulling back, or other behaviors people consider rude or disobedient. Some trainers use it regularly. Some use it as a one-time “lesson.”
But what’s being taught isn’t patience. It’s something else.
So, why do people use them?
The idea behind it is that the horse will go through its tantrum, realize it’s futile, and “settle.”
What’s often interpreted as learning is actually a freeze response.
Because of the freeze response, this method continues because it looks like it works. The horse gets quiet. The behavior stops. But inside that horse’s nervous system, something entirely different is going on.
From a learning theory standpoint, patience poles rely on flooding - a technique where an animal is exposed to a stimulus it finds aversive until it stops reacting.
It’s widely discouraged in behavioral science due to its risk of trauma, especially when escape is impossible.
According to Paul McGreevy and Andrew McLean (founders of the International Society for Equitation Science), horses tied and unable to flee can experience extreme stress that engages the limbic system, the brain’s emotional and survival center.
When this happens, the prefrontal cortex, responsible for rational thought and learning, shuts down.
In other words, the horse isn’t learning anything. It’s trying to survive.
That stillness you see? That’s not patience.
It’s a conditioned shut-down response, or the buzzword of the 2020's - learned helplessness. When animals (humans included) believe there’s no escape, they stop trying. Not because they’re calm, but because they’ve given up.
Horses that panic under restraint are at high risk for physical injury.
Studies in equine biomechanics and veterinary medicine have documented the effects of poll pressure, neck strain, and TMJ compression due to sudden or repeated pulling.
Fractures at the base of the skull or cervical spine
Strained nuchal ligament and neck musculature
Lingering soreness that makes future handling or bridling more difficult
Behavioral sensitization or reactivity when tied, trailered, or confined
And of course, there’s the unseen trauma - what that horse now associates with being restrained, alone, and unheard. Sometimes that trauma buries itself - and you get an unexpected explosion months or years down the road.
My take: this isn’t training. It’s a shortcut.
Force enters the picture when education/patience runs out.
And yet, when someone chooses a gentler approach, shaping behavior, supporting regulation, creating safety, they’re mocked for being “soft.”
But here’s the truth: soft training doesn’t create dangerous horses.
Lack of education does.
We’ve normalized calling horses “bullies” or “brats” as a way to justify using harsh methods.
But horses aren’t manipulative. They’re not testing us.
They’re communicating as clearly as they can. If we don’t understand, that’s our gap to close.
So what can we do instead?
There are safer, more effective ways to help a nervous horse learn to stand quietly:
Teach standing behavior through successive approximation (small steps toward the final behavior, reinforced positively). Warwick Schiller teaches this - and well.
Use positive reinforcement (like food or scratches) to reward calm behavior
Address physical discomfort or anxiety that makes stillness feel unsafe
Teach patience while moving first - walking, stopping, rewarding
Use safer methods, like blocker ties or teaching ground-tying, as interim steps
Remember, if the horse is dangerous - protected contact is your friend.
But please, stay present. Don’t tie them and walk away or stare at them and call it training.
If you’ve used a patience pole this way in the past, this isn’t about shame. We all do the best we can with what we know.
But we’re at a point in our relationship with horses where we can’t keep clinging to tradition over truth.
You deserve to know how to train your horse with clarity, confidence, and compassion.
And your horse deserves to be trained by someone who sees behavior as communication, not disobedience.
I don't care if you came from a long line of cowboys who've trained 400 colts and we've always done it this way blah blah blaaaaah.
It’s time to retire the shortcuts.
Let’s do better, for them, and for ourselves.
Photo cred: Clinton Anderson 🙃
