Blocker Ties
These are a truly good invention. They are designed to be used to tie a horse up, but allow the lead rope to slip a little if the horse pulls back hard. This helps reduce the often reflex panic that some horses experience when they find they are tied solid to something that won't give.
Here Chops is tied using the tie up ring
This is a Blocker Tie Ring fixed into a post on the outside of our round yard
But In Australia they sell for a lot of money, so I decided to make my own from an old bit.
I took an old jointed snaffle bit that I had laying around and used a grinder with a cutting wheel to cut the join as shown. This gave me two usable parts to make 2 tie up rings. Each ring is 60mm diameter.
I screwed a 50mm eyelet bolt into the post and attached an 8mm D shackle (sometimes called a U bolt) as shown in the photos below.
I took an old jointed snaffle bit that I had laying around and used a grinder with a cutting wheel to cut the join as shown. This gave me two usable parts to make 2 tie up rings. Each ring is 60mm diameter.
I screwed a 50mm eyelet bolt into the post and attached an 8mm D shackle (sometimes called a U bolt) as shown in the photos below.
This is how you secure your lead rope to the tie up ring
This is an alternative method of securing your lead rope. It gives more grip to the rope and makes it harder to slide through the ring.