# Hitching Rails



## Haileyyy (Mar 10, 2012)

I normally tie to my round pen, or hold the horse but we do have a hitching post. It's a giant slab of rock that is from the late 1800's I believe, that is like 6ft tall. We buried it 2ft in the ground and the weight alone keeps it in the ground. It still has the original metal I think, not 100% on that though. It works well enough, but I don't really like tying to it because the horse can walk around it in a complete circle.

We used to have metal and wood hitching rails at our barn, and my aunt used to have a wood one. The metal ones were made out of pipes that were welded together and about 2'6" in the ground with concrete. The wood ones were made of 4-6" trees that were cut down and nailed together. About the same depth and with concrete like the metal ones.

I prefer the metal ones only because they last. The wood ones started to break apart and rot. Also, I like a more "modern" look so the metal goes along with it. You can paint metal as well.

I will see if I can get a picture of our old stone one, it looks pretty neat!


----------



## CBailey04 (Dec 19, 2011)

Not trying to bash on you or anything about tying to the round pen but I just saw a horse get really bad hurt at a rodeo practice from being spooked while tied to the pen...it yanked the panels and when they came down spooked the horse more.....it was a disaster U really don't think about stuff like that til you seen a horse get hurt........but anyway about the rails!! lol we had a neighbor cut down all his cedar trees (crazy I know!!) but he gave them to us and thats what our hitchin post are made from. The cedar last forever and no bugs will do any damage to them!!!:lol: We have one behind the barn by the wash pad and one next to the round pen to tie horses waiting to be worked. Highly recommend cedar if you can find any:wink: Good Luck!


----------



## CBailey04 (Dec 19, 2011)

Haileyyy said:


> I will see if I can get a picture of our old stone one, it looks pretty neat!


I bet the stone is soooo cool looking, plus its probably a great conversation piece!


----------



## Haileyyy (Mar 10, 2012)

CBailey04 said:


> Not trying to bash on you or anything about tying to the round pen but I just saw a horse get really bad hurt at a rodeo practice from being spooked while tied to the pen...it yanked the panels and when they came down spooked the horse more.....it was a disaster U really don't think about stuff like that til you seen a horse get hurt........but anyway about the rails!! lol we had a neighbor cut down all his cedar trees (crazy I know!!) but he gave them to us and thats what our hitchin post are made from. The cedar last forever and no bugs will do any damage to them!!!:lol: We have one behind the barn by the wash pad and one next to the round pen to tie horses waiting to be worked. Highly recommend cedar if you can find any:wink: Good Luck!


It's fine, I know tying to the round pen isn't the best, but it's really all we have... Besides the old hitching post, anyway. I will have to see if my grandpa has any trees we could use, he is always cutting some down(and we only have like 5 trees on our 10acre property!)

But, here is our late 1800s early 1900s slate hitching post! I asked my uncle more about it since he found it, and it is at least 8ft tall/long and he got it at a historical construction site, I think they were throwing it away. It's all original, even the metal ring, and still is in good shape. The chips are from him moving it with a machine to get it in the ground.


----------



## Almond Joy (Dec 4, 2011)

About the old rock hitching post... our town is very historical (On the shoreline of CT), and downtown they are on every single block. So, at least 30-50 of them still in our town. They're granite and still have all of the original hardware. It's pretty amazing. I'm going to put that on my horsey bucketlist: Tying my horse to one of those posts.


----------



## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

I love that hitching post!
In the town I grew up in had very tall cement sidewalks with those hitching rings set in them. And the town I travelled to to for school had the same with the metal poles, the cast horseheads with the ring through the mouth for hitching pots.

When I moved away I was so confused as why they didn't have tall sidewalks with hitch rings! LOL

OP, most places I have worked had metal pipe hitch rails about chest high, tall enough to discourage going over the top and low enough they can't get under. Usually they had pony shoes welded to the bottom side so your lead rope doesn't slide.

Most trainers I worked for had poles set in the ground with a ring and a rope or a chain to tie to. Just like Clinton Andersons "patience pole"......he didn't think of that, I know what trainer he worked for that he got the idea from...lol. they are pretty handy for colts to tie out.


----------



## eclipseranch (May 31, 2012)

I built 1 on either side of my barn doors. I used 6 in treated posts sunk in concrete with a 4 in horizontal treated post sunk in 3 12 in nails on either end done looks really good & very durable and easy to tie to. I love the convenience of being near the doors
we use them all the time.


----------



## BarrelracingArabian (Mar 31, 2010)

We have 3, 2 havr rail road tie bases one wit a metal bar the other a round rail road tie type log the other is 3 large logs ill try and find pictures tomorrow.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## BarrelRacingLvr (Feb 26, 2012)

Here is a picture of ours the day after we put it up....not a very good one and will have to get a better one of the finished product....

You can tie 5 horses up to it comfortably. It is Steel irrigation pipe that we scored


----------

