Horse Training – 12ft Training Line vs 6ft Lead Rope

First things first – what are the differences?

6ft lead rope (Image: KM Elite)



12 ft training line (Image: Charlies Products)
22fr training line (Image: Parelli)

12ft Training Line vs 6ft Lead Rope – Each of them have a purpose – which to use and when to use it might be the question you are thinking…
The most common rope length used in the UK is probably the 6ft lead rope, used for you guessed it – leading, loading and everything in between. The shorter line usually tends to bring the horse and handler quite close together when walking or training and a lot of people tend to hold the horse close to the head collar clip >>> image.

Should I be thinking about changing my standard 6ft lead rope to a 12-14ft training line?
Personally, I would recommend replacing your standard 6-8ft lead rope with a 12-14ft training line, especially for groundwork, trailering, young or sprightly horses. Why do I say this? There are a number of very useful benefits to using a longer training line for your daily tasks with your horse, which can greatly help improve aspects of training, relationship and safety when you are around your horse.

Horse training - 12ft Training Line vs 6ft Lead Rope

1. Versatility

Having a longer rope enables you to use it in a variety of ways

2. Communication and Space

A longer rope allows you to communicate easier with your horse:
– provides more distance between you and your horse
– better safety by keeping your horse out of your personal space
– improves communication by providing more space, so your horse can see you and your cues
– helps establish boundaries – which go a long way to building a more focused relationship
– the rope can be used as a communication tool – stop, go, left, right, back up etc

3. Time

The longer rope provides extra space between you and your horse. This gives you more time to prepare and respond to a situation and also allows more time for your horse to respond to your cues.

4. Encouraging responsibility and self control

A lot of people/horses like to be in each other’s space – it becomes a safety blanket – sometimes this is ok, but to start with it isn’t always safe for them to be right beside you if they are not paying attention, as they could take a fright and if you are right beside them you could easily be pushed over and hurt. So having the extra space between you and your horse encourages your horse to have more responsibility and self control. For example when your child first crosses the road, what do we do? We hold their hand. Over time they can let go of your hand, but you are still there to influence the desired outcome when necessary. The better your connection and relationship with your horse, the more you can reduce this space when needed, but as long as the foundation of work and ability to gain their attention is there when needed, your horse should be aware of your presence, you should be able to communicate with them safely and they shouldn’t barge into you.

Food for thought – what’s natural for your horse?

A lot of people won’t see anything wrong having a horse in their personal space, not paying them full attention, as it is thinking about its friends, food or the weather and sure that might be fine until the horse spooks and runs them over or pushes them into something. If you think about it in the horse world – the only ‘horse’ that is allowed to bump into other horses or invade the space of others is the foal. However the foal is only allowed to do it to certain horses and for a certain amount of time, before they are told to take responsibility for themselves. So why do we allow our horses to behave like foals around us?


There are still times of course when you might choose to use your 6-8ft lead rope though, here are a few:
– tying up in the trailer
– tying up in the yard


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