Ok, Heres a question....A friend and I have a disagreement on where to put the saftey latch end of the cross tie?

Do you hook the saftey latch end to the horse or to the wall?

I have always been told to hook it to the wall.That way if the horse breaks away it will be hanging from the halter and you can catch them more easly.Any way I am just wondering if it is a matter of prefrence or is there really a right and wrong way to hook it?

If a horse is thrashing around, having your head and arm close to him can be detremintal to your health.  I always have a knife, and put panic releases further from the horse.

I would think you would want it attached to the wall where you can easily pop it open if it does not release.

I like the idea of having a panic snap on the wall on one side and on the horse on the other side...  I hadn't thought of that.  As for bungie ties, I had a friend use a  bungie cord trailer tie and the horse pulled back without any notice, and she didn't get to the release in time... it snapped and broke her hand so badly that she has now had 3 surgeries to try to repair all the damage.  He was a horse that was trailered weekly to drill team practice and had never had a problem in the trailer before so she was caught off guard when he pulled like that.  As you can guess, I am reluctant to use a bungie tie :)

Hate, Hate, Hate the bungees - seen and heard of too many accidents when that heavy snap pops back at the horse or the handler.

I always put the panic end of the trailer tie or cross tie close to the wall, but I also make a loop of a short length of bailing twine and attach that to the wall ring, then I put the panic snap end onto the bailing twine loop.  More than likely the loop will pop before the panic snap breaks - and they do break - or with your always handy knife, you can cut the loop rather than the cross tie.

Also, I hate seeing one of those broken snaps left on the cross tie with another snap hooked to it.  Seems to defeat the purpose and it's a lot of metal "bobbing" around.

Probably the best thing to do is to train the horse to ground tie.... not always possible or practical, but most likely the safest.  My gelding will stand in the aisle of the barn for quite a while with a lead line hanging and no ties. 

I also like a quality made rope halter and lead.  It's the hardware that is most likely to break down in a bad situation and we all know, once that horse knows it can break away, it's going to happen again and again.

I'm with hounddog, you won't find a cross-tie in any of my barns or my clients.  Young horses in particular, because they don't have a ton of weight on them, can really injure their necks or even break them on cross-ties.

I prefer a single lead dropped down from a single high attachment point.  Such a tie allows for a safe exit for people if things get hairy.  A horse in cross-ties can become tangled in both ropes around the head/neck or legs if they are so inclined.  I'd rather cut one rope than two, with cross-ties you need to be in the danger zone twice as long!

This just happen to me this week !! I had my daughters 4 year old cross tied to trim his hooves. He spooked at a combine in a distant field. Reared up threw his head around several times until he broke both cross ties. Ended up falling down on his side. Skinned his legs up pretty good but doesn't look to be hurt at all. I feel as though I got really lucky cause he could of ended up on top of me or he could of hurt himself to the point of having to be put down. From now on I am going to use bailing twine. I think there is just enough hold to keep them in place and if they do go crazy they can break away with no problem.