Teaching a horse to hobble. Help me do it right?

[mvp]

Coming from English world (primarily) I don’t have horses who know how to hobble and I don’t know how to teach one to hobble. That’s a huge hole in my education, IMO.

I did have someone recently give me a step-by-step description.

Do you have one?

With respect to the rope I’ll use, do I need to borrow a proper calf roping rope that will release quickly? (This is for the phase where each leg is roped and moved around.) Or will I be safe with a thick cotton rope that doesn’t come off so reliably? Can

Any and all details or caveats are welcome.

[sorrelfilly721]

We always used the wide leather hobbles. I would first teach the horse to ground tie and then when he was sure what whoa meant, I would hobble in a soft area in case he had a fit. I never had one do much except pick up a foot and try and free it a bit and then stand.

I did have one RUN OFF in hobbles once. Pretty amazing. He was a smart cookie though. He also knew how to bow and lay down.

[goodhors]

I would not use a rope or leather hobbles, have not had good experiences with them.

I use burlap, purchased at a JoAnn’s store in the decorator section. I get a yard and a half, folded like a bandana into a triangle. I put the center point towards the longest side, then roll it up. This gives me a nice LONG piece of strong material to use for the hobbles. You can use some rubber bands along the length to keep it rolled neatly.

I put the center of the rolled fabric on the outside leg, bring both ends towards me, then twist the ends together between the legs, tie a square knot on the outside of leg nearest me. You can “customize the fit” to each horse with more or less twists between the legs.

I carry a knife while hobble training, while my horse is actually using hobbles out on the trail, tied to a trailer, etc. I don’t worry about having to get a knot loose in a hurry with the knife AND good training we do beforehand. They don’t fight EVER.

I have seen horses badly burned with rope as a hobble. Calf rope is HARD and STIFF, have someone with gloves pull it hard while YOU try holding on barehanded!! Bet you get a NICE burn from that!! Way too harsh for any horse of MINE. Even the softer cotton rope can get hung up, not come undone as needed in a hurry.

The leather hobbles seem to be made for ponies, with such narrow spacing between the legs. My wide chested horses, both big and small, never fit those kind of hobbles comfortably. Pulled the legs together, which gets painful in the shoulder area. You also can’t get them off quickly, can’t cut them easily or fast if needed.

I have been really happy with the burlap hobbles, no one has ever been burned using them, they are VERY strong with the folded layers. So these would be my choice of hobbles for training any horse, in comfort and safety, easily cut if needed.

Make sure your pocket knife is sharp and IN your pocket! I never use serrated pocket knives, they seem to always hang up on stuff, not give a clean slice if needed.

Have you done any searches on Hobbles or Hobbling on COTH? The topic has been discussed a number of times, with good information in the posts.

[Bluey]

We buy a length of thicker cotton rope, unravel it and braid it to make hackamore reins and generally have a longish length left we use for lead rope and to desensitize and sensitize when working with horses.

We teach them to stand there when we whirl and throw it around, teach them to respond to it if it pulls on them from anywhere, around their neck or behind or to give a foot, etc.

While doing that, we also use it to hobble, both front legs and scotch hobble from the neck to each hind leg.

That soft cotton rope has never burned any horse, but it is also not tied where it could.

From the short pieces of that rope we make hobbles, that have one end a loop and the other a button made of the tied ends.
That button is what slips in the loop on the other end to tie the hobble around the legs.
Those hobbles is what we use once the horse knows to stand hobbled.

When teaching to hobble, after the horse is well used to the rope work, you find a sandy, preferably enclosed spot to do that.

You use the long rope as a hobble in a way that, if you let go, it will turn loose and fall off, in case a horse really panics.
We never had one panic, but you never know.
You keep the other end in your hand while the horse is thinking about it and trying to walk.
You reinforce the whoa then, so they realize they are to stand there with hobbles.

I have seen people shoo the horse along and the horse fight the hobbles, some even flopping around and falling down.
That is not necessary, the horse can learn to stand there fine without needing to try to walk and panic first.
The rare horses may fight and flop here and there, so always stand where you can get away if they do.

Once horses are fine with standing there, legs tied, we use the soft braided cotton hobbles and some horses may try to walk a bit around, but generally will just stand there until you go to them to turn them loose.

That all generally may take 20-30 minutes and after that we can put the hobbles on and the horse won’t fight them.

Some old cowboy horses that were never really gentled but left very rank, hobbling was one safe way they could be handled and saddled.
They were so reactive they would paw or cow-kick at you if you moved fast around them and hobbled they had learned they could not fight you.
When hobbled they would stand there patiently, is the way they were trained.

Some nicely coordinated horses learn to walk around some with hobbles, some even learn to run fast with them.

[goodhors]

Very nice post Bluey.

I have not seen the homemade hobbles you describe, but the button and loop sound way better than a knot in a cotton rope. Cotton just binds on itself when pulled hard, so release can be hard. Braided cotton would certainly be better than leaving rope twisted, for softness. Too bad I can’t visit, have you show me how to make such a set of hobbles!

[Bluey]

They sell that cotton rope out of a larger spool in hardware stores, in different sizes, 12/", 3/4" and 1".
Some even have colored rope, we used to get the dark blue and lighter red colors for lead ropes and to braid hobbles, the two colors looked pretty and didn’t get so dirty as plain white does, the white for hackamore reins.

Once you unravel those ropes, you have smaller strands that you braid three at the time, so it ends up a flat braid, like braiding hair.

Some times, we make an 1" x 2" oval button out of wood, with an indentation in the middle where the rope attaches.
Those braided ropes are very soft, hard to burn a horse with them.
They do tighten down, which the original ropes don’t so easily, being stiffer.
You don’t want to tie a solid knot with them, where you may have to loosen it in a hurry, because it won’t.

Now, on well trained horses, when riding pasture, we used leather hobbles that are also used for neck ropes when we have to rope tied hard and fast to doctor by yourself, that keeps the horse facing the calf and holding the rope tight for you.
The rope hobbles also work for that, but the flat leather ones are easier on the horse’s neck if there is any pull on them.
Leather hobbles are lined with soft leather where they touch the horse, latigo generally.

Not having started colts now for long time, no telling where some of that stuff is stored.

[Miss_Motivation]

I did kinda as Bluey says- a really fat soft cotton rope, around my mare’s front legs and overlapped more than tied fast, as she ate a few handful of grain out of a bucket on the ground in the soft round pen.

The rope was around her cannon bones, not her pasterns, and had she panicked, she could have pulled it off. But eating grain and nosing her bucket around, she would take baby steps, about the size of her hoof print, then bring her other foot even so she could creep forward, and stand steady.

After just a few lessons she seemed to have the hang of it. I never expected her to not feel free to adjust her stance, but she never thought of really going anywhere, either.

Then I switched to wide leather hobbles and put the tail end of the strap through the buckle, but didn’t put the tongue through the hole… so again, a gentle restraint but not a claustrophobic one.

More grain.

More time.

Then hobbled with the hobbles fastened, always on her cannon bones not pasterns.

Pretty soon I had a horse that understood the concept and I hobbled her all over the place after that. I’d go to shows by myself and hobble her near the entry booth while I filled out my entries… she’d just park herself, maybe take a baby step if I took a long time… people generally freaked out, but the horse never did.

It was a really handy thing to have taught her. Well, she kind of taught herself!

[kinscem]

I ca?t afford the stabling at our dressage regionals. Would it be OK to hobble my mare in the parking lot while I go check in the show office?

[DancingArabian]

[QUOTE=kinscem;8202833]
I ca?t afford the stabling at our dressage regionals. Would it be OK to hobble my mare in the parking lot while I go check in the show office?[/QUOTE]

Not likely.
Why don’t you just leave the horse in the trailer for the few minutes you’ll be in the office?