I do not hobble to graze or leave them unattended. I hobble in the barn for saddling and grooming. My purpose is to teach/practice standing quietly while restraint. To graze I will tether them by one HIND leg. Strider was tethered with a rope and wearing a halter and I would go away and leave him for a few hours without supervision but he took years to perfect that method.
I feel now that the single hind leg tether is better then hobbling or tying with a halter and it is easy to teach.
One of my favorite past times in nice weather is to take a good book, my horse, one dog and one cat a lawn chair and go pick a nice piece of grass, tether the horse by one hind leg, sit my chair on the end of the rope and just sit and read for an hour. The dog curls at my feet and the cat sits on my lap and the horse grazes. A very peaceful relaxing time of day:)
Th
[IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/1zmpdlu.jpg)
I hobble all the time. While riding in the back country, I loop a set of hobbles through the back cinch on my saddle, So I can easily get to them when I stop for a break or lunch. Hobble the horse and let them graze while I eat lunch.
My horses can run faster with hobbles than I can run. So I never leave them unattended or out of sight. Like a poster above, I’ll hobble during the day, but ALWAYS highline before dark. I’ve learned that as long as my horses heads are down and grazing, they are OK. But after about an hour, they will start lifting head up and looking around. I can tell they lost interest in eating that’s time to tie them up.
I often hobbling while I saddle the horses. I place the hobble on instead of tying them to the trailer. Saddle them up and remove the hobbles to start the ride.
Here are a couple of our horse hobbled at lunch
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2008/Granite%20Basin/100_0047.jpg
One of my mares around camp in hobbles
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2008/Jackson%20Lake/GirlsTrip253.jpg
Horses grazing in the high country
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/Horses-grazing.jpg
Another of the horse near the trailer
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/Senior%20Sluff/Eating-grass.jpg
I use australian hobbles which are leather and employ a tongue and dee to lock on instead of the usual buckle, they are very fast to put on and take off.
To introduce them, I have the horse in a small breaking round yard with deep sand and sealed walls. I put protective boots (the full wraps) on all legs. The horse wears a rope halter and 12’ rope lead.
Then I just put the offside one on, flip it over to the near side, come around and lock it on the near side so the horse is hobbled.
I take the lead at a moderately long length and gently encourage the horse forward. At this point they a) feel the restraint, stop, look at it, test it and get over it; or b) panic and try to run.
If they try to run, I just pull them around in circles around me so they can’t get away, and encourage them with my voice to relax. Worst one took about 10 seconds to realise it wasn’t being eaten alive before she stopped.
Once they get over that initial reaction, they stop and think. I give them a pat and some praise, and once I feel they have had enough (from 5 minutes to half an hour) I take them off.
I usually find they are 100% after this and never need boots etc again.
Painted Horse can I come and live with you??
The country where you ride is fantastic. Something I can only dream about.
Honestly it looks ideal for riding and you should be running this post on hobbling. You have far more experience then I.
I asked A2 if I could live with her and she said NO:lol::lol:
I bet your answer is the same:sadsmile::sadsmile:
Shadow I’m always looking for somebody to sit in one of my saddles. too many horses for me to ride by myself and I can’t always talk my daughters intio coming along. As long as you are easier to put up with than what it takes to pony an extra horse along, you are welcome to stop in.
See the red hobbles around this mares feet. She learned how to use them in about 60 seconds.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2008/Jackson%20Lake/GirlsTrip483.jpg
They just wandered around camp for an hour grazing. When they started wandering toward the river, we pulled the hobbles and lead them down for a drink and brought them back and high lined them for the night
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2008/Jackson%20Lake/GirlsTrip477.jpg
When you are in this kind of country, Nobody wants to chase a horse back to the trailer.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/Sheep%20Hunt/Chimney.jpg
One year we rode 10 miles back into a remote basin for Labor day weekend. We turned the horses out in the meadow. They were hungry and we thought we could keep an eye them while we set up the tents. We were trying to get the tents up before dark. One of the mare headed back up the trail and her owner took off to catch it. Well. It got dark and about 5 hours later she came riding back into camp. Bare back. The horse had trotted all 10 miles back to the trailer. She didn’t catch it until she had jogged the entire way back. No saddle, it was in camp. So she had to hop on and ride 10 miles bareback in the dark by herself to get back to camp where we were alll waiting. We of course were worried about her. This is where I find out just how tough some of the people I ride with really are…
Thats why I keep hobbles on my back cinch now. I can quickly hobble a horse and then do other duties. A hobbled horse can run faster than me. But it won’t do it for long. 100 yards, Maybe 200 yards, then they are going to stop and take breather. and I can catch them
Painted Horse, I’m coming too. I love south Utah. How many days are you to the nearest town? LOL.
Great pics. I’m going to do the hobble thing with Spook as so as I get some.
[QUOTE=Bank of Dad;3805900]
Painted Horse, I’m coming too. I love south Utah. How many days are you to the nearest town? LOL.
.[/QUOTE]
I wasn’t comming for a visit. I want to live there. I have never seen more interesting places to ride. It looks like paraidise to me:lol:
How are the bugs?? Do they eat you alive???
Yes I need a town so my wife can shop:lol::lol:
While I love to ride out in the sticks I can not live there. I need people at least within site.
The arabs of the 1800’s would say to keep the link between the cuffs short to prevent twisting the legs or injuries???
Don’t have a clue why they said this but I read it last night from the book
“Horses of the Sahara”
I found brushing Rio in hobbles a pain. With his head free to swing side to side whenever I was anywhere near his shoulders or neck he cranked his head around and put it against my chest and just wanted me to fondle his ears. He start licking me and it gets hard to ignore.
They also talk about hobbling between one front leg and one hind leg on the same side and keep the link short to round the back while grazing???
This is their preferred way of grazing
I live 30 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City or from the Salt Lake Airport. So my wife and five daughters can shop at about store they want.
I keep the horses in the back yard, but it’s gotten to where I pretty much have to trailer to any place I ride. Neighbors now complain if my horses drop road apples on the road while I ride around the neighborhood. They expect me to carry a pastic bag and pick up like they do their little fluffly lapdogs.
But at the same time, I can be riding up on the mountain with a 10 minute trailer ride. I can ride all winter on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake with a 25 minute trailer ride.
I can be in Grand Teton or Bryce Canyon in 4 hours. So my choices of what kind of land to ride is almost limitless.
To mix things up tonight I decided to put the hobbles on the BACK feet. I never trained for this with Rio but being a trusting guy I just clipped them on the back the same as I would the front and walked over and got the brushes.
He tried following but quickly learned that his hind legs didn’t work. No fuss , no nothing but he did show me he could turn circles if he choose piviting on the hind legs so I added another set of hobbles to the front end as well.
Anyway for his brushing tonight he wore 2 sets and seemed to accept that easy enough. I brought my camera to the barn but after hobbling him remember it in the truck. I didn’t want to chance it and leave him alone unattended so I didn’t get any pictures.
This hind end hobbling is to get him use to being tied by a single hind leg this spring for grazing on unfenced pasture…
I wonder if hobbling the hind legs would work better then doing the front to turn a horse out to graze???
[QUOTE=Shadow14;3824078]
I wonder if hobbling the hind legs would work better then doing the front to turn a horse out to graze???[/QUOTE]
maybe, good questions though… I have seen double hobbles, not usual… I think one front to one rear is more common… for those in the hobble world as big or small as it is.
interesting thought though. I need to get back to that. I get lazy at a barn with a hitching rail… I didn’t have one at my old barn I just made him stand at my tail gate… and standing was the only option!
Hey, Painted Horse, looks like we live and ride in the same neighborhood. Right now my horses are on their annual winter break, but in Feb I’ll start riding them in Dimple Dell. Unlike you though I can ride through SE Draper and up into Forest/Lone Peak Wilderness, neighborhoods don’t seem to mind the road apples.
