# Hobble breaking horses?



## LisaG (Nov 11, 2012)

Wanstrom, I think you mentioned that you hobble break your horses. Could you (or someone else) go into more detail on how you do this? 

My husband and I are thinking of camping with our horses next summer, and it might be handy to have them hobble trained.


----------



## Freemare (Jun 2, 2012)

Hobble training can be vary dangerous. I have seen horses freak when hobbled. They maybe hobble trained but if the horse freaks out you just took away his way of movement. I dont recommended it. If anything just bring a line and halters. Horses get killed and hurt by hobbles way to often.


----------



## kassierae (Jan 1, 2010)

Hobble training can be dangerous with a reactive horse but they also can teach a horse to NOT MOVE when their lega are tangled in something. I've heard of people narrowly missing a degloving accident by their horses being hobble broke. There's an excellent video on YouTube about hobbles, the user is PDJ with a few numbers after it...but still a very informative and helpful video.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## WesternRider88 (Oct 30, 2012)

My farrier put a hobble on my mule and he just took a small step tripped once and then just stood there. I think he's been hobble trained before but I don't know for sure. If your horse is hobble trained it can be very useful.


----------



## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

I hobble train every horse. 

Depending on the horse and their personality, I might start by conditioning them to stop to having a rope around their fetlock (all legs) in a round pen. Others I will hobble and leave in the round pen (I'm right outside) to get used to them on their own. Still others I may hobble and have a halter and lead rope on.

With all of them I am very calm and act very matter of fact about the whole thing. If/when they do test the hobbles I simply reassure and act as though it's all fine. 

They have all calmed and become accustomed to the whole process very quickly.

I like to hobble train for a couple reasons. Imperative when I need to "tie" a horse where there are no trees. If a horse gets in wire on somebody's land they stop and do not fight. At all.


----------



## .Delete. (Jan 7, 2008)

I too hobble break all my horses. Its a valuable thing for a horse to learn to stand when restrained. Teaches them not to panic or try to escape when trapped. It humbles alot of horses with "tudes" also. 

I start off with a one leg hobble. I pull them around with that. Make them hop around a bit. Then i move to a 2 leg hobble. I pull them around with that so they realize they are restrained. Then i move to a 3 leg hobble and i make them stand in a arena by themselves for a while. 

Just make sure if your horse does decide to move its forward. Do not do not let him run backwards. I have heard stories of horses permanently damaging their stifles because of running backwards with hobbles.


----------



## Wanstrom Horses (Dec 23, 2012)

First of all. Hobble training is no more dangerous than any other method of training if the horse is taught right. I highly reccomend hobble training and all my horses are taught to do so. I've seen rope halters kill a horse, but I have NEVER seen hobbles kill a horse. First of all, you need to teach a horse to give to pressure on its legs with a soft cotton rope. I teach all my horses that I start from the ground to pick up their feet this way, but its really easy if they are already good for a farrier. This takes time and patience. Once the horse learns to yeild to a rope on all four feet. Then hobble them with very soft cotton rope hobbles, and leave some room for baby steps. What I usually do is tie my horses up hobbled with cotton hobbles. Saddle them with hobbles, trailer them with hobbles. Anywhere a horse is standing tied, I incorporate a set of hobbles. Once the horse yeilds to simple cotton hobbles then leather ones can be introduced in the same manner. The horse will learn soon that when a rider dismounts, or leaves them tied. That their feet are bound and need to stand quiet. Most of my horses dont even need hobbles put on anymore because they are so broke to them. But this takes time. Dont just throw a pair of hobbles on a horse and expect them not to freak out, but with proper time and training, hobbles are a great thing. Ill add a picture of "Buckshot" a five year old gelding of ours that is hobble trained and in the leather stage.


----------



## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

Hobble breaking a horse is no different than halter breaking. 
Yet some get "freaked out" about restraining the feet rather than the head. It is the same, it is about the horse learning to give to the pressure and understanding what is expected whether it be a halter or hobbles.


----------



## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

I think hobble training is a really great part of a horse's training "toolbox". I wish more horses were hobble trained, or at least trained to be ok with anything around/on/hindering their legs. 

That being said, I think hobble training needs to be approached very carefully by experienced horsemen/women who know what they're doing and not attempted by the average horseperson (myself included).
Perhaps I just had a bad experience but, even after doing all the initial training (leading by her legs, totally calm with things tangling her legs, etc), my mare came really close to injuring herself pretty badly once I actually put the hobbles on. I ended up cutting them off because she was freaking out so bad. This all happened prior to learning that she was mostly blind and I can only imagine that her lack of eyesight was part of why she freaked out so bad, since she's really pretty level-headed most of the time. 
She regularly gets stuck in/on/around things due to her sight issues and she never fights. She just waits for me to come free her. I'm not sure if that's due to the pre-hobble training or what, but it's sure a blessing!

Anyway, all I'm saying is that my mare could have been seriously injured because she was nearly blind and I ignorantly decided to tie her legs up. 
I, personally, now leave hobble training to the pros.


----------



## Wanstrom Horses (Dec 23, 2012)

The thing most trainers skip, I have observed, is making hobbles a part of your everyday program. ANYTIME a horse is standing tied, throw a set of hobbles on them. Let them stand tied with hobbles on before even leaving them in the round pen with hobbles. Many people think that once a horse yields to a rope, they are ready or hobbles. This isn't true. Horses need to know their boundaries at all times with hobbles to prevent injury, just like anything else. When your horse yields to the halter when standing tied, they know their boundaries. They know when they hit pressure in that halter to quit moving. This is when you hobble train. They already know their boundaries, now its time to reinforce them with hobbles. The horse will teach itself if started with hobbles right. Don't turn your horse loose with hobbles until they are finished hobble horses.


----------



## Wanstrom Horses (Dec 23, 2012)

It's kind of like leaving a halter on a colt for little while before you start halter breaking them. The horse needs to wear them for a period of time when standing tied or trailered in order to fully understand and respect them. Sorry for two posts, I had to add that!!


----------



## LisaG (Nov 11, 2012)

Okay, thanks for the advice.

My horses are used to having a soft lead rope around their legs - something I did to make sure they wouldn't kick me before I started picking up their feet.

I will certainly be very careful if I decide to do this. One of the local horse trainers hobble breaks his colts as well, so I might pick his brain, too.


----------



## LisaG (Nov 11, 2012)

Sorry for the double post, but I was just thinking about picket lines (which is something we might do instead of hobbling, but I have to think about it a little more).

When I was a teenager, I went on a week-long camping trip with some relatives and about 300 strangers. Our horses were hobble-broke, and we had no issues the whole time (other than one horse was very good at running in hobbles, and decided to take off one night). The horses belonged to my uncle, and I don't know how he went about hobble training them, but it's a fairly common practice in southern Saskatchewan (or was at that time, anyway).

However, someone else's horse was tied to a picket line. The horse got into a wreck and I believe it had to be put down. I don't remember the details, and it was upsetting at the time, so I didn't try to find out what happened.

I guess I just want to point out that there are risks with both systems. I'll probably look at picket lining, too, though. Or maybe we won't camp at all, depending how confident I am that my horses can handle hobbles or picket lines.


----------



## SnowCowgirl (Jun 3, 2010)

boots said:


> I hobble train every horse.
> 
> I like to hobble train for a couple reasons. Imperative when I need to "tie" a horse where there are no trees. If a horse gets in wire on somebody's land they stop and do not fight. At all.


This confuses me... We use our horses for packing in the mountains extensively, and EVERY horse we have or have ever had (currently, we have 26) has been hobbled. 

They're turned loose every evening with hobbles on... sometimes, we'll still need to walk 5 kilometers to find them in the morning. Some horses have even swam with hobbles on, and I've seen many move pretty darn fast with them on. 

They DEFINITELY do not act like they're tied lol, but certainly stay a lot closer than if they didn't have hobbles on at all.


As for hobble "training", we pretty much always put leather, padded hobbles on and then turn the horse loose in a corral to let them sort it out on their own. We've never had a horse injure themselves that I can remember. After the first few days or couple weeks, the horse graduates to chain hobbles which (believe it or not) sore horses a lot less than leather or nylon. Some horses become very comfortable with them on (like I said, can run or swim) and others don't travel much.

ETA - we use only front leg hobbles, not three leg hobbles... in case there is any confusion (which there may be for me with the person I quoted above)

also ETA that I've heard of more bad wrecks involving picket lines than hobbles


----------



## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

SnowCowgirl said:


> This confuses me... We use our horses for packing in the mountains extensively, and EVERY horse we have or have ever had (currently, we have 26) has been hobbled.
> 
> They're turned loose every evening with hobbles on... sometimes, we'll still need to walk 5 kilometers to find them in the morning. Some horses have even swam with hobbles on, and I've seen many move pretty darn fast with them on.
> 
> They DEFINITELY do not act like they're tied lol, but certainly stay a lot closer than if they didn't have hobbles on at all.


I apologize any for any confusion my statement caused. I referred to hobbling as similar to being "tied" because tying a horse is what most people are familiar with.

I live and work mostly in sagebrush and short grass country. I will not tie to a wire fence, and often there is no fence, so hobbling is my alternative.

I've been lucky. I've only had one horse that ran when hobbled. I was able to stop that, too.


----------



## Wanstrom Horses (Dec 23, 2012)

SnowCowgirl said:


> This confuses me... We use our horses for packing in the mountains extensively, and EVERY horse we have or have ever had (currently, we have 26) has been hobbled.
> 
> They're turned loose every evening with hobbles on... sometimes, we'll still need to walk 5 kilometers to find them in the morning. Some horses have even swam with hobbles on, and I've seen many move pretty darn fast with them on.
> 
> ...


Here is why your horses can move around, is because they figure out the hobbles themselves. Basically your training your horses to not kill themselves with hobbles, not be hobble broke. just turning them loose and letting them figure it out is how you get horses that hobble walk. when a horse is trained to hobbles by using them when ther are tied, then relate hobbles to being tied and know they need to stand quietly when hobbles are put on. i also wouldnt reccomend chain hobbles. i used cotton graduated to leather graduated to rawhide. this is just.my opinion based on experience.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## SnowCowgirl (Jun 3, 2010)

Interesting! I honestly did not know that people actually used hobbles to keep them still haha. They are very widely used up here for working horses, but with the intention of not allowing them to move quite AS far as they would without - but still enabling them to move about all night and graze in the bush. To have a horse who stood completely still with hobbles on would be quite useless to us, as night time is when they are turned loose to graze and when working in the bush for 4 months at a time, this is the only feed they get generally. It is essential that they are free to move about and graze at night.


----------



## SnowCowgirl (Jun 3, 2010)

also - we have not used rawhide, though have used leather with synthetic sheepskin. They (and rope) sore horses much faster than the chain ones do for whatever reason. I've always used the chain hobbles, as did my father, and my grandfather, along with other working horse outfitters we know. So I guess they're tried and true. Once a horse is used to the hobbles, they very rarely if ever end up sore.

So, after the intiial training, we switch to the chain hobbles. 

However, obviously we use hobbles for far different reasons - if a horse were standing still I'm sure leather or rawhide would be totally fine.


----------



## aldebono (Mar 15, 2012)

I love the idea of standing tied with hobbles to have them associate hobbles with standing still. I bet its an easy step to teaching them to ground tie.


----------



## LisaG (Nov 11, 2012)

Interesting to hear how people use hobbles differently. Snowcowgirl, where are you at, and what are you doing in the bush for four months at a time?

Aldebono, the local horse trainer I was talking about uses hobbles to teach horses to ground tie when saddling, etc... I have no idea what his actual process is, though.


----------



## SnowCowgirl (Jun 3, 2010)

LisaG said:


> Interesting to hear how people use hobbles differently. Snowcowgirl, where are you at, and what are you doing in the bush for four months at a time?
> 
> Aldebono, the local horse trainer I was talking about uses hobbles to teach horses to ground tie when saddling, etc... I have no idea what his actual process is, though.


Canada - pretty far north. My family has been outfitters for about 30 years or more - taking paying clients on big game hunts. Each hunt runs about 14 days or so, and the horses are in the bush in quite literally the middle of nowhere from mid July until sometimes the end of October. They're used for packing and riding. Besides my family, every outfitter I know who uses horses utilizes hobbles in the same way we do. 

However, my Dad used to work guiding trail rides in Jasper National Park about 25 years ago and (at least at that point in time) they used hobbles the same way we do. He also worked for bighorn outfitters in Alberta who turn their horses out with hobbles as well.


----------



## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

I love having every horse hobble trained. I have only run into an issue with a nervous type horse (like a high strung, hot TB) that would keep shifting in hobbles and get raw (and not learn). 

I had a horse years back that could run as fast in 2 leg hobbles as she could canter! 3 way hobbles for her. She was an excellent horse.. one of the best I ever had the pleasure to own. My FIRST hobble breaking was this horse....


----------

