Don’t fence me in… Ever since the Andrews Sisters sang, “I can’t look at hobbles and I can’t stand fences,” hobbles have gained a lousy reputation. Why is this?
Pros ‘n’ Cons
Well, in the negative, hobble breaking can be violent. Depending on the horse involved, there may be a long and passionate fight. If an animal is left hobbled for very long periods, or hobbled incorrectly, tendon damage is possible. Unlike tying, the horse or pony is not actually secured. Hobbling is more a mental, than a physical, barrier to movement. Finally, hobbling can be upsetting to bystanders, depending on their knowledge or even upon where they live. So that’s the down side.
The good news? Despite all the negatives, hobbling’s a life skill that teaches submission, relaxation and patience, the three pillars in any well-balanced training program.
With hobbling, it helps to start them young. We hobble-break our two-year olds as a matter of course. It teaches them to have their feet and legs handled and held – and because we live in cow country, we have wire fences. A hobble-broke horse or pony will never fight a barbed wire entanglement. ‘Nough said!
Training Your Horse to Hobble
We start out by rubbing and flipping a soft cotton rope around the youngster as he’s tied, or with his lead rope over our arm, if not. Eventually working up to looping the rope around the legs, our goal is to have the pony allow us to pick up and hold each of his feet in turn. This is a great training aid for the fellow who kicks out with his hind legs and your farrier will thank you.
We’ll stay with this stage until the horse or pony will actually allow us to lead him by either front leg. Once he shows that he’s accepting of this notion, he’s ready to learn to hobble.
On a calm day when the previous lessons are going well, we’ll pick a roomy, junk-free place with soft footing for our initial session. Have a helper around and a sharp knife in your pocket, just in case. We’ve used a four-foot piece of soft cotton rope for hobble breaking but much prefer wide, flat leather hobbles with two rings and a buckle, as shown. These do not tighten or dig in to the legs; they’re also easy to get off again.
If you use cotton rope, NEVER wrap the rope around each leg; simply twist the rope for four inches or so between the legs, then tie off with a quick release half-hitch on the near side. Some people use the soft rope, some use a more forgiving gunny sack. We just feel leather is better as it doesn’t tighten and can always be undone.
Pass the hobbles around the off-side cannon and with your shoulder, push the weight of the horse away from you until he is standing square with his front feet close together. Calmly and quickly run the end of the hobble strap through the two rings, around the near cannon and buckle. For ease of removal, don’t worry about tucking in the end, the first few times. Pull them up quite snugly so the horse doesn’t fling them off, then stand back and walk away.
Your horse will react in one of two ways. He’ll either be too frightened to move, or he’ll blow up.
A horse or pony that never moves in his hobbles is not yet hobble-broke. He needs to find out that he can’t fight them and that they won’t hurt him. Be patient. Don’t force him into moving or startle him, but let him find out on his own time.
A horse that explodes needs to be left alone. Don’t get in his way or tell him to whoa because he can’t and won’t listen to you. Just keep an eye on him and let him work it out. Ten minutes or so is a good amount of time, as long as he’s standing still. This last bit’s important as he needs to know what’s expected of him before he’s rewarded.
I don’t saddle my ponies for hobbling until they really get it. Flopping and rolling around is too hard on my tack. This is a huge step towards getting them picket trained and they learn it very quickly. Once learned, hobbling is never forgotten.
Staying Safe
Be careful handling those hobbles! Watch yourself around the front legs, both in putting them on and taking them off. You might want to wear a helmet and just generally use caution anywhere around a hobbled horse. I get right out of the round pen when I’ve put the hobbles on. Generally, the quieter a horse is day to day, the more he will put up a fight. Get in the habit of carrying a sharp knife on your belt at all times when you’re around horses. One day you will be glad of this.
If you are nervous about the training but would still like your horse to know about hobbling, then hire a professional.
Yes, hobbling is a life lesson. It’s also a reward for a job well done. After a hard ride or a big day showing, a pony will relish a patch of green grass and a chance to stretch his lumbar, much more so than in being tied up. For horses that have a history of pulling back, hobbling is far safer and less stressful than tying. It allows an independence and additional safety while driving the trails – you can always stop and unhitch or fix your harness, so long as a set of hobbles are looped through the dash.
Anyone who rides with romal reins is tradition-bound to carry hobbles on their saddle. Your horse had best know how to pack ‘em, as well. Just don’t use those fancy little rawhide jobs to teach with, as they’re too severe for uneducated legs.
If we have an older horse or pony that is not hobble broke, we proceed as above, but use caution. The more age an animal has, the more he tends to fight change. Do we go ahead? Usually – unless there are extenuating circumstances that raise the risks too dearly. Is he so valuable, we cannot chance injury? Does he have an important competition looming? Is the ground overly hard or slippery? Is he too old for any new nonsense? Or do we just not have anyone to help?
Teaching modern horses and ponies to hobble is a personal choice. At our place, it’s a yes!
A Happy Ending
The ponies in training here spend a lot of their free time in the garden, helping to trim the grass. They gain social skills. It makes them less spooky generally and they learn to enjoy the status of being singled out. One morning, a heart stopping moment when it was found the three year old Welsh mare, Duchess, was missing.
Our eight-acre garden is an old one, first planted round the time of the Great War. Duchess, looking for new grass, had wandered into a thicket of caragana, becoming entangled in a hidden barbed-wire fence. How long she’d been there, who really knows? That she remained calm, waiting for help and a set of wire cutters to free her from the strands across her chest, under her belly and around her front legs, we attributed to her good sense. That, along with her very recent hobble training. We hobble everything, including all future show ring stars…
When it comes to our safety, there’s no such thing as too broke a horse!
Please note that the above procedure is to be used as a guideline only. Training our horses and ponies can be dangerous and if you have doubts, it’s time to hire a professional. Any questions or anecdotes? Please comment! Can you share with us a time when hobbles might have saved the day for your horse? Better yet, was there a time when they genuinely did?
By the way, I may as well admit it. I’m trying to build my email list to offer books and get help with reading chapters and reviews in the future. You are my tribe! Rather than fill your face with pop-ups on the blog page, please, I’d be so grateful if you’d trust me with your email and subscribe with the red button. Thank you!
My pony got his shoe stuck in a fence at the show barn this last summer while trying to reach the green grass on the other side of the fence – and he patiently waited for someone to come untangle him, thanks to having been hobble trained that spring.
Melissa, he’s a lucky boy. Teaching a horse or pony to hobble is a bit like learning first aid. You do it and then, hope like heck you don’t need it in an emergency. It’s just one more tool to put in their toolbox for life. Thanks for sharing, cheers, Lee.
When my pony mare and big gelding get together after a separation, he always chases her. Wars pinned, intent to harm. I have discovered that putting him in hobbles for a few days makes the difference between exhausted, sore horses and calmly eating together. He manges willows, water and logs just fine. (I do make a point of looking him up twice a day, just in case.)
I initially hobble broke him because he can be so reactive, and it was just one more thing for him to accept.
It would seem that hobbling knows no bounds when it comes to usefulness. An old friend, long gone, used to refer to hobbling as ‘the great attitude adjustment’… I would be inclined to agree. Some horses just seem to need a little help along the way.
Just a story about a mare I hobble broke as a 2 year old because I was so tired of her digging to China…she will (sort of) stand if hobbled & tied but can lope very handily with hobbles on. Funny how horses find their niche…my son uses her as a ranch horse & loves her fearlessness. He just ignores the pawing & winnying that drove me nuts.
I have a similar story of loping in hobbles during a trail horse finals class at a very prestigious horse show. We were supposed to hobble in a chalk circle, then unbridle our horses and leave the arena until a whistle blew. I straightaway knew there was a problem when the organist started playing the theme from the Lone Ranger and the crowd was in a happy uproar… Around and around the arena she went, the black mare dodging all attempts of the ring master and judge to stop her.
I’m vexed mightily with a horse that can’t stand still as well but it’s always a wonderful thing when we can find them their soulmates to work for who love them, despite all the wrong stuff! Thanks, Jackie.
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