June Tack and Training Tips/ Hobbling - Western Training & Behavior - Western Training & Behavior - Horse Community, Horse Pictures, Horse Forum and Information

Posted : 6/3/2009 9:58:55 PM

June Tack and Training Tips
Vol 8 2009
[h2](Please keep in mind that these are methods I use most everyday and have worked for me in the past. However all horses are different as well as peoples feel and timing are different from my own. Please exercise safety first for both horse and handler.) [/h2]

On those precious days where the sun is shining, the temperature is just right, the birds are singing in the trees and the signs of summer are everywhere there is nothing better than a good trail ride. Often for us horse lovers it is our therapy from the world around us. Give us 10 minutes with our horses and it relieves tension of a 10 hr work day. Many of us though don't realize that each second of that ten minutes we are training our horse in some way. Standing tied to be brushed away from the other horses, giving them a pat in the pen and then they walk off, catching them with the feed bucket to avoid having to chase them just to spend that quality time.

Each month we have worked with our horses getting them softer, more willing, more respectful and most important gaining their trust. When we have our horses trust, they are more relaxed in tense situations, more content to be with you away from the herd and when scared they look to you to tell them it isn't going to eat them. When it comes right down to it our horses trust says something about our horsemanship as well.

A horse is a prey animal and no amount of breeding or imprinting will ever take that totally from a horses mind. The power to take care of themselves and protect their lives is imbedded in them. If something scares them their brain kicks in and says RUN to stay alive. Some horses are on one end of the scale where they will do anything to get away and others will flinch or jump only to realize it isn't all that bad. In training we try to teach our horses to have faith and trust enough in us as a Predator to tell them when to be scared and when to relax. For them to do this is an amazing thing. When we take away the flight option with hobbles we are giving them the only option left, trust in me to protect you.

There are so many different types of hobbles out there that work or that might work for you but I have come across several that seem to be a bit better than the rest and that have worked for me every time. If teaching your horse how to stand hobbled quietly has always been on your to-do list then grab a drink and read on.

The first thing to realize is teaching a horse to hobble is a process just like any other stage of training. It takes preparation, a level head and a working sense of timing. The preparation is taking the time to study your horse and find the right time and place to first put on hobbles. The level head is just that, staying calm and letting the horse find the answer just as we do when we first saddle a horse. Timing is knowing when to move on to the next step but more importantly knowing when to take a step back.

These are a Craig Cameron soft cotton training hobble and are great for introducing hobbles to your horse. They are very soft and are placed on your horses feet by lifting a hoof and sliding the soft cotton hobble up to the hock then doing the same on the other side. These offer your horse a bit more range of motion to learn to stand still with them on. I highly recommend these if you have never hobbled a horse before.

These are a One Leg Hobble and are designed to be used on only one leg at a time. One side is slid up over the horses hoof and then the hoof is picked up and the hobble is then buckled to the upper leg. Many trainers recommend using these prior to actually hobbling your horse but caution should be used as if a horse comes down on his other leg wrong he could injure his knee. I actually don't use these to teach a horse how to hobble but how to hold his foot for the farrier. If you have a hard time holding on to your horses foot, I recommend using these to teach your horse that he can't rip it out of your hands.

These are a very common hobble and are usually no more expensive at your local tack shop than $25. These are designed to hold your horses feet closer together and are what I use every time I ride. If you choose these to start with invest in a roll of Duct tape. Sounds silly but you'll find out why shortly. There are a great many variations on this style and the top end designs have a length of nylon sewn between two pieces of heavy duty leather to prevent stretching or shrinking. Remember leather is affected by the weather and should be oiled and checked often to ensure your horses safety.

This set of hobbles is for the hobble broke horse. They are used by making wraps to adjust amount of movement your horse has. Its a soft cotton rope with a rawhide knot on one end with a loop on the other.

Now that we have an idea of what you want to start out with lets start preparing.

TACK NEEDED: Long lead rope, soft cotton or yachting rope preferably longer than 10 feet. Good fitting rope halter. Place with soft footing, round pen with sand or arena with good amount of soft footing. Duct tape if you chose the leather hobbles.

I highly recommend moving your horse around to get the fresh off. Change directions often to get your horses attention focused on you. Use the flexing exercises in previous lessons to make sure your horse is going to be soft and responsive.

Now that he is relaxed and thinking its time to begin and have some fun. Start by flipping your lead rope up and over his back. Do this until his is calm and quiet then move on to the other side. When he has a board look on his face start tossing the rope around his front legs and rear legs. Should your horse strike out or kick stay with him keeping his head slightly tipped toward you and just keep flipping the rope. When he stops you stop. Rub him all over and reassure him that you are not going to hit him with it and that it isn't going to eat him.

When he is relaxed with the rope around his legs, loop the rope around a front foot then move the rope back and forth up and down the leg to accustom him to something being around his foot. Keep an angle to his shoulder to maintain safety should he strike out. Now gently lift up on the lead rope and ask your horse to pick up his foot towards you. This is a very important step so don't skimp on the time you take here. This gets your horse used to something being around his hock and having to yield to the pressure. Should he resist or keep yanking his foot back just be level headed and keep asking. Make sure you do this on both sides.

This picture shows the placement of the rope and the angle that you should be asking for the foot to lift. You are actually wanting to be able at the end of this to lead your horse by his front foot.

Now if you have done your due homework and your horse is calm through all of this with little to no fuss with his feet its time for the hobbles. If you have bought the cotton hobbles simply place them on your horse and DON'T TURN THEM LOOSE. Its very important to stay with them and maintain some degree of control of their head. Stand back at the end of your lead line so that you are out of the way should he decide to test them and most will. Pick up and ask him to take a step so that he realizes he is hobbled. This is where being level headed and staying calm is very important.

Most if not all horses will start to step, realize they are caught, drop to their knees and leap back up again.

A select few will try to lay down or run. Since we were smart and didn't turn them loose we can now encourage our horse to standup or can pull their head towards us to help them stop. This is why we are doing this in a soft area so that they don't have any pain associated with the hobbles.

When they stop and lick their lips step up and rub all over his face but keep at an angle should he test them again. I will usually ask them to move several times until they decide its too much work to move and just stand still. When this happens really rub them and take the hobbles off. Keep it short and simple so that they can now stop and think about it. I stood still with those things and they come off.

Now if you choose the leather hobbles take the duct tape and lightly wrap a few strips around both front hocks from the start of the hairline up to the bottom of the hock. Keep it loose and don't wrap it very tight. Now place on your hobbles and adjust them so that they are snug. The duct tape is so that the leather doesn't burn or take off any hair when they test them. The duct tape will come off easily with water and soap or it just wears off within hours.

Each day go through these steps and only take the hobbles off when he stands still. Your horse should within three days pretty well refuse to move once they are on. Now you can tie your horse up with a tie ring or place them in a stall with soft bedding and hobble them while you brush them down or put your tack away. Keep an eye on them and each day increase the time they wear them. I often hobble them and move all around the arena, should they try and follow me or move I make them back up to where they started from. If they move forward then they can also move backward with them. Re-enforce in their mind that when something is around their feet they must stand still.

When they get good with it then I increase the difficulty by adding in spooky objects to the mix. I flap a flag around them while hobbled, throw things around the arena or make loud noises. If they panic and test the hobbles just stay calm and take a deep breath. When they realize that you are calm and that they can no longer run away your horse will look to you for the release of pressure.

Here you can see that Shadow is hobbled and standing in the middle of the arena with a leg cocked up. I have increased his time to over an hour and have hobbled him many places now. Start out small and short times and you will be amazed at how fast your horse will learn.

When you are ready to travel with your hobbles on the trail or while you ride take a look at your saddle. Some saddles come with a Hobble ring on the left rear flank strap or just above. If not then you can either take a heavy peice of latigo leather and tie a small loop on the back dee of your saddle or loop it through the tie on flank strap. Here you can see that is what I have done here.

Some folks even just hang them around their horses neck to get it out of the way. My preference is on the saddle. Thanks for reading this months tack and training tips. If you have questions or just have an idea for an article let me know, I'm always open to ideas. Thanks PaintedLady for this one, I have been wanting to do one on Hobbling for awhile. Hope you enjoy!!! Remember safety first for both horse and handler.

Thanks so much to all who read,
Sheila

trainer101

Posted : 6/3/2009 10:15:52 PM

Folks I have tried four times to edit this article to take out those glitches without success. I'm sorry for this and will let the site know.

shiver

Posted : 6/4/2009 3:43:01 PM

Oh Darn.... the glitches are throwing me off. I will try to read it again when i can consintrate better. But I DO apprate the time you put into this.

Avid Horseman

Posted : 6/4/2009 5:29:55 PM

[quote=trainer101]

Folks I have tried four times to edit this article to take out those glitches without success. I'm sorry for this and will let the site know.

Is that better now? [ ':)'

]

trainer101

Posted : 6/4/2009 5:32:52 PM

Thank you soooo much!! Yeah that is a whole lot better. I tried again to post it a bit ago but realized all to late that I don't know how to delete the other thread. If you have time and it is easier just go ahead and delete the other one off. Thanks again!!!

Avid Horseman

Posted : 6/4/2009 5:35:25 PM

[quote=trainer101]

Thank you soooo much!! Yeah that is a whole lot better. I tried again to post it a bit ago but realized all to late that I don't know how to delete the other thread. If you have time and it is easier just go ahead and delete the other one off. Thanks again!!!

you got it.

trainer101

Posted : 6/4/2009 5:46:57 PM

Thanks so much I really appriciate it!!!

Wanted to add a lot of folks are afraid to give them a try for fear of their horse getting hurt. If we use our heads and prepare our horses for it, this is a wonderful training experience for the horse. He learns patience in a whole new frame of mind. Even standing tied they still have the option of trying to run. Here they learn to face what is coming at them.

Another really fun thing to do prior to actually hobbling your horse is to enlist the help of a freind and have them lay a loop on the ground. The xxxsoft nylon rope with a Buck Brannaman honda is a really great horse handling rope that wont burn them. Have your friend walk your horse forward and as he steps into the loop pick it up to make contact with his foot. At the same time have your friend stop him. He learns that if something is around his leg not to panic but to stop and stand.

I ride with a friend that has an old ranch broke horse and if that horse even feels a vine catch his shoe he still to this day will stop and stand still while you cut it off. Poor old fella got a shoe caught in the fence early one morning and was still staning right there wainting patiently late that night when the owner came home.

This is actually one of my favorite things to teach a horse because it can translate into so much more.

Avid Horseman

Posted : 6/4/2009 5:58:57 PM

trainer101,

I cleaned up the fonts a bit more and added a bit of emphasis where I felt it was needed. let me know if you don't like it and I will change it back.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with the forum.

trainer101

Posted : 6/4/2009 11:41:50 PM

Oh yeah I like it. I could never get the color to transfer from my word program to here. I have that in bold letters and red also on my computer, but for some reason it never seems to come over to the forum. Thanks so much, I really do appriciate it!!

I like helping folks so that they might learn a bit easier than I had to but if ever there is something that you feel I should add or maybe have an idea for an article please let me know.

AppyLady

Posted : 6/5/2009 1:40:55 PM

That's so much better now! Good ol' Avid.

I've never had a horse get injured while teaching them to hobble. I think it's a good thing for all horses to know. The hobble training helps when we teach them to foot-tie -- stake them out by one front foot.

There are exceptions to the "don't turn them loose" rule. Occasionally a horse will panic at having their front feet tied together, and decide that the safest place to be is right on top of you. Caveman had to make a flying leap over the round pen to keep from getting trompled by Charger. I only had one horse do that to me, but now I'm ready to beat a hasty retreat if necessary. Fortunately most horses don't do that.

trainer101

Posted : 6/24/2009 1:15:49 PM

I've never had one do that yet. I have had them go down to their knees and then rear up before settling down before. There is only one more type of hobble I would like to get and do some work with and that is side line hobbles. I have always worked with the one leg hobble and the leather front feet hobbles.

Thanks again folks for making this worth the effort!!

Quirt

Posted : 7/3/2009 2:46:45 PM

well put together trainer.Usually I'm a bit leary when I get on a forum with someone that has that title in their name but you seem to know yer stuff. in my opinion the best thing about teaching your horse to hobble like you mentioned is the fact it teaches your horse not to flip out when something grabs or wraps their legs . I've seen some pretty nasty wrecks where that had came into play (lack of training around the hocks).You could do a follow up on this with how to fashion your lead rope into hobbles .Thats a trick I learned growin up .

trainer101

Posted : 7/3/2009 4:01:36 PM

Thanks Quirt. I'll take that compliment and raise my tea glass to you. Your sig says it all, if you don't learn something new with each horse somethings wrong. Every horse I have worked with, young and old teach me something new about horses and about the habbits of the folks who ride them.

I just this year learned how to tie hobbles from a lead. It was very easy and so interesting to learn. I'll have to work on that.

trainer101

Posted : 9/27/2009 2:27:27 PM

[

] friendly bump

trainer101

Posted : 8/25/2010 7:31:08 PM

Bumping up for new members.