Hobble Training

I used to think hobbling horses was mean and cruel, something only old cowboys did to their horses so they wouldn't run away, and it seemed cruel to tie their legs together. However, before getting this Mustang, I did my research and stumbled upon (no pun intended) hobble training. Many people (even advanced Endurance riders) sing its praises because it teaches the horse that if your leg gets stuck, instead of panicking, you just wait and don't move. In fact, one person said that her horse got stuck in barbed wire and just waited to get rescued instead of panicking because he was hobble trained. I'm all for safety training, so I decided to give it a try. As you can see in the picture above, it really limits the front leg movement for the horse so when they take a step, they learn they have to take a smaller one (or they freak out...more on this later).

Anyway, I decided to hobble train today because Calvin is just so touchy with his hooves.  Now, we took many precautions before I just tied his legs together. First, he is 100% fine with a rope running all over his body and on his legs. Second, if I tie a rope to his front leg, I can lead him with it. We practiced this in a high fenced arena and I also watched these two videos on hobble training to make sure I knew what I was doing:

• Video 1, Video 2

So here he is hobbled! I don't have leather hobbles, but this rope (without buckles) worked really well, it's very soft and can't hurt his legs.

It's important, as the videos said, to stay out of their way when you're doing this as they can jump at you/run you over. I took these pictures after we were finished so he was already used to them. 

Here's a shot from above, I kept the excess black rope in my other hand or out of the way so he wouldn't become more tangled. Purple rope is a lead rope to his head, I figured I use one just in case, but other people have let their horses learn by turning them loose.

He reacted well at first, but then he tried to lift his hoof and panicked a bit when he hit the end of the rope (as I expected him too). He looked just like the horse in the first video trying to half-rear and get rid of the hobbles. It took a few minutes of him learning what to do before he just stopped. With me prompting him to walk, he took a few dainty steps and learned the major lesson: if I take small steps, I don't hit the rope. If I reach the end of the rope, I just put my hoof back down. Good boy!

So I tried to pick his hooves and nothing much had changed. I'm tired of him striking out, walking away, and avoiding me cleaning them.  He has learned that he can avoid me by just yanking his hoof away and let me tell you, when a horse wants his hoof back it's difficult to argue with 1000lbs and flying hooves. Well, then I researched one-leg hobbling which typically looks like this. I figured he wouldn't stand still long enough for me to tie that rope so I used physics and jury-rigged this version:

Here he is hobbled with one leg! As you can see, he's standing very calmly. Notice how if he moves his leg, I pull on the black rope under his belly on the left and I'm still a good foot away from him. 

 I've mentioned before how standing on 3 legs isn't a big deal for horses and they can easily do it for short amounts of time. So he panicked again with this one, trying to strike and half-lay down. But now, I had more room to get out of the way but I could still hold the rope (under his belly), I would then put his foot down gently when he calmed down. Before you know it, he learned that being relaxed gets his foot put down sooner and all is well in the world. People can say what they want about how hobbles are cruel or whatever, but what I know is that this horse really understood what I was asking him, and no one was hurt in the process.

I didn't practice this on his back hooves as I won't be hobbling those, but he's still desensitized to the rope back there. Also, when I pick his back hooves, the front hooves are hobbled which makes it so much easier. I'll likely continue to practice this every time we pick hooves so that he learns he can no longer escape hoof picking just because he's bored. Another successful day of training :)

**disclaimer: If you are reading this and wanting to try this with your own horse, please have a professional help you. I also recommend having a second person with you to hold your horse while you tie hooves, that would have made things easier. I've been doing this long enough that I know the dangers and risks that I agreed to with this exercise. While I believe hobble training will help prevent injury in the long run, there is no 100% way to prevent injury to a horse or yourself.