At a clinic last week in Billings, Montana the subject of hobble training of a young, unstated horse came up. That gives me a excuse to write on the subject.

I know hobbling horses is not something everybody wants to do. Personally, it has never been part of my normal practice to teach horses to hobble. However, it does have its uses.

The only time I have taught horses to accept hobbles is when training them for a long trek. Having a horse hobbled at night gave them the ability to graze at will and me the peace of mind that I would be able to easily find them in the morning. 

I am not an advocate of using hobbles to control a horse’s feet. I know some trainers use hobbles when starting horses to teach them to stand still when being mounted. Others use a hobble to tie up one leg to prevent a horse from bucking. I know a trainer who hobbles diagonal legs on horses that run backward out of the trailer. There is a well-known horseman who insists every horse learns to accept hobbles because it stops them from tearing up their legs when caught on a fence – a concept that experience tells me is very unreliable.

There are different types of hobbles made from rope, leather, leather straps joined by chains, horsehair, some with buckles and some without. And there are different ways of attaching them. Hobbles can be fitted to the pasterns, knees, front feet, back feet, front to back, diagonal, etc. It all depends on your needs and your personal preference.

Since I use hobbles for camping I prefer to hobble the front pasterns and I use straps that are attached by a chain. By attaching to the front pasterns it allows the horse to move but restricts movement enough to make it hard work for a horse to move too much. It also makes it easier on the horse if it gets caught on something to liberate itself than if the hind feet are hobbled. The chain substitutes for a bell around the neck of the horse. A person can hear the rattle of the chain when the horse moves and knows instantly if the horse is in trouble or suddenly moving at high speed. The rattle of the chain also indicates how far the horse has wandered and in which direction. But if the horse has a bell around the neck, the chain can be substituted for a strap or rope – it’s not important.

It’s important to remember that if using hobbles for camping you can’t outrun a horse that is wearing them. Horses can still move pretty quickly wearing hobbles. However, hobbles will limit how far they run because they tend to bunny hop and this causes them to run out of steam very quickly.

Since all my training has been done with hobbles on the front feet, I’ll talk about that. However, the principle is the same for any setup.

The first thing to understand about training a horse to hobble is that you are not trying to teach it to stand still. This is very very very important. Don’t use hobbles to get a horse to stand. Instead, you want to train a horse to walk calmly and relax while wearing hobbles. The reason horses get into trouble with hobbles is that they try to walk and suddenly feel the restriction to move, then panic. This is why you should never just attach the hobbles and walk away to let the horse work it out. It will cause panic and horses often get injured in the process from falling over or running through fences and into solid objects. So the object of hobble training is to teach a horse to walk in them without anxiety.

To do this I recommend using a rope around the feet that you can control. Don’t use a rope that is tied solid or fixed in some way because you want to be able to control the amount of restriction the rope imposes depending on what the horse needs.

I also recommend doing the training in a small yard at first and always fit a halter and lead rope to the horse. I know some people like to work at liberty, but this limits how much help you can offer a horse if it panics.

I tend to start by teaching a horse to lead from a rope around one front foot. I loop a rope around the pastern and use the lead rope and halter to inspire the horse to walk around me with no restriction from the footrope. When the horse looks comfortable, I take the slack out of the rope around the foot and apply a feel. The amount of pressure is determined by how much attention the horse gives to the rope. If the feel is being ignored, I add more pressure. If the horse begins searching for a response, I keep the same level of feel and wait. If the horse gets worried I let enough slack into the rope to quell the panic, but keep the horse searching. When the horse stops, I release the footrope and love on the horse. This process is repeated until the horse walks freely, stops, and walks again with no trouble inside it and no resistance. Then I repeat the process on the other foot.

When both feet are responsive to the foot rope and feel okay about it, I then do the same thing going from trot to walk to halt, followed by repeating it so the horse responds canter to trot to walk to halt from just the feel of the foot rope.

If the horse is particularly dull or disinterested, I will sometimes teach it to lead forward from a feel on the footrope at a walk, trot, and canter, as well as slow down. This can help gain a horse’s attention and build in a try that might be missing. I have found it is not necessary to do this on every horse, but it is never a mistake either.

The next step is to use the footrope on both feet at the same time. To do this I use a long rope (7-8m) with a ring on one end. I use the ring to make a loop around the pastern of one of the legs and then make one wrap around the other pastern and hold the free end in my hand. 

The handler asks the horse to walk and when the horse feels relaxed, the rope is taken up slowly to restrict the horse’s ability to walk freely. When the horse stops the rope is relaxed. If the horse panics, the rope is released. If the horse persists in pushing through the feel of the rope, just wait until the feet stop – you can use a small pressure on the halter to help give the horse the right idea. But don’t firm up with the rope because the added confinement that will be imposed may cause a bigger fight. Go through the process just like you did with only one rope, until the horse has learned to move freely with the ropes and halt in a relaxed fashion when the rope is tightened around the feet. Then it is time to fit proper hobbles. If a problem arises when the hobbles are fitted, go back to using the rope again and fill in the holes.

This is just the approach I have taken when training horses to wear hobbles. You guys can adapt your methods that suit you best and if you run into problems or are unsure how to proceed seek the best help you can find.

Nevertheless, there is a take-home message that I want to convey.

Training a horse to hobble is not for teaching a horse to stand still. If you want a device to teach a horse the futility of moving, then use wooden stocks that clamp around the cannon bones or pasterns or use 4 ropes to tie all 4 outstretched legs to 4 different trees. Hobbles are not intended to teach a horse to stand still. Instead, they are intended to teach a horse to yield to the idea of being okay when movement is restricted. In this way, hobbles are not so different to the reins or the lead rope or a rider’s leg etc. The value of all these things is to train the horse’s mind to yield to a thought and feel okay about it – not make something happen out of obedience.

Using hobbles can be part of the overall training paradigm of influencing the emotions and thoughts of a horse to aid in working together with a horse. Unfortunately, most hobbling training is intended to instill obedience rather than improve a partnership.