Training Hobbles

[megabit]

Cotton training hobbles I made the other day.

[HorsehairBraider]

Oooh nice - that's inspiring! I think I'll go out and make a set, I was just thinking I needed some. Thanks for the idea!

[Aggiebraider]

Hey megabit,

They look real nice, the only suggestion I would make would be to watch the ring knot that slides to tighten the loops around the knots, because since you make them out of rawhide, they may rub a raw spot, especially if they are on a horse that doesn't understand what hobbles are and try to walk off with them on. Depending on how tight you make the hobbles on the horse, this may not be an issue at all.

Just my .02

[megabit]

Hey megabit,

They look real nice, the only suggestion I would make would be to watch the ring knot that slides to tighten the loops around the knots, because since you make them out of rawhide, they may rub a raw spot, especially if they are on a horse that doesn't understand what hobbles are and try to walk off with them on. Depending on how tight you make the hobbles on the horse, this may not be an issue at all.

Just my .02

Thanks for the tip. I made these mostly for my mare who I don't think will be to hard to break to hobbles. I figure with all that soft cotton they should certainly take of less skin then a set of all rawhide or leather ones. I suppose I could use paracord but that nylon rubs pretty dang good too.

[Aggiebraider]

Yeah after I posted that I was trying to think of an alternative, and couldnt come up with one. I really dont think you will have a problem unless she is really bad like a few that I have seen that actually learned to lope with the hobbles on lol. I would just watch to see how tight they are when you put them on.

[megabit]

She ground ties pretty good, so I doubt she will be loping off with them on. But she is a she so you never really know. Hell I don't mind if she looses a little hair as long as she learns and doesn't do any actual damage. I don't think I'll be hobbling her and leaving her to her own accords for awhile yet.

[megabit]

Well I tried out those training hobbles last night in the round pen. My girl just stood there and nearly went to sleep. She was kinda like ohh you want to just sit and look at me... fine with me. The hobbles are a bit on the long side so she moved around just a bit but didn't have any problems.

After I was done with that they had some jumps setup in the arena so I did a little work over crossed rails sense I don't jump all that great. That went fairly good to. So I called it a night and hobble her to un-tack. She just stood there until I started putting stuff away in the tack room. Then she kinda decided hey I think I'll explore. She nearly fell a time or two but didn't get to upset over it. I just put her back where I had her so she could understand I didn't want her to leave. I would say things were successful. I think I'll use them instead of a tie for awhile to reinforce the lesson.