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I first found this site by a search on the net for hobbles and the first thing I saw was the question a few weeks back about hobble training. I hobble train nearly all of my horses and it is not what some think it is. To hobble train a horse you just teach the horse to be hobbled. It is not tying up legs and scaring a horse like some use to do. A horse that is hobble trained will be less likely to freak if something gets around his legs, will have more patience and a much calmer outlook on life. Why is hobble training(correct hobble training) so evil in some people's eyes or is it that hobble training is becoming so uncommon that many don't know the difference between the correct use and the misuse of them? It's sad that many of these methods are being over looked because they are things that make for a solid well rounded horse. If anyone wants to know how to hobble train I would be more then happy to share my methods and point them towards other trainers that use it.
There are hobbles that they use in harness racing and that is to 'improve' the gaits. The hobbling that I'm talking about is when you basicly tie the legs together. Either two front, two hind, two side or all 4. Some hobble when grazing, some will picket one leg to a stake in the ground for grazing also. I teach my horses to just stand when hobbled. In areas where there is nothing to tie to you can hobble a horse and have it stay put. I use soft cotton rope to teach them to 'lead' by each leg and then as the first hobbles. I just prefer to have them not move around when hobbled so I don't use it for grazing. I also teach ground tying and have seen horses become so calm and relaxed after this training and it is so helpful when you are working around them. Hands full of tack or buckets and you can just drop the lead and have them stand there while you saddle or fix fence.
I NEVER hobble a horse as a means to brake it's spirit or to force it to put up with anything. I do not even start hobble training until the horse is 4 or 5 yrs old, already a fairly well broke horse and at an age it's legs are finished growing. At this point the horses do not need to be hobble as a short cut to training because they are train. When one judges something they clearly do not know what they are talking about it just shows how much they do not know about horses. When you have trainers like McNabb, Anderson, Parelli, Lyons…all of them are the top in the 'natural horsemanship' movement. These trainers use hobbles and train to hobbles.
When one ties a horses legs to force it to put up with a rider or scarey things that is NOT hobble training, that is misuse of hobbles.
Please find out what one is really talking about before judging it. I think my question is answered, it is not that some have a problem with hobble training but that they do not know what it is.
That was kind of my point. The OP of the first question was not asking about the method of training that people thought he was or that some think I am asking about. I totally understand and agree with the idea that 'braking a horse with hobbles' is not a good thing but that is NOT hobble training in the way that I or the OP of the first question is talking about. This is a site to ask questions and get answers hopefully from people the know what they are talking about but clearly the ones that answered him had no clue what he was asking about or what I am asking about here. READ WHAT I WROTE and you will see I am not talking about tying up a horse to brake him.

they must not understand what hobble training is. i always hobble trained my horses too. and in fact, it came in handy the time one of my mares got wrapped up in a bundle of barbed wire while staying in a friend's pasture. she stood completely still until help got to her.

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