Page 66 - The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots
P. 66

As with halters, hobbles can be improvised if lost. Of the separate types, those made with
  rings  that  attach  in  a  figure  eight  pattern  are  too  easily  lost  unless  they’re  attached  with

  most  slack  taken  out.  And,  in  tall  grass  or  snow,  they’re  difficult  to  find.  When  I  use  this
  type, I plant the horse’s front feet closely together, not only to prevent loss of the hobbles
  but to limit the horse’s movement.
     The material of which these hobbles are made is also important. Nylon hobbles are light,
  impervious to moisture, and inexpensive, but I avoid using them on animals that are likely to

  resist and be overactive in hobbles. Leather is kinder to the skin.
     Don’t count on the limitation to movement hobbles are supposed to impose. A few horses
  I’ve owned never really figure out how fast they can move in hobbles, but the majority soon

  discover they can hop, then actually gallop with their front feet hobbled. Indeed, I once had
  a young walking horse that actually jumped fences while hobbled. In order to utilize grass
  around the homestead, I’d hobbled him here and there and kept spotting him on the wrong
  side of the fence. Finally, I caught him in the act. He’d approach the fence, square up with it,
  rear back, and jump! Had he been a mule I’d have been less surprised.

     Partner, my senior gelding, runs like the wind while hobbled, and I fear for his safety on
  rough ground. I’ve seen him tear along on a rocky side hill in order to find the next spot of
  green grass. The solution for him has been three-legged hobbles.

     On one of my earlier pack trips I took two young sons twelve miles up a familiar drainage
  and camped in what westerners call a “park,” a big, beautiful clearing high in the timber.
  This clearing was a favorite with horse people, because to reach it you crossed a narrow
  bridge over a river that would be nearly impassable without it. Since horses normally didn’t
  attempt to cross the treacherous river willingly, all one had to do to hold horses in camp

  was place a pole across the bridge entrance, and a pole was always left there handy for
  that purpose.























                                                   Three-legged hobbles.

     The  boys  and  I  rode  over  the  bridge,  then  up  the  path  a  couple  hundred  yards  to  the

  clearing. We made camp, ate Polish sausages, and watched a young cow moose graze in
  the south end of the big clearing, only occasionally raising her head to check us out. Young
  and foolish as a packer, I had hobbled all of our horses.
     After supper, I told the boys we should go down to the river and brush our teeth, and,
  while we were there, place the pole across the bridge. We skipped down and did so, then
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