By teaching your horse to stand hobbled, you prep yourself, and your pony, for possible awkward situations where there’s nowhere to tie the horse. This can often occur on ranches, where hobbling is very widely used as it eliminates the risks of tying a pony by the reins or the bridle.
You teach your pony to remain still hobbled by teaching him the right responses to pressure. One of the most helpful lessons you can teach your pony is to yield to pressure. You achieve this by taking your pony to a round pen or an arena. Curl a rope round his ankle and allow him to drag it for a while.
When he is moderately accustomed to the rope, you can start lifting his leg utilising the rope. Different horses react in a different way to this move. Some horses show a reaction while others stay indifferent.
Try also to pick up each of your horse’s four feet utilizing the rope, obviously one at a time. This way, you are showing him how to stay calm if he ever gets tangled up in fencing or wiring. He shouldn’t be panicking if he’s received proper lessons in yielding to pressure. The idea is to get him to yield to whatever position he may find himself in when pressure is applied. Once yielding is pretty much instinctive for him, you can hobble him without causing him to panic.
During the initial few attempts at hobbling him, he’s bound to fumble around and trip up a bit. He could even take a fall. Don’t let this upset you. It is all part of the process of getting him used to hobbles that prohibit his capability to move. If he does fall, just undo the hobble with care and assist him back to his feet. A pony well used to pressure won’t show much of an inclination to panic as he learns to accept pressure on the legs.
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