Hobbles...

Rudey

Rudey

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Hobbles, I thought these were illegal in this country and we are unable to buy them in the UK as they are deemed cruel and inhumane?
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(Or did I dream this up lol?
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). Just window shopping online, and I came across these...

http://www.randrcountry.co.uk/productDetails.cfm?ProductID=6464&Open=0
 
You see them in Spain quite a lot on horses and cattle.

I remember a big Clydie cross in a dealer's field near me a few years ago that was hobbled in front for some reason (he did tell me why but it was so long ago now I can't remember)
 
Dont think so....I bought some a few years ago. Just like the ones pictured.

I actually bought them for travelling my horse....(yes you read that right!). He developed this awful habbit of pawing the ground in the trailer, but not just pawing I mean leaping up and down bashing the floor of my trailer. I could see him bouncing up and down in the trailer window. The car would start to sway and as a 17h m/w I was worried he was going to either go through the floor or flip the car. Couple of trips with the hobbles and it broke the cycle and *touch wood* he's never done it since.

FWIW I tried other things....a companinion mirror - this made him worse as he could watch the other horse doing it too!!!

I accept this could have been dangerous, but I figured him going through the floor or flipping the car were more likely and equally unthinkable.
 
when my mare went to stud, they hobbled her to cover her.....
and this is the mare that previously loveddddddd being covered 'naturally'
i know its not relevant but she didnt take with that stallion - swapped stallions the following year and she stood like a tart and took first time!
 
As with many other gadgets in the horse world hobbles have their place and are used for many reasons from breeding to GA procedures. Once horses are taught to be used to them there are seldom any problems.
 
I recall reading something about a lady doing a long trail ride (lands end to john o'groats or something) and she used them (or maybe just experimented in case she needed them) in one or two places where she couldn't have a suitable pen. I read an article in one of the horsey magazines about it, she tried tethering too and there was a debate about safety and cruelty etc....
 
When they used horses in the army they used to hobble them. but they did it from their back leg to their front leg. This was so that the horses could be loose at nite but codnt go far away as the hobbles stoped them taking long strides. In the morning the horses would usally be about 20 paces away.

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Just thought id share it with you.

I do believe hobbles to be legal in this country.
 
no you can still hobble in the uk, we do if we are at shows on the mare & will also use them on the wee one in time but have to teather the big lad due to him being an overintellegent sec D that has learned to canter wearing the hobbles (in any combination!)
 
hmmmmm god knows where I got it from then, I could have sworn blind someone told me they weren't legal in this country! Perhaps I had one too many specials that day and misheard what was said lmao!!
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xx

Interesting to read people use them for travelling in. I have trailer issues with my youngster. He travels amazingly, but I have problems with him standing in the box. When I first started introducing him to the box I spent alot of time doing various things slowly and nicely. I then introduced the breast bar and luckily I didn't fasten it up as the little blighter reared over it! I resorted to cross-tying him when travelling without the bar as I was scared of him rearing in transit. Can't see these preventing that though! xx
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I am contsantly being told they are illegal to use in the UK, but they are widely and easily available to buy.
 
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I resorted to cross-tying him when travelling without the bar as I was scared of him rearing in transit.

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Ah now *that* is illegal as far as I am aware. You are not allowed to travel a horse in a trailer without a breast bar.
 
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Ah now *that* is illegal as far as I am aware. You are not allowed to travel a horse in a trailer without a breast bar.

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is it??
how do lorrys get away with it? i dont think ive seen a horsebox/lorry with breastbars when they are herringbone.

i travel my boys without breastbar they are tiddlers & the breastbars are always set way too high meaning they are at risk of ending up with head/face injurys.
 
lorry's have a re-inforced bulkhead.
Trailers dont.

if you were involved in an accident, your insurance would be null and void, i'm afraid
 
ok, can see that but a breastbar in any trailer i hire would still be of no use to my boys they would go under it (does that mean insurance is invalid anyway??) & regually do!

not meaning to be arcward or stir things up im just intrieged, as the professional company i used last time i hired a trailer said they diddnt do one fitted out for smalls & just to remove the bar & travel him cross tied (used in last 6 months).

likewise in rear faceing one, does the breastbar still apply (bulkhead or not) as breastbar would be wrong end of the motion.
 
rear facing still have a bar behind the rump...well, a richardson certainly does.

as for littlies..i really dont know about hire vehicles, but a good friend of mine has had her trailer adapted to accomodate hers.
 
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I resorted to cross-tying him when travelling without the bar as I was scared of him rearing in transit.

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Ah now *that* is illegal as far as I am aware. You are not allowed to travel a horse in a trailer without a breast bar.

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Oh mannnnn!
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I will have to have a good google search and see if I can confirm that.
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When I got Rox he was a 10 month old unhandled colt. The breeders recommended for his first experience in a trailer that we took all of the partitions out, herded him into the trailer, and travelled him loose. Which we did, and all was well, he travelled perfect and didn't move at all!
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When I started taking him out and about, I cross tied him with the middle partition in, and on speaking to my aunty for advice, she said that's how you should start off travelling youngsters until they got use to it, before risking a breast bar in situe in case of panicking,rearing, getting stuck, etc... type of incidents.
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She had one young horse that was over 15 hh and he saw the jockey door open and tried to go UNDER the bar to get out of the jockey door!
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Needless to say he got stuck, scraped the skin off his back and was extremely sore!!
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I just assumed cross tying without a breast bar was legal - well in all honesty - it didn't cross my mind whether it was or not! Plus no one ever said otherwise to me
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I didn't appreciate there were laws on it, just assumed trailer companies put them in on their own accord for extra safety measures!
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I will let you know if I find a link to clarify it! Better to be safe then sorry - although it doesn't solve my problem with a breast bar - idea's on that one are most definitely welcome!! xx
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Its not cross tying thats illegal, its no breast bar, although I dont know where its stated. I presume the breast bar has to be in place to stop the horse coming through the front of the trailer if you braked suddenly. Horseboxes are different, they travel sidewards (in most) and the partition or bulk head would stop them falling/shooting in to the front. Rear facing trailers have breach bars at the front and rear facing wagons have reinforced bulk head or should have.
 
Oooops sorry for going off the OP, meant to add I was told that a famous showjumper, person wouldnt say who though had hobbles attached to the floor of his wagon for one of there horses.
 
Guess you can still get them. I know of people who still use them, mainly for travelling it seems. As an absolute last resort I was given some to use them on a horse I had who kept rearing up and putting a front leg over the breast bar in the trailer. But I was too terrified he'd flip out or fall over in them so they were on for literally 1 minute I think before I had to whip them off. Horrid things.
 
I think they're fine as long as you teach your horse what they are about before you use them. I have used them while riding in mountains in Italy, a useful way to let your mount have a lunch break when you do. You need to teach your horse to yield to the feeling of pressure around their fetlocks before you even start to use hobbles, something very few people in this country seem to do. If more horses understood about pressure around their legs, or how to wear hobbles, there would be less injuries when horses put their legs through wire, or get caught up in similar ways.
 
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I think they're fine as long as you teach your horse what they are about before you use them. I have used them while riding in mountains in Italy, a useful way to let your mount have a lunch break when you do. You need to teach your horse to yield to the feeling of pressure around their fetlocks before you even start to use hobbles, something very few people in this country seem to do. If more horses understood about pressure around their legs, or how to wear hobbles, there would be less injuries when horses put their legs through wire, or get caught up in similar ways.

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Interesting point...I think I read somewhere, think might have been one of Jason Webb's mail shots...that one of the guys that demos with him hobbles all his youngsters for the same reason stated above.

I dont think they are as horrid as people seem to think. They are adjustible and the horses can still move about, albeit taking much tiner steps, so they can still graze normally or in my case he could steady himself whilst travelling.
 
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You need to teach your horse to yield to the feeling of pressure around their fetlocks before you even start to use hobbles, something very few people in this country seem to do. If more horses understood about pressure around their legs, or how to wear hobbles, there would be less injuries when horses put their legs through wire, or get caught up in similar ways.

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Very true. There was a Downunder Horsemanship program on H&C tv a few weeks ago where he used them to teach a horse that the best thing they can do, if they get their legs tangled in anything, is to yield to the pressure and stand still.
 
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