IME, one of the other major benefits of using hobbling as a foundation for
teaching peaceful, long-term tying is that should a tangling emergency arise the
horse just relaxes into it and stands quietly. Please note that I prefaced this
statement by saying that this has been my experience with our horses...very
hotbolooded, sensitive horses. It doesn't seem to matter whether it is a front
or rear leg situation for some reason, but our horses just stand there or
quietly work it out. Oh, one caveat that I did not mention is that I
only begin the hobble breaking process on horses that are at least 24
months old. I consider the bones to be too soft on horses less than 24 months to
mess with in any way.
