Page 20 - The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots

the loop on the face of the knot, then pull the bitter end of the latigo tight, closing the loop.
The latigo knot, made up of two facing half hitches, looks good, lies relatively flat under the

stirrup leathers or pack horse load, and holds well.

Latigo hitches for cinches, also known as lanyard knots, or two facing half hitches.

Dragging with Half Hitches
Separate half hitches can also be used in a series to tighten a line around a bunch of loose
objects, cinching them together. This is how a manty is tied for packing (see chapter 4), but

the method is useful in many other ways as well. Again, my first exposure to this approach
involved a mentor, this time my father-in-law Elmer. I was helping him irrigate an alfalfa
field. Since there was no way to use the Jeep without crossing the flooded field and making
ruts, he always used his saddle horse Brownie to move the dam materials to the next “set,”

the next place we needed to dam up the ditch to flood another increment of the field.
The dam materials were a pretty considerable bundle, consisting of a strong pole
perhaps twelve feet long, ten to fifteen two-by-six boards of various lengths, and a canvas
tarp around sixteen feet long and eight feet wide. We pulled the dam out, letting the

backed-up water flow down the ditch. Elmer folded the wet canvas carefully, and slapped it
in place behind the cantle of his saddle, where he tied it with the saddle strings. Brownie,
well trained for this procedure, hardly flinched when the cold, wet tarp was draped over
him, but waited patiently for his next task.

Elmer then laid a loop from a well-worn lariat out on the ground (he reserved his “good”
lariat for other purposes), and we stacked the boards and pole carefully so that their ends
projected into the loop. When the boards were neatly stacked, Elmer tightened the loop.
Then he worked the lariat rope around the big bundle with several loops, each half-hitched

as shown. I found it hard to believe that this loose bundle of heavy boards would stay
together while dragged over the ground, but he assured me it would.