Page 23 - The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots

2. THE ESSENTIAL BOWLINE

Ask a seasoned packer or sailor which knot he or she would choose to retain should a brain
injury delete all but one knot from memory, and he’d almost certainly choose the bowline.
It’s been called the queen of all knots, the knot that will never fail, the knot with which you’d

trust your life should the occasion demand.
Why is the bowline so special? First, it does not fail. It doesn’t come untied under
pressure, even when shaken around, if it’s been pulled tight. Equally important, it never

slips. Tie a loop into a rope with a bowline, throw the loop over a stump, and no matter how
hard you pull, the loop stays the same size. And, no matter the pressure you’ve put on it,
you can always get it untied. You can loop a nylon rope around the axle of a truck stuck in
the mud, pull it out with another vehicle, and still untie the rope without ruining it.
The bowline is the knot you’d want to tie around your own body in an emergency situation

or around the chest of a horse bogged down in the mud before pulling it free, secure in the
knowledge it wouldn’t tighten up and strangle when the pull was applied. You could also tie
the ends of two ropes together in the most secure possible way by making a loop with a

bowline, then tying the other rope through that loop and securing it with a bowline also—not
a compact setup, but a very strong one.
Should you have to tie a horse up with only a rope around its neck, as Elmer did with
Rosie, the bowline is safe and secure. And should it be necessary to restrain a horse by
tying up a foot (for medication, perhaps, or after an encounter with a porcupine), the

method we prefer begins with a bowline, this time at the base of the neck.

Tying a Bowline

The bowline exists to make a fixed loop at the end of a rope, a loop of any size you choose.
Usually it’s tied as follows. Lay out the free end of your line using a twist to make a small
loop (step 1).