Page 67 - The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots

hiked back up to camp and built a fire. That action, putting the pole across the bridge,
probably saved us a twelve mile walk back to the trailhead.

Just before dark, Mona, our senior Tennessee Walking Horse mare, who knew this
drainage well from years of service with a wilderness outfitter, suddenly threw her head into
the air, snorted, and decided it was time to go home. She took off in a fast hop down the
trail, and the others, seeing “Mama” move, followed suit. We dropped what we were doing
and sprinted after them, quickly learning that even a hobbled horse could outrun any of us.

We caught up with them at the bridge. Mona, still leading, her front feet on the first of the
bridge planks, her chest against the pole, was stopped dead, a disappointed look on her
face. I snapped on a lead rope, removed her hobbles, and led her back to camp, her young

charges following. There, I tied her securely to a dead but solid tree.
Since this incident, I have never hobbled all my horses. Keep one reliable horse tied fast.
Otherwise, a long walk might be in the offing. And it reinforced for me the meaning of an old
mountain man’s saying: “Better to count ribs than tracks.” In other words, better to let your
tied horse be deprived of feed during the night than to see only his tracks the next morning.

And on this memorable pack trip with my sons, “ribs” weren’t of concern: the horses were
fat from a spring on green grass.
But in spite of their limitations, hobbles are an essential part of the backcountry

horseman’s inventory of gear. In addition to providing some restraint for horses, you can
use them to minimize the turf-damaging pawing of a horse anywhere you happen to tie him.
And should you lose a pair, you can improvise with any piece of rope, particularly a soft one
(like cotton) of fairly large diameter.
As always when hobbling, work to the side of the horse, never in front. Reach your rope

around the opposite pastern, bring both sides of the rope back, and twist three or four
times. Then move the horse’s near foreleg close to the other, bring your rope around, and
tie a square knot around its pastern.

Rope hobbles with square knot.

(Always hobble on the pasterns, never the cannon bones, where fragile tendons can be
damaged. Some tack catalogs show otherwise, but they’re wrong, just the same.) As long
as you’ve provided enough twists to take up the space between the horse’s legs, these
hobbles are fairly secure.