Page 67 - The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots
P. 67

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.
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