Page 82 - The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots

simple adjustment without untying.
On the trail, we packed three animals, each with separate techniques. Beauty, the big

mule, carried the commercial certified bear-proof food panniers, stout plastic boxes of a
model that had withstood testing by a hungry bear. We could have simply hooked the boxes
to the Decker saddle, then tied the belly strap under Beauty’s stomach, but we
supplemented that packing job with a tight basket hitch.
Two heavy manties containing pack boxes went on a mare named Tess. These, too, were

held in place by basket hitches. Zorro, our smaller mule, got the easiest load, two cloth
panniers filled with the items we’d first need in camp or on the trail.
In many respects, when it comes to handling equines, ropes and knots are lifelines,

connection between the animals, the object, and our own hands. Learning knots that are
outside our comfort zone is a pleasure, and it can expand throughout our lives. Yes, the
average horseman can probably get along simply knowing the square knot, half hitch, and
bowline. (The first I’d add to that collection would be the sheet bend.) But there are many
more knots and hitches to be learned, ones that are tailor-made for particular purposes,

and it’s worth going after them.
In this book, I’ve made no attempt to teach as many knots as possible. Why? Quite
frankly, because most readers will quickly forget knots to which they are exposed simply by

reading a description, viewing a diagram, or by watching an online animation. These things
do not make one proficient at tying knots or at choosing the right knot for a particular job.
Nowhere more than in tying knots is the expression “use it or lose it” more appropriate.
We remember the knots we use. Pushing the envelope involves practicing them and
judiciously adding others as time goes on.

Once I asked a mushroom expert to tell me the best approach to gathering mushrooms
without poisoning oneself. A professor at my graduate school had recently died, poisoned
by a mushroom he mistook for another. The expert answered that it was simply a matter of

learning one at a time and really learning it. Don’t worry about the others, he told me.
Become proficient at identifying one safe species, and then consider adding another.
If this book has only accomplished teaching you to tie a square knot, making you aware
that you’ve been tying a granny knot instead, that’s good progress. But the next time you’re
tempted to tie two lines together with a square knot, tie a sheet bend instead. It’s a better

knot for that purpose, and the more you tie it, the more natural it will seem. Or, for fun, join
the two lines together with two bowlines, loop to loop, even though that kind of strength isn’t
necessary for your purpose.

Practice tying the knots you find most useful behind your back or in the dark. Keep a
couple strands of colored rope next to your computer, and when you find yourself a little
bored, pick them up and challenge yourself to tie one or more of the knots in this book.
Eventually you’ll acquire a fluid, unthinking motion that results in the knot you wish to tie.
A marine biologist who was an accomplished sailor once came to the ranch for my

“Beyond the Round Pen” clinic. This man knew more knots than I’ll ever be able to tie, and
he could tie a bowline blindfolded, in the dark, and underwater. When I split up the class
and asked him to teach the bowline to his section he tried for a time, and then,

exasperated, said, “I can tie it, I just can’t teach anyone else to do it!”