RMR January 2012 Article - A Bit about Hackamores by Harold Wadley

Copyright 2012 Rocky Mountain Rider. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of any editorial material, artwork and photos is strictly forbidden without express written permission of the publisher. For information about reprint rights, please contact the editor; editor@rockymountainrider.com.

Spirit Blending Foals – Before & After Birth

– An Old Way Continued

An Excerpt from the Book by Harold Wadley, St. Maries , Idaho

January 2012 issue

PART 1

A Bit about Hackamores

I really love to see someone with soft hands work a horse in the old, California Spanish spade bits. Those big spoon bits were beautiful and the way the old timers handled them was a beautiful art, like poetry in motion. It is the hands and savvy that count; not the bit.

Bits give the misconception to some people that they can stop a horse. If a horse isn’t taught to stop from the ground without a bit, it is too late to think a bit will stop it when ridden.

I rarely use a bit. Soft and light, but strong, hackamores of braided, horse hair strings are enough for me. I start with a heavy, three-quarter-inch, 16-plait rawhide braided around a rawhide core bosal and graduate to the soft, three-eights inch braided horse hair one. Today a lot of people start with a snaffle and then go to a hackamore and curb bit. That is a matter of personal preference and intended use of the horse.

Photo by Rick Landry.

Smokey wears a heavy 3/4” bozal (of very soft 4 plait braided leather over a rawhide twisted core); on a leather hanger/headstall, soft mane hair meca’te reins, and “git-down” lead. Photo by Harold Wadley.

Remember, the use of a hackamore should compliment the natural moves and reflexes of a horse. It can’t be used to force a horse as a bit can. If forced, the horse just braces up against it and can out pull the rider.

A big problem is if someone else rides the horse and does not understand how to use a hackamore! The first thing they do is PULL! without the use of the legs. Hackamores and leg cues go hand and hand.

My family, on both sides of the horse so to speak, always started a colt with either a soft braided halter or the heavy bosal hackamore. One or two uncles would go to a snaffle then, but not until the colt got in its bridle teeth. My dad had some of the best cutting horses around and they died of old age without ever having a bit in their mouth.

I always start with the heaviest bosal and work up to the very light horse hair one. A colt feels the heavier weight on his nose easier and responds to the slightest signal through it. It also knows the larger diameter bosal will not cut him and is not afraid of it.

Starting with a small-diameter bosal is too light and the colt knows it can burn or bruise him quicker. Once a horse is trained through the heavy to light bosals, he is light and supple and will work with minimum pressure. Four years was about the average time we took to make a hackamore horse. During this period they were used for everything from roping calves to skidding fence posts and packing salt.

The Making of a Hackamore

My hackamores accomplish all I need and eliminate cold bits in the winter, so I figure if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

The hackamores I am talking about ARE NOT the mechanical leverage type devices sold as hackamores. When I use the term “hackamore,” it refers to a nose loop (bosal) made of either rawhide or braided horsehair suspended from the horse’s head by a leather or braided horsehair “hanger.” It may or may not have metal buckles. It may or may not have a brow band and throat latch rigging. If it does, the throat latch is generally rigged with a “fiador” knot to the bosal.

The “heel knot” of rawhide or “bell knot” of hitched horsehair with a tree burl brings the nose loop to a close. The heel knot is carefully balanced with the nose loop to be just a little heavier so the horse will feel it when the meca’te is slightly lifted. The cheek knots for aligning the hanger must be balanced and centered. Some of my heel knots are the kind my grandpa used. They are tree burls smoked with special tree pitch to color and waterproof them. Their weight is carefully balanced with the bosal.

Kiowa wears a bosal and headstall that are braided Mohair. The rein is a loop, or closed rein, some call it a “ropers’ rein.” The throat latch tip is deer antler, and the heel knot is a grand fir burl, cured by fire and finished with shellac. Shellac is a natural substance secreted by the lac bug in Asia . It is waterproof and covers the egg chambers of lac larvae. The horses seem to like the softness of the Mohair. It is round braided over hemp rope for both the bosal and rein. Photo by Harold Wadley.

The bosal eliminates those ice cold bits being put in a horses mouth! If a particular horse or mule team we had that had been trained with a bit, by someone else, we always gave it a handful of whole oats with some molasses so the horses mouth had something in it to protect it while the bit was placed. Try sticking your tongue to a cold bit!

Horse Hair Ropes and Rawhide Nose Loops without a Cable Core

Meca’te is a word that originated with the Aztecs and simply means a rope or cordage usually made of cactus fiber in the old days. Rawhide and horsehair being quite available later replaced the plant fibers and is in common use today. I cringe when I see those waxed nylon rope nose bands with stainless steel swivel shanks attached for putting pressure on a horse’s nose and jaw bones called by the name of “hackamore”!

My dad used a system he brought out of Old Mexico where he used to work broncs and then trail them up to Dalhart , Texas , from 1916 to 1920. It is nearly backwards from what horse trainers advocate today. I still use the old way as it seems to work.

The colts were started in rawhide bosals and hanger, no wire cable cores, then graduated to a snaffle bit after the bridle teeth emerged in combination with the hackamore, then to snaffle along, and finished with the Spanish bits.

Some, however, were only worked and finished in the hackamore. There were a variety of weights of bosals used progressing from a one-inch heavy rawhide to a very lightweight, three-eighths to half-inch braided horse hair.

The horses were always started with a heavy rawhide bosal and a coarse, trimmed meca’te of tail hair. The horse was finished with a light, braided horsehair bosal and soft, untrimmed meca’te of mane hair. Mane hair is softer but it is also shorter and so I always mix in some tail hair which adds strength to the meca’te.

The finishing and everyday use meca’tes are not twisted into hard lays which makes them stiffer and coarser. The colt is first introduced to a coarse, hard lay, trimmed tail meca’te. The hair is trimmed after twisting so the meca’te has more bristles. This quickens the response of the colt if used correctly. If it is mashed against his neck, like a board, it loses its effectiveness. If a horse’s skin twitches at the landing of a horsefly, then he sure can feel that coarse meca’te touching his neck lightly.

I have heard statements attributed to notable horsemen of today saying that they don’t like the feel of a meca’te. It’s rough in their hands. Well? It was twisted by the old timers with the horse in mind, not the rider! Like any tool, it has to be understood and used accordingly or you might as well forget it.

The finishing meca’te is soft with the hairs staying long and untrimmed. There will always be some short bristles in a twist, but if care is taken in laying the hair into the twist, most of the exterior hair will lay in the same direction.

Next month, we’ll run Part 2, as Harold discusses the ways his Cherokee grandfather taught him to braid horsehair hackamores and meca’tes.

Harold Wadley’s book, “Spirit Blending Foals: Before and After Birth, An Old Way Continued,” is available from the author. Contact him at 208-245-3019.

Photo by Rick Landry.

Back to Articles Page

Rocky Mountain Rider Magazine • Montana Owned & Operated
PO Box 995 • Hamilton, MT 59840 • 888-747-1000 • 406-363-4085 • info@rockymountainrider.com