RMR February 2012 Article - Hackamores - part 2 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

Photos by Rick Landry

February 2012 issue

PART 2

During the so-called slack time in the winter before calving started, Grandpa and I would sit in the barn loft and twist horse hair strings for braiding. We braided hackamores of different weights, cinches, lead ropes and reins. All the hair too short for twisting strings was piled and rolled to be useed later when making meca’tes. We also pulled mane and tail hair for the laying in the twist when making meca’tes. Great care was taken to use the right mix of hair, tail or mane, depending on its intended use.

I sure miss those times! I just wish I had some of that old work, but unfortunately a grass fire decided it was hungry and took the barn and lots of our beautiful harness and braided rigging.

There is a right way and a wrong way to rig a meca’te on the bosal and horse. The lay of the hair of the meca’te should come against the horse when using on a colt. This is readily accomplished with the coarse bristled tail hair meca’te which has bristles in every direction. The soft meca’te with the hair going with the horse is used for finishing and working later, not starting the colt. The feel is sort of like stroking fur the wrong way.

The two kinds of meca’tes give two different effects, right? Maybe this is why the meca’te has gone out of every day use; a lost art misunderstood.

The meca’te has several functions. First and foremost, it could be made out of readily available horse hair. It also can serve as the first signal for movement along with leg pressure, provide loop reins, and finally, serve as a get down lead and tie.

Most meca’tes are twisted around 22 feet long which is enough to meet all its functions.

I was raised with old-time horsemen and women who depended on their horses and mules for life. Dad’s people were Cherokee who had ridden with the Kiowa people; and my Mom’s, part of them, were Comanche, so maybe some of those mixed genes stuck. Amazing since the Comanche whipped up on the Cherokee at any opportunity!

Grandpa said “If that horse can feel a horse fly, that’s all he needs to respond.” True! So, on that principle, we trained and graduated to the very light, braided horse hair bosal, not the “hitched” one as sometimes a hitch could grab a hair of the horse, even one hair. Try pulling on just one of your hairs!

We never smoked our horse hair rigging as we did all the leather and hemp ones. Heat, pitch and hair don’t mix! The loose hair was always washed and dried before we started twisting strings or meca’tes.

About once a year we washed the rigging in barely warm water with any soap except our handmade lye soap. The hair rigging was then hung out to drain and dry in the sun. I’m still afraid to try and dry one in our electric dryer for fear my normal luck will hold and I won’t recognize it when I open the door!

The sun works pretty cheap and imparts a special aroma as well. After the braided and twisted riggings are dry, they are worked through a soft, clean rag soaked in lanolin oil. Care needs to be taken here as too much oil grabs dust. Just enough oil to draw out the natural shine does the trick. This helps keep the rigging from getting brittle over time of use in the sun and wind. It is good for years.

The heavier bosal is used only to teach the reflexes that will be used through the horse’s life. Some horses need only a short time in the heavy 1-1/4” bosal before moving on to next lighter one, which is one of my soft leather round braided ones.

The secret is to let the horse respond to the lightest touch possible and immediately reward it with love and praise! I talk to mine a lot. Once they understand the lightness then that is all they expect. Anything else afterwards confuses them, and rightly so.

Grandpa had a sheep hide hanging in a loop from the hay loft that we pulled the horse hair rigging through until it had the right shine. Our hands smelled a little “sheepy,” but in those days we didn’t mind. It sure helped us kids remember to wash our hands before supper!

This winter work in the barn was also the wonderful time of story telling! I would sit spellbound as Grandpa quietly talked about the early days of the Cherokee Nation. The old stories of how the raven lost his feathers of white and we got the life-giving “Selu” (corn) soaked into my mind like hot syrup on pancakes. I have shared the raven story with you. So now you know why he is black.

Some of you in the show circuit aren’t free to use just one type of head gear, but must perform in the snaffle, curb and hackamore. My hat is off to you folks who do this! It takes a lot of time and work to prepare for such events, so the best of luck to you and your four-legged partner!

Dancer, a Morgan horse, wears a bosal made of a 5/8” hemp rope core covered with soft deer skin.

Harold Wadley learned how to make tack out of natural materials from his Cherokee grandfather.

These reins are braided from cane grass harvested along the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene , and have horsehair tassels.

Kiowa, a paint horse, wears a bosal which is latigo leather braided around a rawhide core.

Harold says that rope or rawhide make the best cores for a bosal. He will not use a steel cable as the core because it gets very cold in winter weather, and it can’t be molded or shaped to the face of the horse.

The fiador (A) helps secure the headstall, and prevents the horse from rubbing it off, especially when riding through timber. It also holds the bosal at the correct angle.

The soft reins are made of mostly mane hair, with a little tail hair mixed in.

The “get-down rope” (B) around Kiowa’s neck is made of tail hair. It is used instead of a halter to tie the horse.

It is secured with elk horn rings, which keep it from tightening around the horse’s throat latch.

The ends of the get-down rope are finished with a drilled deer antler. The ends of the rope are pushed into the antler, and propolis (C) is warmed up and used like glue to anchor the ends. Propolis, made by bees, seals out the water and dries hard. Bees use it to plug holes in their hives.

Smokey, a Foxtrotter, and Harold. Smokey’s rope-core bosal is braided over with soft latigo leather.

To make rawhide, Harold will soak an elk hide in wood ashes and water. This really loosens up the hair, which he then scrapes off and then tacks the hide to a board to let it dry.
He cuts rawshide strips, ½” wide, going around the outside of the hide in a circle. He rolls the strips into a tube, tacks it to a thin straight board and lets it dry.

The 22-foot, finished mecate is a mix of tail hair. It is made up of six separate “strands” (note in the photo— three black strands, a white, a red, and a red-and-white). Each strand is made of a 90-foot “string” of twisted hair, which has been folded into thirds of 30-feet each, and then twisted in the opposite direction to lock the strand into place.

Grand fir burls are covered in pitch and smoked. Hitched horse hair or braided horse hair is anchored in the burl with propilis.

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