I've come to prefer a rope halter to a traditional nylon web halter. Here's why: (1) No hardware. If you need to get pretty enthusiastic, the halter can carry a lot of movement without any metal banging the horse's face. (2) Less area: the horse can't lean up against it as easily. The halter is there primarily to get your messages across, not for the horse to push into to resist your messages.

Pretty well fitted rope halter

Left: This halter fits pretty well. The noseband is sufficiently high on the nasal bones, above the cartilage; the throatlatch stays behind the jaw. I often wrap that long, loose end once around so it's not flapping madly around (the horse is used to it, but it drives me nuts!).

Poorly fitted rope halter

Right: This is a very poor fit. Ok, you caught me. It's the same halter as before, but I loosened it way too much to illustrate a bad fit. The noseband is now way too low, sitting on the cartilage tip of the nose (which is much easier to damage than bone). This horse could very easily slip right out of this halter if she half tried.

Correctly tied

The knot should always be on the loop - not above it (above, left). This way, if the horse pulls, it tightens around the loop - not on itself. You will always be able to loosen it using the loop for leverage.

Below, the halter is tied incorrectly. If the horse pulls, it will be harder and harder to get this knot undone.

Incorrectly tied

Have you noticed how hard it is for me to get a picture of the model with her ears forward? That's because she's almost always got on ear on me. She's "ground tied," waiting for my next request. That's all. She doesn't know anything about photo shoots. I've asked her to do something (that she is capable of) and she's doing it until I ask her to do something different. What more could I ask? (BTW, this horse is a purebred Arabian, a breed with a reputation for being "flighty" - you be the judge.)

For a few ideas on saddles, click here

Listen first, whisper later...