Keep Your Horse's Tail Mud-Free

A simple mud knot will keep your horse?s tail relatively clean and protect it from anything the rain has turned into a tail-catcher.

An overnight downpour has turned the trails to mud. You know you’ll be cleaning horse and tack if you go for a ride, but your horse is eager to stretch his legs, and you want to get out, too.
However, you can avoid one thing?that muddy, dirty tail. A simple mud knot will keep your horse’s tail relatively clean and protect it from anything the rain has turned into a tail-catcher.
Here, Andrea Scott Klug, who teaches, trains, and rides hunter-jumpers in Bradbury, California, shows you her step-by-step method for tying a secure mud knot.

Step 1. Holding the tail in your left hand, put your right arm underneath the tail.

Step 2. Loop your right hand back over the outside of the tail in a clockwise direction, and bring your hand underneath the tail so that the tail is looped around your lower arm.

Step 3. Hook the end of the tail between the first two fingers of your right hand, and pull the end through the opening you’ve created with your arm in slipknot fashion.

Step 4. Give a jerk on the end that’s still in your right hand to tighten the knot, which at this point should be about four inches below the end of the tailbone.

Step 5. Fold the knot that you’ve created up to the end of the tailbone, wrapping the end of the tail around the tailbone and tucking it in.

Step 6. Finish the job by putting a rubber band or tape around the tailbone at the top of the knot.
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