Now for the knot.
Tying a rope halter is easy, but it's important to do it correctly. A mis-tied knot might tighten under pressure, making it impossible to untie in an emergency. To tie a rope halter, bring the crownpiece under and through the eye in the cheekpiece from behind. Pass the crownpiece to the right and then bring it under the eye, pointing left. Now just pull it back to the right through the loop you've created and pull it snug. The end of the will be pointing away from the horse's eye (to the right) when you finish.
Safe Tying
Once you have the horse haltered, you can practice tying him. There are several safety rules to keep in mind, starting with the most critical one.
1. Never tie a horse unless you know he's been trained to "give to pressure." It might seem like a simple thing to ask him: "Hey, just stand here tied to this post for a few minutes while I grab a snack." But a horse who hasn't learned to give to the pressure of the rope and stand tied poses a great threat to himself and to his handlers, because he's likely to panic and fight and pull back until someone gets hurt.
Even an experienced horse can get spooked and try to pull loose, which brings us to rule number two.
2. Never tie a horse to anything he can move. The horse world is full of stories of riders who unthinkingly tied their horses to something flimsy: a tree branch, a lawn chair, a car bumper, a fence rail. And in those stories, the horse inevitably pulls the item loose and winds up galloping away in terror as the branch, chair, bumper, or fence rail goes thumping along behind him, terrifying him even more. Make sure you use something absolutely unmovable to tie up to, whether it's a telephone pole, a tie post, or a trailer. The only exception to this is if you use a specially designed "tie ring" that allows the rope to slide free when undue pressure is exerted on it.
So we've got a well-trained horse who knows how to give to the pressure of the rope instead of fighting and pulling back, and we have something secure to tie him to-now what? To continue the safety theme, here's rule number three.
3. Tie the horse so he can hold his head at a normal height with enough slack to be comfortable-but no more. This will keep him out of trouble. The basic recommendation is to tie the rope to something that's the height of his withers or a little higher, with a couple of feet of slackness in the rope so that he isn't forced to hold his head unnaturally high, and yet he won't be able to get his head under the rope or to step over it with his feet.
The final piece of the safe-tying puzzle is the knot itself. You want to make sure the horse is tied securely, but you also need to be able to untie him quickly in case of emergency, even if he's putting a lot of pressure on the rope.
4. Use a quick-release knot. Here's how it works: Wrap the loose end of the lead rope around (or through) the object you're tying it to. Make a loop in the loose end. Make a second loop and pull it snugly through the first loop.
Once you've got the quick-release knot tied, you can test how easy it is to untie it. Just grab the loose end and pull. With a little practice, you'll be able to tie this knot in your sleep!
