Buckaroo John's Blog — Hackamore

Most of the time, when you receive your bosal, it won't come in the shape that best suits your horse's face. The bosal should fit like a glove around the horse's face, with no gaps. This requires one to shape it. While it may seem like a daunting task, it's actually quite simple.  This is an unshaped bosal on a horse: Note the gaps. Ideally, those shouldn't be there. So how do we change it's shape? Bosals should be made with a rawhide core, so it can take and hold shape. Once I set this on this gelding's face to...

This is the quality AMERICAN made western leather loping hackamore bridle you've heard about from cutters and anyone wanting a bitless bridle! This is a round caveson hackamore designed to fit low on your horse's nose and, because it is round, it works more like a sidepull than a hackamore, with a side to side action. It is generally used to lope cutting horses to keep their mouths soft. It has our working 3/4" harness leather double cheek adjustment headstall with a hand braided fiador (throat latch), which is adjustable to hold the fine quality braided rawhide noseband-caveson in position....

Let's talk about what makes a hackamore setup. The hackamore is comprised of three parts: the bosal, the hanger and the mecate. These three pieces together make a hackamore. The bosal is made of braided rawhide. It can be made in a variety of plaits, quality and price ranges. For green horses the typical sizes available are 3/4" 5/8" and 1/2". The smaller sizes, 3/8" and 5/16" are generally used for more advanced horses in the two rein.  The hanger is a thin piece of leather that connects on either side of the nosepiece of the bosal, goes over the poll and sets...

The Indian Hackamore is a unique piece of equipment, and it's popularity is growing in the bitless riding world and with natural horsemanship. This very unique and gentle bosal is called an “Indian Hackamore”. The nose is flat instead of round. The chin portion widens and narrows to fit most any size head. The action is most like riding with a halter, but with more communication and control. The ends that connect to the reins are crossed so when you pull on the right rein the pressure goes under the jaw and around to the opposite side, to bring the...

The Mecate is the rein portion of the horse tack, called the Hackamore. The Hackamore is a type of headgear for horse training. The unique part of the Hackamore is that it does not have a bit. It uses a braided noseband called a Bosal. The Bosal is a special type of noseband that works on pressure points on the horse's face, nose, and chin. The Mecate is a rope made from horse hair, Alpaca fiber, or soft feeling rope that serves as reins and lead rope.The types of Hackamores include the Bosal and side pull. The Bosal Hackamore uses...