Buckaroo John's Blog — Hackamore

The Loping Hackamore

Posted by John Brand on

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....

Read more →

Shaping a Bosal

Posted by John Brand on

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...

Read more →

What is a Hackamore?

Posted by John Brand on

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...

Read more →

Mecate, Bosal, Hackamore Vaquero Tack

Posted by John Brand on

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...

Read more →

The Hackamore

Posted by John Brand on

Relief from the Bit with a Vaquero Influence The first hackamore was probably a piece of rope placed around the nose or head of a horse not long after domestication. These early devices for controlling horses may have been adapted from equipment used to control camels. Over time, this means of controlling a horse became more sophisticated. The Persians in 500 b.c. were some of the first ones to use a thick, plaited noseband to help the horse look and move in the same direction. This was called a Hakma. On this Hakma was a third rein added at the...

Read more →