My first reintroduction to rope halters was at a barn where I leased a horse.  Incidentally, leasing this horse was also my reintroduction to having horses back in my life.  The woman who owned the horse had studied “natural horsemanship” by way of a program developed by Pat Parelli.  At that point I had heard of neither Pat Parelli nor “natural horsemanship”.  She showed me a little red rope halter to use with her horse.  It was totally different to anything I’d seen before.  It looked very flimsy, almost minimalist, and was irritating to put on because it was so malleable.  It was made out of some sort of cotton material and didn’t look like it would stand up to much wear.  I was pretty skeptical, but thought “each to his (or her in this case) own.”  Although at the time I couldn’t understand the logic behind rope halters I became a user of them by default because so many of the people at the barn where I leased the horse used them. 

Fast forward a year.  I rescued a young shire cross mare in late summer 2006.  She was scared, skeptical of humans, threatened to kick when her feet were handled, and pulled back when tied or held.  I realized I had bitten off more than I could chew with her so signed up to take her to a colt-starting clinic with someone called Jon Ensign.  Jon Ensign IS a cowboy and he DOES use rope halters.  However at that clinic I learned how to and why use a rope halter.  It had nothing to do with the “Wild West” but everything to do with a concept that should be (but often isn’t) understood by anyone involved with horses – “pressure and release.”  A horse is a 1000lb animal and no human no matter how strong can use their strength to maneuver a horse that doesn’t want to move.  Anyone who thinks they can is in la-la land.  Despite their size however horses are incredibly sensitive.  They can feel a fly landing on their mane.  One of my horses hates a saddle pad made out of wool felt that I have.  She probably finds it itchy and scratchy.  She can feel that through her coat and it makes her twitch and makes her irritable. 

Back to rope halters…. If you lay a webbing halter side by side next to a rope halter you can see that the webbing halter has a much larger surface area where the halter touches the horse compared to the rope halter.  On the horse the rope halter will put pressure using a smaller surface area therefore is more persuasive with less effort by the handler.  Because of this the handler can put minimal pressure on the lead rope but instead of pulling, the handler lets the horse release itself from the pressure by stepping forward, away from the pressure.  As long as the person at the lead rope isn’t pulling, the horse gets an immediate reward from the pressure of the halter from the “release”.  To the horse there is a very obvious difference between the pressure and the reward.  The pressure is uncomfortable and the release is the removal of pressure.  This is negative reinforcement.  The stimulus is the discomfort; the reward is the removal of the discomfort. 

The rope halter works by putting pressure not only on the nose, but also behind the poll.  I have handled dangerous horses with the rope halter – those that rear, kick, bite.  I have used one on a stallion with lots of energy, no ground manners, and very little handling.  I have successfully halter trained and taught horses to lead with one.  My yearling pretty much halter trained himself at two months old because the rope halter provided such a clear message.  Used correctly the rope halter is very gentle.  What I find interesting is that people who are condescending about rope halters as being “for cowboys” will use a stud chain without a second thought.  They may believe that “cowboys” are rough, crude, and even brutal to their horses.  And conversely think that “English” riding disciplines are civilized and gentle.  But not only does a stud chain potentially inflict more pain it only works on the nose, and not on the poll area.  In addition, the stud chain doesn’t provide a clear message through the “release” of pressure.  In the instances where I have seen a stud chain used, it has been used by jerking the lead rope to “discipline” the horse.  This method may work but at what cost?  The horse not only learns to fear the lead rope, it then associates pain with whatever situation was causing the problem in the first place. 

I have found two problems with rope halters.  When they are soft and flimsy the nose piece typically collapses or folds, making it irritating to try and get the halter on the horse.  So I use stiff ones.  My other complaint is that this winter when we had the really bitterly cold weather, unusual for Washington State, the halters all got too stiff to tie the knot closed.  I was able to make all kinds of interesting Gumby-like sculptures – the rope would be so stiff I could bend it and it would stay that way.  So I then frantically dug through my tack room and hay loft to find all those web halters I had consigned to a life of dust and cobwebs to use on the horses.  What do they do on ranches in places like Montana and the Midwest where the winter temperatures regularly go below freezing?  Do they put their frozen halters in their coats to warm up?  Or do they keep them in the house to stay thawed and then run out in the morning to quickly put them on the horses before the halters freeze?

No, I’m not a cowgirl.  I live about an hour from Seattle and maybe 35 minutes from the Eastside of Lake Washington, not in the Rockies, or Wyoming.  I don’t live on a ranch but on a “pseudo-farm”.  I don’t grow anything except a manure pile and sunflowers from the seeds not digested by the horses.  But I do use rope halters.  They are one of the most valuable “tools” I have and in my opinion the next best thing since sliced bread.