Tying a Mecate Into a Lead

After posting an article and video on the rigging a Mecate (or McCarthy) to a slobber straps and a bit, I neglected to show a method for tying the lead end of the Mecate to the portion you are using for a one piece rein so that you can lead the horse without pulling on the bit or otherwise causing the bit to bang around their mouth. I received several e-mails asking for me to show how to do this. I’ve been guilty of leading horses by reins,......far more than I would be willing to admit even when faced with threat of torture such as eating Aunt Edna’s tuna casserole.....and we all know the chance, we take when leading a horse by reins connected to a bit, of causing that bit to bang around the horse’s mouth. I think a person can lead by reins connected to the bit and be safe about it, but there are times, especially on a young horse, where you may want to be safer. A more dangerous thing would be to tie the horse to a rail using the reins. Seen that a few more times than necessary as well. There are several ways to take the lead end of the Mecate and tie it to the one piece rein section so you can lead a horse without pressure on the bit. What I do is to double the reins around the neck then tie my lead end of the Mecate around this doubled one piece rein with an half hitch. This secures the lead end of Mecate to the reins so that I can now lead the horse by the tie in under the neck and not from the reins. You could use other knots such as a clove hitch, in fact I usually use a clove hitch, but from my experience a half hitch works well and is easier to tie for most people. I think my best advice, if you are riding in a Mecate now, is to practice a few variations and see what works best for you. The idea to for the lead tied into the reins is to put pressure on the horse’s poll but not to slip over the horse’s head. And to answer the question on what length of Mecate I use, it's a nineteen foot section of rope from end to end. A twenty-two foot length is pretty standard, but the shorter Mecate is easier for me to handle and gives me enough excess for a good length of lead line when I dismount. Hopefully the video below shows what I am describing. Safe Journey.