New Horses and Good Rope Halters

Before I write about rope halters, I wanted to just note briefly that along with my 4 year old who had a delayed start, I am also re-starting an older horse that I picked up from a ranch in Southern New Mexico. The ranch manager and head wrangler is a young woman who asked to shadow me starting and re-starting horses at my ranch, so of course I said yes, by all means. Anything I can do to help, directly or indirectly, someone who is serious about a life with horses is a no brainer. For the past three weeks, working one day a week with her, I have not had the time to write about that, nor takes very many pictures and virtually no video yet. That will be coming in the near future. So,....about those rope halters.

A good rope halter is a necessity for me. While I have had many different halters from various makers, the 'go to' halter has always been from Double Diamond Halter Company. They still make and offer great halters and lead ropes for that matter, but you have to buy them from a distributor such as saddle shops and tack stores that offer quality gear. Other sources of good halters,...Craig Cameron comes to mind, offer very good rope halters as well. However, if you purchase a rope halter and lead rope for $15, you are very likely not getting a real good quality item there.

Lead ropes usually last longer than rope halters, so sometimes you can buy the halter without a lead rope and just use your old lead rope, especially if it's good quality. I use tied on lead ropes, so I never have the potential problems of a metal snap, such as dirt impinging the spring loaded mechanism, or the snap breaking. I like a 14 foot lead rope, however about half of my halters have 12 foot leads. Some people don't like that much rope to handle but I'd rather want more length than I need in the moment, than not enough. And just the other day, I used a 18 foot lead on a very reactive horse that I was asked to work with.

About a year ago I discovered 310 Ranch Life Halters and Leads. They offer 12 foot lead ropes, which are great quality, albeit without a leather poppers on the running end. But the halters have a long tail (that goes over the bridle path also called a poll latch) to tie through the loop on the end of the throat latch. These tails are longer than all of the other rope halters I have which make them easier to feed through the tie loop, fits horses with bigger heads, and allows a overhand knot at the very end of the poll latch so you can slip it over a horse's head one handed if you are putting a halter on another horse while you are horseback.

310 Ranch Life also offers other products as well as instructional videos on roping and such. And as usually, I do not get paid not otherwise compensated for advertising anything, just passing along gear, equipment and information that I think is good quality and useful.

Rope Halters

Jennifer wrote in with a question on rope halters - "Great site! Can you address your thoughts on rope halters with the extra knots on the nose? You mentioned chains as being a no-no, but I thought I'd ask about this particular alteration of the rope halter. I have a clinician-style stiff halter with the knots as well as the floppy rope kind. The knots definitely offer more bite, but just because it 'works' doesn't mean it's ideal. I just don't want to hurt her. Thanks!"

Hey Jennifer, I appreciate that you are considering your horse and searching for information so you can make your own decision on rope halters. Rope halters have a bad name with some people, and granted the smaller diameter of the rope adds more pressure to the horse's nose and poll than a conventional web halter when the horse pulls against it, but as far as being painful, the handler would have to intentionally jerk hard on the lead rope. And as for cruel,...well that's a choice of the handler and if he's doing it with it rope halter, he likely also be doing it with the bit and spurs.


I use 5/16th inch (8mm) polypropylene rope halters.    Like the one on Junior in the picture above - he's sticking his tongue out cause he saw me with a camera.  Most of mine are from Double Diamond Halters but a few are from Craig Cameron. Same type of quality. I don't have nose buttons (knots) on my halters,..no particular reason, but I haven't seen a need to go out and get a halter with nose buttons. Besides I would think that the pressure of the rope halter on the horse's poll (on the top of his neck behind his ears) is sufficient enough to make nose buttons redundant. Just my opinion. There are probably people who think highly of rope halters with nose knots and maybe I just haven't yet met the horse who can benefit from knots on the nose band of the halter.

On a small scale I make one piece roping reins, mecate reins, lead lines and lunge lines but I don't make rope halters simply because I can't make them to the quality or the fair price that Double Diamond makes them. You can get rope halters in many different sizes: 1/8th inch (4mm) diameter, 1/4th inch (6mm), 5/16th inch (8mm), 3/8th inch (9.5mm) and 7/16 inch (11mm). The smaller diameter halters are mostly used underneath headstalls so you can tie your horse up or dismount and lead your horse with a lead rope to the halter as opposed to leading from the reins.

While I almost exclusively use 5/16 inch polypropylene rope halters with a tied on 14 foot lead line (no snaps or hardware at all), I do have a rope halter with a rawhide nose band - see picture at right.   I've only use it a couple of times.  The rawhide is harder than the rope so it provides more pressure,  more of a bite on the nose. Again, while it's all in hands of the handler, the rawhide can dry out and become prety rough on the nose, whether it's a rawhide nose band or just a couple of rawhide buttons where halter nose band knots would be. So I suggest that if you use a halter with rawhide nose band or knots then to periodically check it for roughness or sharp edges. I use raw hide cream to keep them conditioned.

If I could only have one piece of equipment, I would choose a rope halter with a lead line over anything else, including a saddle, because I could use it for ground training and could ride in it.    

Good luck to you and safe journey.