The Art of Wrangling: Keeping Your Horses Close

years to help locate horses in the dark or in heavy scrub. Traditionally a bell is worn by one bell mare a dominant herd leader. The sound of the bell when she moves helps to locate the herd. We now try to have bells on all of our horses not just the bell mare.
Tail Tying
Tying a horses tail to the others halter shank is a great way to keep them in place if there are no trees in alpine or prairie regions for example. Tail tying allows the horses to graze in open space while preventing them from wandering too far. Leading horses back to camp headtotail is great we just find that using an 11 foot lead rope and leading headtoneck is faster. Leading packhorses together headtotail is a time honoured tradition but knots can become jammed tail hair lost and horses stuck between trees people can get hurt. A breakaway string behind the packsaddle is better.