First Try At Hobbles With Paracord

[acox4t4]

Well they are either 1/2 done or I only have 1/2 of a project to take apart and try again at. Wanted to ask you pro's your opinion. Its not purfect but so far does it look like if I continue to the second 1/2 and finish them would they be safe to use First off? and even with them not being purfect would I be nuts for trying to give them to someone as a christmas gift??

I gave up on the 8 strand turning to 16 and just went on with folding over the 8 strand,,, YES YES call me a cheater cheater. I used tape under the knot but I need to try harder to make it come out round or something. I was kinda hoping that it would cover the end but it didn't.

Well just wanted to ask the cowboys if I need to start over or continue with it. I diffently don't want to finish something that would maybe hurt the horse.

Any advice, comments are always appriciated and a welcome sight.

Thanks Annette

[megabit]

The braiding looks pretty good. I don't completely understand what you are describing about where the ends come together. If they are just taped together and then the button put on I would worry about it coming off. You want the hobbles long enough that the horse can stand square but not so long that they can still walk real easy. I have heard that if they are too short the horses learn to hope real good in them.

The other thing to consider is that paracord might get a bit hot with friction so I don't think I'd use this set on a horse that isn't already hobble broke.

Mike

[roo4u]

i agree with mike about the burning the horse part...i can tell you from experience that paracord will burn you good. and if pulled thru tuff gloves it will get hot enuff to glaze the surface. depending on size it might make a pretty nice key fob if you sub a key ring for the brass ring you used.

braiding looks pretty good, it pretty hard to keep the paracord flat when you pull the core, i saw one mistake in one of the knots but a non braider would not notice and probably love that as a gift.

[Aggiebraider]

I agree with all of the above statements and have just one to add. I would not use Pineapple knots for the adjustment knots. They typically dont slide as easy as a Spanish Ring Knot, and almost seem to try and roll over when you try and slide them around. Also, Try cutting the ends of your braided pieces shorter so that they dont show out the bottom of your pineapple knots.

CW

[acox4t4]

Whow, thank you all for the great feedback. Most of all thanks for telling me that paracord should not be used to hobble a horse untrained to hobbles and why. I will have to think twice about giving these to my horse friend, or maybe give them to him but tell him the risk of burns with them on a horse that might fight them. Thanks for the advice on the use of the spanish ring knot, I was finding it hard to move those big knots without moving them out of shape. I thought I over tightened them but with your post it helped me to understand that a different knot would work better. Gives me a good reason to learn another knot.

[megabit]

Here is a thread with some training hobbles I made from a cotton lead rope. http://leatherworker...=1

[acox4t4]

Roo4u could you tell me where the mistake is and in which knot???? I'm hoping that I'm not teaching myself to do it wrong. With you seeing it in one and not the others hopefully that is not the case. When I do something I like to do it right, so appriciate you looking at it as a pro and seeing the mistake and saying something. Some people would maybe get mad but the more mistakes pointed out now the better I will hopefully be later.

I use to do alot of scroll sawing, here is a example of that work. Hoping to get good enought at braiding to give gifts to some special people in my life. Like the ones that I made the woodwork for. My biggest project was the whole lords pray cut out of walnut wood, then put on a mirror backing and framed. I spent about 300 hours on it, and worked very hard to get it done in order to give it to my grandmother before she passed away, it is now in my parents home. I love the gift of giving but I do want my gift to be of good workmanship so really really wanting to get good at this.

[acox4t4]

Finished with the hobbles, here is the first braiding project that I have done. I'll probably re-do the spanish ring knots, I was having trouble having the knot stay tied when moved so I tried to burn the ends to another strand and my fire was not as pin pointed as I would have liked so my fire got alittle away from me. I bought a small burner but which was better then the matches but it still left alot of melting visible. The one side ended up alittle bigger then the other, but the postive I saw with the 2nd half of the project was I think the pineapple knot came out alot better then the first one, its alot rounder. I'm just a rookie but to me it atleast looks better. Or I might use the spanish knots as a base for pineapple.

Anyway thanks to all your advice, and encouragement.

[megabit]

Those turned out real nice.