My wife and I were watching a movie today and a circa 1864 CW scene showed a bunch of Confederate soldiers' horses with a noose-like knot. Imagine a normal rope attached, halter-rope or lead-rope fashion under the jaw of the horse from the halter. The rope had a large loop tied with a hangman's knot and that loop was completely around the horses neck, hanging down near where the neck and body of the animal come together. All of the six or so characters had these.

My wife asked what it was and the only thing I can figure is to tie the pony up when the horsemen dismount. Any other ideas? I've never seen such a thing so I don't know if it was CS specific or an inaccurate depiction.

Not a burning question or anything, just curious.

Sure, I used to do that all the time when I reenacted as a military courier with a horse, many years ago. I don't know where I learned it, whether from a picture or what. It may be a total reenactorism, but I can certainly say what it is and what it's for.

The way I did it, the horse wore his halter under his bridle all day, with the leather lead rope buckled to the ring of the halter. The leader rope was of course fairly long, so to keep it out of the way and use up the excess length, you tied that noose-like knot around the horse's neck, wrapping the leather around itself for quite a few turns.

When dismounting, just as you suspected, you untied the lead rope and used it to tie up the horse, since of course a horse can cut up its mouth if you tie it by the reins. Wearing the halter under the bridle is also handy for bridling and unbridling the horse, since you never have that awkward moment when the halter's been slipped off and the bridle's not yet been slipped on; he's always tied securely by the lead rope until the last minute.

Now I'm curious if it's a reenactorism or based on documented period practice.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net