Experimentation with a type of halter used during the Middle Ages

Québec wearing the halter

Following my last article on teaching a feral horse to lead, this one describes a small experiment I made with a type of rope halter used during the Middle Ages. 

The question of teaching a feral horse to lead raises that of the equipment used. Just after his descriptions of the colt's capture in the De medicina equorum (c. 1250), Jordanus Rufus recommends that a halter made of hemp should be put on his head. In the absence of archaeological remains, and without any precise descriptions in the texts, the only information on the shape of halters is found in the iconography. This shape is important as its variations imply different types of pressure on the horse, and thus might prompt different reactions. Using depictions I found in manuscripts, I recreated a very simple type of halter – still used nowadays on donkeys and cows – to ascertain its effects and decide if it may potentially be the hemp halter mentioned by Rufus. This type of halter is also the one worn by the black pack-horse in the fifteenth-century miniature below: it is made of a single length of rope, tied with two knots to form a halter and leadrope. 

Compilation des cronicques et ystores des Bretons, partie en III livretz, by Pierre le Baut (15th century)
Paris BnF, MS Français 8266 folio 344v (detail)

Line drawing by the author to show the shape of the rope halter

I used a single length of twine, of a diameter of about 4 mm: this is quite thin and means that the halter will be sharp when used on the horse. The thicker the rope, the less pressure there will be on the horse, as it will be redistributed on a larger area. The halter was very easy and quick to make, needing just two knots, making the noseband. The headstall is formed by a loop, going through one of the knots. The rest of the rope forms the leadrope, which slides through the knot each time pressure is put on it. The shape of the halter means that the leadrope is on the side of the horse’s head, rather than under the chin as is usually the case in modern halters. Having the leadrope under the chin means that the pressure is more evenly distributed. 

I tried the halter on my horse, Québec. I found it very easy to slip on his head, and then to adjust, since I only had to pull on the leadrope for the headstall to tighten and fit around the horse’s head. However, because of the lateral position of the leadrope and the way it slid through the knot, applying increasing pressure on the poll with no clear release, it was not a straightforward tool to direct my horse. I found that this halter, because it is so easy to slip on and adjust, is useful to catch a horse, but not efficient as a working tool. Though it may have been similar to the hemp halter in Rufus’s method, it was probably not exactly the same. Or maybe, this basic halter was used first, since it was so easy to put on, before being replaced with a more appropriate one, which would be less dangerous to use on a young horse who has not yet learnt how to give in to pressure. 

Moreover, Rufus states that two reins must be fixed to the halter. With the halter I made, another rope could be tied on the other side, but there remains the problem of the lateral, sliding leadrope. The leadrope would have to be fixed, maybe by another knot, which would also help to limit the pressure applied on the horse’s poll. The halter would also be made more stable by additional straps, round the head or underneath the cheeks. Perhaps this simple halter served as a basis and was complexified by further knots and lengths of rope, like some of the more fanciful halters that appear in the iconography. At any rate, the hemp halter is only used temporarily in Rufus’s method, before it is replaced by a leather one. The fact that it is one of the first pieces of equipment used on the horse gives it importance. Did Rufus realise this importance? Was he aware of the risks of putting too much pressure on the poll? The desire to spread the pressure more evenly could be one of the implicit explanations behind the choice of tying the horse with two reins instead of just one. 

The conclusions I can draw from this small experiment are that the hemp halter used in Rufus’s method needed to fulfil several criteria. It had to be easy to slip on the head of a feral, reluctant, foal, held only by a rope round his neck and already excited and scared by his capture. It needed to apply the right amount of pressure, taking into account the risk that the foal, unaccustomed to having something on his head, might pull back more or less violently. It also had to be stable enough to not turn or slide when the handler was using the leadrope or when the horse was moving. It could be that more than one rope halters were used in succession, a simple one at first, responding to the necessity of capturing the horse, then a more complex one, in a similar succession to that of the bits.  But due to the unavailability of definitive sources, all of this remains open to speculation.