By Gina McKnight
From the February 2021 Issue of Florida Equine Athlete
No Duplication with Permission
People
who can tie knots are my favorite people. For some, tying knots is easy, while
for others… well, let’s just say, I am not too handy with knots. A couple of
years ago I came across The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots: A Step-by-Step
Guide to the Most Important Knots for Horse and Rider by Dan
Aadland. I purchased my copy at my local Tractor Supply. There are many knots I
would like to master, and Dan’s book is perfect for beginners. I caught up with
Dan to talk about horses, knots, and writing…
Welcome,
Dan!
GM: Someone who knows how to tie equine knots must be a horse owner. When did you meet your first horse?
DA: Wow, hard to say. I’m old enough to remember Draft teams such as that owned by an old man who gave us rides in his wagon when I was a small child in South Dakota. There, and later in Montana, I gravitated toward horses continually. A tomboy friend and I would catch and ride horses without permission, bareback, without bridles, not a good practice and occasionally a dangerous one. Early in my teens I started working on ranches, where horses were a part of daily life.
GM: Working on a ranch, you learned to tie knots at an early age, most cowboys do. I have read your book The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots and use it as a reference. My dad learned to tie knots as a Boy Scout. How did you learn to tie knots? Who was your mentor?
DA: I had no single mentor, though my father-in-law taught me the importance of the bowline. Mostly I learned the knots I needed from various sources, both from books and from horsemen I knew.
GM: For me, it depends upon the rope (if it’s stiff, or too large for my hands) if I am able to tie a knot or not. In your opinion, what is the most difficult knot to tie?
DA: Those I haven’t learned—the Ashley Book of Knots has nearly 5000 of them!
GM: As a horseman, which knot do you use the most? Which knot do you recommend for every horseman?
DA: Probably the simple tie-up knot I illustrate in the book, the square knot (of course), and the bowline. When I teach clinics I sit everyone down and insist they learn to tie a bowline, because it’s the knot you can rely on not to tighten under pressure and, no matter how stressed, still be easy to untie. I’m appalled at how few clinicians teach simple knots and how few people seem to know them.
GM: Even though I am a farm kid, I have never been good at tying rope, but I keep working at it. Cowboy’s who know about knots usually know something about saddles, too. What brand of saddle do you use?
DA: My everyday saddle was made by Rick Ericksen of Ennis, Montana (Ericksen Saddlery). The “Mountain Saddle” has holes in the cantle to allow slinging an elk quarter or other load to the saddle with a basket hitch. It’s comfortable and rugged. Rick has made and sold more than one thousand of these over the past several decades.
GM: Sounds like a very cool saddle. Besides writing about equine knots, what other books have you written?
DA: I’m working on an article for Bugle, the magazine of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, my favorite conservation organization. I haven’t quit writing books (after ten titles) and have several more ideas in mind to follow my latest one, Training your horse for Backcountry Riding. I’ve thought of a sequel to what I consider my very best work, Sketches from the Ranch: A Montana Memoir.
GM: Every good writer is a better reader. What are you currently reading?
DA: I’m constantly reading. Yesterday I pulled down a paperback I must read again, Tough Trip Through Paradise by Andrew Garcia. Occasionally I also must go back to Theodore Roosevelt. One of his first (of some forty books), Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, is also one of his best, and it’s definitely a horse book.
GM: As a lifetime cowboy, what does horsemanship mean to you?
DA: Horsemanship comes from attitude, experience, accumulated skill, and a certain feel that not everyone possesses. Set a guitar near a piano and it will vibrate quietly when the piano is played. That’s known as sympathetic vibration. A horseman (male or female) has that connection. But the experience and skill are necessary to keep that connection safe and useful.
About
Dan Aadland
Dan Aadland is a rancher, retired teacher, and former Marine officer, but the role of writer has been his primary preoccupation since he learned to love the written word as a child. Early tastes included the best outdoor writers of the day, and of course Mark Twain, the master. After service in Viet Nam, Aadland attended the University of Utah, where he earned a MA in English and a Ph.D. in American Studies and creative writing. Then it was back to Montana for a busy life divided between ranching and teaching high school English and various extension courses for the university system. But it's been Aadland’s love of horses, of raising and training them, and his passion for riding a good horse under the Big Sky, that has spawned his best writing. For his latest work, In Trace of TR: A Montana Hunter's Journey, he sought to know Theodore Roosevelt from the perspective of a fellow hunter, rancher, and horseman. Aadland rode where Roosevelt rode, hunted as he hunted, and found that the century intervening was but a skip in time between hunters' hearts. Apparently Aadland’s approach has struck a chord--the book received a first-place award in the Book Division of Excellence in Craft Awards from the Outdoor Writers Association of America in 2012.
Connect
with Dan…
Amazon Author Page
www.mymontana.net
GM: Someone who knows how to tie equine knots must be a horse owner. When did you meet your first horse?
DA: Wow, hard to say. I’m old enough to remember Draft teams such as that owned by an old man who gave us rides in his wagon when I was a small child in South Dakota. There, and later in Montana, I gravitated toward horses continually. A tomboy friend and I would catch and ride horses without permission, bareback, without bridles, not a good practice and occasionally a dangerous one. Early in my teens I started working on ranches, where horses were a part of daily life.
GM: Working on a ranch, you learned to tie knots at an early age, most cowboys do. I have read your book The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots and use it as a reference. My dad learned to tie knots as a Boy Scout. How did you learn to tie knots? Who was your mentor?
DA: I had no single mentor, though my father-in-law taught me the importance of the bowline. Mostly I learned the knots I needed from various sources, both from books and from horsemen I knew.
GM: For me, it depends upon the rope (if it’s stiff, or too large for my hands) if I am able to tie a knot or not. In your opinion, what is the most difficult knot to tie?
DA: Those I haven’t learned—the Ashley Book of Knots has nearly 5000 of them!
GM: As a horseman, which knot do you use the most? Which knot do you recommend for every horseman?
DA: Probably the simple tie-up knot I illustrate in the book, the square knot (of course), and the bowline. When I teach clinics I sit everyone down and insist they learn to tie a bowline, because it’s the knot you can rely on not to tighten under pressure and, no matter how stressed, still be easy to untie. I’m appalled at how few clinicians teach simple knots and how few people seem to know them.
GM: Even though I am a farm kid, I have never been good at tying rope, but I keep working at it. Cowboy’s who know about knots usually know something about saddles, too. What brand of saddle do you use?
DA: My everyday saddle was made by Rick Ericksen of Ennis, Montana (Ericksen Saddlery). The “Mountain Saddle” has holes in the cantle to allow slinging an elk quarter or other load to the saddle with a basket hitch. It’s comfortable and rugged. Rick has made and sold more than one thousand of these over the past several decades.
GM: Sounds like a very cool saddle. Besides writing about equine knots, what other books have you written?
DA: I’m working on an article for Bugle, the magazine of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, my favorite conservation organization. I haven’t quit writing books (after ten titles) and have several more ideas in mind to follow my latest one, Training your horse for Backcountry Riding. I’ve thought of a sequel to what I consider my very best work, Sketches from the Ranch: A Montana Memoir.
GM: Every good writer is a better reader. What are you currently reading?
DA: I’m constantly reading. Yesterday I pulled down a paperback I must read again, Tough Trip Through Paradise by Andrew Garcia. Occasionally I also must go back to Theodore Roosevelt. One of his first (of some forty books), Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, is also one of his best, and it’s definitely a horse book.
GM: As a lifetime cowboy, what does horsemanship mean to you?
DA: Horsemanship comes from attitude, experience, accumulated skill, and a certain feel that not everyone possesses. Set a guitar near a piano and it will vibrate quietly when the piano is played. That’s known as sympathetic vibration. A horseman (male or female) has that connection. But the experience and skill are necessary to keep that connection safe and useful.
Dan Aadland is a rancher, retired teacher, and former Marine officer, but the role of writer has been his primary preoccupation since he learned to love the written word as a child. Early tastes included the best outdoor writers of the day, and of course Mark Twain, the master. After service in Viet Nam, Aadland attended the University of Utah, where he earned a MA in English and a Ph.D. in American Studies and creative writing. Then it was back to Montana for a busy life divided between ranching and teaching high school English and various extension courses for the university system. But it's been Aadland’s love of horses, of raising and training them, and his passion for riding a good horse under the Big Sky, that has spawned his best writing. For his latest work, In Trace of TR: A Montana Hunter's Journey, he sought to know Theodore Roosevelt from the perspective of a fellow hunter, rancher, and horseman. Aadland rode where Roosevelt rode, hunted as he hunted, and found that the century intervening was but a skip in time between hunters' hearts. Apparently Aadland’s approach has struck a chord--the book received a first-place award in the Book Division of Excellence in Craft Awards from the Outdoor Writers Association of America in 2012.
Amazon Author Page
www.mymontana.net
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| The “authorinwilderness” shows some of the remote areas in which we ride. The top of the peak behind me is the northern border of Yellowstone Park. Photo by Billy Oley |
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| The “bowcamppackin” illustrates an equestrian use (packing) that requires proficiency with knots. Photo by Emily Aadland |
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| “DanChiefglassing” the author and his horse Chief |
Connect with Dan…
Amazon Author Page
www.mymontana.net
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2 comments:
Great story! I went right out and bought the book. Cant wait to learn.
@GypsyJoy! Awesome! I know you will find it helpful! Let us know!
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