The following write-up by Liz Graves is provided as a critique of Darin's tied-style mecate following her purchase and use of the one pictured on her horse (photo she provided follows the text):

"Traditionally in my circles we use 22 foot ,rein length being 10 (5 foot doubled) , 1 1/2 -2 foot used for the heel knot tie, leaving a 10 foot lead which is IMO[in my opinion], perfect length for ground work done in bosal and plenty for lead length.

I am not surprised the twisted is most commonly asked for as it’s about tradition but I truly after a life time of using twisted Mecates, I like the tied one you did so much better. It’s a new concept for folks and change is hard, but if they try it and have any sense of feel they should love them and catch on with the better horseman out there.

This is why, the twisted crimps up (like a garden hose) so much over time, just something we have accepted all these years. We are supposed to remove the Mecate after riding and retie each time we use it but for those of us that train and work strings of horses daily we just don’t have the time for this procedure unless you’re lucky enough to have a staff that can untie your rigs at the end of a day’s string and retie for you each morning to start. So we just put up with the twisting until you cannot stand it anymore as your reins wont hang and drape right. This is not happening with the tied one I have.

I have mane hair, tail hair, Yak hair, Llama hair and twisted mohair Mecates, (and I love the Mohair, yak and Llama as I don’t HAVE to wear gloves to use them) but what I had found with the Mohair twist was it could be kind of temperamental in weather, depending on temp and humidity, it cannot drape well through the rein. Cold, damp weather seems to make it, as I say, 'misbehave' so signals don’t resonate from hand to horse evenly. I guess this does not matter for those that pull on reins more. I work with more subtle signals in hand vibrations so the perfect rein drape is important to me. With your tied mohair Mecate this temperamental-ness is just not happening at all. I also like, what I call body of your tied Mecate so well. I like the term “body” better than “weighted” as we used to say of reins. I don’t use that term [weight] any more as folks as usual took it beyond and over defined it and now we see actual weighted reins, in turn, being to heavy, where the horse has to use the tongue in bit all the time to relieve the mouth bars of the horse and in bosal no relief just heavy on the face all the time.

So in turn after many years I have found your Tied Mecate to be the best I’ve encountered so far.

Thanks!!"

Liz

Rugged Design: 12 strands 99.9% Pure Mohair  Core also of real mohair  Traditional Vaquero-style end-knot Mane-hair tuft as Shu-fly Individually hand-crafted in USA by Darin Alexander Please note that these ropes are individally crafted by-hand using a form of knot-tying akin to hitching which involves much more time than twisted-strand mecates. Click HERE for the current online store items or call us Toll free in the USA: 1-866-USA-CORD (866-872-2673)

Hand-tied, traditional vaquero style tassel covering over manehair by Darin Alexander