Sage Horsemanship Bosal-Hackamore-Jaquima-Bosalita What is the Difference? My Understanding of Some Gear of the Californio Traditions by R. J. Sagely

Buckaroo... Vaquero... the styles and traditions of a bygone era are in full renaissance across the west and around the world. In its rapid re-growth there is some little confusion over what one person will share over what a different one will relate. Whenever folks start talking about hackamores the discussion can muddy up pretty quick. Depending on who you know, what you have read and where you live, and a host of other factors, the information you get about something that seems so straightforward as, "What is a hackamore?" can become a muddled up mess pronto. In the interest of either clearing things up some or making it a hopelessly confused and confusing mess, I am going to relate what I have come to understand about the gear used in starting a horse in the bridle horse tradition of the Pacific Slope, otherwise called the Old Californio style.

Is it a hackamore or a bosal?

Actually, it is a jaquima... The most common reference I have repeatedly come across about what a hackamore is, leastwise where this tradition is concerned, involves the complete headgear setup for training a horse in the bridle horse tradition of the Old Californio era. It consists of some or all of the following parts - the bosal (noseband), the headstall (a browband type or just simple hanger), a fiador (maybe or maybe not) and a mecate (single rein some 22 to 24 feet long). In many regions of the now ever enlarging buckaroo world, the use of the fiador is no longer pursued or encouraged and so the headstall becomes a simple hanger  without a browband that goes over the poll and hangs the bosal. Often the fiador is eliminated at some point in the progression from larger, heavier bosal to smaller, lighter ones as the horse becomes better reined. Truly, the two knots involved in making a fiador correctly are difficult to tie and are not even remembered by my own self from rote memory if not tied regularly. I have more than a few times re-tied it for folks who have removed it from their bosal in order to clean the braided noseband only to have the knots upset or fall apart on them, making it impossible for them to put back together. It is easy to understand its disuse, especially when some renowned horsemen following this "way" do not promote its importance or relevance to the results achieved.

The fiador is a classic part of the traditional, complete hackamore used to start a horse in the bridle horse manner of the Pacific Slope horsemen of bygone days. It has specific functions that relate to the progress potential of the potros (young or un-broke, or both, horses). Without a fiador, ...

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