Uses By Equestrians
There are several ways the fiador knot is used with certain types of horse tack:
- The knot is used on, and shares its name with, the fiador of a hackamore. The fiador knot holds the four strands of the fiador together under the horse's jaw, while a doubled bottle sling—sometimes called a "hackamore knot" in this context—is used to attach the fiador to the heel knot of the bosal, or noseband, of the hackamore. A becket hitch is used to secure the fiador around the throatlatch of the horse. In North America, again according to Ashley, "...the method originated in the South American pampas and worked its way, via Mexico, to the Southwestern cow country, arriving there soon after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War."
- On knotted rope halters, the knot often is used under the jaw both as a decorative knot, and also to fashion the lower loop onto which a lead rope is attached. On a rope halter, the fiador knot is made from one continuous piece of rope, and is, along with a series of double overhand knots, one of two types of knots that comprise most rope halters.
- For one style of rope hobbles, a brass ring may be attached to the double loops on one side of the knot to join the hobble for the horse's other front foot. On the other side, a diamond knot terminates the two loose ends and the single loop is placed over this to encircle the horse's fetlock. A small rope slide (melted with a solder iron) on this single loop is pushed against the diamond knot to prevent the loop from slipping off the foot.
Read more about this topic: Fiador Knot