You Need a Knife

You Need a Knife

As I travel around the country presenting at horse expos, one of my favorite questions to ask the audience is, “How many of you carry a knife while trail riding?” Much to my surprise, almost no one carries a knife while out on the trail. I was shocked! I noticed that more men raised their hands than women, yet women make up the majority of horseback riders. In fact, based on my informal survey, I would say that less than 10% of the trail riders I meet carry a knife with them. Wow! This was quite a surprise to me. You see, I think a knife is an important part of horsemanship safety. In fact I believe a knife is a “must-have” for anyone who works around horses or trail rides.

To find out why so few trail riders, especially women, don’t carry a knife, I began asking a few questions. The answers I received prompted me to both inform and educate all riders about the benefit of having a knife while riding. It also encouraged me to find a knife that was suitable for the purpose – one that works well for both men and women.

The most common reasons for not carrying a knife are:

1. Lack of knowledge and experience with knives.

2. Most knives are too bulky and heavy.

3. Many knives don’t fit well in the hand.

4. Many knives are too difficult to open in an emergency.

5. Riders think that they don’t have a good place to carry a knife.

6. Riders aren’t educated on the reasons for needing a knife while riding.

Before we talk about the type of knife I recommend, let’s discuss the uses for a knife on the trail and why knives are so important.

· If you drop a rein and your horse steps on it and breaks it, you can use your knife to repair that rein. By being able to cut the rein evenly, punch new holes, and cutting a small strip of leather from the edge of the rein to tie through the holes, you can fix the rein well enough to get you back to your truck and trailer or to the barn.

· Should your horse partially chip a hoof, you can use your knife to cut away the chipped piece so that it doesn’t continue to further chip or split.

· If your horse gets tangled in a vine or a sticker bush or even a piece of wire, you can cut him free rather than have leave him to try to kick himself free. And you can free him more safely with a sharp knife than if you had to work slowly to untangle something around his legs while he struggles.

· You can cut branches and vines out of your way so that you don’t have to keep ducking them while you’re riding.

· Should your horse become tangled in a lead line or other rope, or pull back so hard that the slip knot won’t come loose, you can cut your horse free. (Caution: Never cut a lead line if the horse is still pulling back on it, the sudden release of pressure may cause the horse to flip over).

· You can cut your apple in half to share with your horse.

· You can use a knife to protect yourself in an emergency.

So now that you understand why it’s so important to carry a knife with you when you’re working around your horses or out riding, let’s take a look at what type of knife should you carry? What features should you look for? The type of knife you carry depends upon who you are and how familiar you are with knives. However, I can give you some clear cut guidelines on what you need to look for.

· Your knife must be large enough to do the job yet small enough that you will carry it. This usually means a knife with a blade of about 2 ¾ inches to 3 inches long. If it is over three inches, you will find that the knife is quite bulky when closed.

· Your knife handle should be thin -- not bulky. A thinner knife will fit in your hand better, especially for you women riders with smaller hands.

· Your knife must be capable of opening with one hand. This is very important, and I can not stress it enough. If you need to hold onto the lead rope of your horse, and get your knife out and ready to use at the same time, you must be able to open it with one hand.

· Your knife needs a mechanism that locks the blade into place once it’s open. That way it won’t close on your hand while you’re using it.

· If you need to get your knife closed and out of your way, you must be able to work the lock mechanism easily with one hand. You don’t want to have to let go of your horse just so that you can close an open knife.

· Ideally your knife will have a safety mechanism that keeps the knife from opening inadvertently in your pocket or when clipped on your.

· Your knife should have a belt clip or pocket clip. This allows you to carry the knife in a position on your riding pants or on your belt where you can quickly access it. A coat pocket or down inside your front pants pocket isn’t a place to carry a knife if you are going to need to get to it quickly in an emergency. You don’t want to have to fish around for it.

· Ideally your knife will have a blade with both a serrated edge and a smooth edge. The smooth edge cuts leather, the serrated edge is best for ropes.

It’s a challenge for most women to find a knife that’s small enough and light weight enough that it fits comfortably in their hands and is convenient and easy to carry. It needs to be easy to carry whether they wear breeches or jeans. When I found a knife that I liked that had all of the features noted above, I knew that I had a great knife.

I only needed one more thing -- and that was to have a horsewoman test it. So my friend and business partner Sandy saw the new knife, handled it, used it and said, “I like it. I could use this knife.” Sandy doesn’t like complications. She appreciates simple functionality, and when she said that she approved of that knife for women and that it felt good in her hand, I knew two things: first, I would buy her one as a gift; and second, there were probably a lot of women out there who would also like a good quality knife. We added it to our product line, and it’s the only one we carry.

If you would like to see it, click here.