This is almost verbatim what I would have said. Instead of the tautline I would have said 2-and-a-half hitch, but they're pretty similar (if I remember my knots correctly)

Don't forget the regular shoelace knot - good for what it does only, but you use it literally everyday. And I like a hangman's knot, just for kicks.

Release able taut line hitch. Make 3 passes around the rope instead of 2 heading toward the tie out point, then use a
bight for the outside half hitch instead of the bitter end. Like
a bow on shoe laces. Easier to undo in cold or wet conditions
or when using loosely woven rope. A Northwest Outward Bound favorite for tarp tie outs.

Bowlines used for critical conditions need a backup safety knot
as they can become untied with rope movement.

You tube knot tests.

Flat overhand knot (tied like the joining knot for rappels)

dry with backup knot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVTvsUJ6c...&playnext=1

wet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XZHZpNqF70&feature=related

Figure eight tested to failure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_nU_HSqS8Y

Prussics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNyilCyqJyE

I'm a knot junkie. I enjoy tying the best knot I can manage. The knots below are some of my memorized favorites. I have used all of them. You probably only need to know 6 knots to get any job done, but I have a hard time picking only 6.

BEND
•Butterfly (easy)
•Carrick (symmetric)
•Sheet / Double Sheet (Bowline family)
•Reef backed up with Strangle Knots (works on any different rope diameters)
•Zeppelin (symmetric)

BINDER MID-AIR
•Blake
•Gleipnir
•Tautline

BINDER AGAINST CONVEX OBJECT
•Bag
•Constrictor/Double Constrictor
•Constrictor ABOK #1253
•Jug Sling
•Reef
•Strangle (jams)

FISHING
(All these work w/ monofilament, braid and fluorocarbon)
•Arbor (line-to-reel)
•Berkley Braid (line-to-lure)
•King Sling (loop for free swinging lure)
•Palomar/Double Palomar (line-to-lure)
•Uni (bend or line-to-lure)

HITCH COMBINATION
•Marlin Spike
•Swiss Seat
•Trucker (great for making tension)
•Versatackle (great for making tension)

HITCH GRIPPING
•Adjustable Grip (good for making tension)
•Blake (good for making tension)
•Klemheist
•Prusik
•Well Pipe

HITCH NOOSE-TYPE
•Bull
•Buntline Slipped
•Girth
•Halter
•Hangman (for storing rope)
•Running Loop (e.g., Running Bowline)
•Siberian
•Strangle
•Timber

HITCH WRAP-TYPE
•Bag (better than Groundline)
•Getaway (kind of like Highwayman Hitch but better)
•Pile
•Round Turn and Two Half Hitches
•Sailor (super easy untie)
•Snuggle

LASHING
•Diagonal
•Square
•Transom
•Tripod

LOOP ON BIGHT
•Bell Ringer + Half Hitch to secure
•Bowline with Bight
•Bowline 3 Loops (tie whole loop on bight)
•Butterfly 1/2/3 Loops
•Double Dragon
•Karash Double Loop
•Span (great in Trucker Hitch)

LOOP ON END
•Bowline
•Bowline Birmingham 2/3 Loops
•Double Dragon
•Zeppelin

STOPPER
•Ashley
•Fig9

Just 4? I have the same problem as ireckon in being something of a knotwork junkie.

1) Tautline hitch - Good for tensioning stuff out when you're not expecting weather.
2) Truckers hitch - Good for lashing cargo and tensioning stuff out when you are expecting weather.
3) Water bowline - Varient on a bowline where the full turn above the bight is replaced with a clove hitch. Add a stopper knot (double overhand, figure 8, or Ashley) to the bitter for additional security.
4) Single/Double/Triple Fisherman's knot - easy to tie, but not as strong as a blood knot.

Do you know of an online reference for tieing this one? Or an ABOK reference number? I find the Highwayman Hitch to be severly lacking for tieing up our horses. I use something called the Horse Dealer's Hitch (as described in John Shaw's "The Directory of Knots" page 110). I would be interested to learn the Getaway.

An interesting sliding loop similar in layout to the Horse Dealer's Hitch is the Locking Loop (John Shaw, The Directory of Knots, page 136). The Locking Loop can be tied just like the Horse Dealer's Hitch except you leave out the initial 1/2 twist loop and replace that with a simply U-shaped bight. I find the Locking Loop to be much more secure and resistant to slippage than the Tautline Hitch. Plus, it has a drawloop so you just tug on that to totally release the knot. I like it much better than the Tautline Hitch, but I mentioned the Tautline Hitch above in my post of essential knots because you can find many places that illustrate how to tie it. Not so much for the Locking Loop (that is a somewhat generic name, and the same knot may be known by other names too).

FWIW, for new knot tiers, I recommend two books that you can sometimes find for real cheap in the Barnes & Noble discount book section. I recommend them mostly because they are really cheap usually, and pretty decent. Not the best, but a good deal for the money. John Shaw's "The Directory of Knots" as mentioned previously, and also Geoffrey Budworth's "The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Knots and Ropework". Both of these contain some very useful knots. Of course, the ultimate reference is "The Ashley Book of Knots", commonly referred to as "ABOK". ABOK is more for serious knot tiers, with a sellng price only a serious knot tier would want to pay. I'm glad I bought ABOK years ago. You can learn an awful lot from it. For pretty pictures, get the Budworth book. The pretty and colorful pictures make it a good coffee table addition, but sometimes it's tieing instructions can be lacking. For better tieing illustrations, get the Shaw book. There are many other basic knot tieing books too. You find many of them quite often in the bargain books section of bookstores.

I forgot to mention above, a decent online knot tieing instructional site is: http://www.animatedknots.com/knotlist.php

The Youtube video got taken down. Here's a pic I made of the Getaway Knot (as named by me). It's similar to the Highwayman, but better in my experience.



HOWEVER, if the knot does not have to be "exploding", I'd rather tie a Halter, Siberian, or Slipped Buntline. By the way, you can make the slip on any of these knots secure by using the working end to tie a Half Hitch around the slip. Or you could put the working end through the slip. The horse would not be able to use teeth to pull out the slip, but the knot would still be easy for you to untie.

Thanks. That Getaway is easy to figure out how to tie from the picture alone. Kind of a neat knot, but for the horses I will be sticking with the Horse Dealer's Hitch. The nice thing about the Horse Dealer's Hitch is that it leaves a non-tightening loop around the post you are hitching to. So it doesn't have the potential to "unwrap itself", which is a common flaw for things like the Clove Hitch and other hitches that bind all the way up against the post.

The Buntline Hitch is one of my favorites too. If you don't slip it, it can be a devil to untie in certain types of cord though. It hangs on tough. If you do slip it, it is not so secure in some types of rope, but secure in others. So you have to verify its appropriateness for your specific rope vs. post situation.

Is there a link for the Horse Dealer's Hitch and the Locking Loop? I don't have that book.

Very interesting thing here on the forum. I mentioned the "Horse Dealers Hitch". Now try typing that in but without the space between "Dealers" and "Hitch" and preview your message. It shows up as "[censored]". Is there something nasty about a "Dealers Hitch" that I don't know about???