The material and attendant photo illustrations found on this website are copyrighted © 2008 by R. J. Sagely. The reprinting or distribution of the whole or any part without express permission of the author is prohibited. This notice supercedes any other copyright notices and dates found herein.

Ranch Roping for Everyone by R. J. Sagely

A primer for those of you interested in giving your horse a meaningful job to do or just for the fun of it all. Its not the high speed activity of the rodeo arena and is an accessible skill to all, regardless of what you and your horse know now.

What Is "Ranch Roping"? -

When roping gets mentioned most folks think of rodeo-style calf or team roping, if the topic even comes up at all. But that is a more modern version and the old way of handling cattle on the open range for doctoring and branding involving the use of "la reata" (lariat, catchrope, gutline, whaleline, maguey) for catching and holding the animal while a groundman did the deed is a far cry from that high speed deal. Ranch roping was done slowly and purposefully so as not to stress the cowbrute, being as it was probably sick or a young one that was about to be stressed enough by the branding and castrating that cattle undergo still today. On occasion it might involve high-speed pursuit as in wild cattle catching but generally it was considered a sign of poor herdsmanship to chouse the cattle when roping. Standing or walking shots were preferred and sliding your dallies, and even picking a forefoot up in the loop, to keep the cattle from choking down, was requisite to be considered a real hand by your peers. If you handled the cattle poorly you did not stay on the payroll long either. Ranch roping is the art of "la reata" with its roots deep in the vaquero/long rope/dally style rope use. It is now enjoying a revival with renewed interest not only from cowboys and livestock raisers but from recreational horsefolks too. The sidearm, houlihan, scoop loop, the Johnny Blocker, la flor del viento, all speak to a level of skill at cattle catching that is now more than rare where it used to be commonplace. But in addition, they speak to a level of refinement in a horse and a level of horsemanship in a person that was rapidly disappearing. Now, that kind of horsemanship expertise appears to be on its way back and people are finding a lot of value in it for them and their horses.

Why Learn This? -

While the wild and wooly image of cowboy-ness is not what every horse owner particularly aspires to, the essence of roping and being comfortable, if not downright handy, with a rope around horses is just plain good horsemanship. Ropes go with horses likes peas with a pod. The ability to use a rope on horseback can transcend the actual need for this activity and become a rather fun way to expose your horse to a variety of new skills and experiences as well as refining your and his current abilities. Roping, and the maneuvers and control you will need with your horse while roping, gives meaning to what you do with those reins and all. It also builds a lot of confidence in you both. Lastly, it is just a general test about whether you can chew gum and walk at the same time (while maybe throwing in a little juggling and geometry to boot!). 

The work around cattle and the use of the rope will help a lot of horses to focus on their rider and get a better feel going between them. It will also get the horse accustomed to a level of commotion that tends to be bothersome to horses that do not get the opportunity to be this active. It is not a matter of de-sensitizing the horse as much as it is making the world and being with you a more interesting and lively place to be despite how noisy and busy it can get. This, of course, is heavily dependent on the rider having the ability to handle the many tasks that roping stock, or even the dummy, involves. Another way of saying this is that it sure depends on the rider's confidence level, which will definitely benefit from undertaking these skills. The beginner can learn right along with the horse as this is ranch style roping and it is supposed to be done slow, either at the walk or a standstill whenever possible. This allows the rider and horse to generally stay out of trouble, to build a solid feel for each other and to have things go relatively smoothly as they expose themselves to more complicated situations.

Even without live cattle the use of a rope with your horse will allow for a lot of development and refinement of your relationship. Dummy roping requires fine and often subtle control of your horse as you set your shots up. Dragging logs or hay bales will expose your horse to the idea of pacing himself at your request and practice at handling the rope and popping your dallies without fear of anything running off with your rope. Just the swinging of the rope around all sides of the horse will build a calmness in (eventually, trust me!) the animal that is helpful in all respects.

How To Proceed -

The learning stages should begin with you on the ground with a rope in your hand. There is more than one way to swing the rope before you throw it at something and just building a loop can be challenging at first. After you learn to handle the rope (somewhat) and to swing a rope forward, backward and all around you without tangling yourself in a hopeless knot you will move to dummy roping. Not as in a dummy roping, which you might feel like at first (you'll get over it!) but you roping a dummy head on a hay bale or a dummy steer built of wood, plastic or steel. Remote controlled mechanical steers are actually for sale but the cost i s probably a little more than the novice would want to get wrapped up in at first (It is enough to keep yourself untangled from you own rope!) A plenty "good enough" dummy steer can be purchased or built. When you are confident in handling the rope and catching a stationary though fake cow from afoot you can progress to working with your horse inside a small enclosure, preferably a round pen. Before even thinking about dabbing a loop around a live cow critter a person will take the time to learn how to build a loop, swing the rope, catch the dummy (no, not your friend) while in the saddle on top of your horse. You will also need to become familiar with "reading" cattle as well as acclimatizing your horse to being around cows. Not all horses take to cow work right off the bat.

It is necessary to get your horse accustomed to the motions of a swinging rope. This is most safely begun on the ground and as the horse becomes used to the rope being swung without feeling like he ought to leave or be afraid of it you can consider crawling up on him and learning all over again about building the loop and swinging it without clocking your horse in the head or the rump. Lots of dummy roping from a stand still and at a slow walk is needed.

Once you both are accustomed to the rope you will practice dragging (sometimes called logging) a log or a hay bale, learning to take your "dallies" (turns of the rope around the saddle horn) on the horn, popping your dallies loose and to slide those dallies too. Your horse will learn to work the rope under tension and to respond lightly to your leg and body cues ( you sure don't want to be on a horse that has to be yanked around by the reins), putting to a meaningful use all of the various movements that you would probably like to build together such as side-passing and turning about the fore-  or hindquarters.

Exposing your horse to cattle and letting him track them for awhile is next. Then breakaway roping in a small pen with only a steer or two in there. Breakaway roping involves using a special honda on the rope that releases the animal under a pull. Careful though cause that honda can sometimes fly right back at you or your horse and it can sting pretty good if it clips you right (Or get you buck off, too!) Eventually you will be able to rope a cow and handle him for any circumstance. Sounds easy, right? Well, maybe not so easy but possibly very much worth the time and effort you will need to become proficient.

Dummy Roping & Logging Your Horse-

Despite the fact that this is what you might feel like for a while as you begin to try and handle a catchrope and compare yourself to the effortless manner in which more proficient ropers handle theirs, dummy roping refers to using a plastic calf or steer head stuck in a hay bale or attached to a two by four wood or steel "fake" cow. You start roping this "dummy" on the ground until your accuracy is up and you can build a loop without getting too tangled up. Dummy roping is also what you will do ahorseback, after you have spent the necessary time to acquaint your horse with the rope and he "handles" well with that swinging around him (and you have quit accidentally whacking him or yourself with it).

You'll also need to teach your horse to respond to the feel of something pulling the rope tight. This is sometimes called "logging" your horse. Basically, you get your rope onto something with some heft to it, say a log or a hay bale, and you dally up and move your horse. Depending on how heavy it is you will maybe "slip" your dallies as your horse begins to move. This is allowing the dally to slide around the saddlehorn as the horse moves out allowing him to feel of the rope coming tight and to hunker into pulling. You never want your horse to know he "can't" pull on that rope so that he will always be willing to try, even on heavier cattle someday.

The dally, long rope users wrap their saddlehorns with latigo or "mulehide" (actually not made from mules but a split cowhide), and not with old rubber bike tire tubes, so that the rope will slide as they feed it from the coils in their other hand. Arena ropers often wrap their horns with rubber so the rope will not slip but hold firm without a tight hand hold on the rope. Once the horse is pulling a little you will also see how he responds to your leg cues and if he will stop, turn and face up and also back up, both pulling and with the dallies sliding out.

Roping Live Cattle

This is what it is all about. But before you actually go out and accidentally-on-purpose find yourself attached by a rope to a real, live, kicking and a bawlin' cow critter, it is essential that you see if your horse is afraid of cows or not. Being a person who started working with cattle early on when I got "into" horses, I was a little surprised to find out that a horse actually could or would be afraid of a cow. But they can be and often are if they grew up without ever being around cattle. It really isn't the cow necessarily as much as it might well be just something new, different and strange to them. A horse will nearly always err on the side of not getting eaten by another animal, be that other animal herbivorous or not. Deer, pheasant, bunnies - all seem to be able to elicit the flight response horses use to escape being a possible main course.

So, getting around some cattle with your rope coiled and tied to your horn, or better yet back in the tack room or pickup, is a real good idea. You should see just how your old horse reacts to cows by getting around a few, a very few at first or maybe even just one in a round pen with you on your horse. Or maybe even turn him loose in the pen with the cow all by himself. I like to orchestrate things a little more than that and I help my horses to know that I can get them out of a jam. And since I know how to help horses and how to get a cow to move I find it better if I am in the equation. But some folks might just want to let their horse sort it out. I'd be sure to use a gentle ol' cow if I was going to leave him alone to figure things out.

Cattle can get after a horse so I can't say as I recommend just leaving him to his own devices. I'd rather get in there and move the cow and us follow him, even if that is on foot with him on halter and lead. I do everything I can to make him know I know they aren't going to eat either of us. Most horses will follow something they are a little leery about when it moves away from them. They can get used to it a  lot better than if you try to force them up to it without it going anywhere. Cows won't always move away from a person that is on a horse when that horse is reluctant about that cow. So if the cow sticks and you try to push your horse onto him you are looking at a wreck, most likely. Instead, having someone else on a seasoned horse or getting down and walking the cow off yourself from the ground will provide him the opportunity to see that these things can be pushed around. He will get to thinking pretty quick that he is the cause of it cause horses just seem to like to think that way about themselves. Soon he will be all over moving a cow and tracking her down so you can throw a loop on it.

Lots of slow work and a real facility with the rope, along with a horse that is fully accepting of that rope no matter where it ends up or which end of him it is swinging around, is requisite before you actually up and rope one with a real honda on your rope. During this phase a breakaway honda is recommended. This is generally nowadays a plastic honda that is easily removed from your rope and is cut through at the tip. This allows the rope to pop through and release the cow when she tugs very much on your rope. It is how you keep nearly all wrecks from occurring that would result from your horse or you not knowing quite enough about how this all fits together.

You can still get yourself in trouble so having someone around who "knows the ropes" is about the best option for you. Despite that possibility what you will probably find out is that: #1 This is FUN! and #2 Your horse starts to slow down and listen more, wait on you and generally get a better handle on him as you practice moving him around the dummy to set up standing shots and as you follow cattle around and #3 You begin to develop more confidence about getting things done with your horse and #4 THIS IS FUN!!!!!!!!!!. This gives your horse a sense of purpose, a job to do and that has always seemed to me to bring out the best in a horse. Have fun, be safe and throw a wide loop!

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The material and attendant photo illustrations found on this website are copyrighted © 2002 by R. J. Sagely. The reprinting or distribution of the whole or any part without express permission of the author is prohibited. This notice supercedes any other copyright notices and dates found herein.