|
|
 Veteran
Posts: 120
Location: The Great Midwest | I've always had a part of me that would love to learn to rope and maybe eventually do breakaway. My problem is I do not have an arena, calfs, etc. So my question is where could I go to learn? To practice? Do you know anyone who ropes and does not have access to practice at home. I've been wanting to find different things to do with my mare besides barrels.
Thank you! |
|
| |
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 617
Location: London Ontario | Find a good coach but you will spend a long time roping a bale before you do anything else! Good Luck |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 1857
 
| Get you a dummy and start roping it from every angle, on the ground: behind, left side, right side, in front; mounted: all around it. put the head in one bale, then two bales, move the head high, low, side ways, etc. When you can master it from the ground and mounted not moving then it's time to go to the arena. Find you someone to show you how to swing and throw the rope correctly and start practicing. |
|
| |
|
 Veteran
Posts: 138
| I suggest getting started with the a great coach to learn proper technique. Roping is one of those things where you either develop good muscle memory, or bad muscle memory... so give yourself the advantage of starting out the right way.
For desensitizing the horses, they hauled to roping pens and stood tied behind the boxes, along the sides, and anywhere they seemed a little too reactive. Rope desensitizing started on the ground... roping front feet, back feet, butt, flank, head, neck... anything you can get a rope around.
We even tie them up or hobble them and rope their heels. I've spent a good bit of down time at barrel races roping my horses heels, saddle horn, front feet... I love that aspect of roping because it truly calms a horses mind down.
Good luck! I do it for fun, not competitively. But it's a very useful trade to learn when your around horses! |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 120
Location: The Great Midwest | Awesome! Thank you all for the advice. I am also going to to be starting the ultimate horsemans challenges (Competitive trail courses) and roping can sometimes be part of the course so Im the type of person that likes to be prepared. |
|
| |
|
 Toastest with the Mostest
Posts: 5712
Location: That part of Texas | After you get used to roping a dummy on the ground, you might want to change the height angle by putting a saddle on a hay bale or something else in the back of your truck and practice on roping down on the dummy like you would off of a horse. The angle going down is much different and it helps to practice this way before getting on a horse and having to not only deal with the down angle but also having a horse head/neck in the way. Good luck! |
|
| |
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | You have gotten great advice so far. I can't express enough that you need to rope the dummy until that rope is an extension of your arm before you worry about roping off a horse. Pack a kids rope around and rope the dog, rocks, buckets...whatever. Take the rope with you when you ride and practice swinging it as your horse is moving. Until its comfortable and second nature. There is no shortcut for this type of practice.
You can also get a calf sled purchased or built (like I did) and have someone on a 4 wheeler pull it for you. Teaches horse to track and you to rope a moving target without having cattle. You can also go as slow as you need, cattle don't always cooperate here. |
|
| |
|
Location: Keeping up with the numbers! | Find someone in your area that may teach/give lessons.
Start with:
Roping the dummy (form)
Roping of the calf chute (timing/tip down)
Roping the sled-added a horse to the equation (form/timing/horsemanship)
Roping calves (start with Holstein calves) these will be slower and allow you to work on your form
Move to roping Holstein/Beef cross calves these will be a tad quicker and allow you to work on all the above
Good luck!!!! |
|
| |
|
 Worst Sales Person
Posts: 1511
Location: St James,MN | I found a great teacher in Dennis Auslam from Morton Mn. |
|
| |
|
  Fact Checker
Posts: 16575
Location: Displaced Iowegian | luvropin - 2015-05-11 11:27 AM You have gotten great advice so far. I can't express enough that you need to rope the dummy until that rope is an extension of your arm before you worry about roping off a horse. Pack a kids rope around and rope the dog, rocks, buckets...whatever. Take the rope with you when you ride and practice swinging it as your horse is moving. Until its comfortable and second nature. There is no shortcut for this type of practice. You can also get a calf sled purchased or built (like I did) and have someone on a 4 wheeler pull it for you. Teaches horse to track and you to rope a moving target without having cattle. You can also go as slow as you need, cattle don't always cooperate here.
^^^^ THIS...... there are no shortcuts. Additionally, if your horse has not been trained for roping, and you can afford it, I would have a roper help "train" her (settle in the box, track cattle, and have a good stop for breakaway)....it is hard to learn to rope and have to train the horse too. |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 464
| Get a calf roper to teach you the proper technique. Should t take long. Master roping on the ground first. I suggest you move to sitting on a barrel as quickly as you can, and then a horse. |
|
| |
|
| Go to clinic so you learn proper technique first - I suggest Jackie Hobbs-Crawford. That way you develop good/proper ways of roping that you can build on |
|
| |
|
 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Find a good roper in your area, and ask for lessons. They will show you how to swing and start roping the dummy correctly. If you want to get more serious, I'd think about getting your horse either trained, or buy an older, been there done that calf horse. Roping is addicting, yet frustrating. It took me a solid 6 years to get to the point where I could rope every calf consistently, and I was riding good horses throughout all that. Riding a green roping horse will only set you back.
If you want to get more involved with working cattle, ask the person who is teaching you if you can hang out while they practice roping and you can push cattle for them. Don't forget to work the chutes to help out! |
|
| |
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1118
Location: The South | My husband has been piddling around with learning how to rope, and he said the YouTube videos by "Drustew" have really helped him. He makes it easy to understand. I've always wanted to learn, I'm just too impatient! Good Luck! |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 464
| Word of caution----------Both of my girls, just about lost intrest in barrels and poles, when they started roping. We still practice, and enter at rodeos, but the main stay of their time is spent roping. |
|
| |
|
 Buttered Noodles Snacker
Posts: 4377
Location: NC | Great post. I too have always wanted to learn how to rope but don't know any ropers. |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 120
Location: The Great Midwest | Bigfoot - 2015-05-12 7:32 AM
Word of caution----------Both of my girls, just about lost intrest in barrels and poles, when they started roping. We still practice, and enter at rodeos, but the main stay of their time is spent roping.
I don't know if I could ever totally loose my love for barrels, but I am willing to explore other options like roping so I can learn a new skill. I just realized that I need to pursue other things with my mare too this weekend. We were at a race at our state fairgrounds and I used to show there as a kid so I wanted to check out the grounds and reminisce before we started warming up. So I walked her around and she just lit up was so happy and wanted to keep going across the camp grounds but we were up soon. So it made me think about the extreme cowboy challenges and how much she would love that. Heck I already throw tarps on her and drag things behind her.... lol |
|
| |
|
 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | Like others have said, I can't stress the importance of learning proper technique. I don't rope myself but my dad has been a team roper for many years. If you start out learning to swing and throw wrong, it can be really hard to fix.
You probably don't even need to worry about your horse right now. The biggest thing is learning to handle your rope. Toss it out and recoil it, practice roping literally everything. We have a dummy but I also practice roping buckets and all sorts of objects, or my dog LOL I like roping a lot and will sometimes get a bug where I think I want to start learning but then I get distracted by my barrels again. But it is a lot of fun. You just need to learn to do it right, and no matter how good of a rider you are it can be hard to learn on a green horse, so like others have said it would be beneficial to learn on a seasoned horse or have someone else start your horse for you. |
|
| |
Folks on-line