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While I was laid up this past winter, folks from all over the world e-mailed me questions about horsemanship, roping, or whatever was on their minds. I thought it would be nice to re-print it here so that others might benefit from it. If you have any question on what I've written here or have a new question, don't hesitate to e-mail me.

 

The following was in response to a question about restarting a horse. . .


Roping Horses

 

To begin, you need to understand a couple of things. First, I don’t take this matter of roping horses lightly.  Second, it’s much easier to show you how to do this than to write about it but I’m going to write it down anyway.  And last, keep in mind that this took me years to learn to do at this level, not hours, not days. So many people say they want to learn but they want to learn it in an afternoon. That won’t happen and it won’t do the horseman or the horse any good.
Now that we’re done with the disclaimer, I’m going to break this down into sections to make it easier to understand. This may take a while so make yourself comfortable…


OK, my friend, here we go…Roping a horse is the foundation for my program. Before I start, you must know, I adjust my roping program to fit the individual horse.  The best scenario is roping a colt that hopefully has not been imprinted the day AFTER he’s weaned. When starting a colt, roping is a perfect opportunity to start a good relationship that will last the life of the horse. Roping an older horse, like the one I’m going to write about, is a safe way for me to get several things done.


First, I can check him out for any braces before I get on his back. Roping uncovers many things. (I define a brace as a part of the horse that chooses NOT to yield to pressure.) The rope, which is like me on his back, can hang in there until the horse changes his mind. This is big medicine.
Second, as a human, I get the opportunity to practice my timing (release). Third, I rope off of every horse I work with, from polo to trail horses. Roping the horse and roping off the horse makes for a gentle ride.


Now I’m going to walk through the typical roping session of an older horse. (Note: If you’re dealing with a truly scared horse, don’t do this. There’s another way.)
Turn the horse loose in the round pen and come in horseback. Everything you do is done in both directions, left eye and right eye. EVERYTHING. Drive the horse by throwing the tail of the rope at the walk, trot, and lope. When throwing the tail of the rope, make it land over the butt and hit the hind feet. Pay attention. Every move you make creates a reaction from the horse. Learn to read the whole horse. Questions to ask:  Is the mouth tight, the lips wrinkled, and the nose extended? Is the eye wide with a lot of white showing? Is the eye glazed over which means either stampede or shut down to the horse? Are the ears working back and forth? Is the inside ear on you? Or pinned back with the head low? Is the horse wringing wet after just a few minutes? Most outside horses I get are fat so I have to be smart enough not to exhaust the horse. If you wear a horse out right off the bat by running them around the pen before you start roping, you’ve done it wrong. This isn’t a pissin contest. It’s a training session. On the other hand, and I’m trying to be as informative as I can…If you get a horse with a big brace such as when you try to lead him by a front foot and he fights you tooth and nail, don’t weaken. Let him fight it out. But know two things…First, it’s the horse’s problem, not yours. Second, be there to release the instant the horse shows a good change.


I begin by roping the horse around the neck when he’s loping or trotting. With a horse going to the left, the scoop loop is the highest percentage shot. To the right, I like the houlihan. Once caught, pull on the rope. If the horse doesn’t come in, let him go by and then dally to stop him. As soon as he disengages the hind quarters, pop your dally.  If he stops, pull him to you by hand. Be ready to dally if he tries to sell out. Get him up to you so you can place your hand on his forehead and then take the rope off. Remember, everything is done both directions. Next place the rope around the girth with the honda right behind the elbow. Position yourself in front of the horse so he will lead by the girth. Some horses break in two when the rope comes tight so stay alert. This is a dangerous  part of the exercise. On a good day, everything is done without dallying. This is the 20 minute horse I was talking about. Remember, the saddle horn is a tool, NOT A WEAPON. Next, let the rope slip back to the flank. Use hand pressure only. NEVER dally when the flank is roped. If the horse keeps trying to come in to you, don’t allow it. Drive him back out. You sit in the center and let the horse go around you. Watch the tail. When it starts to relax, you’ve got him.
Pay attention to the order in which I’m writing this down. This is the order that it is done in. The reason is because it’s easier for the horse to understand when done in this order. If you over-expose a horse, you will go backwards.

 

Roping the Feet


When roping a foot, if the horse is going to the left, a scoop loop or backwards shot is the best. When the horse is going to the right, I use a side arm or Johnny Blocker. People who only know the traditional head and heel shots have hell with horse ropin…Nothing personal, just a fact.


It doesn’t matter which front foot you catch first but I can tell you that most horses that I restart have the biggest brace in their right front foot. I’ve ridden many miles pondering on why but I have yet to come up with an answer that I feel good about. What I’m about to talk about is really important to me because, once you have this out of the way, you have the mind of the horse. I don’t mean submission. What I mean is the horse has changed his mind and understands exactly what you’re asking for. Roping a horse is riding a horse. When you climb on and ask for the right front to step back or the left hind to step over, the horse understands what you want. So, if you are thorough, you and your horse will get a lot more done.


By now, a lot of horses will walk around the round pen and to me that’s fine. After you have roped a front foot, let the horse carry it at a walk, trot, and lope. Pull on the rope, which means you want to the horse to come in. If he can’t make it, dally and put pressure on the rope. (IMPORTANT NOTE: If you can’t slide rope, DO NOT ROPE HORSES!) It’s a given that you rope on a slick horn.


When the rope comes tight, it usually makes the horse bothered. As soon as he turns his head toward you, pop your dally and let everything relax. Now, pull on the rope again and if he tries, release. Now, you need the horse to come toward you. Play the rope until he comes in. Pet him on the forehead and then ride away. Now you want him to lead by a front foot. Once again, it’s simply pressure and release. When he’s leading on a loose rope, get off, take the rope off, climb back on, and rope the other front foot.


After the horse leads on a loose rope by each front foot, it’s time to rope the hind. Going to the left, I throw the scoop loop or backwards. When the foot is caught, I let him carry it until he’s OK with it. Then, I pull on the rope. The object here is to get the horse to stop, face away from me, and stand still with the hind foot cocked with the toe resting about 4 inches behind the other hind foot. To understand, just move your own foot back and rest it on your toes. “Hip Shod.” If the toe is resting even with or ahead of the other hind foot, the horse is still thinking about fight or flight. Once you have the foot where you want it, get off and take the rope off. A lot of times, the horse will move. You don’t need to stop him perfectly. Just stop him and take the rope off. In the next phase, we will hone this exercise…

 

Roping from the ground…


Now, get rid of your saddle horse and work on foot. Saddle the horse you’re re-starting and turn him loose. Drive him both ways at the walk, trot, and lope. Rope him around the neck, pull on the rope and ask the horse to come to you. When he makes it, touch him on the forehead and turn him loose. Rope him going the other way. In this exercise, you need to get good but not perfect. Perfect can come another day. If you are an anal person, don’t start this exercise. If you do, take your bed roll with you to the round pen. Be true to yourself. Now you’re going to rope the feet. Catch a front foot and pull on the rope. When the horse makes the slightest try, release. Remember, the rope is your rein and you are riding the horse. The horse will come in and then follow you around while being led by the front foot. Here is where the bar is raised. Anybody can get a horse to follow him around being led by a foot because the horse has both eyes on you. What you have to do is stand next to the shoulder, shorten the rope, and lead the horse in one eye only, i.e. left front foot equals left eye. This is the hardest part of the whole deal but it is important. If the horse can’t make it, get out in front again and move at an angle and the horse will walk. Go back to the shoulder and start again. A lot of horses will get mad and sell out or slam their feet on the ground.. This is when the human gets to practice patience. Remember, the horse is having a problem, not you. HANG IN THERE. What will make you laugh is when you get the easy horse and he just walks off with you. Sometimes it helps to put the horse against the round pen fence with you on the inside. You can reach back and tap the horse’s ribs with your coils. I know that whoever does this will figure out things that will help the horse understand. When the horse is walking comfortably with you at the shoulder, you can move to the other front foot.
Next, rope a hind foot and stop the horse going away from you. Don’t let the horse back up. This is counter-productive. When you go to shoe him, you’ll understand why. Make the horse stop with the foot hip shod and resting behind the other find foot. The way to get this done is by being good at pressure and release. When I have a horse stopped and standing like I want, I’ve been known to make the loop big and place it on the ground around the hind foot. This means I don’t have to pick up the hind foot to take the rope off. I walk away and the horse just walks out of it on his own. I like that. Now you’re done roping the horse. Catch him, lead him to the center of the corral, and put your cotton rope hobble on. Keep the lead rope in the bend of your arm. Unsaddle the horse and place the saddle on the ground.  Untie the hobbles and turn the horse out for the rest of the day. You’ll both be tired.

About the  particulars:

 

A big reason why I rope horses is because when I climb on, I know and the horse knows that we’ve been THERE. It avoids a lot of surprises and allows us to get a lot more done. When I can tie cattle down by myself, I feel pretty good about the mind of the horse.

I have taken the time to write this all down because I don’t believe in the theory of making a person figure it out on their own. When you’re hurt, you can’t work and I’m repping for the horse. Any questions, please ask…

Note from Deb: Pat takes this very serious and is good enough to answer your questions.  I want to let you know that this is not the place to get good at roping and sliding rope. Get good at roping a dummy (not your spouse!) and get good at sliding rope on cattle. Then you can start roping horses. One final thing, Pat has roped his whole life but never roped horses from horseback until he had roped about 100 horses on foot because he wanted to get really good at his timing.  So my point is, you need to be good at release and be in complete control of your temper before introducing a saddle horn into the equation.

 

 

 

Scared Horses

 


The question is “what about working with an older horse that is scared?”


The first thing is to decide if the horse is scared or rude or just plain mean.


Ride your saddle horse into the round pen. Sit in the middle, take your rope down, and just swing a side arm loop. A scared horse will run with its tail clamped down, it’s head up, and might try to jump out. A rude horse will lope around with a high head and its tail up in the flag position. With this kind of horse, just start roping it. If you go in on foot, you’ll fail and get run over. A mean horse will put its butt toward you and back toward you with plans of kicking you and your horse out of the pen. When I have roped this kind of horse, I’ve had them come right up the rope with both front feet trying to put me out of commission. Enough said.


Lets deal with the scared horse. Take him in the pen on a halter and lead rope. You’re going to flag him before you rope him.  Take a couple dallies with the lead rope and have about three feet between the horn and the horse. Start walking in a circle to disengage the hind quarters, all the while rubbing the horse anywhere you can get with your hand. The horse will hook on to your horse and start to relax. Now get your flag and start rubbing the horse while you’re circling. As soon as you can, let him stand still and rub him all over with the flag. As soon as you get this done, meaning the horse is relaxed, quit. Once again, with this exercise, you don’t need perfection. You just need a change. Remember, the horse actually believes it’s a life or death situation. So come back in the afternoon and do it again. This session will tell you where you’re at with the horse. If it goes well, get the horse good about waving the flag over your head. When  things are good, quit. The next day (not a week later), tie the horse to the top rail in the round pen and give him plenty of slack. This is so he can escape left or right. Now, sit in the middle of the round pen and start throwing the tail of the rope at his back and everywhere from the withers back. Don’t quit this session until he’s standing good. Next, you can turn him loose in the pen and go through the roping deal.


Remember, what I’m writing down here is like everything else…”talk is cheap.” Use your head and do it on horse time not your time.


Note: once I’ve gotten the fear out of a horse like this, sometimes I lay him down on both sides. This is something I take very seriously. When done correctly, it really helps a horse let down. When done wrong, you can screw up everything you’ve done to get him relaxed. I mention this because when you ask what I do, I have to give you the complete answer, not the edited version. Good luck…if you have any specific questions, please ask.

 

 

The Runaway “Tornado”

 


I thought I would tell you about my runaway story…


I was at the Michellina corrals in Nogales AZ putting some steers together. There was a vaquero ridin a little bay horse that had a really fast walk. Since I was going to run these steers at Dragoon AZ, I needed a rock crusher to get around em. This bay horse was just what I needed. I got him bought and asked the man to put him on the back of the truck. When I made a circle, I thought I’d really rung a bell.


The lady we were renting grass from ran pairs next to us. She asked me if, on my way home, I’d ride through her cattle. She had two heifers she tried to get in and failed. I said, “No problem.” When we finished our circle, my friend, Ray Harmon, and I swung through her country and spotted one of the heifers. We fell in behind her and headed for headquarters. Right away, it was evident she was not going to make it on her own. We got our ropes down and pursued the beast. My fine little bay horse was hot on the trail and put me close enough to rope her. I lucked out and caught her but when I went to the horn, things fell apart quick. I’m horned up and now I can’t see my horse’s head. He’s pawing with both front feet trying to tear the bridle off. We’re going through the mesquite at a high rate of speed and the heifer weighs more than my horse. All I have on my mind is, win, lose, or draw, I’m not going to undally. Thanks to Irish luck, she choked down before things got real ugly. I let her stop my fine mount by sliding rope. Once stopped, “Mr. Tornado” was over his mad and I was out of breath. My partner, Ray, slipped up and caught a hind leg on the heifer. Ray, who had been behind me the whole time, said “I just didn’t know what I could do for you.” We both laughed for quite a while. So we drove her out to the road and tied her down. The lady brought her trailer and we finished the task. Tornado made a good circle horse but he never was much fun to rope off of. When we shipped the steers north, I shipped him south.

 

 

The following was in response to a man who bought a horse that would throw his head up when he rode him. All of his friends told him to use a running martingale to get by but he didn't want to resort to a mechanical fix. Here's what I told him to do...

 

Ok, my friend…to me there is no short answer for your question.  Let’s begin with why the colt threw his head up.

  1. When you start a colt in a snaffle, you’re dealing with baby teeth and possibly wolf teeth. The mouth is tender.

  2. When you start a colt in a snaffle, 3 mistakes are common: Pulling with both hands to stop the colt; see-sawing the reins to stop the colt; and jerking on the rein to stop the colt. All of these things are done because the human is scared or lost his temper.

The colt throws his head up out of self preservation. Now the colt thinks he needs to defend himself by throwing his head up. If he’s not offered anything better, i.e. good horsemanship, then it turns into a habit. That’s where you come in. You acquired a horse with a bad habit taught by a human. Now, since you are also a human, the horse has no reason to believe that you ride any different than the last guy. Incidentally, so far, what I’ve described is really common in a string of horses you would be cut on a ranch. By the time they’re 8 years old, they’re absolute experts at taking the reins away from you.


Without using gimmicks, there is a simple way to fix the habit. The younger the horse, the easier it is. The first thing you have to realize is the horse didn’t get a good start. So, you’re literally teaching the horse something new. By “new” I mean the horse now has the option of giving his head instead of taking it.
Now let’s move on to a typical “get er done” day on the ranch. When you go out to make a circle, trot and watch your colt’s ears. When both ears are pointed forward and he’s moving in a straight line, he’s ready to school. This needs to be done in a snaffle because he’ll blow right through a hackamore. That will come later.


Place your hands lower than the saddle horn while the horse is trotting. Now keep the horse trotting and pull steadily back with your hands. Don’t bend your wrists. Keep your hands closed. Use your elbows and shoulders to pressure the reins. The horse will automatically raise his head. Next it will try to stop. Then it will gap at the mouth…or all three at the same time. Do the math and hold your hands steady so the horse has an option which is, when he breaks at the poll, there will be no more pressure on his mouth. When this happens, let go of the reins and pet him on the neck. Keep trotting. Please note that petting a horse on the neck eliminates you from the Testosterone Hall of Fame but so what? Be secure in your manhood. It’s OK to pet a horse. You can still “get er done”.

Now, trot on another 300 yards and set it up again. When the horse gives, throw him the reins and keep trotting.  Don’t ask for anything more than that. By the time you get where you’re going, you will have given him an option and, believe me, he’ll be relieved. Now, go ahead and do the thing you had to “get done”, whatever that is. If he throws his head, don’t worry about it. On the way home, DO NOT school him, just let him go home. You don’t have his mind anyway.


Next time his turn comes up,  do the same exercise you did before…trot/ask/release. You will be amazed at how well he does. The time off between sessions gives him and you time to think. When you’ve got him trotting in a soft feel with no pressure on the rein, then you can put a hackamore on him and offer a really good deal. Throw the snaffle in the creek. Almost all the problems from the cinch forward are fixed with good timing and not gimmicks.


Have fun and let me know how it goes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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