I’ve tried googling but all I get are articles about roping horses… If someone says they “rope” a horse (ex: “That’s why its good to rope them young” or “I roped him real good before getting on him the first time”) – what the heck are they talking about? Posting this on western because its coming from a more western - horsemanship-y type source, but this could be the wrong location.
Not very clear but since I’ve moved to a state that is mostly cowboys they do the whole roping the horse down the ground when they start them?.. if that’s what you’re talking about.
Ive seen lots of idiots pasture rope horses. I’ve seen lots of mexican cowboys rope horses as well.
Unless you’re thinking about them sacking out a horse well? Or desensitizing them to a rope?
Or neck roping? Tripping horses? Or roping legs? Grey area
Using a rope to sack them out?
If I want a horse to be helpful and keep it’s wits while I rope a calf at a branding, or calving, or doctoring…
I will have had a rope about everywhere on his body, and had the horse give to the pressure or pull the rope for me.
Roping the feet…if the horse will give nicely to the pressure when you have an individual foot roped, said horse will likely be great for the farrier, and not lose his…$#!+ …if you accidentally rope a foot instead of a calf.
If you can drag a log, with the rope going to either side, and you can have the rope go from saddle horn dally, around his butt (NOT under the tail, though)and then in front of him to the log on the ground, and the horse can back up, that’s great. When your roped calf ( or someone else’s roped calf) cuts back and runs behind you, goosing the horses butt with the rope… your horse won’t lose his $#!+.
I hope the link works…it’s a good YouTube video.
I also will have had a rope in my horses flank, and high in his groin/sheath/udder area for practice.
Under the tail is more sensitive, and a rope can burn a horse and hurt him frighteningly fast. But you can take a soft rope (like a cotton lead rope), lift his tail and put the rope under there, and let him wear it until he de-clamps his tail and the rope falls out . You’d have to do that a lot, making sure every time that the rope won’t pull tight and zing him under the tail.
Catching a non-halter broke horse and restraining it with a horseback roper(s) is not commonly done well. It is possible. Usually when it’s done for sport…it isn’t a good thing for the horse. But my range raised, unhalterbroke two year old got roped and halter broke by a very talented cowboy, in an afternoon.
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Yeah link doesn’t work.
Try googling Mozaun McKibbon how to drag a log,
Or dragging a log with Scott Grosskopf
Guessing this refers to desensitizing a horse to the sight, sound and feeling of a rope being used anywhere around it. It’s a good idea for any horse, certainly colts. If they learn to tolerate that, they shouldn’t be bothered by much.
Dont think it refers to lassoing a horse if it’s being used as a training technique and not a way to catch a wild or feral one. They used to lasso and snub them to a post but that’s long gone in most places and would only be used as a last resort.
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No, I’d been thinking it was something along the lines of “sacking out” but didn’t know if “roping” was a specific term and/or had a specific distinction.
In case anyone else comes across this thread looking for an answer - I suspect this video is explaining what I’ve heard referred to as “roping” - https://westernhorseman.com/horsemanship/how-to/using-a-rope-to-start-colts/
Actually, I ran across someone who used this term to mean “longing”. He called it “roping” rather than longeing.
Interesting.
Here in the SW, longing is called by many gypping.
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It seems a lot of people lose their minds when you talk about roping a young or feral horse. Just like anything else if it is done right it goes well, the horse gets pretty smart about a rope and pressure quickly and it isn’t traumatizing as the untrained eye would like to think. You would have a hard time walking through my horses and telling me which horses had been started in that manner or not. And I would take a colt who had ran loose for the first few years of his life and roped(well) over a manhandled since birth colt.
Husband and I have started a lot of ranch horses that way. Those who have ran feral until they were ready to start which is common out here. Some later in life, 5 years old plus. They come around pretty quick especially having another horse to come to in the pen making touching them, getting a halter on for the first time and teaching to lead as they have already how to give to the pressure, find the release from being roped pretty simple. They learn to tie hard faster than most and be quite light in the halter or hackamore when starting if not allowed to get rude in it.
The rope exposure doesn’t stop there. From the first rides the rope gets swung and touched all over the body. When the colt goes outside and moving cows if given the opportunity and in the rear, heeling cows or calves with out pulling slack and dallying. The rope becomes part of everyday life.
I haven’t used a log drag much to be honest. We just start roping on them and most take to it like they have done it their whole life. The last colt I bought to start myself I tried to drag a log and he didn’t want nothing to do with it. Went straight to roping cattle no problem, it made no sense to him to drag such a thing!
I am not discounting the log drag as a training tool, it most certainly is. And it is a good thing for a horse to know how to do.
Yeah, there’s a lot of clutching of pearls, regarding roping an unbroke never haltered horse, and halter breaking it.
I agree, that done well it is a very, very good way to halter break them. If instead, they drag a lead from their halter, they learn to pull through halter pressure rather than give. That can have some unfortunate consequences later.
Tying them to a snubbing post and harrassing them until they either break their neck or give up… not so bueno.
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