Wonderful! Thank you!
As already discussed and you said you were, yes, I would go out and buy a button down shirt. You can find inexpensive ones at most retail clothing stores. (It doesn’t have to be a $70 western shirt. Even Walmart has button down collared shirts in the men’s section!)
For the rules you posted, the one description said “collared” shirt so I would feel that Ariat sunsheet wouldn’t meet that criteria. You certainly don’t want to risk being DQ’ed.
You can just wear your helmet for the halter classes if you do not want to buy a cowboy hat. Helmets are legal for the halter-type classes.
Clean leather is absolutely fine for a local show. It’s more important that it fits your horse correctly, rather than how much bling is on it.
For ranch halter, yes, it is customary to use a rope halter, although not required.
You just want NO silver for ranch classes.
It’s fine. The judges obviously know you just did a riding class. Just wipe them off as best you can. Have a couple dry towels handy.
I have always collected my rope, re-coiled, and put it back on my saddle. Whether I miss or catch. If you catch, just walk your horse up to it and shake it off the steer head.
I have never dropped my rope on the ground and left it.
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Often the rope is provided by the show so it’s hanging on a jump standard and you pick it up, try to rope the dummy, then drop the rope. There’s a person who comes and collects it, coils it, and puts it back ready for the next competitor after you’ve moved on to the next part of the course. If someone has their own rope they want to use they are free to do so.
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Thanks for all the responses! I found a nice wrangler white button up for $40 that just got delivered today.
I think I’ll just use my own rope…I dug it out of the garage tonight. In junior high we took a trip to Montana and a cowboy showed me how to throw the rope. That somehow stuck with me all those years though tonight was the first time I threw off a horse. Charlie gave no hoots about any of it 
. I am not that accurate, but have a week to get better!
IMG_3245
Our tack getup. Very not flashy.
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OP will need to ask show management this question. I have never been to a show where a rope was provided. You always have to pack your own.
Now if you’re doing a log drag obstacle, that’s different. Rope is already attached to the log and the rope hangs on a hook. But that’s not roping - that’s the log drag.
Your horse is cute OP. Let us know how it goes.
I’ve taken my very ranchy Quarter Horse and won Hunter Equitation classes with him, against fancy-looking English horses. Best pattern is the best pattern, no matter your horse.
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Ranch Horse (ARHA) shoes are specifically required to provide a rope for the “roping the dummy” obstacle in Trail. I’ve never seen a Ranch Trail course in any organization that requires throwing a rope and didn’t provide one. Since a rope is not required tack or equipment for Ranch events, most exhibitors don’t even own one.
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This is just a local open show; a lot of 4-H kids attend them as fair prep, not an ARHA one. I will report back on the rope topic though, the show is Sunday. I have zero idea how well the ranch classes are attended or what the competition is like. I had heard of ranch riding in the last year or so and the context was it would be great for people who have horses that are green or NOT pleasure type to try…not specifically people who are working to show ranch.
Watch me be entirely wrong, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the ranch trail has less entries than the ranch riding, rail, and halter due to the nature of the elements. My area in particular, is much more heavily saturated with dressage/hunter/jumper barns/riders or the AQHA non ranch riding type competition. I think we have maybe one or two reining barns in the trick-county area, and the one barn I boarded at did some all around western type work, but it was more training and selling vs showing.
I was a little surprised to see the rope the steer one for this pattern Sunday, but I am totally game for it! Im just happy Charlie didn’t mind the rope; we have worked on carrying and flailing things around while riding but I wasn’t;t sure about the noise it made…he doesn’t like anything that sounds like a whip so the whoosh of the rope I wasn’t sure about. He didn’t care though. For the show, if I miss I miss, but if he just stands their humoring me in the class that’s all I ask for!
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I have no advice for you, but I’m very impressed you were able to keep your roping skills. And, as always, Charlie is adorable! Have fun this weekend!
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I mostly show AQHA, some open, and I have never been provided a rope.
I have never been to an ARHA show. They are much too far away for my driving pleasure.
In my area, the Ranch Trail is just as popular as the Ranch Riding.
In general, we have way higher entry numbers for the ranch classes, than for the showing classes (WP, horsemanship, show trail, etc).
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I’ll be really curious to see how popular they are here! I wish they would have been an open when I was younger.
Thank you!!
I was struggling at a different angle tonight and after prob 7 or 8 tries, he took it upon himself to move closer 
.
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Can I get away with the rope halter and cotton lead for showmanship? It’s just regular old showmanship, not a ranch specific class.
Charlie said, “Oh geez. < Fjord sigh > Let me get a little closer to this stupid thing or we’ll be out here forever. < steps forward >There. Now try.”
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This was 100% it. 100%
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You should be able to ask the association if a rope is provided or if you need to have one. For the stock horse/ranch horse association that I work with, we provide the rope coiled up on a barrel near the obstacle. We also have a gate person ready to pick up the rope and recoil it when things do not go well. There have been a few times when the horses have just said ‘NOPE’ to the roping obstacle and the rider had to drop the rope.
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I have an email out to the contact listed on the show site to clarify, but haven’t heard anything back yet.
I don’t know if this is common or not, but when you go to register, the same horse/rider pair cannot compete in ranch and any pleasure classes which I wasn’t expecting but I like as well.
That is normal at a lot of shows, though I think some allow crossover into the hunt seat classes.
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I didn’t read replies, was scrolling on stopped on your pic and short video clip.
If you don’t mind some advice-
Your rope ties onto the offside of your saddle with the rope tail towards the hind end of the horse, hondo towards the front.
Also noticed the same when you’re building your loop, hold your coils in your left hand, tail of your rope should going out the back of your left hand not your front.
In your right hand holding your loop, the hondo and spoke should be going out the front of your hand not the back.
I could send you some links to some rope handing videos on YouTube if you like?
Very cute Fjord, someday I’d like to own one.
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Videos would be great! As you can tell, I have no idea how to properly do any of this 
:dizzy:.
He HELPED!
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