Spin off of buck brannaman - Do YOU know how to lasso a horse?

[Appsolute]

Spin off of the BB thread - Now, I am not saying that lassoing a horse is abuse - but is it a tool you use?

I never learned how to lasso an animal - I played with ropes a bit, and have tossed them at lasso dummy - but never actually “roped” a horse.

Reading the other thread - it sounds like for some this is a commonly used tool.

In your riding, or training education - did you learn how to rope? I consider myself fairly well rounded, and competent in starting horses under saddle - but yet never picked up this skill.

Most of my training was with an Eventing trainer - and well, lassos were not hanging in the tack room.

I always considered it a “cow boy” skill - and not a necessity for working with horses.

Do the Europeans “rope” their horses?

Is this really a common practice, or something more likely to be seen “in the west” of the US?

[Alagirl]

Most of Europe does not raise horses on acres and acres of land, so I am inclined to say no, Europeans don’t rope, but I would have to go back and check on what’s done in Hungary.
You said ‘Europe’ so I am not looking into the traditional horse raising clans of the former USSR…In Mongolia the horses are certainly ‘roped’, but also kept semi feral.

But then again, the ‘New Way’ Monty Roberts sold wasn’t really a great novelty to me, much of what he did had been done at home for generations…no roping required.

[Appsolute]

I am thinking roping as a training tool (the horse at Buck’s clinic wasn’t out on 2,000 acres - but rather in an arena).

And I have kept horses on 50 -70 acres - and never needed to rope…

Just curious if its a common “horsemanship” skill - as I always thought of it as more of a ranching skill.

My riding trainers never used it - now the cattlemen I know, they know how to throw a rope - but the horse people? Not so much.

[PeanutButterPony]

I haven’t the first clue. I’ve been a heeling dummy and that’s about all I know about roping

[sorrelfilly721]

My husband ropes and he has tried valiantly to teach me. I couldn’t rope the broad side of a barn if my life depended on it.

[JGHIRETIRE]

It has been used on one of my horses (not me). She was alone on pasture - not that large-but needed to be caught because we were going to move her to a better place. I didn’t want to watch - figured I would make the whole thing worse if I were there. She and I get in the “swirl”. I worry - she worries - we can make getting her feet trimmed difficult.
I don’t think it is used as much these days as it used to be. I agree that a tool is just a tool. A fork can be deadly in the wrong hands.

[mvp]

No. I couldn’t rope diddly.

And along the lines of roping-related mysteries: How do the Aussies do cattle without roping?

[Preposterous_Ponies]

I’m quite sure my jumpers would die from shock if I ever attempted to rope them! And I would probably get caught in the rope and strangle myself in the attempt.

I’m bad at throwing things in the first place. Throwing a rope at a moving animal? Not gonna happen.

[Wirt]

Yes, I do.
Roping is a western invention. Not ever found in Europe, historically. Developed in the nineteenth century when Spain owned Mexico, I think.
It is a cowboy skill for sure.
Roping horses is a different skill than roping cattle. You have to know what you are going to do next.

Horses are in a remuda in the ION country (Idaho, Oregon and Nevada) are still roped every day out on the big ranches. Horses are gathered in a rope pen, taught to face outward, and the jigger boss ropes the horses he wants the each man to ride that day. It is just how the catch them.

[Frostbitten]

Me throw a rope? It would end with me trussed up in a cone shape and the horse collapsing of laughter, where he could then be easily caught by someone else. Hmmm, maybe I have stumbled onto something here. I should patent it before the BNTs catch on. I can see it being marketed as the Catch Cone or Humane Pony Lasso Lure…

[atr]

Hell no. I’d put someone’s eye out.

[thatmoody]

Yes, and I have roped horses before. Some of our cattle horses run loose on the St. John’s River basin, and in order to gather them for worming, vaccines, etc., you drive them into a pen. These aren’t wild horses, but after 3-4 months out there you can’t really tell that :P. They gentle down pretty quickly once you get your hands on them, but that can be tricky. I’ve had a few that needed to be roped to be handled, but once you roped them they stopped running and didn’t fight. I wouldn’t use it as a training tool, but I also didn’t want to spend five hours catching the darned horses to do their feet.

[Murphy_s_Mom]

I can rope mine as long as they are standing still. All of mine, including the ponies, have been roped. It can be a good training tool.

[Appsolute]

Curious - How do you use roping in your training Murphy? I see a few mentioning using it to catch a horse - but I wonder how it is used as a training tool.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Appsolute;8161374]
Curious - How do you use roping in your training Murphy? I see a few mentioning using it to catch a horse - but I wonder how it is used as a training tool.[/QUOTE]

Not Murphy, but here is one explanation of the houlihan, used as a horse loop:

http://www.americancowboy.com/article/cowboy-houlihan-throw-27498

—"Home » Ranch Life
Cowboy Up: Houlihan Throw
Useful for long distance catches, the houlihan is a swing that every working cowboy should know.
By Lauren Feldman

  Instagram    Print

When to use
A versatile catch, the houlihan can be used in a variety of situations, from the ground or the saddle. It’s most often used when roping horses in a corral.

• See more at: http://www.americancowboy.com/article/cowboy-houlihan-throw-27498#sthash.3N70Z3Em.dpuf "—

[Appsolute]

Thanks Bluey - but your link still talks about using a rope to CATCH a horse - I am wondering why a TRAINER would use a lasso to TRAIN a horse - unless its just used to train a horse to be caught by a rope?

This is a spin off of the Buck Brannaman thread - he has a horse, in a round pen, in a larger arena - and its roped and struggling - I was wondering why a clinician, or anyone else would use a lasso in training.

Maybe someone brought a totally rank - not halter broke horse for the “colt starting”?

[Murphy_s_Mom]

[QUOTE=Appsolute;8161374]
Curious - How do you use roping in your training Murphy? I see a few mentioning using it to catch a horse - but I wonder how it is used as a training tool.[/QUOTE]
Mostly I use the rope, not the act of roping. Watching a good horseman with rope skill use it in training is pretty cool.

I’ll use it in the “normal” way, around the neck, for leading or for making an emergency halter. 99% of the time I use a regular halter, but it doesn’t hurt for them to learn other methods of leading in case of emergencies. Sometimes I’ll just swing it for desensitizing (on the ground or in the saddle) or I can drag something along behind me. I did the “rope around the girth area” to my WB mare when she was a youngster (her 13th birthday today!). Yes, I did the traditional Pony Club stuff too, this is just another tool.

Roping a foot (or in my case, placing the rope around the stationary horse) is great for teaching a horse not panic if they get caught in something. I was glad Murphy had that training when we got caught up in some old barbed wire when riding out on the range once. It’s also good if you have a nasty horse that likes to kick when you try to pick up feet (I’m talking about the ones that try to kick your head in if you get near them). That requires a lot of skill so no horse or human gets hurt. Not something I could do but I’ve seen it done and it’s pretty impressive.

I’m not sure why some people get so bent out of shape when it comes to roping horses. It can be a useful tool. Like any training though, you have to know what you are doing and use some common sense.

[Murphy_s_Mom]

[QUOTE=Appsolute;8161426]

This is a spin off of the Buck Brannaman thread - he has a horse, in a round pen, in a larger arena - and its roped and struggling - I was wondering why a clinician, or anyone else would use a lasso in training.[/QUOTE]
That is just part of teaching the horse to give to pressure. Sometimes a spoiled horse (or a totally untrained one) can really flip out when the human on the end of the rope doesn’t cave in to their (the horse’s) demands. They learn pretty quickly though. And they remember.

My little Shetland threw the mother of all hissy fits and a clinic last year. The clinician (a “normal” trainer, not an NH type) was ground driving her when the mare said “not gonna do it”. Clinician just waited for the mare to figure it out herself that having a temper tantrum wasn’t going to get her very far (much like Buck is doing in that photo). No rope around her neck but she had a bit in her mouth. I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant when she hit the end of the long lines while leaping about.

[Quelah]

The guy that starts my young horses, and he does a lovely kind job, has roped my horses, and roped off of them. Not get them running and rope them, just catching them easy, and doing the reverse off of them. Just one more thing in their “they know how to do it” skill set. No one was upset, and no one broke a sweat over it.

[Highflyer]

[QUOTE=Murphy’s Mom;8161549]
Mostly I use the rope, not the act of roping. Watching a good horseman with rope skill use it in training is pretty cool.

I’ll use it in the “normal” way, around the neck, for leading or for making an emergency halter. 99% of the time I use a regular halter, but it doesn’t hurt for them to learn other methods of leading in case of emergencies. Sometimes I’ll just swing it for desensitizing (on the ground or in the saddle) or I can drag something along behind me. I did the “rope around the girth area” to my WB mare when she was a youngster (her 13th birthday today!). Yes, I did the traditional Pony Club stuff too, this is just another tool.

Roping a foot (or in my case, placing the rope around the stationary horse) is great for teaching a horse not panic if they get caught in something. I was glad Murphy had that training when we got caught up in some old barbed wire when riding out on the range once. It’s also good if you have a nasty horse that likes to kick when you try to pick up feet (I’m talking about the ones that try to kick your head in if you get near them). That requires a lot of skill so no horse or human gets hurt. Not something I could do but I’ve seen it done and it’s pretty impressive.

I’m not sure why some people get so bent out of shape when it comes to roping horses. It can be a useful tool. Like any training though, you have to know what you are doing and use some common sense.[/QUOTE]

I don’t have a clue how to use a lasso, but what you’re describing is pretty comparable to how I would handle/ desensitize a green or nervous horse (for example I will use a lunge whip on the legs/ feet of a horse that kicks.) I agree with you that it’s basically common sense.

But, like Appsolute, I don’t really understand the purpose of what’s being shown in the pictures. Is the idea to teach the horse to yield to pressure?