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

[phoebetrainer]

[QUOTE=Appsolute;8161426]
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”?[/QUOTE]

I rope horses as part of their training. I can’t throw a lasso, though I’d dearly love to - another tool to add.

The horses that I work are feral. They come any age, mares and stallions as well as youngsters. They have NEVER been touched by humans, sometimes they have only seen humans for the first time a day or so before they get to my place.

They are in yards of various sizes, with high fences - higher than most round pen fences. After a few days of just being fed and watered, I begin to spend time with them. I’ll use a long length of bamboo to touch them initially, and then in the end to drop a lasso over their heads.

I use the lasso to teach them to yield to pressure - which all horse training basically is. So, at first, all I want them to do is to turn towards where I am pulling. Any movement in the right direction is rewarded.

Once they will yield towards the pull, and maybe even take a step towards it, I can work on getting them to let me touch them with my hand. Starts with a pole, working the way up.

Once I can touch them, I need to get a halter on them. This might take some hours or days. As their training continues, I’ll continue to use ropes as tools to aid me and them to find the right answers.

Recently I was working with my trained horse (1* eventer) in a friend’s round pen. She was struggling to work out that she needed to turn in rather than out and was threatening to jump out. Friend lassoed her and showed her the way by use of pressure and release. She needed the extra help to find the answer and became more relaxed and responsive, rather than reactive.

[Wirt]

[QUOTE=Appsolute;8161426]
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”?[/QUOTE]

What you seem to be missing here, is that as soon as you rope a horse that has never been roped, the training begins. You are training him to lead, to understand what to do with the feel of the rope, and that it isn’t hurting him. You are also getting him use to contact, and pressure, and all kinds of things. Why would it be and different with a halter, or a hackamore, or a bit?

There is a time when the horse needs to learn what the end of a rope feels like. When there is no more rope left. Like I said before, he will never be a pull back.

[Foxtrot_s]

I’ve been to a few colt starting clinics where the greenie was roped by a cowboy on a made horse. Taught him a lot of necessary skills of yielding to pressure. It is a skill developed over a lifetime of practicing - ranch kids growing up in that lifestyle are practicing as little kids, copying their Dads.
The helping with branding, colts, etc.

[Murphy_s_Mom]

I’ve been around a lot of “trained” horses, ones that show and are considered “well broke”, that have no clue how to give to pressure. And then one day someone puts pressure on them, they throw a fit, someone gets hurt, and the horse is labelled as dangerous and sent down the road. :no:

[JGHIRETIRE]

[QUOTE=Murphy’s Mom;8161698]
I’ve been around a lot of “trained” horses, ones that show and are considered “well broke”, that have no clue how to give to pressure. And then one day someone puts pressure on them, they throw a fit, someone gets hurt, and the horse is labelled as dangerous and sent down the road. :no:[/QUOTE]

Ah no - they’d just love it some more and be patient longer, right??

[Pocket_Pony]

[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]

Ditto, I’ve used it for all of these things as well.

[Pocket_Pony]

[QUOTE=Highflyer;8161572]

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?[/QUOTE]

It could be that the horse is hard to catch and/or he won’t let his handler get a halter on him and/or it is dangerous to get a halter on him and/or he is dangerous to lead or whatever. It allows Buck to get the work done from the back of another horse without getting close enough to a rogue horse to get hurt himself. Also the presence of another horse may provide a little mental support to the horse in need of training. He can catch him, teach him to yield to pressure, lead him, move him around the round pen, all without being on the ground and being in a position to potentially get hurt.

[cowboymom]

Trainers would use roping like Buck did in that picture b/c they are catching a loose horse in a round pen, usually one that doesn’t come on the end of the halter or needs to learn the entire how to behave procedure from the ground up. I’ve never seen Buck or anyone like him rope a well halter-broken colt like that; usually it’s for sour colts or ones that have not been halter broken. They like to work a horse like that from another horse b/c the colt learns so much faster and safely. The ridden horse will teach the colt and the rider is in a better position to enforce the pressure and use the ridden horse to give cues. A good rope gives relief to pressure better than a hand can, it will slide immediately and release on the horse’s movement. It’s a more cut and dry lesson in pressure/release than a halter but most guys that use a rope know how to deliver that lesson well.

I have a horse right now that I think would do really well if he were roped and if I brought him to Buck I’m sure Buck would drop a loop on him to work him and he would have instilled what we need in an hour, done. Since I can no longer afford to have Buck even look at a horse I’ll have to look to another trusted trainer to see if I can still afford him and if not, make do some other way. I used to be able to rope somewhat, as in get the loop around what I was planning on… but the whole aftermath of dallying and getting the horse right and balance, ect… that ship has sailed. My husband still can but we don’t do it much any more. It’s a trick best practiced on your neighbor’s cows. :lol:

[FLeventer]

I can lasso things that stand still and don’t move. I used to practice on a target deer when I was younger. Haven’t roped anything in years, so I am sure I am more than rusty.

The only horse that I could rope now would be a rocking horse.

[microbovine]

Buck knew more about a rope at age eight than I will ever know, lol!

[danceronice]

Never roped a horse but after this morning I am considering learning to rope a goat…

[Hunterkid]

I do not know how to rope, but one of my horses has been roped. She was used in a demonstration for horses who are afraid of the vet. She’s the type that gets very suspicious very quickly. Perfect ground manners otherwise, but very fearful of vets, even ones she knows well. Having a hind leg get roped and learning to give to that type of pressure took about 30 seconds. Then a vet handled her while a hind leg was roped. Worked great and now she’s much better. She used to try to run off and would just shut her brain off.

[Murphy_s_Mom]

[QUOTE=danceronice;8163147]
Never roped a horse but after this morning I am considering learning to rope a goat…[/QUOTE]
I rope my goats and sheep more than my horses these days. Most of the goats are actually pretty good about coming when called but not the sheep. When they get loose it can be a real pain. The trick to “roping” them is to make a big loop and try to snare them when they come racing by.

[cowboymom]

I have more success with a bucket of grain on cows, goats, sheep and horses these days than I ever did with a rope! :lol:

[hillary_again]

On this note: “I’m quite sure my jumpers would die from shock if I ever attempted to rope them!” -
I know someone who had a world-class grand prix jumper that she kept at home after it won stuff all over the world with Richard Spooner.
She had a guy who looked after the horses for her.
He told her one day that he was trying to get the horse’s blanket off, and the horse was playing keep-away…
Guy went to his truck, got his rope, roped the GP jumper, and removed the blanket.
I do bet the horse was NOT expecting THAT outcome!

[roseymare]

Yes. The honda (the little loop that enables the big loop to be made) is covered in leather so that the rope can slide. Rope are much stiffer than one might think if you have never handled them. They are not at all like a leadrope or yachtline. They have a ton of body and will release somewhat when a horse gives to pressure. If you look at that picture and think a lariat is like a leadrope I can see where you might be perplexed.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=roseymare;8164256]
Yes. The honda (the little loop that enables the big loop to be made) is covered in leather so that the rope can slide. Rope are much stiffer than one might think if you have never handled them. They are not at all like a leadrope or yachtline. They have a ton of body and will release somewhat when a horse gives to pressure. If you look at that picture and think a lariat is like a leadrope I can see where you might be perplexed.[/QUOTE]

That is true, people that don’t know may think of noodley rope, not lariat rope, that are much stiffer, why they keep their shape.
Now, those also get softer with humidity, why professional ropers keep them in tin rope cans and the old grass ropes really got soft with moisture, but even those are considerably stiffer than plain cotton rope.

On the other hand, it is known to happen that roping horses at times the rope hits the eye and, being stiff, may cause injury, leaving a white spot there.
One more reason most people today prefer not to rope horses, if not necessary.

We used to get plenty of race colts to start that had never been handled, were herded into a stock trailer and unloaded here in a pen or barn aisle and driven to a stall.
Those we tried to ease behind a gate and slip a halter on them, or at least a rope around their neck, to make the gentling process quicker, as we were working already then on getting them to let us handle them, without needing to rope them and then get them over that scare and some of them resisting or even on the fight.