So I might get the opportunity to acquire a “heel horse”. Evidently he was a money earner at the local level. I don’t know anything about roping, like, at all. How educated are heel horses in the global sense, assuming this guy had some middle of the road training. I know (hope) he’ll come with brakes, but how subtle is his steering? is it all going to be stop and go, or will he have gears?
Basically, what do ropers look for in a heel horse?
he’ll be very much LEFT leaded.
How old is your heel horse? How good is the trainer/cowboy who broke him?
In general, if he’s 4 or over, he’s going to be broke and relatively gentle. Most cowboys take a lot of pride in letting their little kids ride their rope horses everywhere when the roper himself/herself is not aboard.
A rope horse is an awesome horse. They’ve been trained to stand quietly for hours while tied to a fence, then do an explosive bit of work, then go back to standing quietly on the fence.
A good rope horse will listen to you and not do anything until you say. The heeling “pattern” is the horse breaks out of the box on the left lead, then makes a sharp turn behind the steer, then stops and takes the hit of the steer’s weight (assuming his roper catches) from the saddle horn, so you should have an excellent “whoa” on the horse.
From there, it’s going to depend on whether the horse’s trainer is a roper or a trainer. The horse might or might not know how to change leads.
Heel horse is a broad category, but the phrase certainly indicates the horse should be broke.
He may or not have fine training, but all he generally needs to know as a heel horse is to stand quietly in the box until told to move out, then run and rate the steer and learn when to turn and turn properly and give the heeler a good shot.
Then it needs to know to stop and back smoothly to get the rope tight so the flag man can stop the watch and not overly tight so it doesn’t injure the steer by pulling on it too much.
Many heel horses are also calf horses and breakaway and at the lower levels goat tying horses, similar basic roping training and talent works for those.
Heading horses require a different set of skills and generally a bigger horse, although there are some middle sized horses that do both fine.
Now, your horse may be good at warming up with “loping circles”, but those circles may not be on the right lead or smooth or slow or any other than whatever the horse does.
I would ask what else has your horse done, ridden outside, playdays or any other.
Also, older heeling horses can be somewhat on the grumpy side, they want to get their job done and “please leave me alone, ok?” is their motto.
Love this forum…learn new terms EVERY DAY! You’re making my world much larger and I love that.
Short answer: Run hard, turn left.
Rope horses are usually pretty well sacked out and spook proof, and they are usually good at standing around patiently waiting, whether tied or ridden.
Most of them, unless trained and used for other disciplines besides roping, are rather stiff and one-sided. Recently there was an article in a national magazine by a roping trainer who advocated never loping on the right lead. He lopes his horses to the right, sometimes, but counter-canters. I still can’t decide if he was serious.
Basically, they’re really broke, but may need some refinement in their training. I’ve loved all the former rope horses I’ve had, but it’s usually a good idea to get them checked out by the chiropractor and start doing lateral work to get them soft and balanced.
[QUOTE=katarine;7008606]
he’ll be very much LEFT leaded.[/QUOTE]
Not necessarily, if he’s the HEELER and not the HEADER.
And, I’ve seen heading horses go right. A lot depends on if the header is right or left handed.
I rode a stable full of team roping horses for a friend during the summer of my… oh … 17 year old year? Something like that?
I learned WAY more about riding off my seat and weight and leg that summer than I’d learned in many, many, many hours of lessons with big name dressage and eventing trainers. Those horses were BROKE and were really just a ton of fun. They went in big ol’ whopping curbs and I had to figure out how to talk to them without taking any contact with the mouth. They had a lot of buttons and I really spent the summer finding them.
If my experiences are any indication, you could wind up with an AWESOME horse, very well broke, very in tune to the aids, but not likely to understand much about english-style contact or being ridden in a snaffle.
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[QUOTE=Go Fish;7015537]
Not necessarily, if he’s the HEELER and not the HEADER.
And, I’ve seen heading horses go right. A lot depends on if the header is right or left handed.[/Quote]
Never seen on go right, worked for a roper and never saw it anywhere. So it could happen but that would be rare. The horse will be hitting the end of that rope hard and the tension is coming from his left. He better be on his left lead 
I’m not looking for a horse that understands english style contact, since I’m very much in the “find the contact the horse is comfortable with” school of thought. It’s good to have feedback on the lead thing, since that was something I was totally unaware of. It sounds like a good match since although I don’t mind supporting a pasture puff, it’d be nice if he would make either a backyard horse for the kids or a good husband horse, if I don’t claim him for myself. 
A good heal horse with proper training will be able to pick up both leads. Some will drill the horses so that all they do is ride when roping or practicing roping but a good trainer will take the horse out more and work both leads and sides. My farrier is a heeler. His horse are taught seat and leg. They can tuen on a dime off his seat and leg alone. They are stiffer than say my dressage horse but they are not horrible, I’ve seen far worse. They will have all gears if trained correctly and walk, trot, canter, and GO. The heelers I know around here will trail ride their horses, even the headers and I’ve ridden with them. Good horses, some a little more fire than others but those are usually the younger ones. The older ones they let their kids ride down the trails. A good heel horse can be a great horse if the trainer is there. That’s what it will all depend on.
