JULY 2009 Issue

Using your horse to win

One of the biggest things that keep ropers from winning is their horses are unresponsive when they pull on the reins. Many people don’t realize they use their reins for balance, keeping constant pressure on their horse’s mouth. Over time this makes his mouth numb and worsens the more steers you run, especially large steers. That’s one reason I try and rope small steers when ever possible. If your horse responds to your hand, as he should, it makes it much easier when a steer does something unexpected and you have to move left, right or slow down.

That’s what made my horses, Bob and Viper, so special. Either of them could be running wide open and if you engaged the bridle reins, they could smoothly change directions without resistance. Viper’s ability was amazing and what made him so special at the NFR. He could go any direction, flex, and bend or do any maneuver you wanted at a walk or dead run. He was truly exceptional.

Think about it - would you get in a car and drive it down the street if you knew the brakes didn’t work? It’s a bad feeling when you’re riding a horse with a numb mouth and you have a steer that slows up. You pull, your horse climbs and you’re really not in control.

That’s the beauty of roping a mechanical dummy like the Hot Heels. I’m a firm believer in doing drills with my horses at a very slow pace. By breaking a run down in steps we can teach our horses to respond and do what we want – when we want. There’s a video available at www.ropehotheels.com called Power Drills taught by Ricky Green and me that demonstrate what I’m talking about.

We’ll talk more about this next month as this subject is near and dear to me and this could go on for pages.

Next week is the BFI and this will be the first time in my life to travel to a roping and not compete. I’m still excited because we have lots of news to share about what’s happening at Speed’s Match Roping. One thing that I’m excited about is the $70,000 in bonus money to be won by customers of our sponsors this year. For more information about Speed’s Match Roping visit www.matchroping.com.

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