Is Your Horse Ready For The Roping Pen?
by Kerry Kuhn
Is our horse prepared? This is a very important question for all of us. However, we sometimes overlook this aspect of our training in route towards our ultimate goal. What we need to realize is the foundation we build in our horse is the key to developing a great roping horse.
Roping is an event of speed and quickness. It requires out horse to be very sharp with his response. We build this quick response through heel and flexibility. When we take the slack out of our reins and apply some pressure our horse should feel soft. His body should feel flexible from head to tail. Without this softness and flexibility, our horse feels stiff and braces against us. Add a little speed to the situation and that brace becomes very strong.
We need to take a very close look at how well our horse responds to what we ask before we start roping. How well does our horse back up? How well does our horse move lateral, or sideways? These three directions play a major role in roping. If our horse isn't good at these directions, we are going to have a tough time one we speed him up to rope the steer. The exercises we show our young horses to develop responsiveness, softness, and flexibility are the basis to out foundation. People do not like to practice these exercises because they are slow and boring. However, these exercises make all the difference. If we build our foundation strong enough, it can weather any storm.
