I learn something new every time I go to work at the stables. Sometimes it's about feeding, other times it's about equipment, sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with horses. Recently I've been learning more and more about roping and rodeo. Both Christine and Pat are very good ropers and they are teaching me what they know. I haven't actually roped a cow yet (or swung the rope over my head for that matter) but I do know a lot more than I did before I worked here.
Roping is a timed event. It involves two people - a header and a heeler. The heeler rides behind the cow and ropes the foot while the header rides in the front and ropes the head and horns. The header takes a dally and wraps the rope around the horn of the saddle. Numerous ropers have lost a thumb in this part of the roping. Sometimes their thumb gets caught where the rope and saddle horn are. The roping saddles are particularly heavy and sturdy, usually more so than a trail or barrel racing saddle.
There are three roping horses at the ranch. Sparky and Makani are Pat's horses and Ginger is Christines. Keola, one of the trail horses, loves to rope but is a barrel racing horse. It takes a lot of work to get a horse to used to cows. Some never truly get used to it. There is a lot of training to roping. I have learned so much since I first started working here, and I look forward to learning more as time goes on.
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