It’s not every day you get to test your roping skills in a fairly safe environment, and if I’d not doing it correctly, well, this may have been the first time I ever held a real lariat…
It is a long way to the ground and as I’d recently taken a painful tumble from a hammock, I didn’t want to fall from three times as high. So I removed my shoes to get on the stationary horse, making sure I could feel where my feet were.
The stirrups aren’t stationary and are moving as you nudge your feet into them. But, I managed to pull myself into the saddle easily. There were steps and this was a relatively small horse. It does take a little power to pull yourself into the saddle on a real horse…or you need to teach the horse to kneel for you, or have a raised object you can stand on.
It is a long way to the ground and as I’d recently taken a painful tumble from a hammock, I didn’t want to fall from three times as high. So I removed my shoes to get on the stationary horse, making sure I could feel where my feet were.
The stirrups aren’t stationary and are moving as you nudge your feet into them. But, I managed to pull myself into the saddle easily. There were steps and this was a relatively small horse. It does take a little power to pull yourself into the saddle on a real horse…or you need to teach the horse to kneel for you, or have a raised object you can stand on.
Then I practiced the twirling. I learned that a pro roper often stands in the stirrups as he throws the rope over the horns of the animal, and also that he would be holding the reins in his left hand, along with the twirls of rope, at the same time. The rope even had to be looped carefully to make sure it wouldn’t tangle when thrown.
The horse is moving, the animal to be roped is moving and the cowboy or cowgirl is moving. It’s harder than it looks, but more fun than it looks, too. Or, at least it is on a fiberglass horse.
As long as you could do it without shoes or cowboy boots, I could see trying it again on a real horse…except it really is a long way to the ground, and again, the horse is moving. In a rodeo roping event, the horse would be running at a fast clip, and speed is important as the event is timed to the seconds.
The horse is moving, the animal to be roped is moving and the cowboy or cowgirl is moving. It’s harder than it looks, but more fun than it looks, too. Or, at least it is on a fiberglass horse.
As long as you could do it without shoes or cowboy boots, I could see trying it again on a real horse…except it really is a long way to the ground, and again, the horse is moving. In a rodeo roping event, the horse would be running at a fast clip, and speed is important as the event is timed to the seconds.
The safest and easiest thing to rope is your own foot.
Pictures taken at the Ben Johnson Museum in Pawhuska Oklahoma.
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