Learning the Ropes

We had some really little calves to work yesterday, and when the calves are this small, the quickest way to get them worked is to rope them. And by “quickest” I don’t mean “so we can hurry up and be done.” I mean quickest, so the calves will have the least amount of stress. Because if calves get stressed, it doesn’t do anybody any good. They start biting their fingernails, getting road rage, grinding their teeth at night…it isn’t pretty.

 

Usually, Marlboro Man, Tim, and Josh are the ones to do the roping. But yesterday, they decided to let the kids try it. There weren’t very many calves to work, so it was a good time for them test the waters!

 

My nephew has done it before, and he’s starting to become a purty durn good roper.

 

But this was the first time my older son had tried it in the pen with real calves, so both Marlboro Man and Tim had to stop and…well, show him the ropes.

 

Tim showed him how to coil and hold the rope correctly…

 

Then he went to give it a shot.

 

To rope the calves, you ride slow and easy toward the calves when they’re bunched up against the fence.

 

You want to heel them, or rope their heels, and to do that, the calves need to be moving so you can time the rope so that they basically step into the loop.

 

As soon as the rope is in the right place, you have to very quickly yank up the slack so that the loop closes around the calf’s heels. That takes some coordination when you’re on top of a horse, as you have to keep your balance on the saddle!

And after that, there’s still work to do. You have to quickly wrap the rope around the saddle horn (aka “dally”) so that the rope is secure. Then you and the horse pull the calf to the center of the pen, where the calf gets worked.

Roping is complicated, man. I watch and watch and watch, and I still think it’s one of the most difficult skills on the ranch.

I don’t think I’ll try it anytime soon.

Or if I ever do, I’ll be sure to have my kids take photos because it will be a funny sight.

Ha.

 

Oops! My nephew missed one.

You get some, you lose some. That’s what roping is all about.

 

The kids switched off about halfway through.

 

My girls are great riders…but they haven’t done a lot of roping.

 

On a side note, there’s nothing prettier than a horse’s tail.

 

Part of what I think is difficult about roping is getting the rope all situated and coiled correctly.

 

By the way, do you know why cowboys swing their ropes like this? It isn’t because they’re trying to look cool, and it isn’t so they can yell “YeeeeeeeHAW!” and look like a cowboy. It so the rope is ready to throw when you see a calf is just in the right place, in the right position.

Just a little cowboy trivia for you there.

 

She got one!

 

Actually…she got more than one!

It made this mama proud.

 

Yep, part of agriculture is showing the next generation the ropes.

Both figuratively and literally.