When learning to rope, one usually starts with the basics of equipment. A long sleeved shirt. Why the long sleeved shirt you ask? When you're first learning, it's pretty common to start to throw and have the rope land on your extremities. If you're learning, it's not likely you've graduated to a nice medium soft smoothly braided rope. Most people start out with a stiffer rough rope so they don't have to work so hard to get the rope to swing properly. Those solid coarse ropes can burn like a son-of-a-gun when they hit you at any speed. Next thing is a proper set of roping gloves on your hands. I have scars from rope burn... ( this is usually funny when I tell people what the scars are from... rope burn. I generally don't elaborate on what the ropes were for. It's funnier that way.) I recommend blue jeans for the same reason. Lastly, if you're going to rope, put on some decent boots because it just looks silly otherwise. Cowboy hat is optional because, unless you're really a cowboy, or cowgirl you're just a city kid trying to look like you ain't!
First thing is positioning. It's better if you have your feet firmly planted, shoulder width apart, and you're facing your target square on. It's kind of like bowling but not really. Lol!
Okay seriously now... once you're standing square to your target, usually a wooden sawhorse with a set of horns tied on the one end not facing you. (Sometimes you can add a little tail to the end facing your direction if it makes you feel more like a real cowboy.) Now, when you're holding your rope, it has a natural shape to it, like a coil. You want to drop the loose end to the ground, but keep enough to have a small loop, and an extra bit by the knot to hold in your throwing hand. So you hold the loop part firmly in your fingers, and that extra bit beside it, outside the knot, with your thumb so they're together but still loose enough to slide out when you start to swing it up. Kind of like you're making the "hang loose' sign with your fingers. Swinging it in a circle slowly at first, until you get the hang of how the extra bit slides, while you keep the looped part beside it firmly tucked in your fingers. Once you get the feel of that bit sliding out, you can swing it up and build the size of your loop. This is where it can get tricky. Remember how I said not to wear a cowboy hat, now is where it would be wise to have on a ball cap with a sturdy brim ... Just a simple ball cap will keep the rope from singing your nose when it drops on you because you didn't build your loop correctly... oops... maybe I should have told you that a little earlier. That rope burn on your nose will heal in no time, just put a little cream on it. So add a ball cap to your equipment list if you like.
Now then were was I ... oh yes, building your loop. Once you start swinging it over your head, it's the wrist motion that will benefit you most. With your hand in the 'hang loose' position, you want to flick your wrist so the rope swings up and over your head in a circular motion, with each swing, you let a bit of the slack, slip through your hand to make your loop bigger. Once your loop is a decent size, you throw the rope when your hand is up high, in the 'hang loose' position, with the trajectory of the rope already in the forward motion stage, you let it go once you extend your arm out in front of you. If you've built your loop correctly and built enough velocity to reach your target, it's always good to make sure you have enough length to reach the sawhorse... (insert cricket noise here ...) . Once you've spent enough time 'catching' the sawhorse's horns successfully, you can try it from the back of a horse... I recommend getting to know your horse really well before you do this. Some horses are not fond of stuff swinging around their heads and will show you what it feels like to land head first in a pile of manure at the first opportunity.
So back to my story ... I was learning to rope from the back of a horse. Meet Big Buster, a big sorrel gelding that was super calm and really friendly. He was used to being a training horse so didn't even blink an eye when I started to swing the rope. It was the fact that every time I swung the rope to build my loop, I clipped his ears with the rope, just by a hair too. He gave me an air show I'll never forget. There's nothing like having your own little private rodeo with the quietest horse in the barn. I ended up, upside-down on the big metal pasture gate, knocked out cold for a few minutes. The fringes from my chaps dusting my face in the breeze. Didn't break anything, another miracle, but had to get right back up on Buster's back and do it again so he wouldn't think bucking the riders off was going to be a regular past time for him. In his defense, after I apologized for trying to trim his ear hairs, he was calm and quiet and let me try again without flinching a muscle.
That's my Stampede story for the week and I hope ya'll come back real soon, ya hear?
And don't forget to check your Compass.
Cole
No comments:
Post a Comment