After roping, it is good to give your horse a reward and teach them that the rope box is a safe place to be. You can start by backing your horse into the box. Once he is where you want him to stand when you are ready to rope, drop your reins. This may take some time the first few times that you do it because most rope horses move forward in the box as soon as you drop your reins.
When you horse is standing still and being calm, start to take all of your roping gear off. Then step off your horse and loosen all of the cinches. This is the reward they are looking for.
Then take off the rest of your boots, tie downs, neck ropes or anything you could not take off while on the horse.
Here is an example of our routine.
Another thing we like to do in the rope box to make sure the horse is free in the box is to pick up all of their feet while they are in the corner. This stops horses from squatting in the box or freezing up.
Hopefully, some of these steps help you have a calmer horse in the box.
This really does work well. Dan's buckskin horses was so crazy in the box at times and when Dan started doing this it made the world of difference.
ReplyDeleteThese are great ideas. Making sure you have a calm horse in the box is such an important part of roping and being able to do well. I think so many people forget that if your horse is not calm and relaxed you wont be either and that will effect your performance as well as your horses. It really dont matter how great you rope if you forget to keep your horse tuned up and relaxed because the two of you need to be working together to win. Great advice and I hope to see more of these kinds of videos to help with problems in all events.
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