Just A Reminder

by Teresa Fackrell

A couple of weeks ago, we were practicing roping in the afternoon. My son who is 14 has been roping for almost 5 years now. He was riding a 6 year old mare. Since our head horse is lame, we need to get a new one finished right away. He has been working on her for about a year and she knows the basics but needs to get ready for competition.

The one area that we really need to focus on is the box. We have all rode her in an out of the box dozens of times. However, every once in awhile she has a problem with coming out. She balks instead of moving forward.

Well he had roped the first couple of steers really well. She had came out of the box right in position and pulled the steers well. About steer number 4 is when the trouble began. She backed in the box but kept going backwards and getting deep into the corner. I was just outside the box and my husband was on the other side opening the chute. He started to really get after her with a spur. I told him to mellow out. Then my husband opened the chute and she wouldn't start. So he really got after her. This time she panicked. She did not know how to get away from him. So she started to slam into the back of the box to try and back away. She came up slightly so the first couple of times she hit is back against the metal rail. When that didn't work she slammed against the side of the box with his leg pinned between her and the metal bar. We told him to stop and resisted the urge to jump in there. She settled down and we went in to help him off.

The reminder is that sometimes you can make a situation a lot worse by jumping in the middle. If my husband or I had jumped in the box with the mare, she would have panicked worse. It was possible she could have made it all the way over. Then we would have really been in trouble if my son had been under a 1200 lb horse in the box. We let her settle and jumped in when it was safe for both of them. Remember don't run up on a panicked horse. Look for other ways to resolve the situation.

Luckily, nothing was broken. My son had to use some crutches for a few days for a smashed foot.

Of course the mare has had a lot of education about the box and balking in general. We also made sure to teach my son that there are other ways to resolve balking than a spur. Young kids and young horses just don't understand each other sometimes.