Home   |   Contact Us   |   About Speed   |   Sign In   |   Register Now Submit Questions to Speed Review Past Questions/Answers! Ask Speed   Q: I've trained horses all my life but never for roping. I have 2 mares that I think would make good roping horses, so can you give me some tips on this? A: The best thing you can do is to start them slow. The mechanical cows are great for this because you can have your four wheeler driver go at a nice constant slow speed so you can teach the horse to come out of the box quiet & calm, and just lope behind the dummy in the position you would be in to rope it. Teaching them to rate a mechanical dummy is much better at first. When you switch to steers, be sure to use slow ones. You don't want to start your horses off on fast steers because that's going to make them really jumpy in the box. You can also view a more short video, "Feeding Your Rope." (Click Here to View Video) - Speed Q: I was wondering when you roping where should your hand be when your turning the rope. Say for instance, when your wrist turns over if it was on a clock what time would it be. A:I'm not all that concerned with where your hand is when your wrist turns over, because whats more important is a nice smooth swing. Concentrate more on making your swing smooth, with the rope going evenly over the tips of both horns when you're roping the dummy. Don't drastically turn your wrist over at any one point because that's going to really change the way the rope is traveling. - Speed Q: I have a horse that is very very awesome horse but he jumps at the barrier. Is there anything i can do to try and stop him? I've been walking him through it and I'm really trying to work with him but he still kind of jumps at it. - Thanks, Josh A: I see a lot of people walking their horses through the barrier, and they let their horse's chest hit it before the rope is dropped. Make sure you're not doing this. You don't want your horse's chest hitting the barrier even at a walk, because then he'll think he's going to hit it at the run, and this can scare some horses. Start by having someone drop the barrier (as you are walking out of the box) when your horse is still several feet back from it. Do this over & over letting your horse get a bit a closer each time, and after awhile you should be OK, but don't think you can fix this overnight. Remember... there are no quick fixes when it comes to training horses. It may take hundreds of times before your horse is comfortable with it, but if you work at it, you'll get there. - Speed Home   |   Contact Us   |   Shop on Line   |   © SW Western Products, LLC Webste by Creative Impressions Marketing, LLC