Not everybody in the industry can afford to go buy a finished rope horse that's ready to go to the rodeos. Whether you’re a young kid learning to rope or an older team roper living on a fixed income, you might not be able to go out and buy the best head horse or heel horse on the market. I don’t recommend people trying to learn to rope and training a rope horse at the same time. But if it has to be done, it can be done.

Don’t just go buy a reject as a prospect. It’s important to start out with the right type of horse, because that’ll make things a lot easier throughout the process. Even if someone gives you a horse, it doesn’t mean he’s going to make a rope horse. The wrong kind of horse will be an uphill battle.

I look for something short-necked, that’s not high-headed. I also like a horse that’s 15.2 hands or less and somewhat stocky built. Years ago, you needed a bigger horse to head on. The steers are smaller now, so you don’t need all that height. Bigger horses tend to be longer-strided, which makes it harder because they don’t gather up and use their hind ends to stop as well.

We’ve always preached that you need an older horse who knows the drill when you’re learning. Sometimes they’re hard to find. But if you start with a young horse, you need to get him broke before you start roping on him. A head horse needs to be on his left lead.

Once you get a horse broke, start doing drills on him, like roping a slow lead steer or a donkey. You don’t want to rope hard-running cattle at first or you’ll blow one up. Tracking something slow teaches your horse position and how to rate. You can do this with or without a heeler.

When you do start running cattle out of the box, it’s important to start on slow cattle so you don’t blow your horse’s mind. It has to be a slow process, and you don’t want to run too many steers at one time.

Logging a horse teaches him how to pull. Start out at a walk, then trot, then lope. Circle to the left, like you’re pulling a steer. Use a little right-leg pressure, to keep the rope from running straight over his butt. You want to create a little bit of an angle with your rope, so it’s out away from his right hip as you’re logging him. You’ll use similar leg cues when you start pulling steers.

When you start with a horse with the right conformation, then do a lot of drills on him to get him better broke—be it sidepassing or stopping and backing up—then you’ve got something. It takes a lot of time, day after day, to build from one point to the next. This is a very gradual process.

After you’ve done a lot of the slower work, it’s time to teach the horse to face. I like to pull a log around in a circle, in the middle of the arena where I’d rope a steer. As I approach the left fence, I turn back up the arena, then face. I ask a horse to pull the log up the fence if he starts anticipating and trying to face too early. If he does that, I make him keep pulling and don’t face at all, because I don’t want him turning around until I cue him that it’s time. I do all this at a walk and a trot at first, and even without a log just to get him used to bringing his hind end around to face.

When I face, I cue my horse to start his front end around by neck-reining him. And as I get his front end around, I apply right leg pressure to make him bring his hind end around. You want a horse to rotate around his front end, and basically swing his hind end around when he faces the steer.

As he’s kicking his hind end around and getting squared up with the run, I sometimes undally and back my horse up four or five steps. That way, if you face on a slack rope he’ll know to shuffle his feet to get that slack out.

When I’m roping live cattle and have a horse that faces good, I undally right as the heeler’s starting to dally and drive my horse out of there. That gives him some strength and takes away some of his anticipation. I’m telling him that the only time he’s going to face is when I ask him to.

If a horse is physically talented and good-minded, it’s possible that you can be competing on him in six months or so. But if you go too fast and start trying to skip steps, there’s a good chance the horse will come unraveled in the box. It’s so important to go slow to build a horse’s confidence. There are so many little things, like how he’ll take trash blowing in front of him at a fairgrounds, the loudspeakers, the hauling and everything else. All of that factors into the equation. Be patient and take your time. It’ll pay off in the long run. STW