Quality Practice by Ryan Motes

Fast Back Focus

Now and then I'm asked about how to practice on fresh cattle. Personally, I don't believe you can practice on fresh cattle effectively. Quality practice is about teaching, reinforcing and instilling confidence in you and your horse and that's impossible to achieve on fresh or wild cattle. I don't recommend roping wild cattle if you have an option.

The best practice is achieved by roping a good set of cattle or a mechanical dummy. In this article I'll be talking about roping mechanical dummies, which provide controlled and consistent training and practice. This is how I start all my young horses and it's a great tool for tuning or correcting experienced horses.

If your horse is spooked in the beginning, follow the machine from a distance until he starts to relax and then gradually move closer. In the beginning I introduce my horse to the dummy at a walk or slow trot without swinging my rope.

After we've maintained correct position at a walk or trot, I'll start roping the machine at a slow speed. At this point I'm not worried about making a life-like run, but more focused on keeping my horse relaxed and in the correct position.

As my horse becomes more comfortable we'll start speeding up a little and make the corner as in a live run. After the corner, I'll slow him back down to a trot to keep him reacting to me rather than him developing his own pattern. If he starts anticipating and tries to duck or make the run on his own, I'll slow down and make sure he's responding to my hand. 

A roping machine guarantees the necessary repetition it takes to develop good habits and patterns.