It’s the time of year when people tend to buy new horses, and I bought one recently myself. I think the main thing when you go to buy a new horse is to keep in mind your own strengths and weaknesses as a roper – including your personality and energy level.
For me, I’ve always liked a quicker-footed heel horse that would match the stride of the steer (longer-strided horses can get strung out). I’m always trying to nail my position down to the inch every time, and I think a more collected, shorter-strided horse can do that really well.
And I want a horse broke before I buy it. I want one that I can ride with just a chain or ported chain mouthpiece and he has good feel to his mouth and isn’t pulling through my hand. I don’t want to have to pull on something that feels like pulling on a fencepost. And he needs to be broke off my leg. I want to use pressure with the calf of my left or right leg and feel him lift up and move away.
Also, I like a high-energy horse to where I’m not having to overly push or bang on him to get him there. He needs to have the energy to want to make the run. I don’t want to be begging him to make the run every time.
But at the same time, I don’t like elevated, flighty type horses that if you barely touch their head, they want to come up in the front end. I want one to stay down in the ground. And finally, I don’t want a horse to have too much rate. You’re probably thinking, “I thought rate was good.” You’re right. If a horse has no rate, you’re in big trouble. But on a rate scale of one to 10, I like a horse somewhere about a 5.
The reason is because I think more than rate, what makes a great horse is the ability to stay focused while watching a steer. If a horse is really paying attention, you can place him anywhere. But if he’s too ratey, he’ll be grabbing himself the whole run. It would be like if you took a cutting horse directly to the arena and tried to heel a steer. He’d be picking up and rating every move of the steer, and it’s just too much. Former cutting horses often do make good rope horses, but you have to get out of them that tendency to rate every move.
We’re always on the search for great horses that fit us. Ice Cube has gone back to Jade [Corkill] and I have a 9-year-old palomino called Jaguar that’s working out really good. He’s good-minded and stout enough to take the hard jerks. And I have high hopes for a strawberry roan out of California that’s been to jackpots for eight years. He’s 13 and should be ready to go soon. Good luck if you’re looking.
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