With fall horse sales gearing up, it’s a good time to talk about what you might be looking for in a horse. What I’ve found is that you might not even know for sure. If that’s the case, you need to ride some really good horses to get an idea.
If you can find someone to let you ride a horse like Switchblade, you can get a great idea what your horse is actually supposed to do. For instance, you might notice a really good heel horse start dropping its hind end more than you expected, and it might make you realize that your own horse should be getting collected earlier – or the horse you want to buy.
I always say that if you’re fortunate enough to find and buy an experienced horse, that’s the one that can teach you so much about certain parts of the run. If you’re not sure what you want to buy, I can’t stress enough how much it might help to get on several horses. The whole time, you have to keep in mind your own style of riding.
For instance, "Switchblade" rates the corner nicely, but he’s also very honest and free. I’ve seen guys who really like to use their feet get on my horse and come in there completely on top of steers. On the other hand, we have a palomino named "Nugget" that a guy can get on and really be pushing in the corner, and that horse will stay off cattle and keep his spacing.
On that horse, you can keep hustling and swinging hard and never get too close. They’re both good horses, but one will fit you and one will not. Until you get on two opposites, sometimes you don’t know how big a difference it makes.
So try to find a friend or some people with some horses for sale, and get on three or four different kinds. For instance, I’ve found that a longer-strided horse gets me to slowing my swing down too much. On a shorter-strided horse, I’m better at keeping the energy and speed built up in my rope. So if you tend to have too much energy in your swing, maybe a medium- to longer-strided horse will be perfect.
Here’s another thing – a lot of people think they want a hard-stopping horse. For me, a quick and hard stop is different than a reining-like stop. You don’t want one to slide forever, but it does help if the horse will take at least one step forward with both front feet as he’s stopping.
What you don’t want is a horse that feels braced up as he stops, because that can hurt your roping. When a horse feels like he’s jamming or stopping on his front end, a lot of times you’ll end up forcing your delivery and your loop will collapse or slam into its target. Instead, find a smooth stopper and watch your delivery improve. That’s just smart roping.
For more, visit SmartRoping.com.