Dr. Galley,
Several years ago I brought 2 horses that had hurt their back end to you at your clinic. I had just started roping and was really a novice and you did a very thorough job and helped them both. I remember that you told me that the ground in the arena has a lot to do with keeping my horses sound and when I described my arena dirt to you, you mentioned that I should be raking my boxes every few runs. Since that time I have really watched how the boxes are raked at the ropings. I was lucky enough to win a shootout in the #8 at the USTRC Finals and they had a guy that just raked the boxes during the roping. That is all that he did! A lot of the local jackpots hardly ever rake the box and I wish you would repeat what you told me back then so those guys will know how important it is. Thanks and I hope that you are doing better.
Answer:
Congratulations on winning a shootout. They are not easy to come by. I hope that you enjoyed the Finals and won a bunch of their money. You bring up a very good point about the ground in the arenas that we rope in, not only the local ropings but also some of the larger ones.
As you have noticed as you go from arena to arena to either compete or to practice, there is a tremendous variation in the types of ground in the arenas as well as the way it is maintained. This is especially true with regard to the boxes. Many arenas were built on less than ideal ground made up of black dirt or rocky ground or both. Rather than spending the money to have a proper base in the arena we often, in an attempt to hurry up and finish the arena or to save a few bucks (or both), try to take a shortcut and have 4 or 5 inches of sand hauled in and spread evenly over the arena without preparing the base. Sometimes a decision is made to harrow or roto-till the arena pretty deeply in an effort to mix the sand and the existing ground together. This can result in uneven ground that is a constant problem until it is fixed.
Some arenas are especially treacherous when they are wet, such as following a rain, and injury to horses is common in that situation. Still other arenas constantly have rocks working up through the sand. Many arenas built over black dirt get very slick underneath the sand when wet and become very dangerous. Still other arenas have all three situations involving the ground.
The holes that result in the corner of the boxes as the horses break from the box present a unique problem for the horses. Injuries to both heading horses and heeling horses are often sustained when breaking from boxes that have not been regularly raked and have loose dirt and holes in the corner where the hind feet are positioned as the horses break. As team ropers, all of us are aware of the tremendous power that the horses exert with their hindquarters when they break from the box. As you might remember, I spent 26 years caring for racehorses at the various racetracks in the Southwest before I started seeing other equine athletes at the clinic. I was able to study those horses extensively at the track and took many photographs and videos to document and determine how far they dropped their hind quarters as they broke form the gate. I was able to follow several of those same horses that ended up in the arena as heading horses or steer wrestling horses and I was able to observe them in the arena environment. In fact, a couple of them ended up belonging to me so I was able to ride them as well as photograph and observe them, both at the racetrack while they were racing and in the arena in their new job as a heading horse.
One thing that I found very interesting was that those horses actually broke harder from the roping box than they did from the starting gate. At first I thought that I was imagining things but I have discussed it with several close friends who are very good jockeys and who also are very good team ropers as well as excellent horsemen, and they felt the same way. Collectively we thought that the fact that a heading horse or a bulldogging horse has the advantage of knowing that shortly after the steer is turned out then they will be asked to leave the box, and can prepare mentally for the break. This is in contrast to the starting gate because they never know exactly when the gate will open and are unable to break quite as hard from the gate as they can from the box. Horses actually drop a little further in the hindquarters when leaving the box than they do when leaving the starting gate. That was pretty easy to observe and to document using both slow-motion video and pictures and I attribute the difference to the horse having a better idea of exactly when to break from the box than from the starting gate.
Interestingly, horses ridden by the lower numbered ropers and less experienced horsemen tend to break more slowly from the box than do the horses that are being ridden by the pros. In other words they have learned to protect themselves a little and we, as lower numbered ropers, don’t ask as much of the horses. Usually the lower numbered ropers are roping cattle that have been roped a lot more and have slowed down a little as opposed to the higher numbered ropers that are usually roping fresher harder running cattle that require that the horses break harder from the box and run harder to the cattle.
Heeling horses also dig a hole in the corner but it is usually not as deep and it usually covers a much larger area because the heelers position their horses in various areas of the box. This is in contrast to the heading horses who are all backed into the corner and typically break a little harder than the heeling horses.
As the dirt in the corner of the boxes get displaced when the horses break then a hole develops in the corner. If the hole has been allowed to get deep before making an effort to keep it filled and raked, then the dirt that is raked into the hole to fill it is much looser than the surrounding dirt. This often causes a horse to break stride or to stumble as he leaves the box. It seems that I have seen a much higher occurrence of hind limb injuries when this occurs. These injuries are usually limited to the soft tissues such as muscles, ligaments, and tendons but fractures of the lower limb can also occur as a result of these holes and the uneven ground that results. Injuries to the back and the sacro-iliac area are also very common in this scenario.
Congratulations again on making your first Finals. Thanks for the question and good luck at your future ropings.