practice. And as they became available, it seemed like they were mostly for heelers. You know, heelers always had a lead steer, or a donkey or even a goat. All we ever had to rope was horns.
Today, I really
believe that heading a practice steer is a great way to improve the way you rope and the way your horse works, and I want to help educate headers on how they can get the most out of their sled.
The one really good How to get the most
out of a practice steer By Clay Tryan
When I was a kid learning to rope in Montana, nobody had machines or sleds for
thing about a practice steer is that it seems to have a calming effect on my two good rodeo horses, who work at full speed all the time. Roping a practice steer at a slower, controlled speed helps get them chilled out. Plus, it doesn’t put as much wear and tear on them. I don’t need to waste those horses on practice runs – but I still need
to exercise them. By roping a practice steer, your good horse can get exercise and you can still throw some loops and keep a feel for him between jackpots. Here’s the other thing – if you have trouble getting your horse to go to the right, practice it with your ATV driver. Or if it’s a challenge to move your horse over with a steer that’s going left, you can practice that, too. It’s hard to isolate those situations on unpredictable live steers.
The other thing I’ve discovered is that you can make so many more runs on your horse using a practice steer versus a live steer. I’m not saying you shouldn’t rope real steers. But that was always kind of a blur to me, growing up, because everything was happening so fast. On the practice steer, you can slow everything down. If you need to change something, you can figure it out easier. With mine, I’ve worked on reaching, worked on
my horse and worked on just throwing my loops.
I like running about 30 to 40 steers a day to stay sharp. But it takes a lot of horses and the better part of a day. It just takes a lot out of you, physically. For some reason, my practice steer doesn’t wear me out as much – I can get more done without being so tired. Plus, it cuts a lot of time to not have to go get your rope off at the stripping chute. Roping a sled is especially good when you’re learning or fixing something, because you know you can go make 40 runs in about half the time. I’m even using my sled to teach my 5-year-old son to rope. I hope I’ve provided some ideas about how headers can benefit from a practice steer. For more ideas and some great drills you can do with Smarty, visit
smartroping.com.
WWW.COWBOYSPORTSNEWS.COM
Cowboy Sports News Page 83 - March 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88