When I was younger, I came from a “horse” family, but not necessarily a “rodeo” family. So, when I began practicing roping events, I was always trying to make up for lost time. In the practice pen, there was never really much discussion of horsemanship, but we were always focusing on getting more repetitions with my roping. Over the years, I began to realize that when I was in position, my catch percentage was much higher. That’s when I started to shift my mindset from roping for myself to roping for my horse.

Being a better horsemen starts with understanding where you’re at right now—with your skill level and your horse’s understanding. Then, you must identify where you want to get to and come up with a plan for how to get there.

For example, if you want to have a horse that is great at scoring in the roping events, you have to have a program that helps to develop that. In roping events, we tend to put our horses in a situation that naturally creates some anxiety when we back into the corner. We apply pressure in the mouth, expecting them to stand still, yet going from zero to thirty in a matter of seconds. This pressure is not necessarily what causes a lot of horses to “blow up” in the corner over time. Rather, it is our inconsistency with reinforcing correct fundamentals that causes the blow up.

If you don’t correct your horse’s mistake at the time the mistake occurs, you are reinforcing a bad habit. A mistake essentially transforms into a repetition that continues to create an undesirable outcome. When you’re establishing and creating habits, the foundation and fundamentals of slow work—or putting your hand down and letting your horse get into position—is what makes all the difference.

Many people fall to the assumption that once their horse is “good,” the training stops there. But, this simply isn’t true. The better you get, the more steps it takes to get even better. You can’t do too many correct repetitions. You can’t have your horse “too good.”

The number one thing that separates a good roper from a great roper is a great horse. Ask yourself—are you doing something every day to help your horse get better? If you’re not getting better, you’re going backwards. Sometimes, this requires going back to some of the most basic fundamentals and reinforcing correct habits.