Hello to the team roping world. Thanks for all the feedback on the last article. April has come and gone with strange weather and the start of the summer roping season. Thanks to all our old and new customers preparing for the new season with Siggins Horse Company. We enjoyed our visit in southern California.

Even though we trained and brokered horses for a lot of professional ropers we understand that for the majority of you this is a recreation and a source of diversion and fun. I nearly forgot that as I started my article this time with a little bit of negative mindset. For those of us that have occupations that connect directly to your fun, this $4 dollar fuel, $100 hotels, and $20 stalls is worrisome. There has to be a carrot on the other side, and how much you can win versus what you spend has to be a consideration. With all my road time this month I have been pondering the entire issue of what you can win vs. what you spend, the best paying ropings in the country vs. the worst, how this relates to handicaps, and how we might wind up roping on a local or regional level as a result of this economic downturn. But give me some more time to organize my thoughts in writing for next time, and I will try making it make sense. But yes I do want to talk about why some ropings are better than others.

For now let’s talk about getting you and your horse ready for the ropings this summer. I have had lots of people ask how much practice is too much.  Well it has been said so much that it is nearly a cliché but it is fact that success is relative to how much work you are willing to put into anything in life and that includes roping.  There are videos and articles galore on the Pro guys telling you how to practice and how to achieve a quality practice. It wouldn’t do me much good to venture off in that direction since obviously my opinions are strongly influenced by the horse, and that’s why you are reading this. With that said, I still worry more about the quality of our practices as opposed to counting how man runs we make and telling ourselves we are practicing.

Our horses are the same as us, in that, they need intensity without stress in their practices not just run after run. Speed Williams will lots of time spend one hour warming up his horses, stretching them, doing drills to keep them soft, and then run one or two steers on them. At the house we like to spend twice as much time warming up as we do roping and then just as much time cooling them down. I tell my kids when they practice to run enough steers on each horse to keep them in shape and sharp, but don’t rope on them until they work poorly. To prevent stress and overworking the good horse, I prefer to practice on 300lbs jersey calves for several reasons: one is they cost less and are cheaper to feed, two is the don’t run as hard and are a lot lighter on head and heel horses, three is when they sour you just haul them to the sale and get your money back, and four, the most important reason I rope calves in the practice pen is if you can handle one of them smoothly your handles at the ropings will be outstanding.


Your good horse should be ridden for him, and I strongly recommend having a practice horse to ride for you. It is great if you are lucky enough to have two or more good horses in your barn and by the way I can help you with that, but when you are practicing specifically for you, which one of those good horses can you ignore to focus on you?

Practicing for you can mean many things.  When we practice I want to have one or two things that I work on for the whole practice, for instance staying wide during a run or scoring our horses exactly how we want on every run. One rule in our practice pen is you are either practicing missing or catching and that will carry over to your next roping.  Practicing correctly to me means preparation for you and preparation for your horse, and that does not necessarily happen on the same day or on the same horse. Both are necessary to help your confidence in your ability to execute at your next rodeo or jackpot. You rarely see ropers roping good when the horse is working bad and visa versa. So in May ride your good horses less your practice horse more, and we will see you at the pay window this summer