Scoring Off Your Hand
When I did the first article on the No-barrier system I gave my opinion that all head horses should move off your hand. Evidently that comment prompted quite a few emails and even a couple of call. The question was how do you do that? To start a person needs to have their horses get comfortable with being pulled on while in the corner of the box. This takes lots of patience as lots of horses will get nervous when you start. I will put my rope down, ride in the box and just spend the time with tension on the reins and then petting your horse. Once they accept this in a calm way you are ready to start scoring him that way.
Before you start on cattle back your horse in the box, get him set, and pull on your reins, slight tension, and teach them to move forward when you drop your hand or release the tension. After they are comfortable and very consistent with this you are ready to move forward. Two things I would like to clarify, one is pulling means taking hold of the reins with a soft touch, and two is when you drop your hand you need to have control of the speed your horse leaves the box. You need to be able to walk, trot, or run out of the box. When your horse does all of these things easily you are ready for cattle.
When you load steers, back your horse in the corner take a take a hold of the reins and then release your hold allowing your horse to start walking out of the box and turn the steer out letting your horse keep moving forward. Do this until your horse will stay flat, relaxed, and leave the box at the speed you desire. This sounds easy, but it is very time consuming. You have to be careful that once you turn your horse loose or ask him to move forward do not pull on him as he leaves the box. If you pull on your horse as he moves forward it trains them to pull through you bridle and will make your horse break in the air. If this starts to happen or you can’t get control of your horses speed leaving the box, move your horse forward by completely dropping your hand and after he is moving stop him and back him up to the corner of the box. Many repetitions of this you will get the speed control you need.
In my opinion one major error people make when getting a horse to score off the hand is not holding on to the saddle horn when leaving the box, which makes most people balance on their reins and defeats all that your have done getting your horses to score off the hand. If you ever get a chance to watch Jake Barnes rope pay attention to his scoring as I think he is as correct as anyone in the box, which is one reason his he is a superstar in our sport. One more training tip is to put a short rope on your steer in the chute. You can build a snap that will prevent it from choking your steer. The object is to be able to open the gate and let the steer move about a foot without leaving the box. Snap the rope around the steers neck so when you open the chute your horse will see the steer move, hold him firm then drop your hand and allow him to walk out. This is a great drill for your horse and you, to get the control you need to win. This also teaches fresher steers to break slower, which will help your horses stay good in the box. I know there lots of information in this article in just a few paragraphs that may not be clear to everyone so feel free to send your questions and comments and I will do my best to answer them, or call 505-937-1065.
