Tack Tip - More Than a Get Down Rope

  

At the request of several people for smaller, lightweight ropes for emergency lead lines on the trail, I have taken 1/4 inch Poly rope with a nylon core, usually 12 foot long, and fraying the rope at one end with a flat waxed line knot and braiding leather poppers at the other end to make a Get Down rope.










 




I keep several of these around, one usually handy to use as a catch rope where I loop the rope around a horses neck and lead him from pen to corral and such. The advantage of this is that's its much quicker than tying a halter and I think it actually helps a horse understand and react to neck pressure before you introduce neck reining.

Some riders will put a bridle over a halter but don't know what to do with the lead line except take it off and carry it with them. With a 1/4 inch 12 foot Get Down Rope, you can leave the thicker and more bulkier lead line at the barn and still have a line to attach to the halter for leading on the ground.  Because of the Get Down usually being a smaller diameter rope, a good way to secure it to the halter is with a double round turn. 

The Get Down rope can be used in the traditional manner, as the name implies, by attaching the rope around the horse's neck with a non-slip knot and securing the other end to the saddle. Be careful not to use a slip knot for the obvious reasons. I would also not use a rope like this when working cattle as you don't need a cow's head or horns getting underneath the rope when you have one end tied around the horse's head and the other end secured to the saddle. I use a bow line knot to make a non-slip loop around the horse's head.  If you were planning on leading the horse from the ground, you would tie the loop closer to the horse's head so the loop won't slip off the head. The picture above right is a way to carry the Get Down rope in a fashion that cannot tighten up on the horse's neck.  

The other end of the Get Down rope can secured to the saddle. You can coil the end and tie it to your saddle using the saddle strings - see picture above right. Or you can tie off the excess line to the saddle horn using clove hitch or a quick release knot - see picture below.

 

I have found other uses for a Get Down rope. I used it to keep tie open an otherwise one way Arizona gate so trespass cattle can be pushed back to their own pasture. I have looped the rope over a pasture gate that opened towards me but the vegetation did not give me chance to open it by hand.

You can just carry the Get Down rope in a coil tied to the saddle strings next to or in back of the cantle. In fact, many trail rider prefer this method and even though I ride in Mecate reins, I'll usually carry a get down rope in this method in case I have to pony a horse or something.

Horse Training Tools – The Lariat Rope, More Than Just for Roping Cows

The Lariat Rope, given the name from the Spanish word “La Reata” who Spanish and Mexican Cowboys (Vaqueros) taught Anglos how to rope almost two hundred years ago, is a piece of working gear for the range Cowboy. It's appropriate that we call the working rope a "lariat" as Vaqueros had and continue to have a large influence on the way we work cows and train horses. Lariats have becomes highly specialized with custom ropes for Arena Ropers in Team Roping, and Tie Down Roping competition.

In fact, the great majority of ropes available today are built for arena roping. Companies like Cactus, Fast Back, King, Classic, and Callaway among others offer many different lays (stiffness), diameters and lengths. Lays come in extra-extra soft (XXS) to medium soft (MS); from diameters of 5/16 to 3/8 inch and 9.5 to 11 millimeters; and in various lengths most common around 28 to 35 feet, depending if you’re a header or heeler. These ropes are a poly or nylon blends.

I like ranch ropes, which are quite a bit longer, 5/16 inch diameter, extra-extra soft lay, and with a metal (aluminum) Honda (the loop in which the rope is past in order to build a larger loop for catching cows and tightening), so I buy 60 foot ranch ropes from Craig Cameron (www.craigcameron.com) and cut them down to 48 feet, which is about as much coiled rope I can handle with my reins in one hand.

As much as the Lariat is used for roping cows and pulling them out of mud holes, or roping and dragging calves to a branding fire, the Lariat is also a great Tool for Horse training. I used my rope to catch up my horse’s feet and sacking him out on standing still if he gets his feet caught up in rope or wire. Saved me and one of my horses one time when we got tangled up in bobbed wire on a ridgeline. I was glad as all get out that my horse stood still with all that bobbed wire wrapped around him, so I could dismount and cut it away.

The Lariat can be used to safely pick up feet on a new horse that is troubled by handling his feet.

The Lariat can be used as an expedient halter, looping the rope around a horse’s neck then passing another bit on the rope through this loop and over the horse’s nose. Or use simply as a catch rope to bring a horse out of a corral or pasture or if you have to pony a horse - if someone with you fell and got hurt, or the horses became lame and the rider couldn't ride him, you wouldn't want to pony that horse out using his reins if connected to a bit.

I have also used a Lariat around my saddle horn as I climbed down an incline, to check on something, both to keep my horse from spooking and running away and to give me an assist to help climb back up. That’s reminds me of the old saying about a Cowboy getting bucked off his horse – he was so mad he made the horse walk back to the ranch all by himself. Safe Journey.