Tips on Training Roping Steers and Keeping Them Fresh
Training:
By Mel Gnatkowski
- Start by showing the steer where home is.
In groups of 4 or 5, run the steers through the chute, down the arena, into the
catch pen and back up the alley. Make 3 or 4 circles until they know how to get
out of the arena.
- Next circle them a couple of times, making them go through the stripping
chute.
- The first couple of times a steer is caught, steer-stop him before he is
heeled.
- Then release them individually out of the chute with a header and heeler
following them all of
the way out of the arena.
- Train your steers with both the header and heeler in the proper position to
teach your steer to run
straight.
- Track fresh steers a half or two-thirds of the way down the arena before you
catch them and they
will have more heart and last longer after they are trained. A steer that is
caught just out of the
chute will give up and quit running.
Keeping Them Fresh:
- Just like your horse, your steer is a high performance athlete. Feed your
steer high quality hay.
True Corrientes are not small because they are starved, they are genetically
small. Your steer
needs high quality feed and clean water to perform at his best.
- Don't do anything to take away a steer's enthusiasm. Never rope your steers
completely out.
Give them time to rest.
- Always use horn wraps, preferably those with ear protection. Sore horns and
ears teach a steer
to duck.
- No fishing on practice runs. The rope bouncing on the steer's head will cause
him to bob his
head until the rope falls off. He has now learned to duck the rope. If the
header doesn't make a
clean catch, flip the rope off the steer's head.
- The header should avoid turning off on a neck catch. Neck catches choke the
steer and create a
dragger.
- Don't stretch your steers. If the heeler wants to dally, then the header
should un-dally and let the
steer come tight with only his own weight on the heeler's rope. The header can
face without
stretching the steer.
- Steer stopping is hard on trained steers, it teaches them to stop and drag. If
you use a break-
away rope you can build the steer's confidence while still stopping and working
your hose.
- If the heeler hasn't caught by the time the header reaches the fence, call it
good. The steer's goal
is to make it to the stripping chute. When you reach the fence and turn away
from the stripping
chute, he will learn to drag because he wants to go the opposite direction.
- Taking your rope off in the arena will teach your steers to quit after being
caught and this will
lead to dragging. If you take the rope off in the stripping chute, you teach
them that the run is not
over until they reach the stripping chute.
- Always take the horn wraps off when finished roping. The old adage is true,
"If you don't have
time to take the horn wraps off, you don't have time to rope." Sweat and
moisture under the horn
wraps will make the steer's head sore.
- Rather than taking the horn wraps off in the stripping chute, run them through
one more time
and take them off in the roping chute. This will reward them for coming up the
alley.
- Pain and discomfort teach steers bad habits. If your steers have bad habits,
look at how you
have treated them and ask yourself what happened to make them that way.
Well-trained steers
that are treated right will last a long time.
Have a tip we missed? E-Mail us with your tip
info@corrientecattle.org
