Lately, because of so many other things in life—like being a wife and mother, training horses and teaching—I’ve let roping the dummy and having the rope in my hand take a back seat. And I saw the result of that with a less-than-successful California run that left me unhappy with my roping.

Identifying the Problem

I’ve noticed that I have way less rope control than I had. I don’t feel the rope like I did. I’ve lacked the discipline to spend the time roping and having the rope in my hand. Time is so limited right now, so I focus on my family, my horses, my rodeo schedule and the endless to-do lists. But just because I’m at a certain point in my roping doesn’t mean I can quit covering those fundamental bases. There’s no such thing as being too good or winning too much to rope the dummy.

As a kid when I was learning, I was always roping the dummy. Then, as training horses became my priority as my career progressed, I roped so much during the day that I could really feel my rope and control my rope without roping the dummy daily.

But now, I don’t get to ride or rope as much as I used to. I don’t have a rope in my hand all day. And I still haven’t been making the time to rope the dummy as much as I did. 

Jackie Crawford’s Dummy Roping Reboot Plan

To get my fundamentals and rope control back in line, I will spend at least 30 minutes on the Smarty. First I will rope close. Then I will rope from my normal position, and then I’ll reach. I’ll rope from right to left, and then I’ll focus on left hand drills.

I’ll probably throw 60-70 loops. I don’t want to get sore or hurt myself, but I want to give 30 minutes to roping the dummy. I want to just feel the rope.

Right now, as I’m trying to work on things, I enjoy roping it by myself. It’s my quiet, sanctuary time. I keep the kids while everyone else is in town, and let the kids play outside while I rope the dummy. I have the quiet time to think about it in my head and focus on things and just rope.