When using a rope in horse riding, it's important not to hit the horse with the rope, but rather to swing it forward and backward. Get a horse used to things flying up and over their body with helpful advice from a reining horse trainer in this video on swinging a rope in horse groundwork.
I'm not going to hit him with this rope, alright? I can just swing it here. Now he's getting used to the motion, kay? Now, I can also swing it this way, forward and backward, and this is good 'cause he's kind of looking like he's a little suspicious of it, but you just keep doing this until they get over it. You can start small, just a little bit of a swing here, and then you can open it up, feed a little bit more out, kay? But I'm not putting pressure on a bubble, I'm not moving my body to a spot that that sends him. I'm just staying right here and just creating motion. So he's going to learn to trust all this. Then when he gets comfortable with the move, then you can just let the rope lay up on him, kay? Now he's accustom to things flying up over him and around him and actually touching him. Now I didn't hit him with a rope, remember, I said don't ever hit a horse with a rope. It would be a rare example for me to hit a horse, now it, that'd be one that is trying to attack me, obviously, I'll save myself. However, when I take this rope and just lay it over across his neck, he's getting accustomed to a lot of things. So I can go this way with a rope, backwards with a rope, lay it across his neck there, alright? And I can go across here and there, alright? And then switch hands. I just want him to get very, very accustomed to a lot of things, a lot of movement and a lot of action so that he doesn't worry about those things because though I might not rope, I might not be swinging things when I ride, who knows that the guy I'm riding with might be, alright? So I want my horse to be able to deal with that.
