Roping questions

Ok, please bear with me... I'm new, don't know what has and hasn't been covered before but I have about a million different questions running through my mind.

I'm left handed.... talked to a guy today on here that recommended learning to rope right handed. Are there any lefties out there and if so, how does that work when roping with a right handed person? Does it really matter in the slow working style of ranch roping?

In a rodeo situation, how would a lefty line up? Would you still use the area to the right of the calf chute or would you back your horse in on the left side? Are any of you lefties who forced yourself to do this right handed?
I have a roping clip of me... roping a sawhorse/stump combo that I use for a roping dummy in my garage. If I post it, can I get some critiques on form or anything else you think I need to fix? Yes, I realize it very well may be a novel in the form of responses... but I think I'm ready to deal with that.

Dallying.... that's just taking slack and putting two wraps around the saddle horn right? Why is leather wraps on the horn better than rubber for ranch roping? Should I be learning to neck rope calves first or like somebody suggested to another newbie in another thread, should I work on heeling first? How do I learn that with a pretty stationary sawhorse? My dogs already aren't a fan of me busting out the rope.

Somebody said learn on the ground first... no problem... I haven't been on a horse in quite a while so I've got plenty of ground to work with. I will have to look at my rope.... I think on my yellow wrap on the rope, the writing is rubbed off pretty well... it was a used rope but seems pretty flexible. That said, I have no idea how stiff of a lay it has. Anyway, I'll think of more and post more tonight I'm sure... but here is that roping clip. I'm sure its all sorts of ugly to you polished ropers but please tell me what I could work on.... thanks in advance.

Im a lefty all the way. It doesnt really matter which hand you rope with, if you are roping lefty with a right handed person (im assuming you're talking about team roping in rodeo) then your guaranteed to be the heeler, which is why most people learn right handed but whatever

You're still going to be roping on the right hand side of the chute but its easier for me that way because my horse can come straight out to the cow and I have the perfect shot for it, instead of having to maneuver my horse more. I tried it righthanded, but my horses are already trained for me to throw it off their left shoulders so they were having problems getting me to the calf for my throw.

Theres really no set way to learn, neck rope or heels first, I learned neck roping first because I was doing breakaway before I found a partner for team roping... as for whether to learn on the ground, I was out roping my dummy on the ground for an hour everyday before I rode and then I got my form down I was roping a dummy pulled by my partner so my horses could get used to it

I really want to do tiedown calf roping more than anything. I watched Fred Whitfield all the time growing up through my teenage years and would love to do this because he inspires me. I may never get there but I'm sure going to give,it hell trying. Speaking of which, checked the label on my rope. Its a Cactus Bad Boy, #2 extra soft. Roped for about another hour tonight. If I was looking to get into small rodeos or best case do well enough in,slack to get into the nightly rounds, what kind of time do I need to be looking at? Is that really putting the cart before the horse since I havent even roped anything live or even roped off a horse yet? Starting from zero, is it even possible for me to look at next summer to start or do I need to be,looking two or more years,down the road?

If you can, attend a roping clinic. A lot of mistakes are bypassed. Just keep roping everything you can, especially if it moves.

Do you usually have to have a horse to attend a roping clinic? The horse in my picture is not broke yet, not much more than a yearling and so if I had to have a horse for the clinic, that might not be an option. I'll probably just google it, but do you know right off hand if there is somewhere that'll have a list of roping clinics?

So... based on the advice to rope anything that moves.... I started roping the dogs again last night. They were pretty tolerant actually, especially since the neighbor kids came over and wore them out playing fetch first. It was amazing how much easier it was to rope the sawhorse that is not going anywhere after roping a dog jogging across the front yard. I think one thing that helped was that I wasn't pulling slack when I'd rope em... just let the loop settle over them so they could step out.

You could practice roping the neighbor kids as well! My son used to practice on his friends when he was a kid.

Haha! I was about to say that too!

I am a lefty that forced myself to learn right or rather my family did. It toke about 2 years to get my right hand as good as my left on the ground. Now about 6 years after I really started roping on the ground I have lost most of my roping skill with my left hand, I guess I reprogrammed my brain. I can still heel with my left hand but haven't found a horse that will for me as I do not know how to train a heel horse. You can heel and calf rope left handed no problem. It is actually easier to heel left handed. How ever you can not head left handed as you go out of the left side and would have to cross your arms to caught and could not turn the steer safely. The only problem other than my family I have incountered with being left handed is finding horses that are willing rope and trained to do so, also you will most likely have to order your ropes as few left handed ropes are carried in stores, this means you can't try the rope out first. More power to you if you do not force yourself to change!
Good luck!

I am a lefty too. I rope left handed and train all my young horses to rope either way, because my boyfriend ropes right. I haven't done much of anything in the last two years because my good horse ended up crippled and I only had young stock. This coming spring I will start roping and maybe branding off of my 4 year old mare. I learned a lot of roping with my old show cows. If I got in a wreck at least I knew they would give to rope pressure rather then fight it. They work awesome for teaching young horses cause I can always drop the rope get off, pick the rope up and go take it off their heads if need be. And like others have said practice practice practice. It really is the only way you get better.
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