Rope Training - Left to Right Over the Hip Shot

These are the basic steps to create the Left to Right over the hip shot. This is the matching shot to the R/L over the hip shot. The biggest difference is the stock will be facing in the opposite direction moving from the roper's left to right. This places the heeler on the opposite side of the animal as the R/L over the hip shot.

We are going to use the hip (target) of the animal or dummy to hinge our rope (base) on causing the tip to travel back towards us to form a trap in front of the rear legs. In this L/R position the right handed roper has to throw a houlihan swing in order to rotate the rope's tip in front of the legs. A forward swing by the heeler would rap the tip behind the legs. A fellow would call that a "wad up" shot. Just wad the loop up in the air and hope for the best.

For this shot rotate your loop with a houlihan swing as in the picture. I use the phrase "houlihan, thumbs down" on the rotation of the houlihan shot. As you rotate your loop, swing the angle of the loop to match the target and movement of the animal or dummy. This is determined by how fast the animal or dummy is moving and where your angle of position is to the target. The loop size should be about 8-10 feet in diameter. Positioning yourself around 15-20 feet from the target works best for me. Get your ground work down pretty good first, the big loop will feel real funny on horseback. Especially the houihan swing and its angle to make this shot over the hip. You will soon discover it takes a nice broke horse to position itself correctly in order to make this shot.

Keep in mind the actual target. You're not roping the legs, your roping the opposite side hip. The hip and tail head will support the base of the rope and prevent the rope from falling off or down behind the animal or dummy.

The release of your loop is important. Toss the loop "out" and "up" so it can land "down" and "over" the hip. Your hand and fingers should work much like long tossing a baseball during the release. What happens next is very important. As the loop lands on the target make a slight pull on the spoke of your rope. This will cause the physical movement of the loops tip to travel back towards you and set the trap. Keep in mind you must let go of the rope at the time of release in order to achieve this. No different than releasing a conventional heel trap when team roping to allow the steer to step into the trap before taking up your slack. Take a look at the picture to see how the trap should look after the shot has been thrown.

Hope you enjoy the challenge of learning this shot. I learned it in about two sessions. Take your time and have some fun, it's not a high percentage shot but it looks impressive when you hit.

Always remember "There's one bit that works on all horses, a bit of knowledge". Learn more about Pat Hooks by visiting http://www.hookshorseranch.com/ or watch him on Horsecity.comTV.