Suckla Lessons and Tune Ups

04/26/2024

I hobble break every single horse I own. And every single horse that comes under my training programs. I’ve been caught in wire on many horses and they always stop moving immediately. Allowing me to get off and untangle them and step back on. It saves legs. 

03/29/2024

Today I started teaching Slim Jim to back out of a trailer. With the wind I thought it would be the best time to try. I like doing a lot of training in nasty conditions to get the horse ready for every situation. All horses struggle to learn something new, and backing out of a trailer is hard. Below are three videos where you can slowly see his progress. The first video will be attached to this post, the next two will be in the COMMENTS. This is a super short training lesson today, about 30 minutes. The reason for the short lesson is a combination of the nasty wind and him picking it so fast.

If you have any questions please ask! There is no such thing as a stupid question when it comes to horses.

Important Tips:
• Make the horse back up outside the trailer with you behind them to give them a reassuring small lesson on listening to you while you are behind them. Also make them come around to the bridle in each direction with the rein right above the hock. This makes it easier to recenter them in the trailer.
• Treats are your best friend 85% of the time. It’s a great way to give them a high value reward. If you listen closely you can hear me saying good boy, that is my small value reward for taking steps back in the trailer.
• Keeping your voice calm will keep the horse calm. Even if something goes wrong, keep your voice level and control your heart rate. Horses can feel a fly on their back and can hear/feel your heart beat. They will always react if you react. If you struggle with the tone of your voice during any sort of problems just give yourself a second to breath and relax before starting again.
• Understand that you are basically teaching a 5 yr old toddler to listen to your commands with little/no rejection.
• Understand that you are making a prey animal go backwards off a small cliff. They do not know where they are stepping. They do not know if the ground will hold them. They do not know how short of a distance the trailer is to the ground. When a horse backs out of a trailer they are giving YOU their full trust in where you parked and how fair off the ground the trailer is.
• Stop them right at the edge of the trailer, that way they never coming flying out. They learn to take a deep breath and relax right at the edge. For a performance bred or hotter horse giving them a few seconds to relax and collect themselves is an absolute must. The horse needs to be focused on you.
• Use long split reins to keep a safe distance from the butt of the horse, but short enough to give you complete control. (I need to get a longer pair, but I’m using what I have at the moment)
• A hackamore or o-ring are my favorite bits to use when teaching them to back out. They are easy on the mouth and have much more give for human error. I am using a hackamore to resemble the pressure a halter would create.
• If you are struggling to keep the reins from falling to the ground or being stepped over, try saddling the horse and running the reins through the stirrups.
• They may not be able to completely back out of the trailer the first few times. You might get one foot out of the trailer, that is a win. Slow is the way to move with a horse.
• Make sure you reward your horse with a release of pressure inside the trailer. You can see Slim Jim try to turn around a few times. Thats fine. I hold solid pressure and I jiggle the rein to make him recenter his body and refocus on me. Once he recenters and refocuses I release all pressure.
• You will also see me pop the reins once. I did NOT pop him in the face. I was making him regather his brain. Slim Jim has always struggled with a short attention span. Some times I need a stronger way to recenter his focus. You can also see him panic and try and back out without thinking. He then looses his footing and has to step back inside in a not so pretty fashion. This where giving a them a few seconds to relax and refocus at the edge of trailer comes in handy. Instead of him lunging all the way to the front of the trailer, Slim Jim knows that moment he is inside, with all four feet, he can settle himself and refocus.
• Horses will spin and jump out a few times. It happens. You can’t keep a thousand pound animal in a trailer with brute force, but a horse can jerk you and spin itself around in a matter of seconds. I always let him jump out but I don’t give him a release. I will reload immediately and give a second to relax inside the trailer. I am making the inside of the trailer a safe place for the horse, not outside the trailer.
• Once they can back out easily with you behind them, with no jumping or lunging to get back inside the trailer, you can start trying to back them with you next to their head. I keep the outside rein draped over the horses back to give me a way to recenter his body with both hands and not just one.
• Any trailer will work. With a slanted trailer I like to tie all the slants back to make sure nothing catches or smacks the horse. In my opinion, using a shorting trailer is much easier the first few times. Slowly moving up to a larger trailer with a greater distance to back out will keep the mind of the horse calm. If you only have a long trailer, start the horse where there is about 4-5ft to the edge. Then slowly move to the front of trailer over time. My trailer is about 18ft long with a 3-4ft tack compartment. So I could easily start him in front of the trailer, but I chose to give him more room in the front than the back to begin with. 

08/02/2023

Love this post! Works in all different disciplines of riding!

07/28/2023

07/01/2023

I love this! I have extremely long legs! And I have noticed that I have to change my stirrups to get the contact I need! Different leg lengths create different contact! My breakaway horse is tiny, barely 14hds and I am 5’11”, most of the leg contact he gets from me is thigh, knee, and upper calf. While my tall barreled 15.1hd c**t gets more knee, calf, and heel pressure from my legs! This applies to every type person that does any type rodeo/cowboy stuff!

The shape of the horse’s barrel and length of the rider’s leg dramatically effects the rider’s position.
A really wide horse will push a short legged rider’s knee out, no matter how much they try to rotate the thigh in. A really rounded barrel barrel (not pictured) often disappears under a longer legged rider’s lower calf and heel. If this is the case, they should just get used to the idea of not being able to feel the horse down by their foot, otherwise they rotate the back of the hill towards the horse, which pulls their knee and thigh away from the horse. Even a tear drop shaped horses (middle) might have this effect, but instead of turning the knee out, longer riders will often times lift the heel up to try to make contact. Narrow horses are often a dream for short limbed riders, but feel like a fence board to a longer legged rider.

The important part is to recognize that there is no cookie cutter perfect angle that applies to everyone.

If you see a rider with absolutely perfect equitation, guesses are that both horse and rider are shaped very well, and also well-suited to each other.

I’m not saying to use this knowledge to justify a Poorer position, but you do need to understand how each horse influences your position. If I ride a horse that is extraordinarily wide, I know I am better off putting on a hunt seat saddle and riding with a short stirrup, because if I try to ride with a long dressage leg it torques, my knee joints. We have one particular lesson horse that is both wide and round, and whenever students sit on him, I know I’m going to have to remind them to keep their lower leg off of the horse and keep their thigh and knee firmly attached.

Some horses are narrow around the girth area, but wide further back into the rib cage, and this pushes the riders leg forward. It is what it is, and just like a quarter horse or Tennessee walker is never going to compete at the Olympics in Dressage, a horse, with a difficult barrel shape, is not going to be as easy for accomplish quite as much as a horse with near perfect conformation. For 90% of riders it’s no big deal- your leg position will just be a little less than perfect. But if you have pre-existing problems with a certain joint, or are looking for your next Grand Prix horse that can score 75%, then barrel shape is something you should take into consideration when horse shopping.

05/22/2023

This video is great! It really shows how breakaway horses use their front legs in the whole run!

04/24/2023

One of my favorite ropers of all times!

Tip: In-hand Placement
The rope is a moving object. So when I hold the rope, I place my thumb in line with the strand of rope that has the hondo on it. I keep that strand between my thumb and middle finger, and I move with it. When I'm just holding the rope, I'm just holding it. The major pressure with the thumb or the pinky doesn't happen until I turn the rope over and bring it back.

💎 https://breakawayropingjournal.com/tag/lari-dee-guy/

08/18/2022

Check out My besties form! Looking amazing!

04/08/2022

Balance Exercise ⚖️
Standing on one foot without swinging a rope is hard, let alone standing on one foot while swinging a rope! When standing on one foot and roping you are going to focus on balance; in your rope and your body. When you do this exercise slightly bend the knee, you are going to use your knee to mimic the movements of your horse. Watch my knee as I swing, it slightly bends and straightens with my swings. This mimics the movements of your horse’s stride as they are running. Mimicking what you do on horseback will build your muscle memory and make it easier to rope horseback. The movement is very small and slight. Another thing to note is how balanced your swing is. When you have a balanced swing your tip is much easier to control and place where you want it to be. Videoing you roping from the front tells you where your tip is pointing, and if your loop is a solid. By solid I mean, a perfect, flat and balanced oval with the tip swinging right over your X(the spot you look at when you rope. I look at the connection of the shoulder to the neck, and slightly to the right of the middle of the claves back). If your rope is wobbling or twisting your loop is not balanced. Most people get an unbalanced loop from a crooked elbow or shoulder, along with over swinging (which basically means you are swinging too hard and your hand is out swinging your tip) and or too much wrist movement. Over twisting your wrist while you swing can also cause imbalances.

Overview points:
1) a balanced body is very important
2) mimicking the movement of your horse helps with muscle memory
3) a balanced loop is an easy to control loop

04/05/2022

Book an appointment now!

04/05/2022

04/05/2022

04/04/2022

Rising Stars Breakaway Open Average Champ 2019 only girl under 10 seconds on 4 head of calves

04/04/2022

I am now sharing the things I have learned and hope to help more people and horses along the way! Horses and cattle have always been a part of my life and became my happy place at a young age. Training is one my favorite things to do, because you can actually see the progress being made. You can train on a horse for 30 days and see a big difference! So please contact me for more info and prices for lessons and tunes ups!

04/04/2022

I started riding with other ropers and barrel racers in college that were or are champions. Learning as many different tricks and tips as I could. I still ride with different trainers and plan on continuing it for the rest of my life. As you can always learn something new! I want to share all the things that I have learned and am still learning about!

04/04/2022

After helping one person I realized how much fun I had teaching people. So I started reaching out to the kids that I thought would take my help. I started to help my college team mates in the breakaway and barrels and they started helping me! We would video everything, all go to the same house and bounce ideas off of eachother. We each started to see how different everyone rode or roped.

04/04/2022

At high school rodeos I was always helping someone! I would help the barrel races into the arena, I would get in the box with the breakaway roper, line the calves, work the strippin chute and anything else I could do. One day after the rodeo was done I had a girl ask me if I would come and rope the dummy with her, I said yes! When I started roping, she started asking questions and that’s when I realized that I knew 90% of answers. It made me wonder if I could help more people.

04/01/2022

I always had to work really hard in the breakaway. I rope the dummy on foot many times. I would wake my family in the morning, because I was roping the dummy. It took 3 years a very hard work before Stewart and I would make it high school nationals. Many buckles and money filled wins filled our dreams with high hopes of being great.

04/01/2022

Stewart Little and I roping a fast one in Clovis, New Mexico❤️ I got this horse in 8th grade. He was 5 yrs old and started on the heeling side. My father gave him to me, and with a lot help. Stewy and I grew into a great team.

03/29/2022

03/29/2022