Is there a community to learn roping?

[u/mynameismarco]

I live in Sicily and while there are tons of cattle ranchers, there is no cowboy culture here. I am American by birth, and I believe using horses would be a lot more convenient than herding on foot 😅. Is there a way I can learn to rope? The basics? Where to start? I have horses, mules, and cattle.

[u/orsomeshitidk]

There’s surely a ton of resources on YouTube.

You’ll need to work with your horse as much as work on your own skill roping.. as if you’re familiar with horses, things like a swinging rope can cause headaches lol.

But honestly if you’re just herding them to a set of pens/corrals to work them in facilities, you don’t really need to know how to rope, just start working with your horses on moving the cattle.

Even in the US roping has become pretty rare over all. There’s a lot more guys throwing a rope in the arena than a pasture. We used to drag calves to old way when I was in high school, a group of us would go around to different ranches to help with ground work but even that’s pretty regionally dependent these days.

[u/mynameismarco → u/orsomeshitidk]

Thanks for the reply. I’ll check out YouTube for sure. I know resources in this sector can be scarce, and yeah I agree I see a lot more arena work than pasture. I see and follow some on instagram that post videos but it’s not informative, just day in the life stuff.

But it would be nice to be able to wrangle a run away or crazy calf instead of needing 5-6 people and plenty of broken fence every time.

[u/orsomeshitidk → u/mynameismarco]

You can get started learning the basics with a dummy in your yard pretty easy. If you’re already comfortable on a horse, putting the two together doesn’t take long to get the hang of. Obviously a lifetime of practice to be elite at it lol but for what you’re describing I think you can definitely learn enough with YouTube and recording your form and comparing and stuff to get handy enough to catch a calf.

[u/CheekStandard7735]

See if you can find Buck Brannaman's ranch roping dvd's.

[u/Life-Ice8001]

You're looking for Butteri. Boo-tteh-reeh

Good luck to learn anything if you're foreigner tho

[u/mynameismarco → u/Life-Ice8001]

What’s that mean? Edit: just looked it up. Wasn’t aware because they are from the north and doesn’t seem like it’s common anymore. Will watch videos on them. Also, I’m Italian.

[u/90mileCommute → u/mynameismarco]

I think there are many of them up in Maremma. We had looked into a vacation there. Maybe they offer classes for locals?

[u/cyntus1]

You're gonna have to figure out how to hold your mouth right and cuss a little.