Ranch Roping And Real Working Cowboys Take Over The Golden Mile Arena
Photos and Text by Robert Thomas
The Golden Mile Arena turned into the open range this past weekend as the Canadian Ranch Roping Association held their annual championships and annual banquet this weekend.
Ranch roping is an event that simulates the working lives of cowboys and farmers who use horses to manage their cattle herds.
On the range steers may need to be roped to give an inoculation to or treat an injury. Ranch Roping simulates this.
Points are given for the difficulty of the throw while points are deducted for misses.
Since ranch roping simulates on the range practices any mistreatment of the cattle or horses leads to point deductions and potentially disqualification.
This is not the steer wrestling or team roping you see in rodeo sports.
Steers are put down without the jerk your see in steer wrestling or team roping at rodeos as it is not what you would see in day to day ranching and herd maintenance.
The steers are switched out often to reduce stress and each run a different steer is selected for a team to rope.
