I have spent a long time putting together a program and a setup that lets me do what each horse needs every day—and along the way, I’ve learned things from guys like Brad Lund, Gary Wells and Bill Myers who’ve shown me pieces of what they do to make great horses.

Here are some foundational pieces of what I do to make horses that can go on beyond my time with them to be successful with their owners at the jackpots or with guys going down the road trying to make a living rodeoing. 

1. All About Control

My program is about slowing things down to where my wife—a 3—should be able to get on most of these horses and head the steer. If she pulls on the reins and wants the horse to come to a complete stop or slow down, that horse should be able to do that.

2. Practice Cattle

We have a bunch of Holstein-cross calves—Jerseys—whatever you want to call them. I like them because they’re not really heavy. You can rope them and your horse can’t just get a hold of them real hard, so you can work on your horse’s control and body position without making them dread it or crave the pull too much. Plus, they tend to be slower, or get slower faster, and that allows me to put more control into my horses every step of the way. A lot of people want to buy fresh steers that haven’t ever been roped because, sure, they can be a lot of fun, but that’s rarely the best practice for your horses.

3. Practice Mentality

Some people want to call their buddies up and drink a six-pack and try to run steers. And that doesn’t usually go well. You’ve got to set yourself up for success, and it all starts with how you practice. If you don’t practice well, then you’re not going to perform well.

4. Diversify

At my house, we’ll score a lot, we’ll breakaway a lot, we’ll make some regular runs, we’ll rope and push our horse forward and circle the steer around us. We do different things like that so we have full control of our horse at all times

5. Tools

You’ll see a scoring lane in my arena. Even on a fast steer, you can let them out because the lane slows them down. Then you can go, or you can walk-start every time as the steer trickles down the lane. That forces your horse to pay attention to you and stay in your hand. Sometimes, we’ll sit in the corner and let the steer out and make the horse make a run up there. The next time, we might just walk-score and walk the whole way out into the arena. It helps the horse relax and build confidence. Kaleb Driggers has one at his house. It’s twice as long and has high steps in it, so they’ve got to slow down to go over it.

Dakota Kirchenschlager’s entire program is on Roping.com, providing comprehensive how-to explanations for all levels of training—from green horses to great horses and everything in between. 

—TRJ—