Ontario’s first-ever ranch roping team recently made their way to Saskatchewan to compete in the Canadian Finals competition. The words ‘ranch roping’ probably conjure a few images in your mind: a rodeo, swinging ropes, cows. The swinging ropes and cows are accurate, but ranch roping is a slower form of roping compared to rodeo style and involves three partners working together to rope a cow.
While ranch roping in Canada saw its beginnings in the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the team is passionate about growing the sport in Ontario. Kelsey Loft, one of the team members, says that ranch roping can benefit horse handling and overall roping skills.
“It’s like a much slower form of roping versus the typical rodeo-style breakaway team roping that everybody, especially in Ontario, sees,” Loft says. “In Ontario, actually, we have a new adaptation of it.” There’s a breakaway class, which has very limited trotting or jogging and no loping. You rope your cow and then break away with your rope. There’s also a modified class, which is similar but doesn’t include the breakaway. There’s also variation that’s currently sanctioned with the Canadian Ranch Roping Association involves having you rope the head and the heel, then dally your rope around your saddle horn. A ground person then gets off their horse and adjusts the rope so that the head rope goes around the front feet of the cow, and the back rope goes around both back feet, if they weren’t already.
You get assessed a time, as well as scores for the types of loops that you throw. Extra points are awarded for being under two minutes and for throwing more complicated loops.
Ontario gets a team
A group of people have been passionately championing the sport in Ontario, including coach Harry Hodges and team members Samantha McFayden (who also runs team penning clinics for English riders with Loft), Kelsey Loft, and Kristen Rapson, who have been involved since the early days. Hodges and McFayden have been running clinics and events all over Ontario for the last couple of years, trying to get people involved as much as they can and engage new participants. “It’s been a slower process,” Loft says, “but it’s catching on.
“Sometimes it can be difficult, because people see that it’s slower and don’t think it’s as technical as rodeo roping,” Loft says. On the flip side, a lot of people love it because they don’t want to go fast, or because they may have a horse that can’t physically or mentally handle going into a box and coming out at full tilt.
Team Ontario at the Finals in Moose Jaw.
Loft also competes in team roping and breakaway roping. She finds ranch roping helps to calm her horse down and get back to the basics, which in turn helps her in those other sports.
“I find it translates really well,” Loft says. “I’m so much better handling my rope now, I can take those longer shots.”
If your farm has cattle on it, it can also help prepare you for working situations that may come up. “If you have to have to handle the cattle at all, you are learning the skills to build up to being able to do that,” Loft says.
Journey to Canadian Finals
This year, for the first time, the group was able to go as an Ontario team to the Canadian Ranch Roping Association (CRRA) Finals, held in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan from September 14-15. Team Ontario had eight people compete at Finals. The Ontario team received a lot of support from the CRRA, says McFayden, and fellow competitors in Moose Jaw loaned them horses so that they could fly in and compete this year.
Though the entire team was nervous, Loft says, it ended up going really well. “We all did much better than we had expected to do, and we learned a lot as well,” Loft says.
Loft achieved reserve champion status in the novice division, while Carlye Reid placed 4th novice overall; Kristen Rapson, 10th novice overall; Broderick Johnston, 8th novice overall; Emma Christoforou, lowest score of the novice finals; and Miguel Aguilar, 10th open overall and open best loop.
During Finals, Aguilar threw and landed an ocean wave loop, a difficult trick shot which McFayden describes as a “pretty big deal.” “Everybody in the arena went crazy” when he landed it, Loft says.
In addition to their achievements, the team also enjoyed making memories together during their trip to Saskatchewan. One of the most memorable for Loft was when they had landed in Moose Jaw and were at their Airbnb one night. They were looking for a way to practice their roping, and ended up using a wooden construction sawhorse. “We were roping in the back alley,” Loft says. “The neighbours were looking at us a little funny.”
The team plans to go to Finals again next year, Loft says, “as long as we can all make it work.”
How to get involved
If you’re interested in taking up ranch roping, Loft encourages people to check out the Facebook group Ontario Ranch Roping Association, or go to Restoration Ranch Events to watch for upcoming clinics.
“They can also reach out to Harry, Sam, myself, and I’m sure we can get them to a clinic to be able to learn,” Loft says. “They can always come out to roping and just see if they like it. And then we can go from there.”
