Learning to Rope at Rocking Z

Late afternoon at Rocking Z Guest Ranch last weekend saw a group of guests watching as Patty and Zack Wirth’s daughter Maria and her husband Ben did a roping demo.

Maria was actually driving a 4-wheeler and pulling a mechanical steer while Ben was on his horse (a beautiful horse I might add).

Ben is the type of guy that looks like he is as comfy on a horse as I am in my favorite cozy chair. He’s done some rodeo events and obviously can throw a loop and have it land where he wants it.

I hadn’t visited with Ben much but I did want to get a photo of him roping. The location where I was just wasn’t working. So, I asked him if he could circle the arena going the other direction. Then I asked him to just keep his rope loop overhead and not throw it so I could get it mid-air. My final request to him was to smile as he rode by me. OK, I agree that I was pushing my luck a bit with all of these requests and he didn’t say much. Then he chuckled and did just what I wanted! Yeah!

I takes a lot of practice to do roping. It appears to look like a fun sport but on a ranch it comes in pretty handy. Ben looks like a good success story with his roping skills.

Here’s another photo of some guests on their horses, just approaching one of the corrals.

Those craggy cliffs in the background have a lot of green showing, a result of all of our recent moisture. The scenery was great at Rocking Z – I could have sat on the deck and just soaked up the views.

What a fun day!