08/01/08 All kinds of ropes

Buying a good rope always brings a feeling of satisfaction with it, but buying a rope has changed a lot over the years. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to explain. You can buy more varieties of ropes now than there are different color patterns on Corrinete steers. 0nly a few years ago cowboys around our part of the country used a Manlia or grass rope. When the first nylon ropes were available they were basically one diameter, usually about 7/16 inch and they were about as pliable as a cable. It seem like the only way to get a softer nylon rope was to drag it behind your saddle horse for about a week or stretch it with a truck or fence stretchers and wear out about thirty rags and your hands rubbing some softness into it. Now a roper can buy just about any length, size, stiffness or fiber type rope. I haven't team roped for a while so I just grab whatever left over rope is hanging in the barn when I have some roping to do which gives me the excuse of a poor rope to explain my poor roping ability. Since I haven't roped for a while an article in America's Horse magazine by Patrick Hooks was really interesting as he was explaining all the rope types now available and which ropes were best suited for different roping jobs. Only one thing bothered me in the article  As Mr. Hooks was taking about rope diameters he mentioned 9.5 and 10 mm ropes. It just doesn't seem natural to use metric sizes then talking about ropes used on American ranches and in American arenas. I'm Jeff Keane. America's Horse August 2008