I’ve used Cactus Ropes for quite awhile now. I’ve roped all my life, so I can feel the slightest difference in weight and am kind of picky in my rope selection. I like a little lighter rope with just enough weight to it. When it comes to the weight of your rope, some people like a heavier, weighted rope to help the bottom of the loop stay on the ground better. Ultimately, everybody needs to find what works best for them. This is just my personal opinion, of course. When the heat expands your rope and makes it swell up and feel tighter, that blended rope compensates better for that time of year. I like a fiber-poly blended rope in the warmer summer months. For me, nylon ropes don’t react as much to that cold weather. In my opinion, winter weather tends to make the twist in a rope loosen up and want to backswing. I personally like a straight nylon rope, especially in the wintertime when it’s cooler. Regarding the rope’s materials, Cooper suggests experimenting until you find a combination that works for you. For years they made ropes that were straight nylon, and those also had a different feel to them. There are so many different kinds of ropes out there that you really need to experiment with them until you find the blend you like. The color of a rope can also be a factor, as can the wax and the dye blends used in a rope that can give it a little different feel. A rope with the different blends in it can react to weather conditions a little differently. There are different blends that each rope manufacturer tries to come up with to produce a certain feel, whether that’s providing more body, a quicker, faster feel or maybe even a little duller, slower feel. The kind of materials they use to make ropes nowadays can differ quite a bit. When you go to rope cattle, move up and use something a little stiffer, because you’ll be putting more power and speed on your swing. In the beginning stages of roping and learning to get a good feel for your loop-when you’re starting to master and develop a good swing-I’d say to start out with more of a head rope with a softer lay and learn to handle that roping the dummy. On the other hand, there are guys who’ve told me that using a more limber rope to practice and rope the dummy with helps them feel the tip of their rope, because you can feel the tip when you swing it and go to turn it over when you bring it around your head. If you get too limber a rope, the top and bottom of the loop want to stay too close together and it’s too flimsy. Clay O’Brien Cooper recommends a rope stiff enough to stay open. I don’t know anyone who really ropes well who doesn’t use at least a medium, which has enough body and stiffness to keep it open so when you place it, it stays open and gives you some open coverage without wanting to fold or close up on you as you bring the loop in and set it down. So I tell them to use as stiff a rope as they’re comfortable with that stays open pretty well. For the lower numbered guys who are used to heading with a limber rope, it’s hard to just start out using a stiff rope when they decide to heel. The range of people asking are all up and down the number classification system. A common question I get asked all the time is how stiff a rope I use and what I think other people should use.
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