![Reata Brannaman gives TSB Managing Director some rope-handling pointers.](https://horseandriderbooks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/reata-and-martha.jpg?w=234&h=300)
A few years ago, TSB Managing Director Martha Cook and I each swung a rope for the first time during our week’s visit to the Padlock Ranch outside Sheridan, Wyoming. I admit, I thought about little other than the fact that the hands around me managed to do this at a flat gallop, and I couldn’t even snag a “sawcow” from a standstill. I promise you, there wasn’t even a shadow of a mathematical equation peering out from the dustiest corners of my mind.
![TSB Managing Director Martha Cook (right) and Senior Editor Rebecca Didier (left) struggle with the science of roping at the Padlock Ranch in Wyoming.](https://horseandriderbooks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/padlock-ranch-rebecca-216.jpg?w=1024&h=684)
Today’s New York Times Science Section had a this short video about a French student of applied mathematics who took trick roping to a whole new level–actually figuring the exact ratio of loop and the impact of the roper’s hand position. Check it out:
![Click image to watch the NYT video.](https://horseandriderbooks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-06-at-10-11-51-pm.png?w=1024&h=541)
Of course, when it comes down to it, just like for some applied mathematics isn’t “scary code” but poetry, for many handling a rope is just like dancing with a partner. Here’s Buck Brannaman earlier this year at the Dublin Horse Show:
![Click image to watch Buck Brannaman at the Dublin Horse Show.](https://horseandriderbooks.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-06-at-9-59-23-pm.png?w=1024&h=575)
Not many of us can dance like that.
7 CLINICS WITH BUCK BRANNAMAN, the acclaimed seven-disc DVD series that brings Buck’s teachings into your living room, is available from the TSB online bookstore, where shipping in the US is free.