Reata Brannaman gives TSB Managing Director some rope-handling pointers.
Reata Brannaman gives TSB Managing Director Martha Cook some rope-handling pointers.

 

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.
TSB Managing Director Martha Cook (far right) and Senior Editor Rebecca Didier (far left) struggle to learn the science of roping at the Padlock Ranch in Wyoming.

 

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.
Click image to watch the NYT video.

 

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.
Click image to watch Buck Brannaman at the Dublin Horse Show.

 

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.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO TRAILERS