Catch Rope: The Long Arm of the Cowboy (The history and evolution of ranch roping) - Hardcover

Erickson, John R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0929398661 ISBN 13: 9780929398662

Publisher: University of North Texas Press, 1994

Synopsis

For more than a hundred years, American cowboys made their living through the skilled use of horse and rope. Whole libraries have been devoted to the horse, but no one, until now, has written a thorough study of the origins and evolution of ranch roping - which differs from arena roping as practiced by rodeo cowboys.
Author/cowboy John Erickson studies ranch roping; and the endless debate between those cowboys who rope "hard and fast" and those who "dally."
Mixing scholarship with this working-cowboy's knowledge of the subject, Erickson tells stories of cowboys who could not resist fitting their loops on "things that ort not to be roped," such as elk, deer, badgers, bears, and bobcats. He tells of jackrabbit roping contests, and of cowboys who roped mice, geese, hogs, wives, or a runaway milk wagon.
Anyone who has ever "built a loop" or even thought about it will find this book hard to put down.

About this title

About the Author

John R. Erickson, born in Midland and raised in the Texas Panhandle town of Perryton, is a fifth-generation Texan with ranching roots back to the 1850s. He graduated from the University of Texas and studied at the Harvard Divinity School, but made his living on horseback while pursuing his writing. His "Hank the Cowdog" series has become a national favorite.

From Booklist

Erickson has looked at cowboy life in humorous, scholarly, and historical ways in his previous books for adults and children, which include the Hank the Cowdog series. He begins this rather specialized history of cattle roping by making distinctions between the styles of the vaquero and the cowboy in throwing, rope length, tying, and looping. Thereafter, discussion is limited mainly to pasture roping for transport, doctoring, and branding but does touch on contemporary roping methods, for which Erickson draws upon his own experiences to offer insight into how the cowboy practices roping on creatures and objects other than horses and cows. He finishes with roping records set outside the world of rodeos. Denise Perry Donavin

Edition details

• Publisher: University of North Texas Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0929398661
• ISBN 13: 9780929398662
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 174