How do you know if a rope horse is finished?

A finished rope horse is one whose responses are confirmed deeply enough that they hold up correctly across all cattle speeds, all arena environments, all levels of competition pressure, and all riders whose skill falls within the range the horse was trained for — and that standard, honestly applied, rules out most horses that are sold or described as finished. The clearest test of a finished horse is consistency: the same rate, the same stop, the same box behavior, and the same position quality on the tenth run as on the first, in a strange arena as in the home pen, on fast cattle as on slow. A horse that is correct under ideal conditions but deteriorates as the cattle speed increases, as the pressure rises, or as the rider's timing varies is a horse with a good foundation that is not yet finished. The stop is the most revealing single indicator of how finished a horse is: a horse whose stop is identical in quality every time it is asked — regardless of where in the run it is called for, what speed the horse is traveling, and how tired it is — has a stop that is confirmed to finished depth. A stop that varies is not finished regardless of how good it looks on its best run. The box is the second indicator: a finished horse enters the box with the same relaxed, patient posture at a busy competition as it does at home, and stands for as long as the situation requires without management. A horse that is finished in its roping is almost always also finished in its basic manners — caught easily, saddled without drama, loaded without difficulty — because the quality of training that produces a finished rope horse produces a finished horse in every context, not just in the roping pen.