Length of rope shortly lifted over head of equine (5)
I believe the answer is:
noose
'length of rope' is the definition.
'noose' can be an answer for 'rope' (noose is a kind of rope). I'm not sure about the 'length of' bit.
'shortly lifted over head of equine' is the wordplay.
'shortly' becomes 'soon' ('soon' can be a synonym of 'shortly').
'lifted' says the letters should be written backwards (going up in down clue).
'over head of equine' becomes 'e' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'soon' back-to-front is 'noos'.
'noos'+'e'='NOOSE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for noose that I've seen before include "Bond" , "Loop with sliding knot in a rope" , "head could go in it" , "Loop in a rope made with a slip knot" , "Device for capital punishment" .)