I thought perhaps a picture may help...

From your photo, it appears that the rose is doing very well and won't need any help at all. In the PNW in Canada, Westerland is a climber that likes to grow sideways, so you have it in an ideal position as it will enjoy going along a fence. The tall cane may look like the tallest now, but give the rose time and you will find that there will be other canes also tall. Westerland is a vigorous rose and should cause you no problems at all. It isn't wise to cut any canes off as the rose will need them all to survive. Just let it grow the way it wants to. Some people do take off the new buds the first year but they do it usually to give the plant more strength. Westerland doesn't need any help to grow well. Give it water and keep the soil damp but not soggy. After the first flush of flowers, sprinkle a handful of any type of rose fertilizer all around the base. You made a good choice so just sit back and enjoy your rose. Here is what you will see when it blooms.

Here is a link to a youtube video on training a climbing rose that should help you understand a little better what you are trying to get your rose to do as a rambler. When you load this youtube video, you will see several other rose videos by Paul Zimmerman & I suggest you also look at his "pruning & controlling climbing roses video". The main difference in training a climber is, you are training the rose to go up thus the weaving the canes back and forth, but for the rambler you are training the canes to grow horizontally along your fence without trying to get any significant vertical growth.

Here is a link that might be useful: training a climbing rose

'Westerland' isn't a Rambler. It's best described as a big shrub which can be planted against a wall or fence and somewhat trained as a climber. Many modern roses called "climbers" are really just long-caned HTs, Floribundas, or Shrubs. They can be trained to fan-out on a trellis, but can also grow as free-standing shrubs. Ramblers have more flexible canes which can more easily be wrapped around things. See pictures of it on HelpMeFind to see how mature specimens look.

:-)

~Christopher

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Westerland' at HelpMeFind

If you want Westerland to grow along your fence, just let the new shoots grow until they get as long as they are going to get, and have hardened off a bit, so they are not fragile. Then I would tie them horizontally along the fence. By all means look at the "training a climbing rose" link above and watch Paul Zimmerman's video.

Christopher is correct, of course - this rose is a climber (or shrub if you want to prune it to be just a bush), not a rambler. This is good if you want your rose to bloom all spring and summer and fall - that is what this one should do in your warm climate. Ramblers only bloom once in the Spring.

I would never remove new, healthy cane shoots on a baby rose - just let it grow for a year or two. Then you will have enough rose to begin training and pruning it. The advice you read that some people remove "buds" refers to flower buds, not new canes. From the looks of your rose, it is healthy and growing well, so I personally I would not remove any flower buds either - I only do that on very tiny, new fragile roses (the ones that are 6-10 inches tall).

Good luck with your rose - it is going to be so beautiful!

Jackie