a) MENTAL TOUGNESS

That team roping was fast, which I kind of messed up our first one a little bit. We didn’t make a very good run on him and went 6.2, so we dropped our way back into it. I think by this round we were probably 17 on three, which normally feels like a good spot, but we were probably somewhere around 10^th back. We backed in the box on the fourth steer, and I thought, man, if we could put one 4-second run on him, we’d be back in the middle of it. Jake Long and I have roped a lot together and we always kind of know what each other is thinking.

b) REACH

When I reached, I got it around the neck, and Jake really got up around him in a good spot. You can tell here that I’ve reached a little ways and still have a bit left in my hand—about a coil or so.

c) LEFT HAND

Speedy (Williams) spoke about the bridle reins being connected to their feet, and I’ve learned over the years that Speed is usually right. The way I interpret it, and what I’ve really worked on, is keeping my left hand connected to the saddle horn.

When I rope, I want to step wide and get out in front of the steer a little bit, where I have more leverage to make a smooth transition through the corner. Once I’ve made contact and have the steer’s head and shoulders coming with me—which is about where I’m at right here—the steer is set to the end of it.

I want to be able to pick my left hand up and have that horse take the saddle horn—so if the stripping chute is 12 o’clock, we’re working toward 11. Then, if I need to pick up and slow down anywhere through the transition, as the saddle horn moves to 11, I can pick up. At 10, I can pick up, and so on. You can tell right here he’s about at nine o’clock with the saddle horn, if you think of it like a dial in relation to the steer’s head. 

So there, that’s finishing the end of the switch and opening it up for the first hop. I’m trying to maintain where I’m at with his movement, then set him up to keep his front end going forward while I ask my horse to start facing.

You see my right leg starting to get out in the way, and I’m going to move it back towards my back cinch to start cueing him up to finish as I start coming out of the corner. Here, my left hand is more just bracing him up. I’ve asked the saddle horn to move and now I’m just controlling the speed by picking up smooth and easy. Ideally, I’m not having to do any ram-jammy, big moves with it.

d) MILLS

My horse is really bringing it back good, and that’s what I’m using my left leg and my left hand for. The trick, when your guy is up around the end of it and waiting, is to keep the steer moving without messing up the rhythm or timing. So we’re trying to bring him back, get him squared up and opened so Jake can set it down. That’s why I’m picking my left hand up here. 

My horse is doing a great job. He’s got his back left leg in the ground, and he’s bringing the saddle horn around to me, which is what we’re after. Mills is pretty solid about it all—he did a really good job. Having that back left leg under him allows him to pivot better and bring the horn around to me. He’s moving his front end while keeping his back end really drilled into the ground, and that opens the steer and gives your partner good angles.

As a header, as much as we want to believe we can control the steer’s back feet, we can’t. I latch onto the steer’s head, and I control the front end. By doing that, I give my partner the proper angles and open the front end on each hop. That’s how I give my partner plenty of room to put his rope down.

e) UPPER BODY

I had to work on getting down in my seat when I got my slack. I used to be bad about staying over the front because like Heisman, he can get kind of front-endy and get his front end down, and I always thought if I stayed forward then he would stay moving forward. In reality, it made him quicker. Then I started working on sitting down when I got my slack. That way, I can pedal my feet and maneuver through the turn while making contact with the steer. I’m almost in four-wheel drive—I can go any direction I want. Then, right here coming out of the corner, I like to move forward in my saddle a little bit.

When my shoulders are forward, I can get my feet a little farther behind me. I really want to use my feet to finish right here. I use my right foot kind of behind the back cinch so I can ask my horse’s hips to move without having to pull.

I think headers, as a whole, are bad about, when we start to face, taking our left hand and trying to bring the horse’s front end around. What that does is give the saddle horn back to the steer and turn the steer loose. That’s when you’ll notice the steer’s hips swing to the inside, their head goes toward the stripping chute, and you lose a lot of legs that way.

If my upper body is forward coming through the face, I can keep my left hand forward. That allows my right foot to move back and start asking him to face from behind, instead of pulling from the front.

—TRJ—