Situation:

Winning run from the Cody (Wyoming) Stampede

Time:

4.1 seconds

Outcome:

First, worth $9,254 a man

a) Steer

They said he was supposed to come left pretty good. He was medium. He left pretty sharp and we got a good start. He was right there right across the barrier. I got one of those lucky clickers. When my loop hit his horns he kind of tilted his head back, trying to roll the loop off. I got lucky where the clicker was tight enough and it stayed on. He hit good and cleaned up good. It was the perfect steer that we needed for Cody, Wyoming.

b) Handle

That yellow horse handles steers so good. He’s big and strong. When we’re at the rodeos, I’m having to kick him out of there because he’s not too strong at the horn pulling the cattle across there, so I can go as fast as I want, dally, and kick as hard as I want across there at the rodeos. When my rope goes on and I dally and turn off, it’s like the steer just melts. I don’t really have to hold him up in the corner, I can just go ahead and turn off.

c) Legs

I always use my feet when I rope. I kind of kick and rope at the same time. When the rope goes around the horns and the horse starts to move, my left spur cues him to keep him standing a little bit. My right foot is kicking to get the steer out of there.

d) Heeler

Trey was riding his horse for first right there. He went all the way around him where the steer was almost under him. When you go around them like that, it allows you to throw fast like he did, I think. In that position right there, there’s no forgiveness. He was in perfect position to win.

e) Horse

Yeller is not made for every setup like Smudge was. He’s a bigger, wider arena kind of horse. He scores—might be one of the best scoring horses going right now. That’s a big thing for me. If you can have a horse that scores and leaves across there hard, he’ll give you a chance to win. He’s not a Thomas & Mack horse, but big arenas and outdoors, or jackpots—he does it all.

f) Left Hand

I always try to keep my left hand from pushing a horse to the steer, which is over to the right a little bit. In this picture, that is not where a left hand is supposed to be. It’s good when you have to rein a horse off like that, but you should almost be just crossing over. Here, I’m trying to help my horse get out of there. So, it’s always a good thing if you can rein your horse out of there. It just means he’s free and not taking your throw away from you. I’m just not pulling on him and making him go, I’m just kind of showing him what I want him to do.

g) Setup

The barrier is even. It usually alternates every year. The box is kind of long. Stuff happens there, so if you’re off the barrier, you’re going to run the steer a long way down there. It’s a big arena. For some reason, I don’t feel like there’s a lot of left over there, so when you run a steer, you’re going to have one that goes straight down the pen or one that’s off to the right. At Cody, I don’t really like one running off to the right. I feel like when they run off to the right they get farther away from you.