Veterans Chad Masters and Joseph Harrison survived a painful round of team roping to cash their first day money of the 2022 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, with the flag dropping in 4.0 seconds worth $28,913.70 a man.

That brings Masters and Harrison’s total to $46,997.10 a man after six rounds, with four more chances at the day money. They’re 11th in the average.

“I think that was a heck of a steer,” Masters, 41, of Cedar Hill, Tennessee, said. “I knew he was good, but he looked as perfect as you could draw one… I felt like I was late, but then I watched it and I was about right. I didn’t try to move over a little in the box instead of trying to break at the pin a little bit. I was going to let him take a good step, and maybe that’s what I was feeling. You usually only have to let them wiggle, but since I was going to move over, I tried to see a little more and I just felt behind.”

Harrison felt like he was out of position, too, but he made it work.

“That steer took that head rope amazing that time,” Harrison, 35, of Marietta, Oklahoma, said. “We’ve been talking about this the whole time. I give a lot of credit to Chad-Ro because he’s what we call a heeler’s header. He sets them up so nice for you. These steers are like race cars and they look like they’re gone. When the head rope goes on and I feel like I’m in such a bad spot. But then I watch the video and I don’t look like I’m in that bad of a spot.”

Masters opted for a horse with almost as much experience as he does at rodeo’s top tier. “Friendly” is registered as Haida Pine Quixote first came to the Thomas & Mack as a backup horse for JoJo LeMond years ago, and former NFR header Blaine Linaweaver owned him for a while, too. Masters rode him most of the winter in 2022, but after the run through on Nov. 29, Masters decided to go to Jimmy, the trusty yellow gelding he won the average aboard in 2017.

“I was going to start on Friendly, but I was afraid he’d get my rope. So I started on the other one, and I didn’t ride very good and he did get my rope. I was just a little bit behind him, and he’s been here a few years. They figure the play out, and in the next year or two, this one will too. That happened to Cody years ago. He was good here for three years, and the fourth year, it didn’t go good and we had to speed some runs up, and he was too tight from then on out.”

Harrison rode The Governor, his 10-year-old sorrel Frecklesinstantcoffee, by Instant Starlights out of the Smart Little Lena mare Lovly Little Freckle, and he doesn’t plan on getting off him over the next four rounds.

So Why Were There So Many No-Times in the Team Roping?

“You can tell yourself to just go catch all you want,” Masters said. “And then you get out good, you see your shot, you take it and you miss, and you’re so upset that you don’t have any discipline.”

World Standings Race

Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira knocked their steer down with a leg to be 9.9, maintaining their fourth-place spot in the average with a 37.90 seconds on five head. Tanner Tomlinson and Patrick Smith further closed the gap on the standings leaders, picking up another $17,254.95 a man for third in the go-round.

Full Results