Chad Masters and Joseph Harrison each shuffled three spots in the PRCA World Standings after adding a total of $4,440, moving Masters to 19th with 39,816.94, and Harrison inside the bubble at 14th with $44,686.26.
After picking up checks here and there at Pro Rodeos, Masters and Harrison turned their luck around and won the Sikeston (Missouri) Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo with a time of 11.9 seconds on two head, worth $2,641 a man.
“We have been piecing along,” Harrison said. “It hasn’t been terrible, but it hasn’t been great. That should give us, not any breathing room by any means, but it should make it to where we can get ahead of them (in the standings). That was a great rodeo. It was pretty simple to go over there and knock two down and get some good dough. Hopefully, that turns it around for our team.”
They drew a stronger steer in the first round and got it caught in 6.0 seconds to place fifth, worth $842 a man.
“Our first steer was supposed to be maybe even a tick stronger than what he was,” Harrison said. “Chad was going to get a real good start on him, and he pulled at the line and let that steer advance on us just a little bit. He went and caught and made it easy for me. I forgot all about trying to win anything. At that point we were just catching the steer.”
After knocking their first steer down, they came back solid in the performance on Saturday, Aug. 14. They split fourth in the round with Clint Summers and Ross Ashford with a 5.9-second run, worth $957 a man.
“Chad did a good job at hitting the barrier good and making it easy for me,” Harrison said. “I got to throw at the first jump on him. We really made the same run twice in hindsight. That was what we needed to do.”
Before roping in Sikeston, the team was getting distracted and had lost focus.
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“I think we were getting caught up a little bit in trying to go too fast each time because of how fast it was each time, instead of just catching steers. [Here,] it was more of catching what we drew, doing what we do, on what we draw. You can’t beat the draw and you can’t beat the other guys on what they draw. I think we got caught up there for a minute, honestly, both of us, trying to do too much and not just letting the cards fall where they fall.”
Masters roped on his 2017 AQHA/PRCA Head Horse of the Year, Madison Oak, known as Clint.
“Chad probably does as good of a job, or better job on him as he does on anything else,” Harrison said. “[That horse is] so comfortable and so familiar every time he backs in there.”
Harrison, who has been riding the 8-year-old bay gelding he calls Capone, registered as CRR Hurricane Fajita, switched to his 11-year-old sorrel mare, Lula Dual.
“That’s the first check that I’ve got on her,” Harrison said. “Every other penny that I’ve won this year, other than at Sikeston, has been on the bay. We were kind of looking for some more familiar stuff for the team. Maybe Chad was a little more confident with me riding her. He didn’t say that, but I’m just trying to do what I can do to try and get us back on the right track.”
Controlling Your Horse’s Shoulders and Hips with Joseph Harrison
For the remainder of the season, Harrison plans to focus on the goal of catching every steer that Masters turns for him.
“I’m just going to run the steers and try to do my job when they turn,” he said. “I think there for a minute, I got caught up with trying to catch up instead of just roping. Basically, that’s all this is. You just rope and do your job and when you’re done, it is what is it.”
