I’m always studying ropers and roping, whether it’s the ropers of today or the four generations of ropers I competed against in my career. There’s actually a lot of crossover between the different eras, and things to be learned from those who came before us—in my case, from guys like Leo and Jerold Camarillo.
I tell people all the time that the generation before me perfected roping to a certain degree. On the heading side, they perfected roping horns. And on the heeling side, they perfected roping two feet every time. They were extremely successful, and had a style I got to see and learn from.
The times were slower in that era, but there was a reason for that. The cattle were so much bigger back then, and the scores were longer. The big open ropings of that day in California and across Arizona and New Mexico were five-, six-, eight- and 10-headers, and it was a consistent style versus a speed style. That’s what it took to win.
Then a different style of roping started to emerge, and it’s just gotten faster over the years as the steers have gotten smaller and the scores have gotten shorter. HP Evetts started reaching at the rodeos, then guys like Jake Barnes, Doyle Gellerman, Tee Woolman and Speed Williams started speeding the game up. Today, everybody can knock the barrier back and reach three coils.
I mostly teach now, and often find myself visiting with students about the importance of consistency to their success. You can go back to some of the early principles from 40 years ago—the type of position headers and heelers rode back then—and the way they set up runs, and apply it successfully today.
To be a well-rounded roper, and if you’re going to rodeo, you have to have both games—consistency and the ability to go fast. You need to be able to execute a run where speed isn’t involved when it’s called for, even at the highest level. We see it at the NFR every year, because the average plays such a big part in winning a world championship.
If you battle your way into the race, you have to be able to close the deal and not run over yourself right there at the end. So those lessons that came from the generation before me still come in handy, even in today’s uptempo realm of elite ropers.
Regardless of the play you’re trying to make—consistent or fast—your horsemanship and roping ability both come into play. Your horse needs to know the difference, which means time spent preparing him for sure-catch and go-fast situations.
I still rope about every day when I’m home between schools, and I’m always experimenting. Some of those experiments go back to the days of watching Leo and Jerold, and seeing them ride into position and take shots. That was part of my process—figuring out how to copy them—and I can see those runs of theirs clearly in my mind, and still experiment with what they did.
When you turn in like they did, and get into a certain position, there’s a place where the steer can’t get away from you. And from that position, the timing gives you a chance to be ahead and not behind. Then if you throw a good loop, there’s pretty much no way a steer can get around getting roped.
I sometimes operate as something of a mentor or consultant for some of today’s top ropers. They send me videos of their runs, I analyze them and give them my take. Roping fast at that top level is all about being at the right place at the right time. It’s totally position-related, and about how you ride your corner and set up your shot.
Whether you’re trying to be consistent or fast, it’s all about position with your horse, and roping off of that position and momentum. The only thing that’s going to mess you up is being in the wrong spot when it’s time to throw. When that happens, you either can’t throw or have to take a bad shot, and your opportunity gets away.
Whenever my horse hasn’t worked over the years, I’ve looked at myself and found the problem. How we ride them sometimes confuses them. It’s sometimes a matter of just going back to the basics of timing your corner and getting to the right spot at the right time. It’s a shame there isn’t more footage of that generation before me. It would be amazing for the guys today to see just how good those guys were under those conditions.
—TRJ—
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“I had an old steer skull attached to a saw horse with baling wire, and I roped that dummy in the backyard nonstop.”
