a) START

I wasn’t sure which horse to ride because the steers were a little fresher. I rode “Guns” there, and I usually ride him at the jackpots and the longer scores. I didn’t know what the barrier was going to be. It pulled faster than I thought it would; I thought it was going to be longer than it was, but it wasn’t that bad.

We were the second team out of the whole rodeo, and I watched the first team go and the steer did not leave very good at all. I knew they only had a neck rope on them once or twice. My steer was amazing, though. My steer didn’t start great but then was just in the left lead, barely stepped to me and was waiting on me. It was a great steer. I got a pretty good start. 

b) LEFT HAND UP

When the steer stepped left right there, my horse was wanting to come back up the arena to get the steer’s head. So I tried my best to make the corner as soft as possible and not whip the steer too bad. Especially because our set of steers looked really good. My steer wasn’t a big, stout steer. It looked like what it was; it was a good steer. I tried to help as much as I could, keeping my left hand up and to the cow to soften the corner and kind of roll the steer around there.

c) LEFT LEG IN

Obviously, you try to kick when you leave the box, but right there, you’re not able to kick very much. Especially because that steer was better, and everything set up too fast. But as soon as I put it on the horns, I try to put my left leg into my horse to keep his shoulder, to keep him stood up and to kind of round the corner, kind of roll the steer around. So I try to keep my left leg in him. 

d) SQUARE IN

I want my shoulders fairly square with my horse, but my left hand and my left arm will try to go up the horse’s neck to keep his shoulders and everything up to where it all works together as soft and as smooth as possible. That way, the heeler can see where the steer is going the whole time.

e) SET IT UP (MENTAL)

That steer was really good. And being second out and it being an average, you can’t beat yourself. If you’re a little longer than you want to be, then you know the steer of the second round and can try to speed it up that time. So the main thing I was going to do was make sure that I was watching the start and scoring good. And it just happened to be that my steer was amazing, so I didn’t have to do anything special and was able to go 4.7 and win the first round. Whenever you are able to do that, it just makes everything else so much easier setting up for your second run.

—TRJ—