a) MENTAL

That first round, we kind of stayed on par up there just because it’s a different setup. We definitely wanted to place in the first round or win the first round to get ahead of the average and get some money won.

b) TIMING

You know the steers are going to be wild at Guymon and you know it’s going to take a lot of loop. So that’s what I focused on. Our plan was to pull the steer—I think they handle better like that as opposed to letting them hang on the end of the rope and fight—so Dustin stuck him and moved. He was taking big wide hops, but I tried to be aggressive and set as much rope down there as I could.

c) BODY POSITION 

To me, that’s about perfect. I haven’t really changed much. I’ve got my feet in between my stirrups, so that means I have weight in my stirrups and I’m squeezing with my legs, so I’m real balanced in the middle of my horse, not leaning forward or backward. Then same with my upper body; it’s not leaned way back or way forward. It’s just tilted forward just enough to where I set my rope on the ground, but it’s not swayed one way or the other. I like how I’m real square in the middle of my horse, and that means I had a good delivery and should be able to get a good finish.

d) SEPARATION

I think I can rope a little bit farther away, maybe, than some guys, so I guess that’s just because I was comfortable there. I mean, I have already probably thrown from a little closer than that, but he was taking a big jump away from me. My horse looks like he was working really well, so I threw. When I delivered it, I was closer than that, but I guess it just kind of looks farther away than it actually was because my horse is stopping as the steer’s taking a big, wild jump away from me. I’m going to have enough rope to pull my slack and dally, and it shouldn’t be any problem.

e) PAULY

He looks like he did perfect. He is hitting his butt like he needs to be and pedaling with his front feet, so it’s going to be forgiving for me to dally. It’s not like he’s trying to cut my hand off or something. He’s just really helping me, and I don’t even have any pressure on the reins but he’s still stopping. You know he knows what he’s needing to do in that spot when I don’t even have pressure on the reins, and he’s still got his butt up under him like that.

—TRJ—