Situation
First Round Texas Circuit Finals
Results
4.3-second run to split first with Manny Egusquiza and Boogie Ray; average win of 13.5 seconds on three head
Payout
$1,845 a man for the go-round win and $5,799 on the weekend including the average and second-round placing
1) SCENARIO:
The round was already tough. There was a 4.3 and a couple short 4s. We both were just trying to rope aggressive and try to win something. But our main goal—we practiced the day before—was to win the average and try to get to the NFR Open.
2) STEER:
Chad had showed me a video of him from the Finals. He was pretty straight, so I was going to try to let him go that way. But when he left the chute, he was straight left. I broke straight and I was kind of in a bad spot, but my horse is fast so, when I had to go to him, it wound up being perfect.
3) POSITION:
When I left, I was headed straight. So I’m breaking over to the steer. Chad handles steers so good, when he turned, I’m in the perfect spot.
READ: 5 Tips for a Smooth Entry and Smooth Finish with Wesley Thorp
4) THROW:
When that steer hit, he took one hop and I heeled him on the second one, and we got a good finish. I felt like I was having to go to him, but he was a bigger steer and really heavy on the end of the rope, which made it a better situation for me because he was waiting on me and I just took one over him as he hopped away.
5) HORSE:
That’s a horse I bought three years ago that my son calls Blaze. He’s 11, and he’s extremely fast. I bought him from a rancher, a guy that : all the time. I was watching a #9 roping in Arizona when I went out there in the winter of 2018. I saw him and asked the guy if he wanted to sell him, and he said he would. The next day, he brought him to Dustin Bird’s house, and I ran six or seven steers on him and bought him. He’d only been to a couple ropings. I roped on him in the summer of 2019 and went over the Fourth of July until Cheyenne and didn’t win that much, so I came home. I went to amateur rodeos and circuit rodeos, but that’s all he’s done.
6) CHAD:
It was so cool to rope with Chad Masters. I roped with him one time at an Open roping in Lufkin when I was 16. He drew me and had to rope with me, and he was as nice as can be about it. We had the first two clean and I messed the third one up—I was just a kid. But backing in the box with him and splitting the first round was pretty cool. I’d never gotten to enter a rodeo with a World Champ before.
