In addition to attending to life's duties, Leo Camarillo provides roping instruction to students, and one of his recent students shares this story:
I am safely back and all in one piece albeit a little beat up and with a hole the size of a quarter on the inside of my right foot, put there from riding on my toes for two whole days. If you don't remember I was going to a refresher course on team roping cause it has been awhile since I have been in the saddle.
Leo Camarillo is know as the Lion of Rodeo. And well deserved. He has made 21 trips to the NFR. Among his records are 5 world titles, one all around title and 6 NFR championships. So if you want to learn from the best, go to the best.
He met me at the airport in Phoenix and the next two hours as we drove to his ranch was delightful. He reveled me with stories and escapades of days gone by.
He is in his mid 60's but you couldn't tell. He and his brother were born on a ranch in Santa Ana and his parents worked the Santa Margarita Ranch. His father was a roper and the two boys soon learned. He has taught the likes of Steve Wynn and James Cann.
In rodeo circles he pioneered today's modern approach to roping. He and his brother were the first to break six seconds in team roping. Now they do it in less than 4 and his technique was directly responsible for this in addition to the short lead time the steer gets because the arena at the Thomas and Mach is too short. From 1967 until he retired he averaged winning 1 saddle a month. (now I don't care who you are that is great right there).
And he is an excellent teacher. Now I mention this because there are lots of pros in all areas who excel at what they do but most couldn't tell you how they do it. Well Leo can.
We arrive shortly before noon at the ranch to be greeted by his two children age 7 and 5 and his beauty queen wife, a former cheer leader for a National Sports team.
He immediately puts me on a metal horse and pulls a mechanical steer up beside me and says with a gruff voice, "lets see what you can do." All afternoon I swing a rope and catch or miss the horns. There are three types of legal catches in team roping, both horns, head, or one horn and head. But the most efficient is both horns. This makes for a faster time and better handle on the steer. And Leo will have only the horns count. When I can rope both horns ten times in a row I can move to a live horse.(next post I will give detail as to the proper technique of taking slack, etc).
That evening I expect to head back to Cottonwood and the hotel for a nights rest but Leo and his wife Sue would not have it. They took me up to Sedona for dinner and a tour of Cornville.(yes that is a town in AZ). Then they let me go.
So today, gentle reader I will leave you with these parting thoughts(since a persons attention span is short and there is much more to tell, I will add some daily till the story is complete).,
Thumb always down until you dally unless you want to loose that thumb, stop looking at the saddle horn, never leave your rope on the ground, never get off your horse in the arena, always watch the steer, put your dally hand in your pocket, stop trying to float the horses teeth, I have a vet who does that, (these word will echo in my head till the day I die).(all of this sprinkled with salty words that would make a sailor proud).
So until tomorrow, thumb up.
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