I try to
stay in touch with my pro-roper friends and keep abreast of how they are doing
through the course of the year. I also
make my own observation of how things are going for them, and I try to analyze
it all with a new-age perception, so I can be “instructor-mental” (coach-like)
in a more positive, supportive way. Today’s
pro- and open-level team roping competition is so fierce, the ranking latter is
a turbulent climb, so to be more constructive and assisting to their situation,
I have to mentally put myself in their position and direct from a whole new perspective.
I’ve been a
perpetual student of the team-roping game since I swung my first loop, and
while my aim is always at progression, my motive is always the same. Raised as a working hand for large cattle
companies under the direction of my father, I learned right quick that it was
better, easier, and more fun to get off the ground and work a horseback—a
privileged position earned, not handed. Dad
was a militant leader and a stickler for proper mechanics regarding riding,
roping and handling cattle. If you were
promoted to horseback, especially as a kid amongst the men, one slight slip-up,
be it roping a leg, missing a headshot (anything other than two horns was a
miss) or a dally, catching too far from the fire, etc., demoted you back to
ground crew, and that was that. There
was no mucking around. Dad was impatient,
demanding and adamant about good cowboy ethics which have been ingrained in me for
life. And though it wasn’t much fun for
a kid, his military discipline got me to the pay-window (at the rodeos) on a
regular basis fulfilling my main motive.
Today’s professional
team roping has evolved into what I call “arena-style”. Based on catching rather than trapping the
strategy seems more rope than any other factor.
The extreme ideas, though amazing when successful, have always impressed
me as high-risk flamboyance in regards to average winning that borders on careless
disgrace. However, last month at the
USTRC finals in Oklahoma I caught firsthand, eye-to-eye sight of what really
goes on in the deep open-roping waters, and it was an unbelievable awakening. The clouds pealed back, and I saw into the
heavens of arena team roping. As the
angels sung I watched the speed, the long shots, the ducks and dives; every
header taking a down-town shot, be it right from the box or at the back end of
the arena, reaching and cracking horns and by the threads of their tassel
dallies lock the steer on a long length of rope in a tight, ideal handle for
their modern-day, progressive healers, all with confident flair. The boys from the phenomenal district served
up their refined variety of extreme arena team roping a la mode, and it was
exquisite.
Yes, there
were heartbreaking consequences as horses ducked out and ropes were lost, and
all the usual mayhem. Definitely, it’s
frustrating to watch pro after pro make a hasty miss in the heat of battle,
because we expect their professional perfection, and team roping is about
“roping”, not missing. However, instead of
using hindsight to change the horizon, instead of being that derogatory person
of “back in the day” trying to stifle the modern idea to get things back to
original standard, I say, “O.K. boys, I get it! I’ve seen the light.” Let’er rip into the era of modern
technology. Bring this extreme idea to the
level of supremeness I see coming.
Like the
3-point shot, extreme arena roping is the way of today, and as with all
progression, things are taking solid form.
I see substantial methods evolving.
Watch the kids today, tomorrow’s world’s champions, rope their dummy. Every modern-day roper-kid has a “Drag
Steer”, the ingenious, ideal, portable, ground-dummy perfect for practicing
runs, and they emulate today’s pros blatantly working on shots that are
unbelievable. Though the habits these
kids form on the ground may not be conducive to effective team-roping
horsemanship, their intentions are right.
They’re honing their extreme shots, reaching for that “Drag Steer”
(#dragsteer) and keeping it on a long length of rope with a quick turn and pull
for their heelers who jump in and snag two every time in a blink. When I see those kids of tomorrow, the future
top 15, as well as today’s top 15, it’s staggering how great they rope. I compliment the Kaleb Driggers(es), Derek
Begay(s)—Arron Tsinigine, Trevor Brazil, Brock Hansons, Clay Tryan, and the growing
list of top headers who fight for that top echelon, roping the extreme and
setting the bar of maximum excellence.
For me, understanding
this evolution and even incorporating it in my own roping, means I first have
to accept it and not be the old-man veteran of the sport clinging to my
regimented theories and discipline, for the sake of ingenuity. When it dawned on me, in OKC, that I was witnessing
the brink of a revolution, I realized I was seeing a great change to my sport,
the event that I feel very personable about and am often credited for
revolutionizing and bringing to the rodeo arena. To get to watch what I started be taken to
such a high level, where every single heeler has that “Leo Camarillo” dip without thought or effort just absolutely
perfected is endearing and incredible.
To see what I started evolve through Clay Obrien, and all the others who
have copied it on down to today’s Travis Graves(es), and Cesar de la Cruz(es)
is mind-blowing. Everyone has that style
and it is so perfected to even better than I could imagine it being done. They make me feel, in all my accomplishments
I didn’t work at it hard enough, and at one time I was the only one doing
it. Yet, I could have been doing it so
much better.
Today’s pros
have brought competing to a level where you’ve got to be day-money minded,
fast-time driven every single time you go, not to win, but to just place, down
to however many moneys pay. When a rodeo
has a good day, you’ll see competitors (like they do) have to rope every steer
in the six-second area to win a 5-steer average. It’s not just for first place. Six seconds is to whatever place gets
paid. As many as eight places will hash
out tenths of seconds. Unfortunately the
guy that strategizes conservatively to win or place in the average may no
longer happen. Nevertheless, vets like
me and others from back in the day need to take notice of their methods because
there is an exceptional new way of competitive roping that when done right can
work for all of us. As an extreme
competitor of the past, I applaud how the pros are competing today. They have taken arena team roping to the
highest level yet—the greatest arena ropers doing the greatest arena roping of
all time.
That’s all I
know …
Rope Smart!
The Lion
