At the professional level, headers have a perfect spot where they prefer their steers to run. If heelers aren’t paying enough attention to haze consistently, headers constantly have to guess where to break their head horse and where to aim the tip of their rope.
It’s just so much easier on headers when they know where that steer will break every time they nod their head. In my experience, headers most prefer the heeler to keep the steer perfectly straight or a touch to the left.
A lot of people don’t realize this, but hazing is all done within the first stride or two out of the box. After that, once the steer changes direction and starts to run to the right or left, there’s a misconception that a heeler can change the steer’s direction. About the only time that will happen is if a heeler backs off of a steer that’s headed left, allowing him to come back to the right.
Some heelers are discouraged from hazing, and for good reason. A heeler might have given up his optimal positioning to stay high, trying to keep a steer straight that’s moving to the right fence. Then his header reaches and ducks out and leaves him in no man’s land. After he’s screamed by the corner like that once or twice, he decides, “To heck with the header; I have to take care of myself.”
I learned a long time ago at rodeos that I have to break with the steer. In fact, usually I’m as interested in what kind of start my header is giving as he is. If I’m at a rodeo where the start is quick and the steers will break and run, it’s easy for a header to be off the line. But the heeler needs to know that a steer breaks hard, too.
To haze, you have to be within the steer’s peripheral vision the second his head emerges from the chute. Break just as hard as the steer that first stride out of the box so he can see you. If a steer has pulled away from you to where you’re no longer in his peripheral vision, you don’t have him boxed off and he can come right.
A lot of heelers think they have to be up in a steer’s face. But it’s not important that you’re in his face – just that you stay within his peripheral vision. If a steer breaks slow, a heeler can break slow and come out and not have to give up good positioning. But if the steer breaks hard, you have to break hard.
My heel horse has to score good. He has to have the ability to break as hard out of the box as the header – or to ease out of the box, depending on the steer. If a steer is a little slow, you might set him up if you’re up too high, so it’s real important to read those steers for how hard they’re breaking. Visit BachRoping.com for more.