There’s been a lot of talk about the trouble some of the team ropers had at the recent NFR. Having roped at 30 NFRs, I don’t remember a time when horns were as small as they were on the set of steers they used in December.
It’s pretty simple – at the Finals, when guys are obviously trying to be as fast as they can and we know they’ll be reaching, they should be roping a certain kind of cattle. For the sake of our sport, we want to show off our best guys in the world.
Cattle can make you look like the best bunch of ropers ever – or they can make you look stupid. At the roughstock end of the arena, stock contractors are supposed to be proud if their bronc bucks off one of the best guys in the world. But I think it should be the other way around for the events on cattle. I’d like to see contractors help promote our sport by trying to help showcase the timed-event guys.
At the NFR, I thought the bull-dogging was pretty good watching most of the time, and the calf roping, too. I’ve seen years when the calves were too big and slow-handling, when they were just too easy to jerk over and you just couldn’t get them up. The smaller, lighter and more active calves have offered the best show for spectators. When you have the right calves, everyone is tying them in 7 seconds, and it’s fun to watch. And I like the bulldogging rounds where a 4.5 doesn’t even place.
In my opinion, we could make our team ropers look their best by using steers of about 500 pounds that have been roped 10 or 12 times (by then you know which ones might check off or run to the left or the right). No great big steers or small, light steers; no great big horns or little bitty horns. You want steers that can be roped and moved pretty fast while still keeping their balance. It helps if they’ve been rodeoed on a little bit. A steer that you can feather around is one thing; but at the NFR, they better know how to be pulled fast. In Las Vegas this year, they were losing their balance. A lot of steers went off bad there, in my opinion.
Jhett Johnson pulled off some great shots in the first few rounds when those steers were fresher. I was impressed with all the heelers, but Jhett’s position and the angle and pitch on his rope; everything was so good that it was letting him rope those steers that weren’t very easy to rope – on the first jump. It paid off for him and Turtle Powell. Hopefully, each year the NFR team ropers can try their luck at just the right kind of steers, and our spectators will enjoy it.
Visit my web site, smartroping.com, for more of my opinions on roping your best.