I’ve always said that you can work really hard on your roping and elevate yourself as high as possible – but then the last hurdle is sometimes your partner or your horse. Basically, it’s easy to get complacent with either of those two factors.
The type of horse you’re riding completely affects your mental game and can keep you from being really confident and taking confident, aggressive shots. That’s been apparent to me out here on the road. For instance, I have this palomino named Jaguar that is a sweetheart of a horse – user-friendly and easy to catch on.
But being so tall with long arms means I make a horse more ratey than he already is, so I need a little freer horse. Try to take inventory of that with your own program. Maybe you don’t even realize that if you weren’t having to push so hard with your legs, your concentration would be better. I know if I’m having to really push a horse, it robs a little bit of my free-spirited desire to take that first good shot. Instead, I’m trying to be exactly right before I throw.
On the other hand, the best horses I ever rode – Hollywood and Dunny – moved their front feet during the delivery. Those are the type of horses that never, ever take a shot away. On either of them, when I’d come around the corner, I absolutely knew they would put me right on the money, too. I wasn’t having to pull on the reins or push with my legs. It’s amazing how much more you can concentrate on your shot and be ready for it when you know you won’t have to hurry your delivery. Instead, you can relax and take those first good confident shots.
Guys like us are supposed to catch a real high percentage of two-footers. In our league, we’re catching hopefully 85-90 percent two-footers at rodeos – and if we have a horse that lets us rope a jump quicker, that’s huge. A jump quicker in our league is four tenths of a second faster. If I can take four tenths off at a third of the rodeos throughout the year, that’s a lot of money I could win. And it’s not just a quicker shot, but a lot more confident, relaxed, shot.
I encourage you to ask yourself, are you roping your best on the horse you’re riding? You headers need to ask the same question about how your horse is affecting your shot selection. Are you always thinking about having to throw when you get there because your horse isn’t rating? Are you thinking about how the horse will run through your throw and you’ll have too much slack and you might wave it off or your handle will be messed up?
Your horse has everything to do with how confidently you rope. Don’t get complacent on a horse that’s less than the best for you.
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