Breaking It Down
Speed Williams
Recently I taught a private school for a pretty handy 12-year-old girl who ropes and rides very well. She runs barrels, ropes breakaway and is starting to team rope. One of the first things I do when teaching kids is to cut their rope off. Safety always comes first, especially with kids.
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Most of my life my every waking moment was spent trying to figure out how to be the best roper possible. I was very successful for a lot of years and truly enjoyed competing. My whole world changed when my daughter was born. I was at the NFR when she was born and won my 7th world title that year.
I just got back from a two-week trip to Brazil. For the last 10 years the Brazilian bull riders have had quite a bit of success here in the United States. You may remember at the recent American rodeo in Dallas, a young Brazilian heeler named Junior Nogueira, who pulled off some amazing shots.
Just last month there was a rodeo, RFD’s The American, held where cowboys and cowgirls could compete for up to $1,000,000. Each event consisted of the top 10 in the world, five contestants who qualified, and then one or two exemption contestants who were invited.
Because Randy Bernard gave a few exemptions in The American, we got to see Charmayne James run barrels, Dan Mortensen ride a saddle bronc horse, Ote Berry wrestle steers, and Joe Beaver and Fred Whitfield rope calves. Randy couldn’t choose between Jake, Clay and I (Rich was already qualified) so he invited us to rope with partners of our choice.