At this point in my career, I'm really appreciating roping. When you're younger, you think it's going to last forever. Now that there's an end in sight, I'm motivated to do my best and be competitive. It's really fun at my age to be able to compete with the young guys.
The older guys have the edge because this is such a mental game. We have that experience it takes to win. As long as we're willing to pay the price, we'll keep winning. It takes such a love of the sport, and we have that.
You have to work on all aspects of your roping. You need to be able to turn fast cattle on a consistent basis. Once you rope a steer, you need to handle him, too, or you'll hang your partner out to dry and make it hard to get a throw on your horse the next time. As you develop yourself, you have to develop your versatility and rope smart. You need to make sure you have the right kind of horse for the conditions, you need to be able to reach when need be and run in there when that's the thing to do. All this is important if you're going to cash in on the game of team roping.
You always need to keep an eye out for that next great horse that really fits you, too. You never know when that superstar is going to show up, and it's so crucial on the heading side to come up with one of those good ones. It just makes your job easier and makes your team better.
