We’ll start this month with San Antonio, a Tour rodeo. We’ve been to two Tour rodeos, Denver and Odessa, and not won anything. Our first steer at San Antonio is a re-run so I got to watch him go. He ran pretty hard and the header missed, but I didn’t remember how he broke out of the chute. Well I soon remembered. When the gates banged (you know the story) he looked like he was running hard and looked like he had been shot out of a cannon. I rode Bob and he worked really well. We caught up to him and I reached a and roped him. Coming around the corner the steer was really wild and fought his head; he lost his footing and fell on his belly. I drug him for a couple of jumps and when he got up Rich roped two feet and we were 8.2. We’re not completely out of the rodeo. Mathematically we can make it back if we come back and win the day money in the next round.

 At San Antonio they run the first round at the Rose Palace and the second round at the fairgrounds. The Rose Palace is the arena George Strait bought a few years ago and his roping is held there in March. It’s a great facility with lots of stalls and much easier to get in and out of. I’m not saying it’s a great thing to run one head at one arena and the next at another; but at this particular event it works better.

 We actually drew a pretty good steer in the second round. I got a good start and when I came across the line, the barrier rope grabbed my left leg. For the first time this year my steer was just loping out in front of me. I was in the process of throwing and as I released my rope the barrier rope hung on my toe and jerked my left foot up in the seat of the saddle with me. Needless to say, my right arm came straight down and my loop hit him in the back of the head. We were just loping down the arena with my rope lying on the back of the cow - not a good feeling. We had a legitimate chance to do some good at a Tour rodeo and though I didn’t make a mistake, it still wasn’t a good feeling. In hindsight I could have been more patient and taken another swing and caught. But we haven’t won what we have by me being patient and disciplined. That’s not to say I shouldn’t be more disciplined at times, but when you live by the sword you also die by the sword.

 We’re off for a couple of days and then on to San Angelo, another Tour rodeo. We have a first run on our first steer. These are old jackpot steers that have been roped a lot and everything has a little trick. Our first steer looked okay except for one minor problem; he had horns like a Mexican fighting bull. They droop down in front of his head, which means you have to get real close and rope down at the horns. I don’t know if he’s fast or slow and the barrier is actually pretty short at two feet under. It’s a long box and pretty wide which makes it even faster. We get to watch about thirty go. I take a conservative start because I think the steer is not going to run very hard. I get a good start and he’s just loping down the middle of the arena. This is one of those times where I am patient and take one more swing to make sure I catch. Just as I release my rope the steer drops his right horn and moves towards Rich. Consequently, I get a real pretty curl on the left horn. I wasn’t very happy with myself right then. Not saying I did anything wrong. I went through my steps and did everything I was suppose to do. But I didn’t anticipate his head trick and didn’t see it happening. The steer just put a move on me at the end and I wasn’t prepared for it. They came back and won money on him the next couple of times. Had I known he dropped his right horn and went right, my odds of catching him would have been a lot higher. Without knowing it, I didn’t have much of a chance.

 In the second round we drew a steer that ran a little and then checked off. I slipped leaving the box and the steer tried. I reached, roped him and when I roped him he quit. I had quite a bit of rope out. We were 5 flat and they booed us for taking too long. We didn’t win a dime with a 5 flat. So we’ve been to four rodeos so far and not won a dime. We’ve made two clean runs on undesirable steers and not even been close to placing.

 I got to home for a couple of days. Rich and Rhonda had their baby, Raine Lynn, born on Thursday, February 19. It will be interesting with Rich and I having two little girls. My man just thought he was busy during the day. Wait until he sees how hard it is to keep a little woman happy. Congratulations to Rich and Rhonda. So much for all that good sleep at night that you’re used to getting.

 We made it back in the top sixty at San Angelo with a 5-second run. So we get to run another one. We drew a steer that’s not very good. Watching him on video, he runs with his head in the air and as soon as the rope hits him he drops his head all the way to the ground with the left horn down. Now here we have to be a 4-something to win anything; it’s the same place where we tied the world record with a 3.7-second run and Blaine Linaweaver and Jory Levy were 3.5 twenty-four hours later; so it’s a fast set up. I get it on the steer real fast and he gets it off real fast. It’s a unique trick because he doesn’t duck his head until the rope hits him. Then he actually lowers his head out of the loop while the rope is coming around his horns. I scored well, rode my horse well, threw a good loop and got tight – but not fast enough. So, we’re done at San Angelo.

 Roe Patterson has built a new facility in Midland/Odessa where he sells trailers and builds living quarters. He’s going to do the living quarters in my next trailer. I went over to have my truck and trailer worked on. While I was there I hung out with him for a couple of days. It will be pretty exciting when he gets it all finished. My trailer is supposed to be out the first of May.

 Next is the TUBAC roping in Tucson, Arizona. George Aros produces this roping and has now made it the Mike Cervi Memorial roping. For those who don’t know, Mike was a friend and fellow roper who was killed in a plane crash a few years ago. He was married to Sherri Cervi, the barrel racer.

 We’re in Tucson and the storms are horrible. I’d gone to Phoenix that night and stayed at Dennis Carroll’s. There I can turn Bob and Tommy out in a big pen. I tend to go out of my way sometimes to make sure my horses can walk around and be comfortable. It rained from 10 p.m. Sunday night to 10 a.m. Monday morning. I was in the outskirts of Tucson and called Rich to ask if they were still going to rope due to the weather. He told me the sun was shining at the arena and it hadn’t rained a drop. I was only ten miles from the arena and hadn’t seen the sun in twelve hours. I thought he was jacking with me until after we drove out from under the clouds three or four miles later. Thirty minutes later the clouds covered the arena and it rained for fifteen or twenty minutes and then the sun came out for the rest of the day. I couldn’t believe it.

 In the jackpot I rode the horse I bought from Tommy Crowson last year. Rich and I came back high team and had to be a short seven to win the roping. Our steer didn’t start or run much and had big flat horns. When I roped him and came around the corner, he kind of fought his head and didn’t come out of it very clean. Rich roped him by two feet and we were two-tenths too long to win the roping. Not only did we not win first; we didn’t win second or third either; we won fourth. Jason and Randon Adams won the roping. Matt and Kory won second with a leg. Nelson Linares and Walt Woodard won third; Rich and I won fourth. It was a pretty good roping. The steers had been roped and weren’t as fresh or run as hard as in the past. The ground was better than it’s ever been there.

 The rodeo at Tucson was another story. Our first steer ran like a deer. Blaine Linaweaver had him for his first one and didn’t know he ran that hard. He took a safe start and missed the barrier a little and this steer screamed. He didn’t have a fighting chance as hard as the steer ran without knowing it ahead of time. With me knowing it ahead of time, I barely let the steer move before leaving and I still didn’t get a good start. We ran off down there a long ways and make an outstanding run and were 7.1 or 7.2. Our second steer was decent, not great, but he didn’t run real hard and didn’t go left. I got it on him pretty fast and Rich roped him. His rope went up on his hip for a second and Rich missed his slack before getting his dally. We ended up being 6.7 and coming back sixth or seventh in the short round.

 We fly to Midland for a school at Roe Patterson’s. Afterwards we fly to Katy, Texas for the USTRC roping. We need points to qualify for the Open at the USTRC Finals. It’s kind of been a bad deal in the past where the Open ropers have had to break in fresh steers. It’s such a drawing contest because one will walk and the next will run. At Katy they actually had steers that had been roped and weren’t fresh and it was a pretty tough roping. Rich and I didn’t draw very well on our first steer. He kind of fought his head and never would handle and Rich missed him. Cory and I made a good run on our first one and then I broke the barrier on our second steer. We came back and made a couple of pretty good runs and won the fast time overall. Cory and I won tenth in the average; Matt and Rich won ninth; Matt and Cory won eighth. In the short round nine of the ten top teams were clean. That’s a pretty good roping when that many teams are clean.

 I flew back to Midland for a school that night and Rich went home to be with his little girl. My wife drove down to Midland with some horses for us to ride that night. I actually talked her into riding over on the plane with us and she flew back to Midland with us for the school that night. I had five heelers in my school and I put them through drills just like I do the headers as far as controlling your rope and controlling your horse. I had five pretty tired heelers when the evening was over – not to mention my heading students. I think they had a lot of fun. We had the school over at the Midland-Odessa rodeo arena where they have the steer roping. It’s a nice facility and Roe did a good job and even had a meal catered for us.

 Gary picked me up in the rig coming back from Tucson and we went to Mineral Wells and roped with Roy Gene Evans for a couple of days. Mr. Roy has a real nice facility. He’s serious about improving his roping and works real hard at it. We’ve been filming and watching the videos and doing what a lot of people call “breaking it down.” Mr. Roy is coming along pretty good, though when he’s off at a roping he does have a tendency of eating breakfast at 5:30 in the morning and then not eating until he gets home in the evening. I’m not saying you need to eat as much as I do; but when you go to a roping your mind and body needs nourishment for you to stay sharp. Once you’re tired, weak and hungry you can’t react and function as quick as you need to. That’s one of the things I’ve stressed to Mr. Roy Gene; he’s got to eat during the day. Two eggs in the morning are not enough to carry him through a day of roping and riding.

 That being said, I’ve been talking to Lee Snyder about making some training videos. Some of what I want to cover is how to practice and how to practice for your horse. We had dinner and discussed videos for a couple of hours and by the time he dropped me off at the motel it was close to midnight. I had a flight to catch at 6 a.m. for the short round at Tucson. I got in bed about 12:15 a.m. and had a wake up call for 4 a.m. Not really a big deal since I can usually wake up before the alarm goes off. The next morning I wake up and look at the clock, which reads 6:00. I look for the phone on the nightstand, and it’s lying in the floor off the hook. Evidently during the night I knocked it off with my pillow. I had also set the alarm on my cell phone, which has been temperamental ever since it got wet. That alarm never went off either.

 I called my wife in a mad panic and asked her to check for flights on the Internet. She finds a flight at 8:15. Overall it worked out better because my original plan was to ride home with Rich and then fly from Llano to Florida. Now I get to fly from Phoenix to Amarillo and spend a day or two with my wife and baby before flying to Florida. But for about thirty minutes I wasn’t very happy with myself and I could just see having to charter from Dallas to Tucson to make the short round. It wasn’t optional since it’s a Tour rodeo and we made the short round. It wouldn’t matter what it cost; I had an obligation to my partner and I had to be there.

 We drew a steer that runs and is a little wild on the end of the rope. I’m pretty aggressive and get a good start and reach. I roped the steer and he kind of took off to the right. When I turned him he was fighting his head a little. We’re sixth high team back and need to win something. Rich tries him on and goes off on him and misses him. He recoils and ropes him. We took a gamble but when you’re coming from behind you have a good chance of winning the rodeo – if it works. It’s just not much fun when it doesn’t. We’ve been to Denver, Odessa, San Antonio, San Angelo and Tucson and have not won a check. We’ve been making good runs at the jackpots and no one’s really been making mistakes but we’re not getting many opportunities and not overcoming the obstacles we’ve had.

 We drew up badly at Houston, right on top of the George Strait roping. We’re up Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The George Strait is Friday and Saturday so somehow we have to get a plane to fly us from George’s roping, after we run two, to Houston to run our third steer. If we make the short round we’ll have to fly over Saturday after the roping is over that afternoon. It’s not ideal but on the other hand we’ve got about two weeks off because of it.

 I’ve been teaching a lot of private schools. In Florida we had a two-day clinic at my mom’s. I was really happy with my mom and her roping. She came out for a couple of weeks when Hali was born and during that time we really got her horse working good and got her swinging faster. I’ve been helping Mr. Jerry Thompson for a lot of years and I think he actually learned something this time. He hasn’t been roping much lately and he came to the clinic and really had fun. Mr. Jerry runs Dandee Foods and doesn’t get much time to practice. He heeled for years and heeling is so reactive and so repetitive that you need to be able to practice a lot to stay tuned in. So for years I tried to talk him into heading and a few years ago he finally switched over and has been enjoying it. He has a couple of nice horses that he needs to exercise and then he has a lot of fun when he ropes.

 Rich flew down to Florida for the USTRC roping. We got there a little early to rope the steers through. Last year Rich and I didn’t go to many USTRC ropings and almost didn't get qualified. So this year we want to get it out of the way. In the Open at Green Cove Springs, Brad Culpepper and I won first; Jimmy and Brad won second; Rich and I won third and Jimmy and Rich won fifth or sixth. That gave us some points; I got eighteen and Rich got twelve or thirteen.

 Occasionally I enter the #9 with family or friends if I’m going to be there, but I’ve never won anything in the #9. At Green Cove I headed for my mom and my sister-in-law, Johnna, in the #9. Mom and I were clean on our first steer and roped a leg on our second. In the third round I roped the steer pretty quick and Mom went off on him and were six-something. Mom was really excited and the whole place was hollering and cheering for us. When it came down to the short round we were fifth high team.

 Here we are at the “hometown roping” and Mom and I are sitting pretty good in the short round. I couldn’t have been more nervous if it were the first round at the NFR. Mom’s still pumped from our last run and rides up before the short round and says she wants to make a rodeo run. In no uncertain terms I told her no, that we’d just go catch and get a check. When I turn our high team steer Mom runs in and throws a nice trap under the steer and then missed her slack. The steer jumped in and back out of it. We still won fastest time overall with our six-second run and it was a nerve wracking thrill.

 Gary and I left the roping and headed up to South Carolina. Frank and Frankie McCleer have built an indoor arena that is climate controlled and they are planning a lot of events. They have 250 stalls under roof and are going to build another 150. One thing Mr. McCleer built was a kitchen because he likes to cook. He cooked breakfast and lunch everyday at the two schools. One of the schools was a “headers only” school. Typically on the first day by lunch they haven’t had much fun, but these headers seemed to enjoy it. Frankie’s younger brother Matt was pretty miserable the first day working at some of the drills I do. By the end of the second day he was having fun because he could do them all.

 Mr. McCleer outdid himself cooking breakfast. He’d cook bacon, ham, sausage, biscuits and gravy. The South Carolina USTRC roping was held there this year and I heard more talk about the food at the roping than anything else.

 The PRCA called the current world champions on Thursday and said we had a meeting with President Bush in Houston if we could all be there. I rescheduled some schools and flew out from Greenville, SC. My travel agent and I had a miscommunication and my ticket was for Greensboro. Luckily I got another flight on the same airline. Unluckily, bad weather kept us on the runway for a couple of hours and by the time we reached Atlanta I’d missed my connection. So after a different flight and a $60 taxi fare I finally get in bed at 3 a.m. The next day we have lunch with the commissioner at the hotel and then get on a bus and go over to the Houston rodeo.

 On the bus is the rodeo commissioner and all the world champions with the exception of Cody Ohl. Cody had gotten kicked by a horse and was at Justin Sports Medicine. Houston rodeo is a real pain because they have so many gates and they try hard to keep everyone out of them. They always send you to another gate and cowboys always have problems with gate men letting them in. The fact that cowboys are always running late and in a hurry may have something to do with it, but having problems with the gate man is just part of the job.

 Our bus circles the arena and every time we pull up to a gate, they won’t let us in. I told Commission Hatchell that it was okay, we were all used to it. He had everything arranged with the Secret Service or so he thought. I got to pick on him a little. Getting in the gate is just part of the job at a lot of the bigger events.

 After being screened and going through Secret Service, we got to meet the President of the United States, the Commander of all our forces. It was a very unique honor and I was pretty excited. We visit with him for a while and he took some pictures. I like the fact he comes from a western background and that he defended us when our country was attacked. There are a lot of people that don’t agree with the war, but we’ve been bombed before and never did anything about it. Now hopefully before anyone attacks us, they’ll know they have to pay the consequences. I sure don’t like the fact we’ve lost the men we have in this war, but there is a price to be paid for the freedom we have and the security we live in. I take my hat off to the men fighting for us.

 I flew to Orlando where my wife picked me up and I got to see Hali and visit with Phil, Linda and everyone. Another short night and early morning. I had a school at Mr. Clyde Rice’s arena with his kids and grandkids. I like doing schools with young people. I try to make it fun and entertaining and like to make them compete against each other and do drills.

 The next day I have a clinic with Mr. Jimmy Gladwell. The last time I was around Mr. Jimmy he was training a lot of thoroughbreds and he’s gotten out of that now. Raymond and Jimbo are very competitive and were really tired when we got through. I’ll be curious to see which one does the best in the next three or four months.

 Guy Motsinger bought a new horse and wanted me to come rope with him in Bunnell. He had some kids come over for a school. Joe Lee came over and roped and I gave him some things to do to make his horse work better. Mr. Joe Lee is always happy. He has a horse that I really like, that I’ve tried to buy for quite a few years. Well this horse wasn’t enjoying the new things so I told Mr. Joe that if he got really mad at him, he could tie him to my trailer and I would take care of him from now on. I know that’s not an option, but I enjoy picking on him about it. Mr. Joe was roping pretty good, but he has a bad habit of moving his left hand out when he throws his rope. So if you’re at a roping somewhere and see Mr. Joe rope and go left, holler at him for me. I’d appreciate it.

 This year has been interesting having come from tying Jake and Clay’s record for seven world titles to finding ourselves with no money won after five big rodeos. We haven’t drawn well. Team roping has improved and there are a lot of teams that are competitive which means whoever draws the best is going to win. There’s a hundred teams everywhere you go now days. There’s fifty head of steers and the good ones go twice. You have to draw well and then make a really good run to win money. Rich and I are both healthy and at least one horse on each side is healthy. By the next article we will have been to some big rodeos and I sure hope I can tell you about us winning. Sooner or later we’ll get one tangled up and win something.

 Be sure to catch your high teamers. Best of luck and God Bless.