How was this past year different than the previous four years?
SW: The other years when we won the world, we had decent years before getting to the finals. This past year was harder because we drew badly, we didn’t rope well and made a lot of mistakes day in and day out. Also my two good horses had been on “injury reserve” off and on all year.
There was also another team that was totally dominating. Neither of us liked that because every day we got our butts kicked. That was every day until the very last fourteen steers. We won the world and over $90,000 on the last fourteen steers we ran.
There were quite a few times this year we both talked about going home and taking a month off. But we didn’t really want to give Richard and B. J. an even bigger lead by doing that when they’re already $30,000 ahead of us. We really wanted to go home and regroup and you can’t do that when they’re that far ahead. So we kept going and getting our butts kicked day in and day out.

How do you regroup while you’re out there?
SW: You don’t. You can’t. You can’t regroup getting your butt kicked every day. You have to go home and fix it and get your horses working right.
I was out there on a green horse. He’s a nice, expensive horse, but there are a lot of things they have to do be able to win. You have to be able to make good runs on good or bad steers and it’s hard. It was extremely hard without my two good horses. I got Viper back for the last fourteen steers of the year and it made a big difference.

As far as feeling like a world champion this year? No, I do not feel like a world champion. I feel like someone who got their butt kicked until the dice were rolled and those counted ten times as much as all the others. Richard and B. J. totally dominated over the 140 to 150 steers we ran during the year.

Don’t you think it’s the mark of a champion to bare down and rally, especially coming from so far behind?
SW: I guess I still have the taste in my mouth of getting my butt kicked day in and day out. That I remember more than the last fourteen steers.
Rich and I both experienced a lot of humility this year. In any of the other years we’ve roped together, we’ve never been beaten up like we were this year.

Do you think it will help you as a roper, as a team?
SW: I’m practicing more than I ever have. I know that I have to replace my two good horses. I have to find two special horses to replace them. In all the years when anyone has ever dominated, they’ve never done it on a second-string horse.
Think about the years Jake and Clay won the world. Jake won five world buckles on his horse, Bullwinkle. He won a couple more on different horses, but not with the domination that he had with Bullwinkle.
You can say what you want, yeah I rope pretty good but my horse is the whole set up for the team. Bob, the horse I ride at the jackpots like the BFI, is exceptional. And Viper, the horse I ride at the National Finals, is exceptional.
We make practice runs on our second-string horses all the time. I have over $100,000 in these horses, (besides Viper and Bob), and the runs are nowhere near close to the runs on my good horses. I don’t rope near as well; Rich doesn’t rope near as well.
I know that my horse is the key to my success and I have to come up with another one to replace him if I’m going to keep on winning.

With your disappointment in the last year and the way things went, how will it change what you do in the coming year?
SW: I’m not disappointed. I came to the realization that’s it’s not necessarily my and Rich’s ability – it’s the quality of our horses. It’s actually more so the head horse, because when our head horses weren’t working right, we weren’t winning.
The bottom line is the head horse sets up the corner, the score, the run – everything. The head horse sets up absolutely everything. Yes, the heel horse finishes it. But the head horse has to do the exceptional stuff.

You and Rich have tied Jake and Clay’s team roping record of five consecutive world championships. What is your goal now?
SW: Sure, six is my goal. Eight is my ultimate goal. But actually this past summer a gold buckle was not within our reach. Stop and think about it. We won our championship on fourteen steers. What if one or two of those had gone wrong?
Last year we got to National Finals with a $50,000 lead. This year, in October at the Tour Finale, we were $38,000 behind. That’s a far cry from last year.

Does it give you a different mindset?
SW: We’re both working at it. Neither of us liked getting beat like we did this year – not at all. Getting “man handled” all year sure brought back a lot of drive for me.

How did you see the finals being different this year?
SW: All the pressure was off of me. Rich had some problems at the finals because the steers didn’t handle well. He was disappointed about his roping, but he’s roped exceptionally well there for quite a few years.
Last year when we came in with such a big lead, I was 0-3 on the first three steers. Man, that messes with your mind, no matter how strong you are mentally. When you start second guessing yourself, if you hesitate for even five-tenths of a second, it messes up the run. Had Rich not roped a leg on our second steer, he probably wouldn’t have roped a leg on any of them.
The steers didn’t handle very well. Rich wanted their feet together before he threw and their feet never came together. I didn’t really do my job of getting their feet together as well as I have in the past. A lot of that was due to not having my horse sound earlier and ready to work soon enough.
That was the price we paid for the problems I had with my horse not being healthy. My head horse not being freer really affected Rich a lot. The quickness really set the cow up different and their feet weren’t together.

Did having new guys at the finals this year make it much different?
SW: All of the new guys were reachers. I expect to see more guys from back east because eastern headers came in first and second.

How did it feel to see all those reachers there?
SW: Oh, I kind of liked it when there weren’t as many reachers. But I expect to see more.go hang it on ten in a row if we get lucky.
It’s going to get faster. I think it will get a lot faster. The Tryans are craving it after their first Guys will see that you win fifty or sixty thousand at the finals. And hey, Blaine Linaweaver, Frank Graves, the Tryan brothers, can all rope a lot better than they did the finals. We all can time there. Travis had a real good finals. Clay didn’t have his own horse this year, but those guys can really rope in the fast set ups.
I expect to see a lot of reachers at the winter rodeos.

Won’t that make things tougher for you?
SW: Oh, it’s already pretty tough. Last winter there were a lot places where eight seconds on two head won third. There was a lot of fast set ups this year. That’s part of it. It can still get faster.

Do you see yourself slowing down any in the foreseeable future?
SW: It all depends on what kind of head horses I have. If I can stay mounted where I have an advantage, I’ll keep going. The money is good enough now. We won $120,000 in the last forty days. Yeah, I can keep pumped about that.

When the time comes that you don’t want to go any longer, what do you want to do?
SW: I’d like to continue to work with my sponsors who’ve supported me all this time. I’d also like to make an instructional video, but not until I’m through going.

What’s been your biggest surprise?
SW: I never expected to win the average at the National Finals. You can’t go at them as fast as I normally do and expect to win the average.

Does it mean much to you personally?
SW: Oh yeah. It’s just that it’s not what I expected to get done.