Ken Luman
I'm not
going to sit here and tell you how close a friend Ken Luman was to me. That'd be
fiction, and the truth is my bag.
But Ken was a guy who's been around the
ropings and rodeos all my life, and he reminds me in a few ways of my dad in
that he loved to rope and compete, he was a... | read »
Rodeo: Team Roping
from the pages of Rodeo
Getting to Know a New Horse
Early on in
my quest for a team roping career, I was such a poor horseman that I went
through a lot of horses. I've had lots of new horses in my career, and
there came a time that I realized I needed to improve greatly in that area if I
was going to get any better. I used to think a horse... | read »
Rodeo: Team Roping
from the pages of Rodeo
Scoring the Head Horse
Scoring is
a topic that always comes up. Everyone has questions about scoring, and it's
always one of my priorities in roping because the start you get sets the tone
for the run. Scoring is the most crucial part of roping at every level,
especially at the top level where every tenth of a... | read »
Rodeo: Team Roping
from the pages of Rodeo
Roping is a Chain Reaction
A roping
run is like building blocks. You have to start with step one and go from there.
You also need to take it one step at a time. When you get ahead of yourself and
try to do steps out of order is when mistakes happen, like missing your slack,
missing your dally or slipping a leg. If... | read »
Rodeo: Team Roping
from the pages of Rodeo
How to Get Your Header To Pull Them into Your Loop
There's a
humorous saying that I've used for years about different guys I've roped with,
mostly Jake, that "I just throw my loop down there and he pulls them in it."
Trying to get your header to pull steers into your loop is just another way of
saying there has to be communication between... | read »
Rodeo: Team Roping
from the pages of Rodeo
Match Roping for the Ages
The first
time I ever used the term Dream Team I was talking about Jake Barnes and Clay
O'Brien Cooper. It was half a decade before Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and
Larry Bird were dubbed the same name during their gold-medal run at the 1992
Summer Olympics.
Jake and
Clay's dynasty... | read »
Rodeo: Team Roping
from the pages of Rodeo
The Power of Good Position
Everybody
has to find his or her own way of achieving good position every time, so you can
consistently set up your shot. When most people get into trouble, they're either
out of position coming into the corner because they're riding too high up, too
far back, too far out to the right or... | read »
Rodeo: Team Roping
from the pages of Rodeo
Handle Steers with Speed
I hear a
lot of people say they catch all their steers, but that all the heelers catch
for everybody but them. They need to take the time to consider that it might be
their handles. The old cliche that "he was loose when I caught him" doesn't win
much. I hate the term "turn and burn,"... | read »
Rodeo: Team Roping
from the pages of Rodeo
12 Tips to the Top of Team Roping
Everyone in
life, whatever your hobby or passion, dreams of being a certain individual at
the top of his or her game. If you play basketball, you dream of being Michael
Jordan. If you golf, you dream of playing just like Tiger Woods. If you're a kid
who wants to rope, you might look up to... | read »
Rodeo: Team Roping
from the pages of Rodeo
Practice to Stay Sharp
To set up
your practice so you stay sharp at your roping, you need to constantly take
inventory and get a read on how everything feels. There are two main things that
I analyze each and every day: 1. How's my horse doing, physically and mentally,
and 2. How does everything (i.e., my... | read »
Mike Cervi Jr., the son of legendary stock contractor Mike Cervi and husband of two-time World Champion Barrel Racer Sherry Cervi, died in a private plane crash in 2001 at the age of 30. Ever since, his family and friends have annually held a team roping in his honor. He... | read
