Fundamentally, scoring is the most crucial part of the run. If you’re rodeo roping, you have to be within inches of the barrier, unless you have the perfect steer that’ll let you catch him fast enough and still win something. If you miss the barrier on a steer that runs, you aren’t going to win anything, no matter how good you rope. You can’t miss the barrier by a foot and place on a runner. If you’re one inch too early, you’re done, too, so it’s a fine line. No matter what level roper you are, scoring is the hardest thing to do. Scoring isn’t quite as crucial at a jackpot, where you’re trying to put a few runs together. What you win and lose is dictated by the steers you draw. If you draw at the slower to middle end of the herd, the barrier won’t be quite as crucial. But if you happen to have some runners and miss the barrier, you’ll be looking at placing at the bottom.

You cannot be intimidated by the barrier and just give up on trying to understand it. Playing it safe every time is not the way to go. You can’t just let the barrier drop every time, go chase a steer down and give yourself a chance to win. So you need to take the time to figure it out.

If a roping’s fairly tough and you let the barrier drop, you’re basically just folding your hand. You need to give yourself a good chance to win.

Some ropers have a better natural knack for scoring. Others are deathly afraid of the barrier. I’m a firm believer that the better your horse scores, the easier it’s going to be for you to score. If your horse wants to take off when the gates bang, you’ll probably break more barriers. If he doesn’t anticipate the gates opening and the steer taking off, you have such a better shot at the money.

When you go to an event or when you’re practicing, you really need to concentrate on your scoring so your horse responds to your cue on when to leave. You don’t want him dictating when it’s time to go, and you don’t want him coming off the ground or moving forward. You want him to leave off your hand when you decide it’s time to go.

A hot-blooded horse with a lot of run will tend to score good on the first few runs in the practice pen. But the more consecutive runs you make on him, the more aggressive he’s going to get and the more he’s going to want to leave when the gates bang. If you rope a few steers on a horse like that, maybe rope one and score two or three. I let my horse tell me how much he needs to be scored. I can’t have him moving when the gates bang, or I won’t be able to read the start.

I can’t have a horse cheat me and leave when he wants to, because I can’t have my horse dictating the start. When I’m in the box and a horse gets tight because he’s nervous, he’ll often turn his head one way or another. If he does that, I’ll ride him forward. I’ll do that until he relaxes with his head straight. Then I’ll score a steer and reward him for it.