Heel the Setup, Not the Arena

When it comes to heeling at different setups, bottom line, it’s the same thing—heeling the cow no matter where you are, whether it’s the NFR or the BFI.

Obviously, arenas and conditions change, but when it comes to heeling the steer, I try to keep it simple.

I want to get in a good spot down the arena. I want to get in a good spot over the steer. I might not necessarily have as many jumps to heel one, say, at Nashville, so I don’t have the luxury of tracking a long ways if I want.

READ: The Best Heelers Are Focusing on Their Position

But you’ve got to do the same fundamentals, the same basics: get in a good position and try to heel the steer as fast as you can without messing up.

If you skip steps—say you go to the roping and maybe you have the luxury of taking a few extra swings if you need to—well, in Nashville, the arena is smaller, and you might not have that.

But if you try to skip steps and speed up, you might take a shot when you’re not in the perfect spot, and you might miss.

I try to do it all the same everywhere.

That’s a hard thing to do because the turn is different every run, but we’re trying to replicate the same run as closely as we can no matter where we are. In a little arena like Nashville, sometimes you think you might want to hang back so you don’t push the steer left.

But then, if the steer goes left on its own, you’re not even close to being where you need to be.

I think some people try to go too fast at the rodeos, just because it’s a rodeo and you think rodeo means fast. I would rather take one more swing and win fifth than take a borderline shot, rope a leg or miss and not win anything.

But the bottom line is we still have to catch two feet.

—TRJ—

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