Rope a Head In Rodeo Team Roping

Video Transcript

"This is Randall Powell with Expert Village and in this clip I am going to explain the exacts on how to head a steer while team roping. When you back into the box as a header, you want your horse to be standing square on all 4 feet. You don't want him squatted in the box. That will cause him to be a little slower getting out. You wait for the steer to get his head start which ever the legal head start is. They will have those at the roping's. You ride your horse out as fast as you can up to the steer and once you get there, your horse's chest is parallel with the steers back legs, you want to rope the horns. Once you throw your rope and deliver your loop and when you find out that you've got him caught you pull your slack tight. If you are riding a western saddle, you will have a saddle horn directly in front of your navel area and once you get your slack, you take a dally around your saddle horn which is basically taking just 2 wraps around your saddle horn with your rope. Once you do that, you make sure your rope is tight and you ease your horse off to the left. You can do this by putting your foot in him. A lot of horses respond off of leg pressure so you can put your right foot in him or you can just steer him with the reigns if that is more comfortable for you and makes you more confident in your room. But you don't ever want to turn a steer on a loose rope because it will tend to hit the steer harder and make your heeler have a worse shot. If you turn him off nice and smooth on a tight rope, it is really a nice handle and your heeler has a lot better chance of catching the back feet which is what is very important in team roping. So those are some of the specifics you need to know when heading a steer. "