Roping Better with Travis Tryan

That steer was moving pretty fast across there. It's a normal shot-my top strand is a little lower than I would want it-my horse is stopping and the steer was strong. There's nothing unusual about this shot.

When I threw, I'm looking at my loop and the steer jumping into my loop. I was waiting for that to happen before I pull my slack. You want to leave the loop on the ground as long as you can. My hand is ready to pull my slack as soon as I see it. By the next frame, I would be started up with my slack to dally. My horse is working good, my loop looks good and everything is coming together just right.

This is the next picture in the sequence. We had a steer that ducked his head, lowered it pretty good. So it's really important for my horse to stay free and stay with me for that extra stride so I can keep it on his horns. He's so free and I rode him good enough that I had to actually cue him to leave.

I'm in the transition of getting ready to dally and pull him off. I've got to cue him because I've got him too free, but my body position is square with the horse, not hanging off one side.

This is the next one and I'm starting to get that steer's head. My positioning is still great. I'm just about to square him up and soften the corner and get him ready to heel fast. After all this-and I think we were 5.0 on that steer-he still has not dropped his shoulder and not left or left hard. He's still framed up the whole way and has kept his positioning excellent.

When your horse does that it softens the corner. When the steer hits out there and they're ready to heel, his feet will come together good and the heeler can really read it.

My whole body and legs are not hanging off one side or the other. I'm just keeping right in the middle of him and that helps cue him to leave and do the right thing.