Performance
Events:
Tie-Down Roping
'07
Stampede Champion:Trevor
Breyzile
"As with saddle bronc riding and team roping,
the roots of tie-down roping can be traced back to the working
ranches of the Old West. When calves were sick or injured, cowboys
had to rope and immobilize them quickly for veterinary treatment.
Ranch hands prided themselves on the speed with which they could
rope and tie calves, and they soon turned their work into informal
contests.
As the event matured, being a good horseman and a fast sprinter
became as important to the competitive tie-down roper as being
quick and accurate with a rope.
Today, the mounted cowboy starts
from a box, a three-sided fenced area adjacent to the chute holding
the calf. The fourth side of the box opens into the arena.
The calf receives a head start that is determined by the length of the arena.
One end of a breakaway rope barrier is looped around the calf's neck and stretched
across the open end of the box. When the calf reaches its advantage point,
the barrier is released. If the roper breaks the barrier before the calf reaches
its head start, the cowboy is assessed a 10-second penalty.
The horse is trained
to come to a stop as soon as the cowboy throws his loop and catches the calf.
The cowboy then dismounts, sprints to the calf and throws it by hand, a maneuver
called flanking. If the calf is not standing when the cowboy reaches it, he
must allow the calf to get back on its feet before flanking it. After the calf
is flanked, the roper ties any three legs together with a pigging string — a
short, looped rope he clenches in his teeth during the run.
While the contestant is accomplishing all of that, his horse must pull back hard
enough to eliminate any slack in the rope, but not so hard as to drag the calf.
When the roper finishes tying the calf, he throws his hands in the air as
a signal that the run is completed. The roper then remounts his horse, rides
forward to create slack in the rope and waits six seconds to see if the calf
remains tied. If the calf kicks free, the roper receives no time."
Winning calf roping times can run between 7
and 10 seconds and rarely even faster than that.
The first time calf roping was mentioned in old newspapers and
rodeo programs as being contested at the Nampa rodeo was 1924.
-ESPN-ProRodeo.com |
