This week, I have been taking it easy on my good horses and practicing hard on my practice horses. I have been really trying to focus on catching every steer I throw at no matter what happens, no matter what my horse does, what the steer does, whether he ducks his head, runs, dodges left or right, my main focus has been to up my consistency. For me, I’m not much of a perfectionist, I just want every loop to go on legal and get shut fast to keep the timing for my heeler. I couldn’t care less how it goes on I just want it to go on tight and fast.
Some ways I work on my consistency are rarely scoring on my practice horses forcing myself to throw at every steer, forcing myself to take shots that I’m not used to taking to stretch my boundaries. I keep tabs on how many I catch and put it into a ratio. For example, if I ran 10 on my paint horse, and caught 9, I put on my phone “9/10 Polo” (that’s my paint horse). I do this for all of my horses so, when I get to the end of my practice session I may have 7 different ratios on my phone, then I put them all together to find my catch percentage. Lately my catch percentage has been around 85%, which is ok. I also have been doing a couple different drills on the dummy. I stand flat footed, or I walk at the dummy and don’t stop walking through my delivery I do these dummy drills in sets of 10. This helps me keep my focus and concentration and then lets me relax and take a minute break. For the most part, working on my consistency boils down to numbers.
Other things:
Health/ Fitness
I have pushed up my workout routine here lately. Since I am home and have the opportunity for a consistent ritualistic day, then I can push myself more physically. I do more reps and I have added some weight into my routines. I am trying to build some upper body strength in my core and my arms to help me with my riding and my swing power.
The coolest thing I have learned is the work I put into my roping is helping me in my everyday life. Roping has been a huge part of my life and I am where I am for a reason. I know God has given me a passion for team roping, not just to win, but to develop me into much more than just a professional team roper. The more I rope, the more I realize what matters most in life is my relationship with Christ. I know He is my creator and that He wants me to live my life for Him. Team roping has opened so many doors for me to develop relationships and those relationships have transformed me into who I am today. God is using team roping to teach me something new and I love to learn! Team roping is more than just a sport to me right now. Going through the ups and downs of this crazy sport and being around the people I am around has impacted my life so much. It has made me realize that there is more to life than being a winner in the arena, and I now strive to be a winner outside of the arena as well.
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