By Julie Carter
There was a really big roping coming up where trucks, trailers, saddles, buckles and a pile of cash were to be awarded.
It had been advertised for months and Dan, Jess, Tim and the rest of the gang had decided to enter up. The only problem was that they all lived in the middle of Texas and the roping was down in Louisiana, fairly close to New Orleans.
Being cowboys, they were also experiencing a bit of a cash flow problem. The only solution was to win enough to pay for the fuel, and maybe even enough to fill up the new truck they hoped to win.
The plan would work. All they had to do was practice as much as possible and since they all had arena dust in their veins, this would not be a problem. They vowed that rain, sleet, snow or the necessity of making a living wouldn't get in their way.
Jess and Dan worked hard at perfecting their runs down the arena behind a spotted steer. There had been some discussion of changing ropes, changing loops or other possible improvements, but in the end, they stayed with what had worked before, most of the time anyway.
Blaine and Tim had made a few changes to their style. Tim had a new rope. It might catch the steer or it might catch the header. Sometimes he threw one of those soil sampler loops and the steer remained quite safe from capture.
Tim was hauling his old, experienced horse. Strychnine could get him into position most of the time, and didn't need to be scored any more.
The theory was that the horse was almost old enough to vote, and Tim had spent lots of time scoring cattle the first 15 years he owned him. Strychnine likely didn't have that many more runs left in him, and there was no point in wasting them.
Besides his regular partner Dan, Jess had picked up a new heeler for an extra entry at the big roping. There hadn't been much time to practice with this new guy, but everybody had heard the story that he had won $32,000 one time when he went to a big USTRC roping. That was a good enough resume for Jess.
When they got to the roping, everybody was wound pretty tight. Word in the warm-up arena was that these cattle would be Nascar fast. With the usual cautious optimism, each team in the crew figured they would probably draw the only dirty one in the bunch.
They had their hearts set on winning big cash and so they patiently waited their turn to rope with all the confidence they could muster through their nervous sweat. They knew they were good at what they did and held onto that thought.
As it turned out, there were hundreds of other "good-at-what-they-did" ropers entered and some of them were just a tick better than this bunch.
Jess and Dan had caught all their steers but were just a little long on time and out of the money. The new man caught one leg the first round and missed completely the second round.
They were all giving him a hard time about not using his skill that won him the reputation $32,000.
He grinned, "Well, I never said I won it roping. I was just at a roping. I won the money playing blackjack."
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