There's an old addage, "Don't call him a cowboy unless you see him ride..."  I call myself a "Cowboy".  I've won buckles for roping, back in the day I qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo, and I've been in the field of qualifiers for the provincial finals here numerous times.  

This rodeo tenure of almost 30 years gave me the confidence to hop on a cold-backed horse.  Since our last encounter over 3 months prior, ol' horsey had sat in a pasture, living the life of luxury.  After pulling him from the pasture, brushing him almost spotless, I commenced to lounge him to get a little excitement out of him.  This turned into too much of a physical chore as he refused to lope on the line, and I didn't have the proper aids at my discretion.

After 10 minutes of the battle, I hopped aboard.  We trotted both ways a couple of times.  Finally, I asked him to lope.  He agreed, and loped roughly for half of the arena, I relaxed in the saddle, and then.... he flew up into the air like a rocket on his front end, kicked out with his back end at the climax and darted off the the right, while I went for the saddle horn, bounced off the cantle, looked at the ceiling and slammed into the ground.

Since that fateful night, I have been laid up.  Walking is a chore, and my torso is pretty locked.  It was during this time that I decided to watch some videos on www.SpeedWilliamsTeamRoping.com.  A website portal designed for Roping and Horse enthusiasts, it is chock full of highlight videos, training videos, insight videos and more.  Each clip also has commentary from the 8-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association World Champion Team Roper Speed Williams himself.  

After watching the 3 and 4 second runs at the George Strait Team Roping Classic I segued into the colt training videos.  During these, Williams makes note of the hot-walker behind the roping pen and shares the fact that he never gets on a cold-backed colt...they go on the hot-walker for a few hours first.  Eee...if only I'd have watched that video a week ago!!

There are quite a few free videos to check out, and if you become a paid subscriber you get access to all the videos and can even submit videos for critique.

Check out www.SpeedWilliamsTeamRoping.com when you get a chance...you never know what you might pick up (or what lesson will be driven home in my case...).