Several years ago when I was about fourteen or fifteen years old I made a deal to work for Don W Smith during the day and in the evening he’d help me with my roping. During the early seventies Don won the Calf roping and all around World Championships in the IPRA and made the nfr. He lived about five miles from my mom and dad.
Every morning he would pick me up and we’d bale hay, fix fence or clean chicken houses. I worked the entire summer and was in hog heaven. Years later Ricky Hyde nicknamed me chicken house after I told him about getting blood poisoning from tying calves so much then working in the chicken house with blisters on my hands.
This past week my son Jakob, who’s fifteen stayed with Ken Bailey. They roped morning and evening. I called and checked on him one day and he said they’d been cleaning out an old rent house and it was nasty. Ken kind of giggled when I asked him about it, he said it was pretty bad.
Ken Bailey won two calf roping world championships in the IPRA. He’s one of the toughest ropers I’ve ever rodeoed with. He eats, breathes, sleeps and dreams calf roping. He’s owned some really good rope horses over the years as well.
My son is small for his age so Ken made him workout every day and even griped at him for eating junk food. They worked on flanking and tying more than anything.
The evening we picked him up they tied some calves. Sure enough, we could see big improvement in his flanking and tying. Jakob has never went and roped with anyone else before. As they were practicing I learned a few things as Ken was coaching him, little details Ken caught and made him correct.
The day after we got home Ken called and checked to see if he’d done his exercises and said for him to come back again as soon as he could.
There’s an old adage that says winning is a habit. I agree that’s true, but winning is also working every day and paying attention to the little details. Winners are willing to do the work, Jakob came home with skinned up hands and arms. He also came back roping better than he ever has.
James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.
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