Cowkids Only - March 2024
March 2024
Brought to you by The Bell Mare Book Company
Special thanks to Smarty Rodeo for putting us in touch with this month’s pro and providing some of the video and photos!
Ask a Pro:
Tom Carney
This month’s blog features steer wrestling coach and founder of Steer Wrestling 101, Tom Carney. Tom has been coaching bulldoggers for more than 40 years and has helped bulldoggers like Dakota Eldridge, Tyler Pearson, Jacob Talley, Rowdy Parrott, Tristan Martin and Tyler Waguespack achieve success.
Tom gave us some great advice on steer wrestling fundamentals and technique, but maybe even more importantly, he shared some of his advice on what it takes to become a world champion. Even if you aren’t a bulldogger, be sure to read the last half of Tom’s Q&A section to get his thoughts on the power of positive thinking and how to set yourself up for success.
Ask a Pro:
Steer Wrestling Clinician Tom Carney
Question: What are some basic steer wrestling techniques you think youth bulldoggers need to practice?
Tom’s Answer:
Every bulldogger I help, whether they are just starting, or competing at prorodeos, I start with their stance, or the way they hold their bodies while they are sliding the steer. Everyone who comes to my schools will leave knowing what their stance is and how it should look. To start, I am going to have you stand with the palms of your hands up, or facing the sky. Then, you will roll your hands over and in so that you pinch your shoulders together. What that does, is it rounds your back and gets your core, or stomach and back muscles working. Your core and legs are where your power and strength comes from. Not your arms like a lot of people think. I love taking a small kid and showing them how strong they can be when they put their core to work instead of just relying on their arms. In my opinion, steer wrestling world championships are built from the waist down. How you hold the lower half of your body while you slide your steer is so important.
Once you roll your hands over and pinch your shoulders, your left hand should go to your left pocket. Your right hand is going to turn back over so your palm is facing up and you are going to drag your elbow from your hip, towards the middle of your ribcage. You will be pushing down with your left hand and lifting with your right. Then you need to drive your hips back. Remember to keep your back rounded. This stance will help you start to bring that steer around over your right hip. Your right foot needs to be ahead of your left and your weight should be on the ball of your foot. Your right toes should be turned in to help protect your knee. Your left knee should be towards the outside of your body so it is out of the way. That is where your steer is going to go. You will stay driven back in your stance like that until the steer falls. Don’t make the mistake of letting yourself chase the nose by coming out of your stance and leaning forward when you go for the nose. This photo and video will help you see what I am talking about.
Now that you have the basics of the stance, let’s talk about your left hand. Your left hand needs to stay open with your thumb pointed down and your elbow forward (remember, your back should be round). By keeping your elbow forward and your hand open, you have so much more strength than you would if you closed your hand around the horn. When you close your hand, you limit your power to your wrist. By keeping your hand open, you can use your entire arm.
Now that you understand what your stance should look like, practice getting in it. Stand in front of a fence and practice getting in your stance over-and-over-and-over again until your muscle memory gets it right every time and you can’t picture yourself being in any other form when you go to bulldog your steer. This video will help you see some examples of good form, as well as some that need a little work.
Question: Why is sliding a steer so important, especially for smaller kids?
Tom’s Answer:
The slide helps put your body into a powerful position to throw and finish the steer. I like my bulldoggers to practice the slide with what I call a stick. Practicing the slide builds balance and really sets your muscle memory into place. This video talks about what the stick is and how bulldoggers of all levels can use it to improve their balance and footwork. The video is actually of Tyler Waguespack using the stick. Slow work is the best work, regardless of whether you are 8-years-old, or an 8-time world champion. Sliding slow with the stick is hard work, but the payoff is great.
Question: What advice do you have for kids on finishing their steer and going to the nose?
Tom’s Answer:
If your stance is correct, you had good footwork in the slide and your hands are in the proper position, going to the nose and finishing the steer is not a big move. Because our fundamentals and technique were in place, we aren’t muscling that steer to the ground. In fact, the way I teach my bulldoggers to go to the nose, their upper body doesn’t change a lot from the position it was in when they were sliding. I have coached Tyler Waguespack since he was in elementary school, so he knows my methods as well, or better, than I do by now. In this video, Tyler will show you how to go to the nose from your slide.
Question: When and how can kids start learning to steer wrestle safely?
Tom’s Answer:
Steer wrestling is like all other sports and rodeo events, the kids who start early have an advantage. Tyler Waguespack’s dad duct taped horns made out of PVC pipe onto little calves so Tyler could learn to slide when he was a kid. Just because you are small, doesn’t mean you aren’t ready. Today there are some good dummies out there to safely learn on and anyone, no matter what size they are, can practice their stance and sliding with the stick. If you are chute dogging, build what I call a “bull pen.” Make a small area with panels, about round pen size, to slide your cattle in so it doesn’t become a foot race.
Learning good technique at a young age will give you an advantage over the competition who might be stronger, bigger and older than you. But, if you practice your fundamentals when you are little and keep practicing them, the competition will never catch you when you grow up. Speaking of growing, that’s another thing to keep in mind. As you grow, your body changes. You might feel like you have your event - whether it is roping, bulldogging or goat tying - figured out and then all of a sudden, you can’t seem to do anything right. Kids have a unique set of challenges because their bodies are growing and changing and they have to learn to adjust to fit their growing bodies.
One thing I tell students at my clinics is, you are not good enough to be mad at yourself. Even if that student has won a world championship. Once you get mad at yourself, you quit learning. If things aren’t going right, give yourself some grace and go back to your basic techniques to build yourself back up.
Another thing I recommend for all kids, no matter what rodeo event they are competing in, is to be physically fit. If you sit in your desk all day at school and then come home and lay on the couch and watch TV until you go to bed at night, you aren’t getting stronger. In fact, you are probably making yourself weaker. I encourage kids to workout regularly and play sports, even if it is just for fun. Doing exercises that make you faster and stronger will improve your performance in the arena, no matter what your event is, but especially if it is bulldogging.
Question: What are some recommendations you have for creating good practice sessions for all rodeo kids?
Tom’s Answer:
I have kids tell me all the time, “I want to make the NFR and be a world champion when I grow up.” And, that is an amazing goal. But, a very small number of kids who say that, actually have the work ethic to make it happen. If your parents are the ones telling you that you need to go practice, you don’t have a world champion work ethic. If you would rather lay on the couch and eat ice cream than go out and ride your horse or practice your event, then you don’t have what it takes to be a world champion. In order to win a world championship in the sport of rodeo, you have to put in the time and the effort to make it happen. If you are competing in rodeo for fun and don’t care to win a world championship, that is great! Don’t quit! But, know that if you want to win, you have to be dedicated to the sport. You can’t ride your horse when you feel like it, or slide on the stick when you feel like it, or rope the dummy when you feel like it. You have to practice every single time there is an opportunity.
I also tell kids, no one wants you to accomplish your goals more than your mom and dad. If they take you to a a school, make sure they are in the arena with you listening to the instruction so they can keep you on track when you get home. If you watch a YouTube video about training horses or roping the dummy or one of our Steer Wrestling 101 videos, show it to your mom and dad. Having your parents involved in your goals and dreams is key to your success, so let them help you. No one at any rodeo you go to wants you to win as much as your family members. Rolling your eyes or disrespecting your parents is NEVER allowed in my arena or at my schools. Your best coach will ALWAYS be your parents, so treat them like the best coach you have.
The last thing I will say about practicing and training is to use a solution-based approach. What I mean by that is, if you make a run and mess up, don’t focus so much on what you did wrong. Let’s take a breakaway run for example. Let’s say you missed your slack and your calf ran through your loop. Well, before you missed your slack, you probably did at least five things right to get your loop to go around that calf’s head in the first place. You rode your horse into good position, you had a correct swing, you got your tip down, you finished at your target. So, stop and tell your parents out loud what you did correct in the run and then pick one thing you want to do better on the next run. By putting more focus on the positive things instead of only the negative, we train our minds to tell our bodies we are good at our sport instead of always thinking about what we did wrong. Don’t let the negative part of your brain take over in the practice pen. Start out with the positive, then pick one thing to work on. Slow down your practice sessions and talk about each run after it happens. This helps us from getting into bad habits because we are practicing without purpose. I would rather you run two steers with purpose, than 100 steers without any thought about what you are doing right and what you need to work on.
You also need to check in with yourself and see how you are feeling before you head to the practice pen. If you are exhausted from school, or troubled by something going on with your family or friends, it might not be the day to saddle your horse and go have an intense practice session. If you are tired, or sick, or just not feeling your best, spend a little time practicing fundamentals. If you are a roper, maybe you just rope the dummy. If you are a barrel racer, maybe you just exercise your horse. If you are a steer wrestler, maybe you work on your stance. I’m not saying you can always say you are tired and use it as an excuse to never practice, but I am saying, good practice is way better for you physically and mentally than bad practice. If you throw the first steer perfectly and you have had a full day already, don’t throw another steer just because you can. Stop, think about what you did right, what you could work on at the next practice session, and call it a day. It’s fun when things are going right and you want to keep going, but our bodies and our minds get tired before we realize it and when we get tired, we start making mistakes and the practice is no longer making us better. It might even be making us worse.
Question: If you could get in a time machine and tell your younger self something, what would you say?
Tom’s Answer:
If I could tell my younger self something it would be to take better care of myself physically, mentally and spiritually. Being physically fit, mentally strong and in a good place with God is really key to being successful in life.
Question: What is your favorite thing to read?
Tom’s Answer:
I had a preacher tell me once that I needed to make time for God. From that day forward, I quit hitting the snooze button on my alarm and started dedicating the first part of my day to God. At first, I would spend a set amount of minutes with God, but I would watch the clock and limit my time because I needed to get to work. Then one day, I realized how silly it was to put God on a clock. So, I turned my alarm clock around and just spent time with God without worrying about the minutes. It was amazing how much smoother and more efficient my days became once I did that. To this day, I spend every morning reading scripture and praying to start my day.
Cowkid Devotional
By High Call Ministries Pastor Kelly Cronkhite
Kelly is not your typical pastor. He’s a Jesus-loving cowboy, rancher and roper.
Springtime is full of new beginnings. The grass is turning green. The flowers are blooming. Baby calves and foals are being born. Everywhere you look, God is bringing fresh, new life to Earth. I don’t think it is coincidence that we celebrate Easter in the springtime. The true meaning behind the Easter holiday is Jesus paying for our sins through His death on the cross and giving us a new life. Jesus washed all of our past, present and future sins away with His own life. We celebrate Easter because although Jesus died, He did not remain in the tomb. He rose from the dead and sits with God in Heaven.
The Bible says, if you believe Jesus came to Earth to pay for our sins, died on the cross and rose from the dead, then you are saved and you will get to rejoice with God in Heaven some day. Sometimes we think being saved is hard. We have to do so many good deeds, or we can’t ever do anything bad. But, that isn’t true. God sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sins because NO HUMAN is perfect and free of sin. Jesus was the ONLY human to walk the Earth without ever sinning. For us to earn our place with God and Jesus in Heaven, all we have to do is believe in the Easter story and ask Jesus to come into our hearts and be our Lord and Savior. But, don’t stop there. Life on Earth is so much better if you allow Jesus to walk with you all the days of your life. Trust and obey God and make Jesus the Lord of your life and you will be blessed beyond belief.
So, this spring, enjoy God’s beauty in nature, hunt your Easter eggs, have fun on spring break, but MOST IMPORTANTLY, be grateful we have a God who loves us more than we can ever imagine!
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.” - John 3:16-17
“This means anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. Their old life is gone; a new life has begun!” - 2 Corinthians 5:17
“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” - 2 Corinthians 5:21
“Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never die.” - John 11:25-26
"When he cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in Heaven.” - Hebrews 1:3
Trivia Break:
Tyler Waguespack learned to steer wrestle under the mentorship of this month’s pro, Tom Carney. During his first year at the National Junior High Finals Rodeo, what place did he end up in the chute dogging?
Horse Care Tip of the Month
By Equine Veterinarian Zach Bruggen
Spring Vaccinations
Spring has sprung! I don’t know about you, but I am LOVING this warm weather! One of the springtime appointments I recommend to all my clients is to get their horses vaccinated. Just like people, we have vaccinations, or shots, for horses that help protect them from diseases. Several of the vaccines we recommend for all horses are caused by mosquitoes, so we like to vaccinate horses in the early spring before the mosquitoes start hatching. The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) helps equine veterinarians stay up-to-date on the latest health research and recommendations for horses. One way the AAEP helps equine veterinarians is by determining a set of vaccination guidelines they can recommend to their clients. The AAEP recommends all horses receive “core” vaccines.
Core vaccines include:
West Nile virus - a disease caused by infected mosquitoes that causes problems with the horses’ nervous system and can be deadly
Eastern and Western Equine Encephalomyelitis - these also are caused by infected mosquitoes that cause problems with the horses’ nervous system and can be deadly
Tetanus - this disease is caused by bacteria that can be found in the environment. It can enter the horse’s body through several ways and is often deadly if the horse becomes infected
Rabies - this disease is caused by the bite of an infected animal (usually a wild animal). This disease is 100 percent fatal, meaning if your horse gets rabies, they will die or have to be put to sleep. Humans also can get rabies from infected animals, including horses. So, vaccinating horses against rabies not only protects them, but you and your family as well.
Although these diseases all sound scary, we can find peace knowing we have vaccinations that are very good at preventing them. All of the core vaccines have proven to be safe and effective. However, sometimes vaccinations can cause mild reactions, such as muscle soreness, fever and/or swelling around the area where the shot was given. Many vaccines are available at your local feed store, but I always recommend vaccines be administered by a veterinarian so that if the horse does have a reaction to the vaccine, we are already there to help them.
Veterinarians also can help owners decide if additional vaccines are needed to protect the horse against diseases based on their individual lifestyle. For example, junior rodeo horses travel to new places and come in contact with new horses at every rodeo. In addition to the core vaccines, I also recommend they be vaccinated for equine influenza (horse version of the flu) and equine herpesvirus. Both of these disease are spread from horse-to-horse, so horses who travel should be protected with vaccines. Neither of those diseases is typically deadly, but they will make your horse feel very sick and will cause time away from rodeos and practice.
The thought of your horse getting sick is not something we want to think about, but part of being a horse owner is protecting your horse from harm. Taking them to see an equine veterinarian for their vaccinations is one way you can keep your horse healthy and safe.
Rodeo Trivia Answer:
Tyler Waguespack learned to steer wrestle under the mentorship of this month’s pro, Tom Carney. During his first year at the National Junior High Finals Rodeo, what place did he end up in the chute dogging?
He didn’t earn a single point or place! Tom says he trained Tyler to value fundamentals over speed, so he did not win any money his first year at the junior high finals. Tyler’s dedication to steer wrestling with correct technique paid off in the long run. He is now a nine-time NFR qualifier and five-time world champion steer wrestler with more than $2 million in career earnings.
Exercise of the Month - Tall Plank Lateral Crawl AND Plank Pull-Through
By Logan Corbett with Champion Living Fitness
In the world of rodeo, the difference between first and out-of-the-money can come down to fractions of a second. Having a strong and stable core can help separate you from your competition. This is especially true for steer wrestlers. I encourage steer wrestlers to include anti-rotation core exercises in their workout plans. These exercises help them to keep their core engaged, without getting twisted or shifted by the strength of the steer. It seems backwards, but to help prevent your body from getting twisted in your slide, you need to strengthen the muscles responsible for helping you turn - your oblique (pronounced o-bleek) and transverse abdominis muscles. This month, I am actually giving you a bonus exercise because I couldn’t pick, which core exercise I liked best! I will walk you through both exercises in the video below. For the second exercise, if you don’t have a light hand weight, you can use a water bottle. I hope you use part of your spring break to make your body stronger by doing these exercises!
Rodeo Word of the Month:
Hazer
Hazer
A hazer is the cowboy or cowgirl who keeps the steer from running away from the bulldogger during a steer wrestling run. The hazer comes out of the tie-down and heeling box and runs along side the steer to ensure they do not move away from the steer wrestler while they get off their horse. The hazer’s job is very important to the success of the bulldogger. It is common for the hazing and bulldogging horse to be used as a pair. Although you won’t see a hazer’s name listed in the standings, steer wrestlers pay their hazers to help them. This photo is courtesy of Steer Wrestling 101.
Rodeo Math Problem of the Month:
High-Money Buckle
Elsie is competing at a rodeo that is awarding a high-money belt buckle to the girl who wins the most money for the day. Elsie won $45 in barrel racing, $32 in pole bending, $47 in goat tying and $53 in breakaway roping. Her friend Avery won $51 in barrel racing, $27 in pole bending, $55 in goat tying and $45 in breakaway roping. Which girl won the high-money belt buckle?
Reading Comprehension:
Picture Perfect
Tom spoke a lot about being “mentally strong.” One of the best books we have found about being mentally strong is written by cutting horse trainer Barbra Schulte and is called “The Gift.” Here is one of our favorite passages from the book:
“Thinking and speaking about what you want instead of what you don’t want is important…For example, do not imagine a bright green bird. What immediately pops into your mind? A bright green bird. You could not keep from imagining one if you tried.
The same is true if you tell yourself, ‘Don’t lean.’ You actually program yourself to lean! Instead, of thinking ‘Don’t lean,’ clearly visualize yourself centered and riding correctly.”
Barbra says rather than thinking about “don’ts” like, “don’t lean,” think about positive words that help you stay focused, such as “sit up.” If you have some bad habits you are trying to break, try replacing negative words and actions with positive ones.
What happened when Barbra said do not imagine a bright green bird? Is that what you pictured in your mind?
Do you have any bad habits you have been trying to fix by using negative words like “don’t do….blah blah”?
What positive words could you replace your negative words with?