Team Roping at the 2024 Choctaw Round-Up Club Rodeo

August 12, 2024 Blog by James Pratt Leave a Comment

One of my sports in high school was team roping. In fact, I made the Oklahoma High School State Finals in team roping, competing with my partner Dale Shockley at the Jim Norick Arena. It had been 40+ years since I last roped a steer at this exact same arena in Choctaw, Oklahoma and I was looking forward to capturing some cool pictures. My familiarity with the sport really helped with the photos.

Team roping was one of my sports in high school. I roped the head – the guy in the bottom of the screen – while various friends including Dale Shockley usually roped the heals.

The header has caught the steer right out of the starting shoot, jerked his loop tight, dallied the rope to his rubber-wrapped saddle horn, and turned hard to jerk the steer and open up the rear hooves to the healer’s rope. A perfectly timed throw is required from the healer to ensnare the rear hooves. A well-practiced team can rope steer in well under 6 seconds.

Healing requires a lot of talent and practice. The heeler must throw a loop underneath the lunging steer and ensnare their heals and then jerk the rope tight. Heeling ropes are stiff so they stand up under the steer. Notice the flag man in the background waiting until the steer is pulled tight between the ropers.

Time stopped on the team roping run when both cowboys turned their horses towards the cow after the run, with the steer stretched tight between them. The goal is for the healer to catch both cow heels in the loop. A time penalty is given if only a single heal is caught.

Unfortunately for this team, a front hoof is ensnared in the rope., disqualifying this run.

Team ropers often mix and match headers and healers, creating multiple combinations of teams that rope together. This header is roping with another healer elsewhere in this photo series.

I am an Oklahoma based writer, commercial photographer, editorial photographer and adventurer based in Oklahoma City. I love telling stories about people. A motorcycle is my preferred means of travel, and I have over 5,000 hours piloting small airplanes. My editorial photography has been published in hundreds of magazines and my commercial photography has been used by dozens of companies worldwide.

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Team Roping at the 2024 Choctaw Round-Up Club Rodeo

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