Partner pitfalls
As a team roper, you know how a particular horse or rope can affect your catch ratio. But what about your choice of partner? If you don’t think your relationship with the guy or gal in the box next to yours impacts your performance, just ask nine-time NFR heeler Jake Long.
In his world, partners are also de facto best friends. So when things go wrong, both sides get to trying so hard for the other guy that it’s almost suffocating. And that becomes a downward spiral.
“Once rodeo partners decide to quit roping together, all that pressure lifts off,” Long said. “It almost never fails—a team splitting up will win everything that last two weeks they were still entered. Out here, we’ll joke that we’re going to fake cut each other for a while.”
When you’re trying too hard, it can be really difficult to get a slump turned around or even win at all. But pressure is only one death knell to a partnership.
The opposite of pressure
