Team roping

Team roping also known as heading and heeling is a rodeo event that features a steer (typically a Corriente) and two mounted riders. The first roper is referred to as the "header", the person who ropes the front of the steer, usually around the horns, but it is also legal for the rope to go around the neck, or go around one horn and the nose resulting in what they call a "half head". Once the steer is caught by one of the three legal head catches, the header must dally (wrap the rope around the rubber covered saddle horn) and use his horse to turn the steer to the left. The second is the "heeler", who ropes the steer by its hind feet after the "header" has turned the steer, with a five-second penalty assessed to the end time if only one leg is caught. Team roping is the only rodeo event where men and women compete equally together in professionally sanctioned competition, in both single-gender or mixed-gender teams.

Cowboys originally developed this technique on working ranches when it was necessary to capture and restrain a full-grown animal that was too large to handle by a single man. Over the years as the sport has grown a numbering system was added to rate each ropers individual talent level. the numbers go from one to nine (1-9) for headers and one to ten (1-10) for heelers. Using these numbers a handicap systems (the subtraction of time) has been developed to even the competition. Today there are tens of thousands of amateur ropers who compete for millions of dollars in prize money.

There is specialized equipment used by team ropers:

Steers used for roping are moved from a holding corral through a series of narrow alleyways that lead to the roping arena. The alleyways allow the steers to be lined up in single file. Then, one at a time, a steer is moved into a chute with spring-loaded doors in front and a solid gate behind, so that only one animal is released at a time. On each side of the chute is an area called the box that is big enough to hold a horse and rider. The header is on one side (usually the left, for a right-handed header) whose job is to rope the steer around the horns, then turn the steer so its hind legs can be roped by the "heeler", who starts from the box on the other side of the chute.

A taut rope, called the barrier, runs in front of the header's box and is fastened to an easily released rope on the neck of the steer of a designated length, used to ensure that the steer gets a head start. An electronic barrier, consisting of an electric eye connected to a timing device, is sometimes used in place of the barrier rope.

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