… with tie-down roper / team roper Steele DePaoli
August 6, 2024
I love this sport! I am extremely lucky to get to have the support I do and do what I love to do. From my last update I have had multiple people come up to me and tell me how they appreciate the honesty in these blogs. What I see in most posts are people only showing the good times and that sometimes gives a false appearance of what really goes on. I watched a post from Tyler Wade, he is last years World Champion Header. He is definitely one of the best headers going right now. He posted a real of all his misses, that’s right all his misses, and at the end showing his winning run from the NFR. The dialogue says that you need to develop the quality of being unstoppable no matter what life throws at you. I thought this was extremely powerful as you only see the runs or rides when competitors do well. He took a different and more raw approach.
There is nothing more true in this sport that the fact of learning to be comfortable with losing. Other sports have the capability to go home or go to another arena and practice. Our sport, we just drive down the road and think. It amazes me how competitive the best in the world are. They live on the road and learn to fix things while still under the gun to win. On top of that if they don’t win they might not have enough money to feed their family or get to the next rodeo. How about that for pressure!
I got to experience this; we left High Prairie and I made a decent run. I missed the barrier but first run on the cattle we didn’t know where it was at. I was still fired up because it felt like momentum. We got to Regina and I always seem to rope well in Regina. I go and miss in the team roping and I have a great calf, he was slower and gonna be great on the ground. I set a plan to miss the barrier and just make a run. Instead I do not see enough and break out. Turns out when you ride a Ferrari and the calf runs like a Volkswagen, I probably need to be smart and stick to the plan. After all this is not my rookie season. A really close friend seen I was pretty mad at myself. He texted me “Don’t sweat it bro! Don’t overthink it or over try as hard as that is! Good solid Steele DePaoli run at Strathmore and you’ll forget all about today”. This is the support I am thankful for in this sport. Everyone tries to help each other. Now it was my job to stop worrying about it and do my job.
We drove to Herbert CCA rodeo and I planned to use that as a practice. Instead the calf cuts left then right and I miss. Now I really need to use my head and not sweat anything. So we drive all night to Grimshaw and I won second. Then like I was told to do, I made a good solid run in Strathmore. This week felt like a big week as it is a big boost in the standings but more victorious was the mental stretch that had to be accomplished.
Next week will be fun as the family is coming with me. We have two really good rodeos and then a Cow Horse show for my wife.
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July 31, 2024
Sorry I have not been keeping up on these write ups as frequently. I had a great conversation with a friend in Medicine Hat and they told me they look forward to the blog as it shows the real side of the trail and how hard our sport is. The ups and downs are extreme, even the best in the world miss or have thing’s completely out of their control happen and somehow the rodeo athletes keep staying mentally strong and go to the next rodeo. I watch an interview with Trevor Brazil, whom which I and many others put on a pedestal. He was talking about how rodeo athletes lose more than they win and we have to learn to be comfortable with that.
This is exactly how my season has gone… well heck my career. I think a great trait I have is that I never give up. I watch guys that have one little mess up and they stop moving forward. Then I watch other guys and they never stop moving forward. Those individuals seem to come out on top every time in the end. My wife gave me this compliment the other day and I really appreciated that.
The biggest thing I feel like I have accomplished this rodeo season is appreciate every moment. I am so grateful I get to do this and do it with my family. I have great sponsors and great horses.
The last few weeks have been going much better. I feel like Big Money is spot on right now. I still keep him wrapped up but he is wanting to really stop hard again. Allie Lait came over with her Revive Equiscope Therapy. It seemed to really help. On the first session Big Money would stand there and itch his ankle with his other foot. I am not sure everything that was going on but there had to be blood flow happening.
The east run was good to me. I rode a Four year old head horse I got from Braden Duckett. I was really happy with him. In Morris Rhet lost a leg at the last second to win a good cheque. Rhet and Braden did a great job training Smokey. I ended up placing in the Tie Down Roping at both Morris and Kennedy.
This last week I only ended up placing once. Rhet absolutely hammered a steer in Bruce and we won second. For some reason that rodeo always seems hard to make a good run at.
Big Money was outstanding last night in High Prairie, on a calf that tried and ran to the right. Hopefully I get a good cheque there.
We are driving from High Prairie to Regina as I write this. The schedule for the next little bit is Regina tomorrow night, Herbert Friday, Grimshaw Saturday, Strathmore Sunday.
I will try to stay more on top of the updates. I really appreciate the feedback I get. Thanks to everyone for following along!
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July 8, 2024
We are just past the half way point of the season. I wouldn’t say my season has been going as well as I would like it to. This game is so much fun because there is always a new challenge to overcome. I have been roping well so I feel like things are going to “just fall into place”, but they haven’t been.
I never look at the standings and I did last week. Needless to say it made me mad. It would be different if I wasn’t working at my roping but I have been. After work I rope or at least ride every night until 10:30 or 11pm. Big Money has scratches bad and has limped on every calf for a month. I have a bunch of respect for him because he is still working decent, so I don’t have any excuses.
Over the Christmas in Canada I got kicked to be real good in the calves at Williams Lake but Rhet and I placed at Ponoka. We did not draw the best there and Rhet roped outstanding, he made our team.
Last week I went to the Rocky Mountain Days field roping. I took my two young head horses and wow what a cool roping. The score was at the end of a free standing panel. We had to sit there and really score them out and rope on the grass. You needed a horse that can really run and stand up. It is a real Cowboy’s roping. My horses worked awesome and I won second with Logan Cullen. That roping paid amazing.
I just finished at Benalto, we didn’t get anything in the team roping but in the calves I made a good run and split second with Beau Cooper. Logan Bird won it to continue his roll.
This last week it was phenomenal watching Haven Meged at Ponoka and Williams Lake. He absolutely kicked butt. In Ponoka he didn’t draw the best calves and absolutely blew through them. His second and third calves hauled butt. Then his flanking was so strong. The Bay horse was on cue, it is so hard for a horse to run that hard, step to the right and stay straight and strong in their stop.
Then in the final four, how about Jonior Nogueira’s heel shot. It was so incredible that I think it got missed how great of a spin Kaleb Diggers made gaining fast on that steer. That is the best rodeo in the world right now.
I haven’t been following things very much but everywhere I go Kolton Schmidt and Landen Glenn are sticking every steer. Both Kolton/Landen and Dawson/Dillion made great runs at Benalto. I sure hope we can have three teams with Canadians at the NFR this year. There is a chance for quite a few Canadians to make the NFR between all the events. My family and I try to watch Jake Gardner as much as possible. I think he will get it done this year.
In conclusion it hasn’t been great but I have won $9000 this last week. So, things are coming together. Now we have a couple weeks that are slower then it kicks off again and gets busy. My plan is to stay mad and keep the tempo going.
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June 2, 2024
Wow, here we are back at it for another season. It finally feels like we are rodeoing. We have been going to one rodeo a weekend and finally we get to go to three. The season hasn’t cracked off as I would like it to but it starts to matter right now. I am roping really well and things are coming together.
This week my family couldn’t come with me, which sucked. We started this week in Grande Prairie and I made an alright run in the calves and ended up sixth. In the team roping I had some weird luck. The barrier hooked the tail of my rope and when I delivered my loop hit the tail and fouled my rope. I ended up missing.
We went to Leduc and I made a good run in the calves and my calf got up. I am happy with my run, it is just the way things go. In hindsight it’s easy to say put two wraps on but the calf felt good and I put a good wrap and Hooey on. I will probably do the same thing on the next one. In the team roping on my second swing I hit the left post and somehow in my delivery I picked my rope back up and took another swing. Somehow I ended up catching but I don’t feel I helped Rhet out very much.
In Hand Hills I whipped it off in the team roping and messed up my calf.
I feel sharp and Crackers was really good this week. Thanks to Noah Hartum, Austin Hines and Clay Elliott for letting me ride their horses. This sport is so cool that we all help each other out. Hopefully I have Big Money back in the next couple weeks.
A couple notes to make, pretty cool to see Tee McLeod and Sid Sporer kicking butt. I feel they both are roping well enough to make the big show this year. They kicked butt at all three rodeos. Another awesome thing, my mom placing deep at both Buffalo Lake and Grande Prairie. For all the years we both made the finals we have never actually been there the same year. This year hopefully we can change that.
Next week schedule is Rocky Mountain house Thursday morning, Bonnyville Thursday night, Brooks Friday morning and Lea Park Sunday.
I am on a roll!