Roping's all about practice

Rawlins Daily Times, Jerret Raffety

Ten-year-old Yancey Weber demonstrated 'the butterfly,' a trick he learned in his six years of cattle roping. Weber competes in steer roping competitions across the state.


By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

The whip, snap and subsequent swish of the rope pulling tight startled the rowdy kids nearby.
Yancey Weber quickly stepped back, instinctively bracing himself against the roping dummy as though it might tug against its restraint.

“You stud!” called Cindy Cobb, Weber’s teacher at Little Snake River Valley School.

Weber’s been roping since he turned 4, getting the initial know-how from his father and learning the rest from watching others. The 10-year-old travels across the state to compete. His friend, Zach Peed, learned from ranching friends in Craig, Colo. He’s good at roping, he said, but can’t do any of Weber’s tricks yet.

The two boys stood out amongst the hundreds of fourth-graders who passed through Kurt Olson’s cattle roping demonstration at the Agriculture Expo, an event held Thursday at the Carbon County Fairgrounds designed to teach fourth-graders about agriculture.

According to Weber and Peed, roping doesn’t always come naturally.

“You can only get so far with a teacher,” Peed said. “Then you just have to practice and practice.” Also a skateboarder, he said learning to do roping tricks like the butterfly or the wedding ring was like figuring out how to do a kickflip or ollie on the board.

Is it hard to compete? Peed nodded quickly, but Weber was skeptical. Rather than go for the feet, a harder target, he prefers to pull the steer down by the neck.