Darrel, Ben Johnson, and Steer Roping

I met an interesting chap for the second time today.  I was first introduced to Darrel H. a couple of years ago during one of my visits to Oklahoma.  At that time he was presented to me as a preacher for a local congregation.  He is a likeable chap, tall, strong, and good looking albeit a bit brusque in his manner.  Like most of the preachers around here, he is very loud spoken.  Anyway, we chatted for a while and I learned that he had grown up on a large spread in northern Oklahoma near the town of Burbank.  One of his neighbors, he said, was none other than Ben Johnson, of Hollywood fame, but Darrel said he did not know he was a movie star and only knew him as Mr. Johnson.

Ben Johnson went to Hollywood in the 1940’s when Howard Hughs hired him to deliver a herd of horses for a movie he was making.  Ben had been a rodeo star up to then and was a world champion roper.  When he got to Hollywood he decided to stay and worked as a stunt man, horse trainer, and taught many of the big stars how to ride western style.  He doubled for the Duke (John Wayne) on many occasions and had roles in many of his movies.  I saw Ben in one of the Duke’s films where he rode tandem horses, standing on their backs, at a full gallop!  It was an amazing stunt and helped Ben to become known as the best rider in Hollywood.

My new friend Darrel H. grew up in this atmosphere and was an accomplished rider himself.  He was telling me about rodeos and how the “steer tripping” (also known as steer roping) event had been eliminated because so many cows were being harmed.  Darrel went on to explain “steer tripping” to me in a way that could only come from someone who had done it many times.  He described every detail as if he were painting a masterpiece, telling me how it was necessary to rope the steer around the horns and then deftly lay the rope along side the cow as you galloped past on the opposite side from the rope, thereby looping the rope behind the cow being careful to catch the back legs in the flank area and not below the hock (a cow’s rear legs flex in reverse of a human’s but the hock would be comparable to the knee).

I know this is not a steer and does not have horns, but its a good enough graphic for this story

Galloping ahead of the steer at this point would pull the hind legs under the steer toward its head, causing it to fall to the ground undamaged.  The problem, he said, is that many of the inexperienced riders have gotten into the habit of turning sharply away from the cow pulling its back legs to the side and this is what causes all the injuries.  They do this to effect a quicker trip, trying to shorten the time and win the event.  Darrel called this method “steer jerking” and obviously held those who practiced this method in contempt.

The right way

The wrong way

Apparently, in the old days when it was not convenient to corral range cattle and haul them to a veterinarian for treatments or branding, “steer tripping” was a necessary talent.  The range riders often carried medications in their saddlebags and when they spotted a sickly steer, it only took a few seconds to drop the steer and administer whatever first aid was available and then release it unharmed.