Two-time champion enjoys family aspect of steer roping

Scott Snedecor has been able to make a good living doing steer roping, and at age 37 he intends to do it for a while.

CMI photo: Tony BullocksKim Ziegelgruber of Edmond, Okla., ropes his steer during Friday's steer roping competition in the Pioneer Days Rodeo at Curry County Events Center. Ziegelgruber posted a time of an even 16 seconds on the ride.

Snedecor, a two-time Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion in the event, was in Clovis on Friday to compete in the 42nd annual Pioneer Days Rodeo at Curry County Events Center.

He said while steer roping isn't as physically demanding as some events in rodeo, there's a skill to it that makes it challenging.

"The more years you do it, the better you get," said Snedecor, who has rodeoed most of his life but didn't take up steer roping until he was in college in the mid-1990s. "A guy might think it's pretty easy event when you watch it, but it takes time and effort and patience (to master).

"If you're going to be good at it, you've got to work at it."

CMI photo: Tony BullocksRocky Patterson of Pratt, Kan., ropes his steer i during Friday's Pioneer Days Rodeo at Curry County Events Center. Patterson posted a time of 12.06 seconds.

There are 53 PRCA rodeos which include the event, said PRCA steer roping director and competitor J.P. Wickett.

"You have to have a lot of patience roping steers," said Wickett, 42, from Sallisaw, Okla. "This is an event where a good horse, and good horsemanship, are very important."

Snedecor, from Fredericksburg, Texas, makes between 20 and 30 rodeos a year. He was the PRCA champion in the event in 2005 and 2008 and has made the national finals (top 15) in each of the last 11 years.

He essentially does steer roping full time, although he dabbles in team roping "when it's convenient."

"It's more of a family-oriented (event)," Snedecor said. "I can take my family to it, and I don't have to drive the high-dollar diesel."

Because steer ropers use their rope to trip the steers, they don't take the physical punishment some in other events might.

"It's a longevity sport," Snedecor said. "Dan Fisher is 60 years old, and he makes the finals every year."

Wickett, meantime, who has also competed in steer roping since the mid-90s, said he doesn't plan to do it that long.

"I would like to rodeo pretty hard for two or three years," he said, "and then kind of pull in the reins."

Unlike Snedecor, Wickett said he works in a tax office in Fort Smith, Ark., from January to mid-April, when the steer roping schedule slows down. It also allows his body time to recuperate.