Breaking it Down by Speed Williams – May 2026
Hali is leading the world standings in Breakaway because of winning Rodeo Houston.
At the beginning of the year, I was very excited for Hali. She was healthy, feeling good and we were excited and optimistic. All three of her horses, Redlight, Blaze, and Chester, were all working well, and she was having great practice sessions.
At Ft. Worth her first calf turned his head, she had to pull up making her late and she was a little long. She broke the barrier on her second calf and left without winning anything. The next rodeo was San Antonio where she missed all three calves.
Afterwards I told her, “Your horses are working, you’re healthy. We can get things turned around, but the sport is so fast.” The difference in a 1.9-second run and a 2.1-second run can be $5,000 to zero. There’s a lot of risk and gambling in trying to win when two tenths of a second can mean the difference in winning something and nothing. I told her she had to back in the box with confidence and believe in herself.
On her first calf at Houston, she missed a “lay up” and she was obviously upset. I told her, “We’ve got to understand what happened, but when you back in the box tomorrow, you have to believe you won the round. You must have that confidence.”
Her second calf was supposed to step left. When she got out, he circled back to the heading box and made a complete U-turn. I was so proud of her because as she saw the calf returning, she was changing the angles of her swing. She was hunting that calf with her tip. I have been in that position and understood what she was doing. She pulled off a very difficult “branding pen” shot on the left side of her horse. She caught him and won fourth in the round and $750. She came back and won the third round and made it out of her bracket.
In the semi-finals she’s up second to last. There are three 2-second runs, and a barrier is winning fourth, and there’s one behind her. I can’t visit with her since I’m at the back end of the arena. They have Hali and me miked up and I’m talking to the television people. Hali has a choice here of whether to try and go fast or just get him caught. She’s already had this calf once and was 3.3 on him. He checks up, steps left making it difficult to be 2.5 on him.
She chose to go catch and was 3.5 on him. The last girl missed so now she’s made the final four and is the first one out since she qualified fourth.
I told her she had to decide if she would gamble and “bring it” or go catch. I thought she took a very aggressive and smart shot to try to win. Not the prettiest loop. It hit him in the side of the head and bounced on. She was 2.6 and won the Shootout round.
I was very proud of her for rallying and overcoming the setbacks she had. Having confidence and being able to convince yourself you’re winning – even when you are not, is so important. You have to be able to lie to yourself and have confidence in your preparation. You cannot win if you’re dwelling on what’s going wrong when you’re in the box trying to compete.
I can tell you from experience after being in the lead in the world standings at the NFR and being 0 for 3 in the first three rounds. We came back and placed in the next seven and I think won five of those. When I backed in the box on the last seven rounds, I brought it just like I did on the first three. It was mind over matter and knowing we had prepared for every possible scenario we would face there.
It comes back to having confidence when your horses are working, and you’ve had great practice sessions of all the various scenarios. Being able to pull those off in the practice pen, the odds of winning are much higher. In the sports of Breakaway, Tie-Down, Team Roping or Bulldogging, there are elements you can’t control.
I can’t stress enough the importance of preparation and how much it helps your confidence… even when things don’t go according to plan.
