Breaking it Down by Speed Williams – December 2025
Lately I’ve had some interesting conversations with lifetime, die hard, calf ropers at some of the breakaway ropings I’ve been to with Hali, resulting in some friendly debates. In my opinion the fundamentals of breakaway are much closer to heading than tie down roping.
The majority of tie down ropers score, then ride their horse close enough to be able to rope the neck sharp and they do all their winning once the rope goes on the neck. If you run close enough and set up the go, it’s a lot more consistent than having your horse shut you out.
Very seldom do you see a tie down roper throwing when the barrier rope pulls. Now days in the team roping at rodeos there are so many guys that can reach, you have to throw fast to win. That’s why I relate the breakaway to team roping. In the next 3-5 years there are going to be a lot more girls who can consistently rope fast.
There is so much involved… your swing, riding your horse, and being able to throw without your horse breaking you over the saddle – or if he stops so hard he cuts off your throw. It’s hard to do it well consistently.
By far the breakaway is one of the fastest events in rodeo. We’re talking about scenarios where 1.9 wins first, and there might be seven of them. Then maybe five 2.0’s and a 2.1 or 2.2 won’t win much. There are many ways to prepare for those situations.
The name of the game in breakaway is how well you can score, control the speed of your horse going to the barrier, have weight in your stirrups and not be sitting on your butt, have your tip on target and be able to throw in any direction at any time. Often easier said than done.
That’s what we do heading. You’re trying to get it on the cow as fast as you can. In tie down you don’t have to get it around his neck as fast, it’s better to go a couple of jumps so you can make a good run on the ground. It’s a totally different neck shot. In breakaway you want to rope him deep around the neck. In tie down you want to rope right behind the ears so you can control his direction with your slack.
The correlation between BA and heading is closer than BA and TD. I promise you when I says this, calf ropers look at me like I don’t know anything, and I don’t even tell them I roped calve for a long time. When I rope calves, I roped them fast, so I had more time on the ground. All the calf ropers would try to tell me to ride another jump to set up the ground. My answer was it’s easy for me to get it around the neck, but I was wired to rope fast, so I had more time to flank and tie. I was not as athletic or strong as a lot of the true calf ropers who were wrestlers. In high school I roped against Rabe Rabon and D.R. Daniels.
The sport of breakaway is growning and the future is exciting. When girls come to the house for lessons, I tell them they need to understand the way I teach Hali goes against a lot of the fundamentals of tie down roping. We don’t use heavy, limber, dead ropes. We use head ropes because we can swing them faster and throw them faster with less force.
That came about when Hali was in the 6th grade and just starting to breakaway. I swung her 9.5 poly rope after not swinging a calf rope in a while. It was heavy and dead, and I asked her how it felt. She answered, “Not very good.” So, I cut a head rope off and we’ve used head ropes ever since.
The Kimes Million Dollar Breakaway will be here in a few weeks and I’m excited for the opportunity this roping offers young ladies. It’s astonishing that breakaway ropers can go to
Scottsdale, AZ and have an opportunity to rope in ten rounds… each paying $25,000 for first. That’s over $300,000 for all ten rounds. It absolutely gives girls the opportunity to make a living with a rope. Last year there were several girls who won over $50,000 at that event. It tells me the sport and future of breakaway is very bright.
