Jacob Lasso's a Bull

Jake and Kami (my son and daughter).  This
story takes place a year or two later but you
can see they are comfortable around horses. 

When my son Jacob was about 8-9 years old, Craig Johnson, one of my good friends who had been a real cowboy all his life, spend a little time teaching him the finer points of lassoing and gave him one of his old well worn ropes.  Jake loved that rope and practiced with it almost non-stop for several months.

I remember watching Jake from time to time as he roped the fire hydrant in our front yard in Brigham City, Utah, and occasionally pestered our dog, and maybe even his sisters and their friends from time to time but I never thought too much about it.  They all seemed to be having fun (maybe not the dog).

That next September at the Peach Days festival that is held annually in Brigham City, Jake and I were wondering through the throng of people looking for things that looked like fun, where I could plop down a dollar or two for something that would provide us a little enjoyment and maybe a memory of our day together.  The girls and their mom were off finding some girl stuff to do as I remember.

Well as we wandered aimlessly, not really finding anything of much interest to do when Jake spotted this cowboy wrangler setup where a person could sit in a saddle while they kicked loose a sawhorse with bull horns attached to the front.  The "bull" would then roll down the track rather quickly which was about 25 feet long.  The goal was to lasso the bull from the saddle perch before it hit the end of its track.  If you roped the bull, you won a small prize.

Well we stood there and watched while several men and teenage boys climbed up into the saddle, started twirling the rope above their head (like they knew what they were doing, give a nod to start the faux bull, then float a lasso in the general direction of the bull .... only to come up empty time after time.

We probably watched about 5-6 men and older boys give it a try but no one had any success.  I was convinced this was much harder than it looked so I told Jake that maybe we should find somewhere else to  spend our money.  I didn't want him to be embarrassed or feel like he had failed.  He was disappointed but didn't really complain too much.

After we had walked around for maybe another 5-10 minutes he looked at me and asked if he could please try to rope the bull.  Again I explained to him how that would just be a waste of our money so we should either find something else or maybe just buy some food or enjoy one of the rides.

Well, Jake persisted and finally I acquiesced stating, "Fine, if that's what you really want to do but you will just be wasting your money".  I was now convinced that this was a lesson he would have to learn the hard way so we went back and got in line.

There were only a few guys in front of us in line but there was a pretty good sized group just standing around watching but no one was having any success.  Now Jake had to be about 5-6 years younger than anyone we saw attempt to rope the bull but his mind was set on giving it a try so when his turn came ... he paid his money and climbed up into the saddle for his 3 attempts. They had to adjust the stirrups by tying them up with some rope so his feet would reach but they got it ready pretty quickly.  He looked pretty small in that saddle but he was now ready.

He got his rope adjust, just as he had learned from Craig, started twirling it over his head, then gave the signal to kick the "bull" loose.  The faux bull got about half-way down its track when Jake (who was leaning forward in the saddle) snapped that lasso down at the bull and I'll be darned (not a cowboy word) if he didn't lasso that bull.

I of course grinned and perked up just a bit (maybe with a little bit of dad pride) thinking okay, now we're out of here.  Let's get his prize and go ...  why tempt fate.  But Jake had other ideas, he wasn't done, he still had two throws left and he was going to finish.  I noticed a few heads were now turned in our direction as the operator reset the mechanism and Jake got his lasso ready again.  Throw #2, same process ... same result only this time I started heard several cheers from some of the onlookers.

Now I was starting to really beam like any proud father would and maybe stand a little bit taller and give Jake a few words of encouragement (just so everyone would know I was with him).  I remember still thinking, "He's at least got 2 out of 3 so there would be no embarrassment for Jake (or me)."

Attempt number three would be done with almost all heads in the general area turned in our direction were turned to see what was causing the stir.  I saw several people whispering and pointing at Jake.  I had my fingers crossed  hoping that he could do it one more time, not that Jake needed any luck as his confidence was sky high and it very evident as he prepared for his final attempt but this time the pressure was on.  Sure enough, try three yielded the same result as he snapped that lasso around the bull and came up grinning.  There was quite a cheer that went up from the small crowd that had witnessed the event.

Jake got several pats on the back from many of the onlookers and as the operator gave Jake his trinket for winning he and knelt down by him to say,  "I should hire you to come do this about every 15 minutes ... that would be good for my business."

Well Jake walked away that day with a proud (yet humbled) father.  As we walked away I asked Jake how he could do that so well when so many older boys and even men had failed.  He turned to me and said, "Craig taught me that if you want to catch something you can't just throw your rope out there and hope it lands on something,  You have to throw the rope at it like you mean it.  That's how I practiced."

How simple yet profound.   Jake had learned the finer points of roping from someone who knew how to do it.  He had practiced and learned well enough that when the opportunity came, he knew what to do and was able to step up confidently and rope the bull.

I suppose that same advice could apply to most things we try to do in this life.  We have to be willing to listen and learn then be aggressive in our efforts if we want to really give ourselves a chance to succeed.  If we just toss a small effort in that direction we'll always come up empty.  But when we go after the things of value like we really want them by preparing and then "throwing" all of our effort directly at it, we have a real chance of succeeding.

As a side note, that day I learned not to limit others by my perceptions.  Their success or failure is not based on what I think they can or can't do.  I try to listen better to others, they just may have some strengths that I can learn from if I just give them a chance.