What makes a good heading horse?

The heading horse carries the most significant athletic responsibility in the team roping partnership — he is the first horse into the arena, the horse that must control the steer's speed and direction long enough for the heeler to make his shot, and the horse whose performance in the first three to five seconds of the run either creates the opportunity for a fast time or makes a fast time impossible regardless of what follows. Speed and stride length are the physical qualities most immediately apparent in the heading horse, and they are genuinely important because the header must get to the steer quickly from the gate, match the steer's pace during the approach to the horns, and create enough position and angle relative to the steer to make a clean delivery possible at competition pace. A heading horse that is slow to get up to speed from the chute, that cannot match the pace of a fast steer, or that cannot sustain the pace through the catch and the turn puts his rider in a fundamentally compromised position before the rope ever leaves the header's hand. The turn is the heading horse's defining contribution to the partnership and the technical element that most directly affects the heeler's opportunity for a successful run. After the header catches the steer and dallies, the heading horse must turn the steer to the left — pulling the steer across the arena in a smooth controlled arc that presents the steer's hind legs to the heeler at the correct angle and the correct pace for a catchable shot. A horse that turns the steer smoothly at the correct speed and at the correct angle creates the heeler's opportunity. A horse that turns too sharply, too slowly, or at a difficult angle creates a difficult shot that costs time regardless of the heeler's skill. Trackability — the heading horse's willingness to follow the steer's line accurately without drifting off the correct path — is a training quality that the best heading horses possess to a degree that makes the header's delivery position consistent run after run. A horse that tracks the steer correctly puts his rider in the same delivery position every time, allowing the rider to develop the consistent muscle memory that fast competitive times require.