What should a heel horse do after the rope is thrown?

The moment the heeler releases the loop, the heel horse's job enters its final and most critical phase: stop hard and straight, face up squarely, and hold steady tension on the rope until the flag drops. Each element of that sequence must happen in order and without the rider having to manage it consciously, because the heeler's hands are on the rope and the horn at exactly the moment the horse needs to be executing its stop and face independently. The stop comes first and must be immediate — the heeler's hand to the horn is the cue, and the horse should already be committing to the stop before the dally is fully set. A stop that comes a stride late allows the steer to escape the loop or pulls the heeler off balance at the dally. After the stop, the horse faces up: it turns to square its body toward the steer, taking up the slack in the rope and bringing the steer between the two horses in a straight line. The face-up should be active and deliberate — the horse stepping into the rope tension rather than being pulled around by it — and it should happen quickly enough that the rope stays taut through the transition from stop to face. Once faced, the horse holds: it maintains steady forward pressure on the rope, keeping the steer straight and the two ropes taut, without drifting, relaxing, or turning away until the rider releases it after the flag. Horses that drop their shoulder toward the steer, drift sideways, or slack the rope during the hold release the tension that keeps the run legal. Teaching the complete sequence — stop, face, hold — as a single confirmed response rather than three separate behaviors produces a horse whose finish is as automatic and reliable as its stop.