Catchin knots

[rodeocowboy1202]

ok clayton got called on it twice and the second time was complete bullsh*t, he hung his bell strap and thats somethin you cant do on purpose. clayton is actually a friend of mine and yes he likes to catch rope but he doesnt grab it in the box, and i dont know how much attention ya'll pay or how many of you have been behind the scenes of a big time event of have seen some of these guys ropes but a lot of them have spots marked off with medical tape where their knot and/or keepers can be so they grab it just by dropping their feet and MOST EVERYONE CATCHES KNOTS, its just the PBR is gonna pick and choose who they want to catch doin it and clayton doesnt fit the PBR "mold" so they are runnin him off. go back and watch travis briscoe's winning ride in the short go in des moines, he was shank deep in his knot and more oftrn than not chris shivers is too but they wont call it on them

and a side note, the 5000 dollar fine is also complete bullsh*t, the rider gets enough punishment by not getting a score. they shouldnt be fined for somethin they can be complete accident although most of the time it isnt

[CThrash13]

I thought Clayton clearly had his spur caught when he left the chute, but I'm not a judge. It was pretty ridiculous taking off his spurs to try and prove a point. It made him look silly, and he nearly got hurt.

That being said, if the PBR does pick and choose who they call out for it, that is wrong. I don't believe that's fair at all, and that needs to be changed. I noticed they called it a couple more times this past weekend, so maybe they will be looking for it more in the future.

As for the fine, I also think $5,000 is ridiculous. Then it doubles every time which is also ridiculous. I do, however, think there should be a small fine at least. It just shouldn't be $5,000. Like you said, taking away the score is punishment as well.

If nothing else, this has made me watch the feet more closely when guys are coming out of the chute.

[Barney Rubble]

Clayton knew what he was doing, he just should have been more aware of what the rule actually is, because the "I nod with my feet in the slats" excuse won't fly. He should know where his rope is and he has control over where his feet are going. Maybe that young sorehead needs to attend a judging seminar if he wants to understand what is going on. They're open to any rider who wants to attend and there was one in Worcester on Saturday morning. I didn't go, but I know that Renato was there for at least part of it. I think Clayton would rather whine about how unfair it all is than do what he needs to do and fix it. Maybe he didn't mean to catch his bell strap, but if he'd been tending to his business he never would have caught it. Also, even if they hadn't called him for his bellstrap, he was knotted up bigger than life on the other side anyway.

I've been around Shivers for over 10 years and I can count on one hand the number of times that he has left the box with his rope. I'd actually have more than one finger left over. He is the best I've ever seen at having control of his feet during the ride and catching his rope then, which is perfectly legal.

I'm sure Clayton's buddies are all up in arms about how unfair it all is, but the fact is that if his feet weren't in the rope he would not get called for it. Does whining to the cop that even though you were speeding so was a lot of other people get you out of a ticket? Fact is, this is far from the first time that Clayton's temper and lack of judgement have either made him look like an idiot or gotten him in trouble. I know of one other incident this year where he was irate and verbally abuse with a judge at a lower level event because a call did not go his way, and there was also an incident with an event producer at a lower level event this season. Fact is, Clayton has tremendous talent and a lot of try to go with it. He also has a LOT of growing up to do based on the behavior I've seen. I hope he pulls his head out of his a** and learns his lesson because it would be a terrible shame to let that kind of talent go to waste.

The reason given for the $5000 fine (which rodeocowboy 1202 would know if he'd been to a BFTS riders meeting) is that it is the rider's responsibility to make sure that they don't have there rope when the bull leaves the chute. Truthfully, if you've got a halfway decent shot at the bull, you should be fully aware of the position of your feet. The reasoning behind the large fine is that, since the riders are aware that this is probably the most difficult call in the rulebook & will get missed more than it gets called, some guys would continue to get their rope & take the occasional DQ as part of it, but if it would cost them a large sum of money they might think twice.

I've seen a lot of guys get DQ'd for knots over the past 10-12 years. Cody Hart got it at least twice that I know of, Shivers was called once in about 2007, Luke Snyder, of course Newberry, JW Hart, heck almost everybody has been called for it somewhere at one time or another (although I doubt Pistol Robinson ever has or ever will, I've never seen his toes turned out even a little). The ONLY time I can recall that a guy actually took it in stride was when they got Bryan Richardson last year. I was sitting in the locker room watching it on tv when they called him. He came walking in with an ear-to-ear grin and said "well guys, they finally got me". He thought it was pretty dang funny until somebody told him about the fine if they called him again in the same season. I think he might have had to go puke then.

At least in the PBR they do make the call at least sometimes. My God, they might as well have taken it out of the PRCA rulebook from what I've seen. There have been as many as 4-5 guys at the last few NFRs who looked like they might not even be able to ride one without hook & knot assistance. Same goes for the CBR, but since they don't even have a rulebook (or didn't last I checked anyway) it may be something that their judges are instructed not to call.

The only guy I've seen get called for it lately who is not a regular knot rider is Billy Robinson, this past weekend. It was a good call, but I felt bad for Billy because I don't think it was intentional on his part, just a brain fart. I like Rocky, but he was the knot hold king of the Turqoise Circuit for so long, that I kind of think it's funny when he gets called for it now, because he doesn't have them nearly as often as he did back in the day.

If you really want to see some knot grabbing, go back & watch late 90's PBR tapes back before they used Cody Custer to clean house in the judging department and guys almost never got called. Watch the Hart brothers, Buck Bonner, Cole Mewbourne, heck you might even see me on there, although probably not with my spurs in the rope, if you saw what happened to Buck Bonner as a result of that in about 1998 you would know why I'm scared to catch a knot.

[sistersue]

Barney Rubble - thanks for the education on the spurs in the rope thing. I didn't know all that. sistersue.

[cowboyup1991]

yeah well the rule book says that every time after the first offence the fine starts at $5000 then doubles each time. I think its a good reason to keep your feet out of your rope. I personally dont like the feeling of having a knot so i try to avoid it. but thats just me

[rodeocowboy1202]

oh i hate grabbin rope, i shuffle my feet constantly and when i catch it it makes my whole body stiffen up

[cowboyup1991]

ya i know what you mean. i panic when i grab one and freeze up

[lilsista29]

I know that this post was from a while back, but when I saw it I had to make a statement to "Barney Rubble" and anyone who read this thread....there was a mistake in facts apparently, because Buck Bonner was NOT one to catch a knot. I don't know what you mean about 1998, but you need to check your facts. I promise you I am one who would know, and it is insulting that you would insinuate that he would catch a knot while riding a bull. He was more likely to spur himself off of a bull before just trying to stay on by any means. He loves the sport and is good at it and does not need to find a way to cheat at it. I don't mean any disrespect, as I am sure you did not, but I wanted to ensure that anyone who read this thread knew that this was mistake.