It started when they were kids, still in elementary school, riding ponies and learning to throw a rope on the Cresta family ranch, seven miles out of Santa Rosa on Mark West Springs Road. Fifteen years later, Broc Cresta and Spencer Mitchell are still together. And they've gotten a lot better at it.
"We've roped together since the first time I ever roped," Cresta said. "I mean, we did junior rodeos and high school rodeos. If I wasn't roping with my brother, I was roping with Spencer."
In the 10th round of the National Finals Rodeo at Las Vegas on Dec. 10, Mitchell and Cresta roped a steer in a lightning-fast 3.6 seconds. That run tied for the round's fastest time, and served further proof that the two Sonoma County natives are ready to contend on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit.
The duo finished 10th in the aggregate results in Vegas, roping five of 10 steers in a total time of 21.3 seconds. It was Cresta's second time at the National Finals. But it was Mitchell's first - he didn't earn enough money to qualify in 2010 - and he wasn't thrilled with his performance.
"I was still a little bit nerve-wracked about it," he admitted. "I was only able to catch 50 percent of my steers, which isn't what I needed to do. But Broc never got down on that, and every time I gave him a chance to heel one, he did it as good as a person could ask for."
All in all, 2011 was a promising year for Mitchell and Cresta. The rodeo circuit runs more or less on the calendar year, and each finished 2011 ranked 12th in the world in his event. They earned $108,651.90 each. Of the top 15 headers and heelers, they were the only ones from California.
Mitchell, 23, grew up in Healdsburg and attended high school there until midway through his sophomore year, when his family moved to Colusa. Cresta, 24, graduated from Santa Rosa High, though he worked mostly in an independent study program.
They met through Cresta's family, which owned Mexican Corriente cattle and organized roping jackpots up and down California. After briefly going their separate ways, the two old friends reunited in the spring of 2007 to pursue glory in the sport of team roping.
Of all the major rodeo events, theirs is the only true team pursuit.
Team roping originated on ranches when cowboys needed to treat or brand large steers. Here's how it works in competition: The two ropers, a header and a heeler, start from boxes on either side of the chute from which the steer enters the arena. The animal is tied to a breakaway barrier that stretches across the header's box; when it reaches its full "advantage point," the barrier is released, freeing the header to pursue. If he leaves too early, the team is assessed a 10-second penalty.
The header ropes the steer first, then the heeler. The clock stops when there is no slack in the ropes and their horses face one another.
It sounds easy enough. But the steers run at different speeds, and in unpredictable patterns. The header must be within milliseconds of his allowed release time to afford a chance of winning. To catch legally, he must get his rope around both horns, around the neck, or around one horn and the head. The heeler must catch both back feet or face a penalty.
Oh, and you have to get the creature snared pretty darn fast.
"You have five minds that have to all come together for it to work right, between the two ropers, the two horses and the steer," Mitchell said.
Both Cresta and Mitchell tried their hands at other events when they were younger, like steer wrestling and calf roping, but they gradually gravitated to their current roles. Perhaps they were destined for it. Cresta's father, Dan, was a very good heeler. Mitchell's father, Steve, was a California champion header.
The other partners in this operation are the horses. Cresta primarily rides a 15-year-old named Snoop that he's had since high school. Mitchell is on an 8-year-old out of Oklahoma named Keeper.
Team roping also requires anticipation and choreography between the riders. As he follows the header, the heeler tries to direct the steer toward his partner, generally to the left. After he makes his catch, the header must bring the steer under control and pull it further to the left, exposing its hind legs to the heeler's rope.
It makes sense that Cresta and Mitchell would turn their long association into an advantage.
"It helps a lot," Cresta said. "Spencer and I have built I guess what you'd call chemistry. I just know what he's gonna do, and he knows what I'm gonna do."
If they weren't such good friends, Mitchell and Cresta might have choked each other by now. These guys spend a lot of time together. They make a decent living at roping, but we're not talking NASCAR here. They drive together from event to event throughout the West, hauling their own horse trailer.
"We travel, on average, probably 60, 70,000 miles a year, if not more," Mitchell said. "He bought a new pickup in April, and we had 20,000 on it before we knew it. And I bought a new one in the middle of May, and we had 20,000 on it before we knew it. And we weren't done for the year."
There is a lot of down time in the sport, and a lot of repetitive practice. Physically, team roping isn't nearly as taxing as, say, bull riding. It does have its hazards, though.
"The main injury you'll see in team roping, and it doesn't happen very often, thank God, is people lose a finger," Cresta said. "It's just one of them things, every time you practice, you try to practice staying safe, too. Because if you ask a lot of team ropers, no amount is worth losing a finger over. But ... I've seen it happen to guys who had roped their whole life and just have one little freak deal happen."
Mitchell said they haven't been doing as well as they'd like lately, but both are currently in the top 10 of the PRCA world standings. Already this year, Cresta and Mitchell have competed at Odessa, Texas; Denver; Fort Worth, Texas; Rapid City, S.D.; San Angelo, Texas; Belton, Texas; San Antonio and Tucson, Ariz.
The road never ends. There's always another rodeo on the horizon, and another steer coming out of that chute.
You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.
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