If you're not paying attention, it's easy to miss. When the steer breaks from the chute, the hazer rides along next to it to keep it from veering in order that the bulldogger may catch it. Once caught, the objective is to wrestle the animal to the ground. Sounds easy, but the cowboy isn't finished until all four of the animal's feet point skyward. Considering the steer usually outweighs the cowboy by a ratio of 2 to 1, it's not like wrestling with a bag of groceries.
Team roping is the only team event in rodeo and requires two contestants, the header and the heeler.
The steer is given a head start out of the chute. When he reaches the breakaway barrier in the arena, the team takes off. When the header has secured the steer, he turns the animal so the heeler can rope both hind legs. Though not a team sport, the calf roper requires an extraordinary amount of support from his horse. The object is to see how quickly the cowboy can lasso the calf, bring it to the ground and bind three of its legs.