HomeGear
Caring for a cotton string
Cotton strings are easier to learn with, easier to care for and get ready for a rodeo, and hold tighter when they’re tied right. Here’s how to make one last a year or more.
Tape the ends
Wrap the ends with electrical tape. It keeps them from fraying and gives you a place to hold the string in your mouth.
Cut it to your length
Tie goats close to the size you compete on, then cut off the extra for a perfect length. As riders get faster, they usually need a longer string.
Break it in wet
The more a cotton string is used, the better it gets. You want to see a lot of fraying, because that’s what helps it hold tight. Practice with it wet a few times, keeping a bucket of water handy to rinse the sand off between runs.
Keep a practice string
Once a rodeo string is broken in, retire it from practice. Cut another string the same length and practice with that one.
Dry it right
Let it dry out between practices and rodeos. Stacey just leaves hers on the D-ring of the back girth.
Tie with it the cotton way
You can’t push a cotton string across the legs like nylon. Hold up your left pinky, throw the string to that spot and coil it around the legs like coiling a rope, elbow away from your body.
Know when to replace it
When you can see the core of the string, it’s time for a new one.
Thinking about Lyles?
Next Level also carries Lyles 2-strand strings, the best nylon string. The deeper grooves lock in when pulled tight, keeping more goats down for six seconds. Lyles makes one lay, a soft to medium that suits goat tyers at every level.