Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i The Team Roping Journal

After proving to be an engaging and entertaining rodeo event for its fans, the CINCH Boyd Gaming Chute-Out is returning to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas for its second season this Dec. 8–10, 2016, and promises to be bigger and better than ever! Held each afternoon (which means no time conflicts for those attending the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in the evenings), rodeo fans can get their fill of the action from 64 past, present, and future champion contestants such as five-time, world champion steer wrestler Luke Branquinho; team ropers Jade Corkill, Joe Beaver, and Derek Begay; along with saddle bronc riders Chad Ferley and $1 million RFD-TV The American winner, Wade Sundell. Contestants will be roping and riding top stock, in all the favorite rodeo events: bareback riding,…

For a while now, Kolton Schmidt’s horse Badger (Tuffys Badger Chex) has been catching the eye of Canadian team ropers. Schmidt was the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association team roping champion in 2013, and the next year, Badger was named as the association’s top horse. This year, the flashy black gelding caught the eye of team ropers on the south side of the border. The horse first made a splash winning top horse honors at the Spicer Gripp Memorial. The real honor, though, was being named PRCA/AQHA Head Horse of the Year, an award voted on by the other top headers in the PRCA. “It was a shock,” Schmidt said. “There were some great horses nominated. He went a few months there at the end of the year without making any…

Raising a Phenom Roping and riding is all 10-year-old Ketch Kelton ever wants to do. It shows in the 25 trophy saddles he’s already brought home to Mayer, Ariz. He comes by it naturally—roping is all his dad, Chance Kelton, ever wanted to do, too. Chance, 41, won a National High School Finals Rodeo team roping title, then parlayed that into heading steers for Brent Lockett at three straight WNFRs and has made five trips to the National Finals Steer Roping. But he slowed down in part because making a living and full-time rodeo hardly coincide. So how do he and his wife, Tammy, toe the line on raising a kid whose talent is so glaring that Ketch has already been featured on USA Today Sports? First of all, by…

Rolling the dice on “Yahtzee” has been one of the best gambles of Dustin Bird’s 15-year PRCA career. After a 28th-place finish last year, 36-year-old Bird of Cut Bank, Mont., re-energized his roping by investing in enough horsepower to make him feel like he could win anywhere at any time. The result? Bird, enters his fourth Wrangler NFR ranked fifth in heading and third for the coveted all-around championship. My Frosty Cocoa (“Dolly”) is the little mare that first catapulted Bird into the ranks of today’s elite headers in 2012. But almost a year ago, Bird bought “Tupac” from Jade Stoddard and, a few months before that, he also added 12-year-old Yahtzee. And that’s the horse on whom he won San Antonio earlier this winter. The gray gelding had loads…

In 2005, timed-event king Trevor Brazile had just claimed his first three consecutive all-around titles and would win the next 10 straight. So it was quite a shock for fans to watch a 21-year-old NFR rookie, Ryan Jarrett from Summerville, Ga., steal that crown. “It’s kind of everyone’s dream,” said Jarrett. “At the time, it was an awful lot for me to take in at a young age. I sure thought another one would have come by now.” The Finals in 2005 marked the only year that Jarrett, now 31, went to Vegas in both steer wrestling and tie-down roping –and it was a year in which Brazile only roped calves there. Jarrett placed in two rounds of bulldogging for $34,200, but he tied 10 calves in 89 seconds to…

The Wrangler Team Roping Championships held its finals Sept. 27 to Oct. 2 in Billings, Mont. The following are the average winners in the various divisions. Bill Parker Memorial Open: Clay Tryan and Jade Corkill, 29.63 seconds on 5 head, $8,612 each #11: Britt Williams and Jayden Johnson, 25.20 on 4, $4,001 each #10: Jerome Hutchison and Clayton Van Aken, 27.01 on 4, $5,067 each #9: Tyrell Moody and Cameron Irwin, 25.50 on 4, $6,120 each #8: Tony Stahl and Clint Brower, 29.07 on 4, $3,505 each #8 Gold Digger: Wyatt Tarver and Carson Johnson, 27.94 on 4, $10,060 each #7: Jade Schmidt and Jerren Johnson, 29.45 on 4, $3,657 each #7 Gold Digger: Jade Schmidt and Jerren Johnson, 28.15 on 4, $10,000 each #6: Makenna Balkenbush and Calgary Smith,…

Number and end: I’m a #5 heeler. Association of preference: I would say USTRC because there are more US ropings around here. I enjoy the 40+ ropings and there is about one a month in this part of the country. Rope of choice: Cactus Whistler, I can’t rope with anything but that. Biggest win: I won the 40+ finals in 2013, and the WTRA world twice in team roping in 1991 and 1992. I also like the wins I’ve had with the World Series because they pay well and it’s nice to go to Las Vegas. I am going this year, and I’m already qualified to go to the Finale next year in 2017. How you got into roping? My dad, Denver Merrell, was a team roper and he was…

The 2016 world all-around race has been good watching, with mostly traditionally single-event guys doubling and even tripling down on events. What’s most unique about it, of course, is that without Trevor Brazile in the mix this is the first all-around title in recent memory that wasn’t all but sewn up before the run of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER. That—and the fact that no one has qualified for the Finals in a second event—has added an extra element of intrigue to the NFR fan experience, for sure, and it’s shining a bright new light on some familiar faces. The top five cowboys in contention for the all-around crown are Junior Nogueira, Josh Peek, Dustin Bird, Clay Smith and Russell Cardoza. Russell’s voluntarily removed himself from…

Last year was a record year at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Earnings records were set in every event but barrel racing. Five of the nine gold buckles awarded in Las Vegas went to cowboys who set those records, meaning the NFR payoff has more to do with determining world championships than the regular season. That’s not news. It’s been that way for a long time. But with around $10 million up for grabs, it brings every contestant legitimately into the mix for a world title. That makes our job predicting the world champions that much more difficult. Last year—the first year with the increased payout—we only correctly predicted two world champions. One, Trevor Brazile, was in the all-around race. The other was bull rider Sage Kimzey. This time around,…

Jeremy Buhler had a rough year in 2015. He and header Levi Simpson were traveling back and forth across the border trying to make both the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and the Canadian Finals Rodeo, and they fell short on the first of those goals. “We didn’t catch the right steers, and the year ended up being a struggle,” Buhler said “We were trying to rodeo down south (in the U.S.) and had a chance to make it to the NFR at the end. We got going back and forth to Canada and didn’t rope very good. We just snuck into the CFR.” But the team was locked and loaded when they got to Edmonton for the Canadian Finals, and it showed. “This was the first round buckle, and it…

Timing is really the ability to see when the steer is catchable. It’s not only just timing the jumps, the rhythm or the stride that the steer takes. It’s also about being able to see that in relation to what kind of turn you’re getting and how the steer is reacting to being turned. When you know what to look for it gives you feedback on when the steer is ropable and what’s the best shot to take in that situation. That reaction part is something that’s built over time. If a header handles a steer by moving his horse forward and what I call going out the front, that’ll make the steer react and go in a much more rounded turn than it would on the opposite end of…

SHAY CARROLL Two-time Wrangler NFR heeling qualifier EAT: Citizens at Mandalay Bay. We ate there almost every day. I like to get the salmon. SLEEP: In the past, I’ve stayed at the Mandalay Bay. They take good care of us–they’re great to the cowboys. PLAY: My wife likes to shop, so we walk through all the shops. I enjoy hanging out. She likes to look at the high-end shops on the strip. I like to go to the trade shows and Cowboy Christmas. BEST MEMORY/BIGGEST WIN: I’ve been second in a couple rounds [at the NFR]. If the casino gives me money, I gamble and one night I thought I found a way to beat roulette–I couldn’t lose! I told my wife all about it. The next night, I lost…