Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, If your family is anything at all like mine—judging by the fact that you’re reading this magazine, I’d guess we have a few things in common—you maybe spend a whole lot of time in the truck heading up and down the road to the jackpots and rodeos. When my 19-month-old isn’t demanding Elmo stream through the speakers in the pickup, my husband and I usually like to pass the time with a podcast. We first got into them on a long trip in 2015, listening to the famous true-crime podcast, Serial, but since then we’ve expanded into a little of everything: science, current events, sports, you name it. So it was only natural that our staff here at The Team Roping Journal decided to expand our offerings to…

Alan Chappell, of Collinsville, Texas, and George Mcquain, of Tolar, Texas, roped three steers in 22.54 seconds to pick up $34,500 and new Chevy 3500 pickups and NRS Cimarron trailers. They added another $1,500 to their bank accounts for winning the fast time in Rotation 1 of the two-day roping, and Mcquain picked up another $12,000 with Kim Neisius for seventh in the average with a time of 29.86 seconds on three head. “I won a truck back in 2014 in the Gold Plus with Barry Smith,” Mcquain, who is the plant manager for Classic’s rope production, said. “I’ve still got that truck, I’ve been pretty fortunate. I met Alan last year, through Clay Logan, and we’d roped at some ropings last year but we didn’t have any luck. This…

Coleman Proctor and Travis Graves won $35,000 for their time of 30.29 seconds on five head at the first-ever Lone Star Open held March 28 to March 30 in Buffalo, Texas. Kaleb Driggers and Cory Petska banked $25,000 for their time of 31.56 seconds on five head, and Jake Or-man and Trey Yates were third with a time of 32.58 seconds on five, worth $15,000. The Open paid a total of seven holes and had 94 total teams compete. Marissa Boisjoli and Sarah Angelone won first in the all-girl, worth $3,900, for the time of 41.81 seconds on four head. Sam Runge and Ross Ashford won the Jr. Open Roping with a time of 24.52 seconds on four head, worth $4,590. Ashford also won second with Kellan Johnson with a…

1. Why every serious roper MUST rope the dummy every day (HINT: It’s the #1 reason Michael Jordan won 6 NBA Championships). 2. The biggest mistake ropers make when facing and the fastest way to avoid it. 3. The 1 ninja trick world champion ropers use to stop their horses from getting injured. 4. A complete guide to spurs & why Jake wears a sharper spur on his right foot. 5. The little-known secret tool Jake uses to encourage his horse to face better. 6. How to prepare your young horse for an electric eye barrier vs. a string barrier. 7. Discover how to develop control through the corner to give your heeler the best shot possible. 8. The drills every roper MUST use on their horse to correct bad…

“I’ve always admired ropers. I’m not a team sport guy; I was into things like wrestling and tennis and motocross in high school, because I like to rely on myself.” –Randy Brooks It drilled Osama bin Laden above the left eye, that bullet fired by a Navy SEAL’s HK416 early one morning in Pakistan seven years ago. The head shot ended a decade-long manhunt for the mastermind of the 9/11 attack that killed 3,000 and shook our country to its core. The team roper who invented that bullet? He’s a 4-Elite header from Utah. Randy Brooks’ company advertises its ammunition as “optimized for your target.” That’s fitting, because Brooks has been optimizing everything he touches his entire life. The son of a steel-mill worker and schoolteacher in small-town Utah, Randy…

I want to say right off the bat that I still wave it off all the time, and I’ve not perfected what I’m about to explain, by any means. But, working on how I’m leaving the box and my position down the arena has helped narrow my chances and has helped speed up my runs, especially in an average-type situation. The main reason I might wave it off is because I’m too tight to the steer, which causes the eye of my rope to hit the steer’s head in the wrong spot, losing the rope’s ability to lock onto both horns. I’ll break down what I’ve been working on to stop that from happening. Vital Stats AGE: 25 ROPE: Powerline Lite S by Classic Ropes WNFR QUALIFICATIONS: 1 PARTNER: Trey…

ProRodeo Hall of Fame team roper Tee Woolman has bought and sold as many horses in his cowboy career as anyone. That makes him a perfect person to weigh in as an expert on the subject of vet checks—aka pre-purchase exams—and the vast variations available to prospective horse buyers today. “I always do a vet check when I’m interested in buying a horse I don’t know much about,” said three-time World Champion Team Roper Woolman, who lives in Llano, Texas, with his wife and fellow team roper, Jacque. “I’ll also get one done if I’m wanting to buy a horse that’s maybe been turned out awhile and not used much. A lot of times there’s a reason they quit riding him.” Very rarely is a horse physically flawless in all…

A born and raised team roper, Ken Bray was working as a bank loan officer in 1987. When one of his customers, a CPA named Ted Tomerlin, asked him if wanted to be a part of a new rope-making business with Derwood Miller and his nephew, Curt Matthews, Bray didn’t blink at the opportunity to trade in his nine-to-five for a career in the Western industry. “I learned a lot at the bank, and I wouldn’t trade for the time I spent there,” Bray explained, “but the suit-and-tie environment was not my style.” And so began a long and fruitful career with Classic Rope, which was established a year earlier, in 1986. Bray was there through Matthews’ tenure as he revolutionized the sport of team roping with the first poly-nylon…

IT’S ONE THING TO BE THE FIRST, but it’s an entirely different thing to be the first, survive for more than half a century, and to keep your legend alive. But it’s what Dan Morales, along with co-rope-foreman Gary Medford, has been doing for King Ropes since he joined the team under the tutelage of Bobby King and his father, Don King—who is credited with developing the left-handed twist for left-handed ropers. “Bobby passed away quite a few years ago,” Morales said, “so Gary and I started taking care of the rope shop for the family.” According to Morales, when the racks are full at the storied shop in Sheridan, Wyoming, customers can bear witness to some 17,000 ropes on the wall. “It’s kind of a guessing game,” Morales admitted…

WHEN DENNIS WILLARD started his namesake rope company in 1982, it wasn’t necessarily because he thought it was a good business idea. “He just kind of fell into it,” Jeanie Willard, Dennis’ wife, explained. “It started all around here, locally. Dennis would get his materials from the hardware store and he started tying his own ropes. He was a really good calf roper 40 years ago. People really looked up to him around these parts. He could tie fast and he could rope fast, so whatever he used, they wanted to use. All his rodeo buddies started getting him to do theirs, so that’s how it started.” Of course, this was before the nylons and the polys were available, and the Willards would stretch the 600-foot coils in their pasture,…

Canadian header Makayla Boisjoli now calls Stephenville, Texas, home sweet home, and her time in the States has been made even sweeter thanks to the USTRC. Boisjoli picked up $5,450 at the 2016 USTRC Cinch National Finals of Team Roping, heading in the #11 Preliminaries for South Dakota heeler Billy Myers (of Myers Performance Horses and French-mans Guy fame). They won second with a time of 33.76 seconds on four head, coming from 16th callback going into the short round. “This was my first-ever USTRC buckle,” Boisjoli said. “I’ve gone to a ton of US ropings since I moved to Texas, and I’ve always wanted to win one. I was on my good horse, Sneak, who I sold not long ago. I rode her at the US Finals twice.” Boisjoli…

The PRCA Badlands Circuit team of Logan Olson and Matt Kasner came out on top at the 2018 Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Kissimmee, Florida, held April 5–8, 2018. Olson and Kasner split fifth in the first round with Thad Ward and Olin Pulham worth $1,137 a man, placed second in the two-head average worth $4,738 a man, won the semi-final round worth $7,581 a man, and split the final round with Andrew and Reagan Ward, worth another $6,634 a man. They came out of the RNCFR with $20,090 plus $20,000 vouchers for new Ram Trucks.…

Carey Price, 30, is a goaltender in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens, who just so happened to develop a heeling habit in the early years of his hockey career. A buddy of eight-time world champion Speed Williams, Price, a 4 heeler from Anahim Lake, British Columbia, even had images of Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper painted on his goalie helmet at one point. He’s now won nearly every major award in hockey, including the William M. Jennings Trophy (fewest goals allowed, given by the NHL), the Vezina Trophy (best goaltender chosen by NHL general managers), the Ted Lindsay Award (most valuable player, voted by NHL Players Association), and the Hart Memorial Trophy (most valuable player, voted by Professional Hockey Writer’s Association), becoming the first goaltender in…

WHO TAUGHT YOU TO ROPE, AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN ROPING? My dad taught me how to rope and I would not be where I am today if not for him. There have also been several individuals who have had an influence on my team roping skills, the one that has been the most influential is Slick Robison. I have been roping since I was 8 years old WHICH END DO YOU PREFER AND WHY? I enjoy heading the most, but I have been working on heeling for some time now. YOU’VE HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS LATELY—TELL ME ABOUT YOUR WIN AT THE SOUTH TEXAS CHAMPIONSHIP AND YOUR SECOND PLACE AT THE TEXAS CHAMPIONSHIPS. I really enjoy roping with my partners now and they make my job easy.…

Vital Stats AGE: 26 ROPE: Centerfire 2 MS by Fast Back Ropes WNFR QUALIFICATIONS: 3 HOME: Stephenville, Texas EARNINGS: $530,728 PRIORITIZE HORSEMANSHIP When I went off the rodeo road last year, (AQHA World Champion trainer) Clay Logan told me about the American Rope Horse Futurity Association events Jay Wadhams is putting on. I’ve taken it seriously, and I really like it. It’s got so many opportunities for the team roping industry. I had no idea what I didn’t know about riding horses before I started into this. GUIDE, DON’T OVERRIDE You need to be working on sitting in the middle of your horse, using your feet, keeping the steer out in front of you. You should be guiding your horse with your feet—not always your bridle reins—to where you want…

Vital Stats AGE: 28 ROPE: Powerline Lite HM or MH by Classic WNFR QUALIFICATIONS: 6 HOME: Millsap, Texas PARTNER: Clay Smith EARNINGS: $1,079,460 When my roping feels less than perfect, it means that, mentally, I’m not doing it right. The big misconception I had when I was young was that when I got good, it would be easy. I thought I would never ever make mental errors, or I would never struggle or feel not confident. But most times when I mess up, it’s because of some mental error. Now I know that my roping is going to feel less than perfect more times than not, and I’ve got to work on my concentration, more than anything, to give myself the best shot. A big part of what I work…

FOR SOME ROPE MAKERS, the journey began with a novel idea. For some, it was an opportunity that presented itself and turned out to be a good fit. For professional calf roper and recreational team roper JW Kirkham of E4 Ropes, it was destiny. As a kid, Kirkham befriended a man by the name of Dewayne Collier, and got in the early habit of soaking up the skills Collier could teach him. “I used to try to get out of going on vacation with my parents just so I could go over to Dewayne’s house and spend time roping and welding stuff, and I was always braiding headstalls and platting cord,” Kirkham remembered. “I was just fascinated. And, then I’d find Johnny Emmons at a slack or a rodeo and…

“I’M A COWBOY,” Joey Hermes drawed, almost apologetically. “I’m 57 years old, and I’ve been roping since I was a kid.” After a being pulled away from cowboy life for a career in the oil and manufacturing industries, Hermes, with his wife, Kenna, are eyeballs-deep in a venture to return to the western way of life via rope making. And honestly, since they started in June of 2016—two years ago this month—it’s been a bit of a slog. “The first year was just a learning experience,” Hermes recounted. “We were just trying to find out what we were doing wrong. We didn’t do a whole lot right.” Similar to many of the other companies, and despite Hermes’ fascination with machines, getting his rope machines dialed in was what sometimes appeared…

A dozen years ago, I spent a winter deep in south Texas, where a couple of top-20 team ropers practiced. One of them often spoke of a guy he called “Hunken.” It’s an odd nickname. But the reason I took note was that it was said with such reverence. In my 20 years promoting rodeo, I’ve interviewed John and Shane Philipp a time or two. Later, I realized these were Hunken’s boys. Now, I was reverent, too—because I’ve never met a pair of better-mannered or handier brothers. I was curious. The approach of Father’s Day seems a good time to take a closer look at Johnnie Hunken Philipp Jr. After all, the man has spent decades building a ranch from scratch, which is financially impossible. And he’s done it solely…

“Speed on Bob and Viper were the best partners we could have had in those world titles. Speed revolutionized the heading in this sport, and it was an honor to be a part of that.” – ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee and eight-time world champion Rich Skelton Speed Williams and Rich Skelton won eight consecutive world titles from 1997 to 2004, an accomplishment the PRCA selection committee has deemed worthy of an induction into its Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “I remember going to the high school finals and stopping in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and I was blown away with the history of ProRodeo,” Williams said. “It’s a great honor to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Rich and I had a fairytale career and…

Oklahoma’s Blake Hughes and Arizona’s Cesar de la Cruz roped five steers in 33.82 seconds to win $30,000 plus another $600 for the short-go fast time at the Broc Cresta Memorial Roping, held annually in Cottonwood, California. “This was the best roping we’ve had yet,” organizer and NFR heeler Justin Davis said. “Rich Skelton and Walt Woodard both said it was the best roping they’ve ever been to. It was 65 degrees, no wind, and the best steers you could rope anywhere. They were prepared the right way—from Brandon Beers—they were perfect.” The Davis family has hosted the roping at their ranch annually since 2013 to raise money for the Broc Cresta Memorial Scholarship Fund, and this year added $20,000, thanks in part to Broc Cresta’s former sponsors at WesTech…

Jake Cooper and Logan Medlin roped five steers in 29.51 seconds to win the Hork Dog 19 in Las Vegas, winning $21,700 total at the South Point Hotel and Casino. “I’m very honored to have won it,” Medlin said. “Charlie put on a good roping.” “It was nice—obviously no wind inside that building,” Cooper added. “It’s such a good facility. It’s different from the old days at Charlie’s (Horky) house but it was still a good setup. That was our first nice little jackpot win together. He’s an aggressive heeler, but he catches a lot of steers. I knew that if I just kept turning them for him and getting out at the barrier we’d have a chance.” Their team came into the short round in the number-three spot behind…

Vital Stats AGE: 15 NUMBER / END: 4-Elite Header ROPE: Republic Ropes HOME: Harwood, Texas Only the Best The best part about roping for me is that I get to do it with my family. That we always do it together is something I enjoy. My whole family ropes and rides. My mom runs barrels and, Kinsey, my little sister does, also—she’s 9. She just started roping not that long ago, so I enjoy going out there and practicing with her and watching her get better. Good Beginnings I started roping when I was about 11, so three years ago. That’s when I started riding my horse, Fritos. I think he’s 13. My dad trained him for me. He has a really large personality and he takes really good care…

“THAT’S A GOOD QUESTION,” Steve Geisler of Idaho’s Cowboy Cordage joked when asked why, in 1980, he thought starting a rope company with his wife, Allison, would be a good idea. The response was quick, amicable, and energetic, and probably a good indication of Geisler’s approach to running his business, and maybe his life, in general. Geisler describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool businessman, whose family has run an agricultural supply and fertilizer business for generations. He knew his passions didn’t lie there, so instead, he endeavored in building a cowboy supply shop, starting with ropes. “I like to rope and I still make saddles, so it’s just kind of hands on.” Hands on seems to work well for the husband, father of three, and grandfather of one, who, though semi-retired,…

FOR HUSBAND-AND-WIFE TEAM Brad and Kristi Rhodes, when they look back on the history of their family-owned-and-operated company, they have no doubt that God’s timing played a roll. “That’s the main reason it’s called Trinity,” Kristi explained. “Beyond a shadow of a doubt, He built it and blessed it.” The journey began in 2008, when after the loss of a friend at Gold Buckle Ropes, Brad stepped in with the company and learned the process inside and out. The Gold Buckle family quickly recognized his talents and turned the operation over to him, which was then followed by a partnership with Allen Bach in 2011 under the SmartRopes brand. The company then changed names to support the Bach brand until late 2014, when Bach separated from the business, allowing the…

“The interesting thing about coaching is that you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled”– Ric Charleswort EXPECTATIONS All ages of athletes benefit from tailored types of coaching that balance pushing them past comfort and current skill level to improve performance while also providing encouragement and support. Children have these same needs of correction and cheerleading, but applying adult tactics is inappropriate. They are still developing motor skills, emotion regulation, executive functioning, personality, and values. While we would all chuckle at someone who thought a kindergartner could win the WNFR, our expectations about our children can quickly become unreasonable and cause a great deal of tension in families. We may think that we are being helpful by pushing our children to greatness, but we risk creating a perfect…