Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2019 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, When you work in the roping and rodeo industry, the month of December can bring with it a mixed bag of emotions. For those of us who head to the City of Lights for nearly two weeks of 20-hour work days, sore feet and the inevitable cold or flu that comes with our time there, it’s hard not to cringe when we see the days ticking nearer and nearer on the calendar. But with that subtle dread comes the creeping excitement—the chance to innovate, to watch the best in the world at their craft, to follow and share the stories that unfold, always in a new way through a new channel. This year, you’ll be able to count on our video crew for mini-documentary footage throughout the 10…

This year’s USTRC Cinch National Finals of Team Roping—the 30th anniversary of the event—paid out some $2.88 million to ropers across four different arenas at two locations, awarding trucks, tractors, saddles, buckles and thousands of dollars more in prizes from the association’s sponsors. GOLD BUCKLE BEER OPEN QUALIFIER: Clay Smith & Jade Corkill 32.82 seconds on five head, $11,800 #16.5 CHAMPIONSHIPS: Logan Currie & Logan Moore 36.92 seconds on five head, $32,550 YETI JR. OPEN: Kreece Thompson & Kaden Profili 28.2 seconds on four head, $11,300 #13.5 DAILY DOUBLE: Luke Hisel & Joe Hughes 29.29 seconds on four head, $15,160 #14.5 SHOOT OUT: Zane Collins & Cody Roberts 26.43 seconds on four head, $38,140 #13.5 SHOOT OUT: Caroline Taylor & Calvin Taylor 28.31 seconds on four head, $42,380 #12.5 DAILY…

When Tristan Mahoney entered the real-life, working world, he was in real estate, but it didn’t take him long to realize it wasn’t for him. So, five or six years ago he turned to his longtime friend, Tucson craftsman Gordy Alderson, for some advice. “Gordy Alderson has been my friend since I was just a little kid,” Mahoney said, “and I always tinkered with stuff a little bit, and I said to Gordy, ‘Hey, what do you think about me making some of these bits?’” With Gordy’s blessing, Mahoney got to work, building what he could when he wasn’t taking care of his real estate responsibilities. “Gordy really helped me at the beginning. He told me everything I needed to do and where to get parts, so I just started…

Vital Stats AGE: 32 ROPE: Powerline HM by Classic NFR QUALIFICATIONS: 10 PARTNER: Clay Smith HOME: Stephenville, Texas CAREER EARNINGS: $1,774,242 THE JOYSTICK The easiest way to explain how I use my left hand in my delivery is that it’s a joystick—one that I use to keep a straight, tight line between my coils and my hondo. If you watch videos of me roping, my left hand is always moving up and down, adjusting to the situation I’m in. It took me years of thinking about it for it now to be second nature, but it’s something I’ve worked on a lot in the last six years. THE THEORY It might be easiest to explain like this: If you’re holding a rope standing flat on the ground, and you drop…

I cut my thumb off in 2017, and I was pretty much tripping out as I laid in that hospital bed. I wasn’t worried about the injury or the pain. I was worried I wasn’t going to rope good again. As I’m laying there, my phone rings, and it’s my hero, Jake Barnes. He was one of the first to call me. He told me right off, “First of all, you handle your rope better than normal folks. This will be a challenge, but this won’t be your finishing point. You don’t believe it right now, but it will happen. I’ve been through it.” From that point, I told myself I could look at this as a “Woe is me, pity me,” situation, or I could look at it as…

“I have a couple young horses now. I had been working more on horses and I’m not roping as good so, I think I need to go back to getting more practice horses and working on myself. Usually, I only have two or three practice horses and a couple good horses. I think there’s like 10 rope horses out there now, so, it’s usually all day. I don’t think my young horses are a negative—it’s a good thing. I try to run 50, 60, 70 steers a day throughout the day at a couple of different places. I’ve been roping slow on the young horses, then I’ll practice on a practice horse or two maybe before the day is up. My whole career, I’ve pretty much just rode practice horses…

Heeler Joel Galvan from Charlotte, Texas, proudly wears his 2015 Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association second go-round heading buckle on the end of his belt. “I wear that buckle because it was the last buckle I won heading before I went straight heeler,” Galvan said. Although Galvan, who was heading for Cuarto Hindes, didn’t have the best finals, they still were fortunate enough to qualify after staying close to home throughout the year. “We work for a living so we just kind of amateur rodeoed around the house. We won quite a bit together, and we roped pretty good together. I think we went into the finals fifth. We didn’t have a real good finals, but we ended up winning the second round.” The second round started out on the softer…

When Andy Holcomb first swung a leg over Blue Berry Please just four months ago, the 6-year-old, ex-cow-horse had never seen a roping box. But when the curtain fell on the 2019 American Rope Horse Futurity Association’s World Championships Oct. 18, “Blue Berry” was the brightest young star in the sport of team roping in Fort Worth, Texas’ John Justin Arena. From high call, Holcomb and Blue Berry marked the highest score of the short round, a 232.69, to best the second place horse of Lets Roo It and Brad Lund by a full eight points. (The score is a combination of two judges’ scores, with time calculated in as well.) “I’m still speechless,” said Holcomb, a horse trainer from Aromas, California. “A horse that just makes you look good…

Classic Equine [Barn Glove] equibrand.com , $8 The winter season is upon us! That means time to locate the jackets and warm gear for everyday use. The new Classic Equine Barn Glove is insulated and will quickly become a staple in your daily chore wardrobe. They are great for riding, chores, and roping in cold temperatures. They are made to last and are machine washable. They are available in sizes S-XL. Available for purchase through authorized Classic Equine dealers. Cinch [Ladies Fleece Pullover] cinchjeans.com , $60 Ideal for transitional weather, our polar fleece pullover warms when it’s cool and provides all the style you need for a day when worn over a favorite tee and jeans. This CINCH ladies coral, navy and gray blanket stripe pullover is detailed…

On Tuesday, October 26, the ladies convened in Oklahoma for the USTRC’s National Finals of Team Roping’s Cinch Ladies #11.5. The rounds proved challenging for each of the teams, as none of the finalists managed to catch all four steers. NO. 1: TAYLOR MUNSELL AND MARTHA ANGELONE Taylor Munsell, the WPRA’s 2019 Breakaway Rookie of the Year, is a 5 roper from Alva, Oklahoma, who celebrated her 23rd birthday just days after the All Girl. She headed for Stephenville, Texas’ Martha Angelone, 24, a 4.5 heeler, who also won last year’s Cinch Ladies Championship heading for her younger sister, Sarah. The winning pair roped three head in 24.72 seconds, worth $6,340. NO 2.: BEVERLY ROBBINS AND SARAH ANGELONE Muscle Shoals, Alabama’s 6 header, Beverly Robbins, 57, turned steers for last…

Question: As far as picking a prospect for a higher-end rodeo head horse, would you prefer to try and slow a horse with a lot of run down or try to speed up a horse with a lot of natural rate? —Jake Scott Answer: It’s a double-edged sword, because for amateur ropers, rate is better. But for guys going down the road, who have to reach, you want a horse not drawing back in your delivery, so horses that are more forward generally make better rodeo horses. Horses with more rate are usually better to start and rope on for the majority of people out there. A rate-y horse is easier for the average Joe to get on and ride. Most jackpot ropers will want a horse that will err…

A stout bay horse by the name of Clyde caught a lot of eyes at this year’s fall grass classic, when Jason Stewart won the 2019 Pendleton Round-Up heading for Calgary Smith aboard McKennan Buckner’s main mount. But he didn’t turn all of those heads for the same reason. Cowboy King Trevor Brazile asked to ride Clyde to run his second steer with Junior Nogueira after watching the horse work in Round 1. Others did double takes, because they knew Clyde back before he blossomed and literally gained 500 pounds. Ryan Motes, who’ll rope at his fifth Wrangler National Finals Rodeo this month, remembers young Clyde being a borderline runt. “My neighbors here in Texas, Seth and T.J. Jones, had him before Brandon Beers (who was roping with Motes at…

The 2019 Purina PRCA Heel Horse of the Year presented by the American Quarter Horse Association is DT Sugar Chex Whiz, a former AQHA World Champion black mare ridden by Billie Jack Saebens and owned by Dixon Flowers Quarter Horses. “She’s been a horse labeled as a show horse,” Saebens said. “That’s typically a 7- to 9-second run. But she’s adapted in every situation I’ve put her in—the lights, the noise, walking through the fair at Puyallup. She’s willing and she’s on your team.” The stand-out mare, who won the 2015 AQHA Junior Tie-Down world title with JD Yates at the helm, is by Shiners Lena Chex, who also sired two-time American Rope Horse Futurity Heading Champion DT Air Jordan, and out of King Snazzy Sugar, by NFR barrel stallion…

Joseph Harrison won the American Rope Horse Association’s Heeling World Championship Oct. 18, in Fort Worth, Texas’ John Justin Arena, this time aboard a 5-year-old stallion named Dual Axle. Harrison won the event in 2018 aboard Dual Patron, who he also showed this year. But a no-time took Harrison and the returning champ out of contention in the second round. Dual Axle—a sorrel by the Dual Rey son Dual R Smokin and out of CDS Modern Millie and owned by Denice Bledsoe—won $20,000 for his composite score of 927.98, a combination of judges’ scores and his times on four head. In a tough short round, Dual Axle scored second in the round behind Harrison’s second-place horse overall—CSR Dual Boonlite’s 235.87. For second, Bobby Lewis’ CSR Dual Boonlite’s 925.1 won $18,000.…

Q: You were born in Oklahoma. How old were you when your family moved to California? A: I was 5, and we moved to California because my dad (Virgil) went to work for (ProRodeo Hall of Famer and 1953 World Champion Team Roper) Ben Johnson (who headed for California cowboy Ed Yanez when he won the world) at his ranch in Farmington (which is on the outskirts of the original Cowboy Capital of the World in Oakdale). We cowboyed every day, and my dad was a header, so I heeled all the time. Q: For those who aren’t old enough to remember, what was Oakdale like back then, when there were cowboys everywhere, like there are in Stephen-ville, Texas, today? A: Oakdale was a ranch town—the best cattle country in…

Vital Stats AGE: 24 ROPE: Powerline Lite S or Heat S by Classic NFR QUALIFICATIONS: 4 PARTNER: Wesley Thorp HOME: Los Olivos, California CAREER EARNINGS: $595,934 This past year, I’ve been working on being as fast as possible without taking too big a chance with my rope. That means I’ve been working on cutting the extra movement out of the run without having to reach. I haven’t figured it out 100%, but I do know a lot of it has to do with how I ride my horse and how his footwork affects the run. I want to rope to eliminate the steers that take me out, and I don’t want to waste time on the good ones or be behind the ball on the bad ones. Here’s what I’m…

Q: Thirty years. Was this a vision from the start, or a happy accident that snowballed and became a larger-than-life phenomenon? A: All of the above: a dream, multiple circumstances, that just snowballed. Q: I’ve heard from mutual friends of ours about the boating accident that almost took your life, but I don’t feel like a lot of ropers understand how that affected who you are and the sport of team roping. Do you care to tell ropers about it? A: When I was 25 years old, I had an accident that was a game changer for me, and it eventually impacted the roping business. The severity of the wreck had a half-dozen doctors talking about amputation of my arms but, by the grace of God, I got to keep…

s The biggest TV draw has always been the 10-day marathon for the best team ropers in the world—the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Like last year, each NFR performance comes to you via CBS Sports Network, Dec. 5 to 14. Each broadcast begins with a 30-minute Wrangler NFR Pre-Show, and then expect almost-live NFR action nightly at 10 p.m. EST. The network will re-air every show at 1 a.m. that next morning, if you need another DVR reset. CBS Sports is found at channel 158 on Dish Network and channel 221 on DirecTV. You can also watch by streaming with CBS All Access, fuboTV, and Hulu with Live TV. s A brand-new highlight this year will be to watch the Gold Buckle Open to the World roping, broadcast on RidePass…