Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2020 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, These are strange times, aren’t they? By the time this hits your mailbox, it’s my sincere hope that the hardest of them are behind us, and a new dawn is rising. And in that new light of day, with small businesses across American reopening—including jackpots far and wide and whatever rodeos have weathered this storm—and with the oilfield resurging, I am hoping we can carry one lesson forward: grace. We’ve all struggled in our own ways, be it through the COVID-19 crisis or in another season, and there’s no time like the present to show grace to one another—to have faith that we’re doing our best. My sincerest hope is that, at that first jackpot back, secretaries are met with smiles, even when they’ve made mistakes or left…

Growing up in West Texas, world-class bit and spur maker Wilson Capron, 46, never really had his career figured out. That was until he made a life-changing move to live and work under iconic bit and spur maker Greg Darnall in the spring of 1996, while Capron was working toward his degree in ag-business. “I never thought that I would be a bit and spur maker—especially at that time,” said Capron, who now lives in Christoval, Texas, and is a member of the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association. “It was just a job. A year-and-a-half of working for [Greg], I started engraving, and the engraving was just like my roping—I loved it. Greg needed a little help in the shop, and I needed entry fee money.” Though engraving can be a…

Question: My son has gotten into roping with my husband and me as a family. We really want to make the best of it. Do you have any tips for how we should approach working with him in the arena? — Jackie Hill; Douglas, Wyoming Answer: First of all, the only kids who are easy to coach are the ones who want it that bad. But that’s few and far between. It almost shocks me when I do come in contact with somebody willing to do whatever it takes—someone who wants it bad enough that they can’t be offended, and they can’t be discouraged. If you’re managing discouragement along the way in your coaching, it’s really hard to get enough done to help a kid be great. No matter what…

While the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association awards its Horse of the Year honors to American Quarter Horse Association registered equine elite every year, great horses that carry their cowboys to world titles and millions of dollars in earnings are overlooked because of their lack of registration papers. In the last 20 years, a few of those mounts have left their mark on the team roping industry in undeniable ways without ever getting a nod from the sports sanctioning body. • MARTY Ridden by Clay Smith There’s no doubt about it—Clay Smith’s gray bomber Marty is “the great one” of this generation. The horse has carried Smith to five-straight National Finals Rodeo appearances and back-to-back world titles in 2018 and 2019. In just eight years of PRCA competition, Smith has accumulated…

SLOW DOWN & CHECK FOR SOFTNESS “The biggest deal to me is that, every day, you’ve got to slow things down and check for softness. I make sure my horses are responsive to pressure from my legs and that they’re staying soft between the bridle reins. If not, it doesn’t make sense to rope until you’ve got that softness because you will not have long-term success unless you do. I want a horse to work from age 3 to 15, and that’s why I’ve got to have them broke and soft. You’ve got to maintain that every day you ride them.” GO BOTH WAYS “A lot of times, I see people that trot and lope mostly to the left. It’s just something most all of us have the tendency to…

DAVID FLETCHER, MD Emergency Medicine Physician at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas On hospital life: We’ve received quite a few patients who have the virus, but we’re still expecting more to come. Right now, my day is more spent in meetings and planning for worst-case scenarios—if we run out of ventilators or ICU space. All of that involves lots of meetings done on conference calls with all different specialties in the hospitals and administration. The other half the time, I’m working. We’re seeing a fair number of people with the virus, from not very sick people to people on ventilators. The rest of the volume—because people aren’t driving much or getting injured—the volume is way down. On roping: I haven’t been roping at all. I slowed…

Cashel [Patterned Crusader Fly Masks]  cashelcompany.com, $24 and up New in 2020, the Crusader Fly Mask is now available in leopard, palms and mint patterns, providing the same great fit and protection with a trendy design. Get each horse its own pattern to match its personality or choose your personal favorite for all. All masks are available in a large variety of sizes to ensure the perfect fit with the option of adding ear protection. Made with soft coated nylon micromesh, the Crusader is soft, durable and comfortable while providing protection from flies and UV rays. Yeti [Element Series Colster ®  ]  yeti.com, $30 In addition to the recent release of Yeti’s new Coral, Pacific Blue and Chartreuse colors, their durable drinkware Rambler® line—including the Colster® Can Insulators—is also…

We talk so much about what to do with our left hand, what bits to ride and how our horses should respond to the bridle, but I’ve found that focusing on what my feet are doing throughout a run can really help improve how my horses work. Using my feet better in the box, in the corner and through the face can speed up my run and make my horse more comfortable with his job. 1 In the box, it’s easy to get to pulling on a horse to get him in the corner. Some horses get so numb and dull in the box because they’ve always had someone yanking on their face to get them in the corner. On my horses, I want to be intentional about using my…

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day, and six years later, President Richard Nixon signed it into law. Luckily, the holiday is annual. Because there are so many team roping dads and granddads worth honoring that we could go on for years. In the meantime, here are a few fathers worthy of accolades on June 21. PAPA SMURF The passing of the gold-buckle baton from Jake ’n Clay to Speed ’n Rich in the mid-1990s overshadowed wolfy West Coast NFR team ropers like Daniel and Chris Green, Wes and Cameron Moore, and the late Mike Boothe. But they were tough. And they all came through Bruce Hunt’s program at West Hills College in Coalinga, California. Hunt, a Canadian, left his own promising…

“My wife and I started very early, for me, in life—and her. I had to grow up quick. When I was 17, I was blessed with Levi and my roping went from hanging out and having a good time doing it to a goal of making the NFR; and dreams of making the NFR to the reality of, ‘Hey, you’ve got to grow up and take care of your family. If this is what you’re going to do, every loop counts.’ I think that’s what helped me when I first started rodeoing. I was very fortunate and lucky enough to get Kory Koontz when I started out and try to make the NFR the first time. It came to a point that I knew all the weight was on my…

In the month of April, the Ariat World Series of Team Roping qualified 100 teams to its December Finale through its new Practice Pen Qualification Challenge. Through Facebook Live video, the association challenged teams in the #10.5, #9.5 and #8.5 divisions to beat a standard “par” time in order to get a spot in this year’s Vegas Finale at the South Point Hotel, Casino, Spa and Equestrian Center. As of press time in late April, teams from 12 different states had already qualified, including ropers from North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington and Georgia, as well as a team from Canada. Arizona qualifier Clifford Reidhead, 56, is a manager at PVB Fabrications, and was able to remain working through the COVID-19 crisis. He welcomed the chance to rope with friend Chad…

While PC Frenchman’s Hayday gained his fame as a producer of barrel racing world champions MP Meter My Hay and DM Sissys Hayday, Cory Petska rode the iconic stallion known as Dinero to two NFR qualifications in 2005 and 2006, as well as the win at California Rodeo Salinas back in 2004. As the world spun with the coronavirus, it stopped for Marana, Arizona’s Potter and Petska families March 23, 2020, with the loss of PC Frenchman’s Hayday—known in the Western world as Dinero—at the age of 25. The palomino son of Sun Frost, out of the Tiny Circus mare Caseys Charm, first found fame under World Champion barrel racer Sherry Cervi, who ran him at the National Finals Rodeo in 2005. But by then, the horse was already pulling…

Bobby Harris is an 18-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo heeler who in 1991 won the world championship with Tee Woolman, based on equal earnings back before header and heeler world champs were named. Bobby won the NFR average three times—Tee and Bobby split it with Jake Milton and Walt Woodard in 1987; Tee and Bobby struck again in 1990; and J.D. Yates and Bobby won it in 2002. These days, Bobby, who’s 57 now, and his wife, Colleen, split their time between the Harris family ranch 45 miles north of Gillette, Wyoming, and Highmore, South Dakota, which is 380 miles from the ranch. Bobby, who won the 1990 Timed Event Championship at the Lazy E Arena, also qualified for the National Finals Steer Roping eight times. Q: You were the…

Stick to your plan. Repetitive practice—focusing on position, swing, target and delivery—beats high-volume practice. BUILDING YOUR ROUTINE I see so many people come in from work or school and run 15 or 20 steers just to run steers. But quality of practice is more important than quantity of practice. I’d rather you come in from work or school and rope the Heel-O-Matic with intent, then rope five steers the right way. I’ve practiced every way you can practice, from roping five steers a day to roping 100 steers a day—so I’ve figured this out from experience. THE THEORY BEHIND IT Everything is repetition—that’s all roping is. Get to the arena and do the same thing, every day. One thing I see about ropers in general is that everybody has an…

Welch, Oklahoma’s Zac Small had a storybook year in 2016 that included winning the BFI in June; marrying his wife, Cayla Melby Small, in October; and competing alongside his brand new bride at that year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, where Zac headed for now reigning World Champion Heeler Wesley Thorp. Then Small resumed his original life plan and fell off of the roping and rodeo radar. What made that 2016 dream season even more amazing was the fact that after winning the BFI in June, Small started veterinary school in August. Yes, after three and a half years of majoring in biomedical science at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, Zac started working toward his veterinary degree at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. “I rodeoed until August that year,…

Rodeo fans are accustomed to seeing three-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier Dakota Kirchenschlager riding the perfect position to execute masterful heel shots with uncanny ease. What’s less expected, at least until fairly recently, is seeing the Whitesboro, Texas, rope horse trainer changing leads and running down to sliding stops and fast spins (yeah, different spins) in National Reined Cow Horse Association sanctioned competition. But this fall, you may very well catch him entered up in the American Rope Horse Association World Championships, held in conjunction with the Snaffle Bit Futurity, as well as in the futurity or horse show itself. “Our rope horses have to run; they have to stop and they have to cow,” he said. “It’s actually a lot like what you need them to do if you’re…