Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, There’s something about having a fresh batch of 8,000 photos from a Team Roping Journal photo shoot to revive my creative juices. This June, during this issue’s production, New Mexico-based photographer Jamie Arviso joined us at Trevor Brazile’s and Ryan Motes’ arenas for two days of roping action with the best in the business. The result? Some 24 months’ worth of instructional photos, cover images and more. The arenas were perfect, the horses were outstanding and the light was gorgeous, and nobody captures team roping like Jamie. She happens to be Derrick Begay’s big sister, and she’s got an eye for the smallest details of the sport. I can’t wait for you all to see the results, starting on page 40 with our 6-Flat with Cesar de la…

At the Charlie 1 Horse All-Girl Challenge Team Roping on June 24, Whitney DeSalvo of Springfield, Arkansas, left no doubt about her status as the world’s best female heeler. DeSalvo, just 25, took the top three placings with three different partners to haul a staggering $28,875 in cash back to Arkansas, plus a truckload of prizes. The three-time WPRA World Champion won the roping with Hope Thompson of Abilene, Texas, who raked in $20,750 total. “I just tried to rope every steer,” said DeSalvo, whose mare bucked on the very first run of the day, after which DeSalvo caught 11 of 11 steers on the second hop. “I didn’t even know what my times were.”…

He finally did it. Barry Berg, who has overseen for nearly 30 years the production of millions of Cactus Ropes, has had callbacks three different times to win the coveted six-figure prize in Reno’s original Invitational #11 roping. On June 22, he and Dustin Noblitt—the president of Cactus’ parent company—personally roped their way to the $100,000 win on the 25th anniversary of the Wrangler National Patriot #11.5. “This is the fairest, friendliest place to rope four steers that you can imagine,” said Berg, of Pleasanton, Texas. He and Noblitt had a 3-second lead on the rest of the pack as high callback. They finished strong and clean anyway, to take the win by six seconds over Colorado rodeo veterans and best friends Dwight Arnold and Chris Glover, who earned $50,000.…

Charlie Luark, of Kersey, Colorado, left his earthly home just before sunset, May 30, 2020, surrounded by his loving family. Charlie was born on July 17, 1969, in Greeley, Colorado. He was a lifelong resident of Weld County. As a young man, Charlie grew up participating in 4-H and FFA, and always enjoyed anything that involved team roping. In 1990, Charlie married the love of his life, Melanie. It is with Melanie and their daughter, Dianne, that he built a life he loved full of horses, dogs, roping, and friends. Charlie and Melanie have one daughter, Dianne (Britt) Bath, and their precious granddaughter, Blair, who has become the bright light in their life and has already shown her love for horses. Charlie was a real talent on the back of…

Iwasn’t yet competing when I was seven or eight years old, but my stepdad Gene O’Brien was and I always tagged along. Our whole family would go to the roping an hour up the road in Southern California, where I worked and played with the other kids. One year, we were going to a roping on Christmas Day. I got a brand new rope for Christmas, and since I usually got to use Gene’s old hand-me-downs, it was a big deal. I just knew that rope was from Santa Claus’s sleigh, because it had red paint on the honda burner. I was so excited. We went to the roping, and I played and roped the dummy all day with that rope. Then, guess what happened? I ran off and left…

A LIGHTER LEFT HAND Cesar de la Cruz has learned a lot in his horsemanship journey. How to use his left hand has made the greatest impact. I try to ride each horse for his style, and I’ve learned you can ride a horse better for his style if you’re good with your left hand. Joseph Harrison, Trevor Brazile, J.D. Yates, Dakota Kirchenschlager—they can ride any horse because they’re so good with their left hands. 1 Leaving the box, I’m accelerating and don’t want to balance on my horse’s mouth. I want to leave with my hand down and with my horse in a strong position with good balance and weight running down my legs. I’m not leaning back or pulling my body forward with the reins. My hand is…

Fixing Your Riding About a month before this year’s Bob Feist Invitational, I went to a jackpot at Robertson Hill in Texas. I left there frustrated with myself and my horses, and I wasn’t sure what all was going wrong. GETTING HELP The next day, I went to Kaleb Driggers’ house to try some horses. He pointed out to me that I was leaning toward the steer, trying to get to it faster. I was twisting my shoulders too much toward the steer, leaning forward and getting my feet behind me. That basically put the Jake brake on. When I’m home, I don’t have anyone to ask for help—but being in Texas around the best guys in the world, I was able to figure a lot more out. AT HOME…

Joint and Soft Tissue Health Arthritis is a common byproduct of age and performance demands. Defined as inflammation of the joint, arthritis is a condition that horse owners can take proactive measures to help delay. Arthritis can advance into osteoarthritis, which is a chronic, progressive disease that starts with synovitis, or inflammation of the synovial membrane that lines the surface of the joint. Synovitis, cartilage damage and changes to the bony structure of joints can painfully exacerbate, or even end, a performance horse’s career. Symptoms of equine osteoarthritis are all unpleasant and include stiffness, reduced range of motion, heat, swelling and behavior changes. So what can ropers do to slow the march of time against their steady, solid and aging equine partners? “Warm your horses up and cool them down…

Premier Equine Auctions will sell 75 top rope horses Sept. 11 at this year’s USTRC National Finals, presented by Cinch, in Fort Worth, adding another element of excitement as the roping moves to Texas for the first time in the event’s history. The industry’s leading trainers and sellers will show their horses on three steers in the preview Sept. 10, and the horses will be available on the grounds all day Friday in Fort Worth. “We’re excited about the new venue, the USTRC’s leadership and everything the association has going on,” Premier Equine Auctions’ Steve Friskup said. “I’ve been a part of every horse sale the USTRC has hosted, and we look forward to this sale becoming one of the most premier events in the country. Fort Worth’s Will Rogers…

Jordan Lovins of Canadian, Texas, had never been to the Bob Feist Invitational. But when he heard that Wrangler BFI Week, presented by Yeti, moved to his neighboring Oklahoma from Reno, Nevada, he “was all over it.” Lovins, 17, hauled his steers to his local fairgrounds to practice under BFI-like dimensions and found someone with fresh steers so he could practice on a herd similar to the hard-running set of BFI Week. He capitalized by winning first and second—switching ends—for $15,900 in the third annual Hooey Junior BFI. He and Chase McGuire stopped their fifth one in 8.53 seconds to win the roping with a 43.47 on five.…

Good friends Mark Collins and Max Vincent were moved to tears and long hugs after their $61,500 win in the first-ever Cactus #10.5 Over 40 roping during Wrangler BFI Week, presented by Yeti, held at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma. “To be able to drive two hours from the house and win life-changing money is incredible,” said Collins, who owns a lumber yard and hardware store in tiny Leedey. It marked the first time he ever headed a steer for Vincent, 59, instead of the other way around. A number change on Vincent’s part meant he was classified low enough for the pair to be able to switch ends and rope in the #10.5. It happened after Vincent underwent harrowing esophageal cancer treatment.…

Q: Where is La Cygne, Kansas? A: It’s about 70 miles straight south of Kansas City, Kansas, and 200 miles northeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’re way on the eastern side of Kansas. Q: Where did you win all those world championships? A: Most of them were won in the AQHA at the World Show. Q: More than one team roper has made mention of the fact that you have a knack for hitting it out of the park at horse sales with rope horses you’ve trained. True story? A: We’ve been fortunate to do that a couple times. That doesn’t happen all the time to anyone, but every once in awhile it’s happened to us and we’re grateful. Q: What makes a great rope horse in your eyes? A: The…

DOMINOES I want to score well and I want my horse to score well to make every part of the run 10 times better. So, if your horse scores well, the next steps will be easier, like riding across the line, finding where the steer is heading and beating him there and getting to the spot you need to be to throw. If he wants to leave flat and score, then you can reach easier. If your horse doesn’t score well, you break the barrier or you’re late. If you break the barrier, you can’t win anything and, if you’re late, you panic and try to make stuff happen and stuff won’t happen the way you want it to. TIME IN THE BOX I don’t think enough people score their…

Colic is fairly common in horses, especially when they’re being hauled. Some horses never colic, but others are prone to it. So it’s something you need to be aware of and be able to treat. If you’re a horse person and you travel, it’s handy to be able to recognize and treat mild colic cases yourself. There are several signs and symptoms of colic. It could be as simple and subtle as a horse not wanting to eat or drink, stretching out, pawing, kicking at his belly, laying down and rolling. If a horse gets to the point of violently rolling, you need to get somewhere and find a vet to help you. If a horse is stretching out and pawing, and just a little bit uncomfortable, it’s a good…

The COVID-19 crisis shut down most of the United States the same week Guthrie, Oklahoma’s Lazy E Arena hosted its 36th annual Cinch Timed Event Championship, paying all-around hand Taylor Santos $100,000 and change—the last big check paid out before rodeo cowboys found themselves unemployed for the first time since the Cowboy Turtles Association was formed in 1936. The Lazy E, though, wouldn’t let cowboy sports stay down for long. The team joined forces with the Professional Bull Riders the last weekend in April to host the association’s first event back (and the first professional sporting event back), without fans but to a live audience on CBS Sports. And now, as public facilities across the Western world remain shuttered, the Lazy E—privately owned by the McKinney family—is taking its place…

Montana’s Kal Fuller and Oklahoma’s Reagan Ward took home the biggest check in Bob Feist Invitational history—$150,000—in the event’s first showing at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma, June 21. “I’m speechless,” Fuller said. “All I can say is thank you, Lord. Winning it with one of your best friends, and having your people with you, that’s the exciting part for me. Winning it is cool, but when you do it with your friends it’s even better.” Fuller, just 20 years old, and Ward, who turned 33 in June, won the roping from fourth callback after winning the short round (and another $5,000) in 6.04 seconds to be 46.89 on the roping’s grueling six head. This is the first season that Fuller, who was the 2019 Resistol Rookie of…

Coming from the fourth callback position in Guthrie, Oklahoma, on June 22, team roping couple Hannah and Mike White of Dekalb, Texas, notched the biggest tandem win of their 21-year marriage. The duo roped four steers in 34.09 seconds to split the $100,000 first-place paycheck in the #12.5 Showdown of Wrangler BFI Week, presented by Yeti. “We’ve never won anything big together,” said Mike White, who was wearing his 1999 PRCA gold buckle. “We struggle at it.”…

Because Wrangler BFI Week, presented by Yeti, had to be abruptly moved from Nevada to Oklahoma in order to happen in 2020, organizers decided to let the books stay open. Anyone could walk up and enter the eight amateur ropings held as part of BFI Week. It paid off for a pair of Texans on June 23. Ricky Oliver didn’t know Russ Cook was in Guthrie until he happened to bump into him in the Lazy E Arena about an hour before the #9.5 Over 40 roping. They decided to enter the event, now in its second year as part of the BFI Week roster, having arrived in Guthrie to rope in the brand new #10.5 Over 40 with other partners. The team jumped out and won the first round…

One of the ways roping is different from other sports is that we don’t have coaches. But with all the technology available today, there are countless resources available to ropers at all levels of the game if they’ll take the time to seek them out and have enough interest to study and take advantage of them. I’ve been a student of the game all my life, and that thirst for knowledge and striving to stay out front as our sport continues to evolve has always motivated me. I might be at the end of my career, but I’m still striving to get better so I can stay up with the times. Professional ropers train all the time. Recreational ropers can train, too, even if they don’t have as much time…

Growing up, I didn’t know of any professional guys. When I met Rube Woolsey, and we started roping together, he lived with Clay Cooper. Through them, I got to meet Jake Barnes and Bret Tonozzi and Dennis Gatz and Bobby Hurley and Allen Bach and Bobby Harris and Tee Woolman and that whole list of guys when I was just on my permit. I started looking up to certain guys because of what I wanted to do with my career and the level of roping at which I wanted to compete. They were doing what I wanted. So I started to watch them and see what they did and how they did it. It wasn’t even a conscious decision I made. It was just being curious because I really, really…

“It works really good on horses that want to stick their nose out when they stop because of how that port is shaped against the top of their mouth. The horse that I rode had horrible front teeth and doesn’t accept a pull very well. I’ve always used a bridle that would make her bridle up more than a normal bridle would. You could pick up on her, but she’d tuck up with the bit if you stopped her in the bridle because she’s just not good with her face when it comes to accepting the pull. The bridle doesn’t make the horse, the hand makes the horse. It’s just a tool that helps with their headset and accept the pull so that, as they get older, it makes your…

I’ve had a front-row seat to Cody Snow’s Wild West Show since the start. What a privilege to get to experience the ride first-hand. People sometimes ask if I saw Cody’s greatness—including winning the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo team roping average last December with Wesley Thorp, and helping Wesley win the world—coming. While I’m not going to lie, the kid did give me a few gray hairs in the early days, no, his rise to the top of the roping ranks does not surprise me. And having been there for some of the highest highs and lowest lows of his life, I must say that the Snowman’s success could not possibly delight any of us who watched him grow up more. Cody headed for my son Taylor in junior high…

“I like to have them broke for 90 to 120 days first before I ride them because I don’t like getting bucked off anymore. But I do like the cow horse style. I like them really broke, but I like them with their shoulders up. I want their head up and their nose back and to go into the bridle to keep their shoulders up and drive their hind end underneath them. The cow horse people do that really well, so that’s how I like them broke first—going into the bit and picked up and balanced and working off their hind end.” — C.R. Bradley, NFR Qualifier and 23-time AQHA Open World and Reserve World Champion, on “The Score”— a podcast by The Team Roping Journal, available to stream or…