Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, In early August, I asked one of our regular photographers, Jamie Arviso, if she’d shot anything cover-worthy lately. Looking for a cover image is a delicate task, balancing great photography with the needs of the moment, the associations and the personalities involved, and Jamie’s regular presence at ropings of all types and her creative eye make her a good place to start. Jamie sent me back a group of shots from a July roping in Linden, Arizona, and the one you find on this cover caught my eye. I asked her who it was, and she told me it was the Grants, New Mexico father-daughter team of Chali and Darin Simpson. Now they didn’t win the roping, and I don’t have any particular occasion to include them in…

Equinety [Equinety Ultimate OEC]  teamequinety.com, $85 Professional ropers like Tyler Wade rely on the effectiveness of Equinety’s products to support the horses in his program and enable greater recovery from their injuries. Ultimate OEC, offered in a 30-day supply (64 fl oz), is chock full of Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, Vitamin E and Colloidal Silver for a power-packed recipe to improve everything from joint health and metabolic conditions to immunity, nerve function, wound recovery and more. NRS [Tommy Blessing Floral Design Large Port Bit]  nrsworld.com, $120 The newest bit in the Tommy Blessing bit line sold exclusively at NRS has the same classic 8-inch cheek with a brand new floral design. This bit also has the newest mouthpiece with smooth bars and a large port. The port on…

The 2020 regular rodeo season just ended, and what a chaotic year it’s been starting toward the end of the winter rodeos. As a guy who’s not out there hitting it hard anymore, it looks to me like a few guys who did good at the early rodeos took the lead, then in March everybody’s whole world turned upside down. With all the rodeo cancellations and so few chances to win big money since, it’s been all but impossible to catch them. I’m all about the guys—young and old—with goals to make the Finals, who make a living with a rope. I was out there doing that for decades. When this is your living, the rug gets pulled out from under you and you have nowhere to go, that throws…

with Kory Koontz Photo by CBarC/Andersen Photography SITUATION: Sixth callback in the Mathews Land & Cattle’s Ariat World Series of Team Roping Open Qualifier short round in San Antonio, Texas TIME: 5.74 seconds OUTCOME: First in the roping with a time of 34.8 seconds on five head, worth $4,870 for the team. a) POSITION: In an earlier round, I might not have put myself quite as far up beside the steer, but, on this last one, I wanted to be a little more aggressive. I moved up trying to get a little bit of a haze on the steer, but I didn’t want to shove him left. He ended up coming to me, so I got a little pinched in between the right fence and the steer. I went ahead…

Guthrie | San Antonio | Fountain ALL-STAR EFFORTS Rowdy K. Jones and Nicholas Lovins (pictured) took home $9,970 for winning the #14.5 Ariat World Series of Team Roping qualifier at the All-Star Team Roping Finals in Guthrie, Oklahoma, Aug. 6. The pair roped four steers in 31.92 seconds. Olie’s Images SOUTH TEXAS HEAT Tristan Sivells and Troy Brown roped four steers in 36.77 seconds to win the #11.5 Ariat World Series of Team Roping Qualifier produced by Mathews Land & Cattle in San Antonio’s Rose Palace August 8, cashing a check worth $12,230 for their efforts. CBarC/Andersen Photography COLORADO CHAMPIONSHIPS Tessa Menegatti and Justin Price won the #13.5 Ariat WSTR qualifier at the Colorado Championships in Fountain, Colorado, worth $5,000 for a time of 32.57 seconds on four head. Tessa…

The Ariat World Series of Team Roping will produce the 2020 Texas Title Fights at the Circle T Arena in Hamilton, Texas, Oct. 23 through Oct. 25, 2020—bringing Texans a taste of the Title Fight format proven wildly successful in Arizona each February. The qualifier will offer a brand new #9.5 Over 40 Heartland Finale with its $500-per-roper fee, and Cactus Saddles and Gist Buckles to the winners. The format—already successful in other parts of the country, too—will give ropers over 40 a chance at a roping designed specifically for them, with its roper-friendly setup and cattle. Ropers must have a Key Card or Ariat World Series of Team Roping card to enter, and Global Handicaps numbers will be used. For more information about the event, visit wstroping.com or call…

There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason for why girl champs are such a rarity in the team roping at the National High School Finals Rodeo, and yet, only three have been recorded in its history, which lists the sport’s first champions in 1972. Fourteen years later, Brenda Youtsey (now Reay) from Oregon would be the first girl in history to claim the title. Another 20 years would pass before Nevada’s Haylee Turlee would follow suit and, again, 14 more years until Quincy Sullivan, from New Mexico, joined her predecessors. And though the reasons for these significant time gaps aren’t terribly obvious, what is known is that these three women went to the Finals to win. GIRL GOALS “That was my goal all along,” Brenda Reay said. “I…

The staff of The Team Roping Journal launched its passion project—The Breakaway Roping Journal—as a stand-alone website Sept. 1, 2020, highlighting the stellar talent, explosive horsepower and biggest news in the sport of breakaway roping. Relying on TRJ’s unmatched team of experienced roping reporters, The Breakaway Roping Journal will pair instructional stories with breaking news and inspirational storytelling across all associations, all from the sport’s greatest influencers, motivators and competitors, as well as up-and-coming talent. “Communities grow through vibrant media, when dedicated journalists dive deep into the stories to unify the separate circles operating with the same passions,” Chelsea Shaffer, editorial director for The Team Roping Journal and The Breakaway Roping Journal, said. “It’s a model that helped team roping become the force it is today with the launch of…

I’ve helped a lot of people with their roping for a long time now. One of the things I stress to all my students is the importance of setting specific goals for every single practice session, so you make the most of your time and actually get somewhere and get better. When you go to the practice pen, there should be a list of things you want to work on, whether it’s horsemanship, scoring, timing, handling steers or facing your horse. What you’ll find—regardless of whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, advanced or top-dog type—is that the more specific you get with what you’re going to work on improving, the better chance you’ll have of making progress. So many ropers go to the practice pen and go through the motions of…

Question: How big is your ideal switchender? — Gannon Johnson; Lisbon, North Dakota Answer: I think a switchender needs to be 15 hands. If they’re over 15 hands, they’re too big to heel on. And if they’re any smaller, they’re too small to head on. I think the heavier they are, the better, until it gets to a point where it slows their feet down. And, when it comes to switch-enders, you can take into account that you might not be doing anything serious enough to be that hard on them, because you’re doing a little of this and a little of that and not a lot of anything. But I need to clarify how I feel about switchenders. I’m pickier than most, but I haven’t had many I loved…

As a team roper, you know how a particular horse or rope can affect your catch ratio. But what about your choice of partner? If you don’t think your relationship with the guy or gal in the box next to yours impacts your performance, just ask nine-time NFR heeler Jake Long. In his world, partners are also de facto best friends. So when things go wrong, both sides get to trying so hard for the other guy that it’s almost suffocating. And that becomes a downward spiral. “Once rodeo partners decide to quit roping together, all that pressure lifts off,” Long said. “It almost never fails—a team splitting up will win everything that last two weeks they were still entered. Out here, we’ll joke that we’re going to fake cut…