Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, This issue marks a turning point for our staff. On page 67, you’ll find the very first print issue of The Breakaway Roping Journal. We’re thrilled to bring this element to our audience, in response to the explosion of the breakaway roping market. We know that so many of our readers are team ropers with daughters, granddaughters, wives and sisters who also love to swing a rope, or who themselves also are breakaway ropers, and it’s our sincere hope that you’ll share this magazine with them. Of course, Jackie Crawford graces our first BRJ cover, as her masterful feat in Arlington, Texas, at the first ever National Finals of Breakaway Roping this past December helped enhance the storyline of the sport. Thanks to so many thriving industry partners,…

When it comes to women’s roping, the past few years have been big. But when it comes to the USTRC and CINCH, women’s roping has been an endeavor worthy of the spotlight since 2004. “When we first started working with the USTRC and they were going to have the All Girl, we wanted to add something to it,” explained Jessica Wahlert, marketing manager at CINCH. “So, we added $1,000 on each side to the champions, and then a year’s supply of CINCH clothing.” According to Wahlert, her company, which originally sponsored the program with their Cruel Girl brand, recognized something special about the women’s roping event, and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to align with it. “Obviously, the money that the USTRC brought was big, but we wanted to…

Question: What does Trevor Brazile think about spurs and how to use them, and what kind does he use? — Jase Staudt, Saguache, Colorado Answer: I’ll start off by saying there are people who don’t need to wear spurs. They are a great tool when used correctly. And some horses obviously take to them better than others. But I’ve never ridden a horse without spurs. I’ve ridden a horse without using spurs, but I’ve always had them on. I feel like there are a lot of people who cling to their horse with their riding style, and it looks like the spur is always in contact. Instead of putting weight on the stirrup, they wrap their legs around a horse. People who ride like that don’t have any business wearing…

What I really focus on with young horses is roping for the horse and not for me, because I do reach a lot. I’ve been really making myself run up in the middle of the calf, be smart and be real sharp and crisp with my neck catch. The biggest deal is this: I want my horse’s front feet moving through my delivery. BOX WORK To address reaching, the first step I take is going back to the box. A lot of my box work is scoring a calf and dropping my hand slow. I want my horse to just walk out. Then, I’ll drop my hand a little faster. I want them to blow out, but not actually run, and stay in the bit. Then, I want to actually…

In 2020, female ropers for the first time competed for life-changing money in traditionally male ProRodeo. The $750,000 Women’s Rodeo World Championship (WRWC) alongside the PBR World Finals in November, and the $200,000 National Finals of Breakaway Roping (NFBR) alongside the NFR in December were historic inaugural events. “There are so many women who have all the ability, but because of life and family and careers they just stopped rodeoing,” said former NFR tie-down roper and steer wrestler J.D. Crouse, now Chief Marketing Officer for the World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA). “To see them have an opportunity to reengage and reinvest time and energy back into the sport they love—that’s been great. But then to also pay the winner of the breakaway at our Women’s Championship more than $60,000, it…

Idaho’s Dillon Holyfield and Jaylen Eldridge roped their way to the top four Championship round at the inaugural America’s Team Roping Challenge at Rancho Rio in Wickenburg, Arizona, on Feb. 18, 2021, produced by Yost Events. Holyfield, 23, and Eldridge, 18, took home the $10,000 prize money after they roped their top-four steer in 6.64 seconds to secure the America’s Team Roping Challenge, Tour Stop No.1 Championship title. “This is probably the biggest check that I’ve ever won,” Holyfield said. “Jaylen wanted to rope and, when he wants to rope, you can’t say no. We both stay at Jeff Flenniken’s (2020 Wrangler NFR qualifier) and we’re roping every day.” Holyfield and Eldridge bareley made the cut to advance to the top-30 round after roping their first steer in 7.00 seconds,…

FORWARD MOTION FROM THE CORNER Brad Lund is particular about the way his horses leave the corner. Here’s how he gets them leaving forward and flat. I have been learning how to score my entire life, but ever since I started going to World Series ropings, I’m having to learn to adjust my start. I’ve been struggling with leaving fast enough, so at home every day I make eight to 10 runs for myself at the end of the day to work on that. But whether I’m seeing one out there like it’s Cheyenne or I’m nodding and going, I need my horse listening to the bridle in the corner and leaving flat, with a downward pull on the bridle, to make my job the easiest. Here’s what I work…

I was born and raised in Midland, Texas, and, until I was 13 years old, I lived in a little townhouse. My dad worked for a heating and air conditioning business that he and his brother and my grandfather all owned. It was just a mom-and-pop shop and they all worked their tails off every year. My mom was a teacher at a private Christian school for $0. Things were really slim growing up, but my mom and dad were and are the best parents in the world. We lived week-to-week. I’m not going to paint a sob story because we had a good life. I just was raised in town, and I had never been around horses. My school was too small for sports. My cousins and everybody around…

At 5 a.m. every morning, Winston Hansma walks into the concrete halls of his Weatherford, Texas, barn, flips on the first set of lights and dumps feed into the stall of his aging stud, CD Lights. He opens his tack room lined with well-worn saddles, snaffles and heavy-made correction bits. Then he retreats to the house for breakfast and a few cups of coffee with his wife, Danny Motes, before heading back to the barn to saddle his 2- and 3-year-old cutters at 7 a.m. By that time, the sun is peaking over the trees that line their pipe-and-cedar pastures, and the Texas dew is still wet on the grass. But the clay and the sand of the arenas—both indoor and out—are all worked to perfection and the cattle are…

“It’s hard to get the right or the perfect horse. The perfect horse doesn’t really exist. Each discipline is so different, but there’s great qualities in the cutters. But then, if you can have someone like Miles (Baker), that you can send him to and say, ‘Hey, this is a great horse, but here’s the couple of things that we need to change to make a great roping horse. Could you help us with that?’ Or, you know, sending him the 2-year-olds like we’ve done here lately and letting him put that in from the start. It’s been really beneficial for us.” —Lari Dee Guy, Eight-time WPRA World Champion on the breakaway roping horse market in Season 4 of “The Score”—a podcast by The Team Roping Journal, available to stream…

The Ariat World Series of Team Roping Title Fights qualifier at Rancho Rio in Wickenburg, Arizona, paid ropers some $1.3 million Feb. 11–13, topping the charts as one of the richest ropings of the WSTR season. The biggest single check of the weekend went to the Arizona team of Brennan Tallman, 35, and Bryan Sells, 27, who pocketed $43,000 in the #11.5 qualifier with a time of 34.25 seconds on four head. “It was good to get that steer down, and I knew my partner was going to hammer it down,” Tallman said. “I just had to do my part and catch the steer and give him a good handle. It’s unbelievable. It’s a lot of money and it’s what we dream about and practice for.”…

Q: Please rattle off all of your NFR partners. A: It all started with Leo (Camarillo) in 1985 as far as my professional career goes. I roped with Denny Watkins at my first NFR in 1986. The first check we got for placing in a round (splitting second in Round 3) was for $3,000, and we thought that was a lot of money. Now they get $10,000 just for showing up. I also roped at the Finals with Dennis Gatz, Monty Joe Petska, Cody Cowden, Tyler Magnus and Allen Bach, then roped at my last NFR with Mike Beers in 2001. Q: How did you know it was time to hang it up on full-time rodeo? A: I was roping with Mike, and we were all at Pendleton when 9/11…

There are numerous destinations throughout the American West to encounter one of Chris Navarro’s many monumental bronze sculptures, but “Champion Lane Frost” on the grounds at Cheyenne’s Frontier Park in Wyoming, “The Messenger” at The Alamo in San Antonio, and “When Champions Meet” at the Greeley Stampede’s Island Grove Regional Park in Colorado are just a few you may have met in your rodeo travels. And, if you’re prone to visiting galleries or Western art shows and museums, the chance of witnessing a Navarro work in living color increases exponentially. His work proliferates the masterfully lit walls and pedestals of places like the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Musuem in Oklahoma City, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, and the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in…

FINDING THE RIGHT STEER The key to a good lead steer is you want something a little bit gentle that also has a little stamina or toughness to him. You don’t want the doggy steer that will just lay down. Most of the time, my lead steers start out as something big that wants to drag. If I have something sitting around that we’re feeding and they’re not working, we try them as a lead steer. Some make it and some don’t. If you have one that’s going too fast, you’ll do more damage than good, so look for a steer that just goes at an even, slower pace. Some of the bigger M-branded steers work really well. GOING TO WORK To start a lead steer, I shut the wing…

Wrangler National Finals Rodeo header Brandon Beers owned a stout, athletically gifted bay mare by the name of Lucys Fast Jewel, who by a vote of the cowboys was professiaonal rodeo’s 2013 American Quarter Horse Association Head Horse of the Year. Beers bought Jewel from John McFarlane as an 8-year-old in the summer of 2012, and circuit rodeoed on her that year while the black horse he called Tevo—who went on to become the 2014 Head Horse of the Year—was out with a torn stifle. Beers rode Jewel when he and Cully Stafford won the 2012 Oregon rodeos in Sisters and Joseph. Brandon also rode Jewel in two rounds at the 2013 NFR when he headed for Jim Ross Cooper. But something bad was brewing in the box. “Jewel was…

Despite the perils of 2020 that brought a pandemic-induced rescheduling, an economic crisis and an election, the USTRC hosted its largest National Finals in history, boasting 6,400 teams and 2,200 individual ropers. The event is back for its 32nd rendition in 2021 with its regularly scheduled spring dates, April 26–May 2, at its new home in Fort Worth, Texas—complete with a $10,000 added Gold Buckle Beer USTRC Open, Yeti Jr. Open, #9.5 Ram Truck Roping, age-protected specialty ropings and big-money shootouts across all divisions. IMPROVEMENTS The 2021 edition of the USTRC’s Cinch National Finals will offer an expanded schedule, allowing for shorter days in the arena and more time to enjoy Fort Worth’s offerings. “We added a half day on the front end and a day on the back end…