Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, The practice pen is most roper’s comfort zone. Steers you know, not-so-hot horses, whatever start you want. For decades, that’s how Spin To Win Rodeo was for our staff. Four years ago this month, I remember walking out of a board room sobbing because our bosses told me my comfort zone was going away, and they tasked me with creating something brand new—what would become The Team Roping Journal—in just three weeks. Well—as much as Kendra Santos and I deeply loved Spin To Win—I know we’re both grateful now for the magazine we’ve gotten to create outside of our comfort zone. Something that honored the traditions Kendra, Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper set forth in Spin To Win, but what’s now an expansive, multi-platform product in The…

Cutting Edge Knife [Custom Knives] Cuttingedge-knife.com, $varies This father-son duo has been building and retailing custom knives for the better part of the last decade. From blades for every purpose to handles crafted with seashell, barbed wire or cholla cactus, there’s a tool for everyone. This particular pinecone knife has a D2 steel blade and a handle with an embedded pine-cone. Each handle is uniquely made. This scored blade measures 3 inches and the handle measure 4 inches. YETI [SideKick Dry Gear Bag] yeti.com, $50 On the surface, a dry bag may not seem like an obvious choice for ropers, but the SideKick is about as versatile as gear comes. Designed to attach to a number of other Yeti products that feature the Hitchpoint Grid MOLLE system (the Hopper products,…

I like to start the day off in a snaffle at the house and even sometimes when I’m rodeoing if I can, doing a lot of circles and serpentines to knock the edge off my horses without putting the miles on them. I can do this to get them soft in the mouth without breaking their spirit. It lets them get really docile, soft and easy to move around, and it knocks some fresh off them. It lets me use my legs and pull them around so, in the run, they’re soft and responsive and not pushing against me. I take 5 to 10 minutes on each horse—they start off the day like they’ve been on the walker for hours. It does the work for me. 1 INTRODUCING CIRCLES When…

I hear people talk a lot about short-strided versus long-strided head horses, but the same thing can be said for heel horses. There are good heel horses with both types of strides, but the roper just has to know how to position both types. SHORT-STRIDED Short-strided horses have a lot faster feet. That keeps the speed of your swing faster to stay in time with your horse and the steer. It’s easier to move the feet of a short-strided horse and get in position going down the arena and through the corner. LONG-STRIDED You have to protect a longer-strided horse a little more. You generally stay a little wider to allow things to happen and give you and your horse time to react. They can make the move if they’re…

World Champion Heeler Wesley Thorp and his team of partners are launching The Equine Exchange Sept. 1, an app designed specifically to make the buying and selling of horse flesh a better experience for everyone involved. To further that effort, The Equine Exchange is now an official partner of the Ariat World Series of Team Roping, supporting the sport of team roping from top to bottom. “With the performance horse world continuing to set records across all disciplines, and the demand for better-trained horses with proven bloodlines and a little chrome higher than ever, the market needed a reliable, user-friendly location to operate,” said Lory Merritt, director of sponsorship for the WSTR. “From ponies to elite head and heel horses, the market is thriving and people can’t get enough. The…

Q: What do you do for a living? A: I have four businesses right now. I have a service company in the oilfield, a rental company of apartments and condos, my wife has a successful jewelry company called Goldie Lew (after twins Goldie and Poppy Lew), and I own a share of PWR PRO CBD with Kaycee. Q: Your little sister, Maclee, is married to team roper Jade Anderson, right? A: Yes, Jade’s won the Wilderness Circuit team roping title several times, and now works two weeks on and two weeks off up in North Dakota. Jade and my dad were partners on a water truck company that services oilfields. After Dad died (five years ago of pancreatic cancer), Jade took over the company. Q: I remember your dad telling…

Enoch Malouff is a plenty handy roper—he finished third in the #11 Boehringer-Ingelheim at the 2018 Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale with formerly featured “Other Gig” rescue pilot Lowell Neshem—but he’ll tell you he’s a rancher first. He and his family operate the Orme Ranch, about an hour north of Phoenix and, with the exception of last year, due to COVID-19, they have spent the last many years hosting the military veterans of the Jinx McCain Horsemanship Program for fall branding. The JMHP is a part of the Semper Fi & America’s Fund non-profit and uses various opportunities to get the veterans not just horseback, but cowboying, as its principal method for helping the vets rediscover the grit and mettle they possess that’s often required in everyday life.…

On July 20—just a few days before we wrote this column—I got a call from Gary McKinney telling me that Sic ’Em died at 21. Sic ’Em was registered as Lite My Dynamite, and I paid $4,500 for him as a 4-year-old cutter reject at the beginning of my heading career. He went from cutter to rodeo head horse in six months. Sic ’Em was 5, and Rich Skelton asked me to rope with him the first year he and Speed Williams quit roping. I’m Rich’s first partner, and I had two horses—Sic ’Em and Stinger—who’d never been to a rodeo and never been behind a barrier. Sic ’Em got to his full potential in spite of me, not because of me. I didn’t know what I didn’t know about…

Having to rope for a living without your horses makes you appreciate just how much they deserve the special care we give them. — PATRICK SMITH Two-time World Champion Team Roper Patrick Smith has been blessed by more than one “once in a lifetime horse” in his career. It all started with Jaws, the little sorrel horse he bought by saving up tips waiting tables at Chili’s. Then it was his longtime sorrel sidekick Amigo. “I’ve had an amazingly blessed career when it comes to horses,” said Smith, who’s roping with 2020 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year Tanner Tomlinson in 2021. “I’ve basically had two horses that have made my career, between Jaws and Amigo. I’ve had some really good horses, but those were greats. When you lose a…

The Ariat World Series of Team Roping, United States Team Roping Championships, and National Team Roping have partnered with IES, an international LED lighting company owned by team ropers, to bring indoor and outdoor arena owners a new way to light their arenas effectively and efficiently. Integrated Energy Solutions is based in Arizona, and it has focused on renewable and alternative energy production and solutions for nearly four decades. Its expertise extends to indoor arenas, stall areas, warehouses, and general lighting needs. Recently, IES teamed up with Priefert Manufacturing to design light kits specifically for team roping arenas. “We met up with Eddie and the whole team at Priefert and worked to design a few cost levels of lighting solutions for ropers based on Priefert’s standard arena sizes,” said Trevor…

First, a run-down on the different nuances. A traditional tie-down keeps the nose in a relatively tucked position, thereby encouraging the horse to collect the rest of its body. Also available are versions with browbands instead of nosebands. The theory with a browband tie-down is that a horse will stand up and keep its shoulders up better because it won’t lean into a browband as easily as it will a noseband. A browband tie-down differs from a bonnet, which has sliding rings that distribute pressure to both the brow and poll. Also called a headsetter, it’s typically made of small-diameter rope or nylon. Poll pressure typically encourages horses to lower their heads vertically. Thus, a bonnet, in theory, allows a horse to extend his nose more than it can with…

Two-time World Champion Team Roper Walt Woodard spent the first 50 years of his life in French Camp, California, which is 25 miles from Oakdale. He moved to Stephenville in 2005. “When I was young, California is where cowboys came from,” said Walt, who’s 65 now. “They wore white shirts and cowboy hats, and had a pen in their pocket. (ProRodeo Hall of Famers) Sonny Tureman and Ace Berry were rodeo and ranch cowboys, and Phil Stadtler was a legendary area cattleman. I thought those guys were so cool. “California gets a lot of bad press—in part over politics—but it doesn’t deserve it. If you’re just looking at Los Angeles and San Francisco, you don’t know California. Look at the pictures and get to know the people in places like…