Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, The ProRodeo Hall of Fame’s Induction Ceremony took place during the production of this issue, a subject which Kendra Santos and I have both covered already on these pages. Trevor Brazile gave the last speech of that event, and in it, he thanked the media-especially those who were in the business of promoting rodeo before there was so much television and digital coverage of the athletes. “It took a lot more work to create star power,” he said. He’s not wrong. Recently, we cleaned out a storage unit in our old office building, where I found a binder of the very first Spin To Win “magazines” from 1997. They were a black-and-white newsletters, and the man who’s the CEO of our company now, Tom Winsor, was writing many…

Please: Don’t stop forward motion or turn up the arena to the catch pen. The #8.5 is now the highest-paying, largest division in the Ariat World Series of Team Roping. And in June, the association announced that the #8.5 and the #7 will be flagged on the heels—as in, the flag will drop when the heeler has his or her dally and the rope is tight to the feet. In watching some of these ropings, I see a lot of headers either stopping their horse as the heeler dallies or heading straight to the stripping chute after they get the flag. or after their heeler misses. And that’s a major mistake. If you’re not continuing forward motion across and back up the arena, you’re losing control of the steer’s head.…

Just when we thought reigning World Champion Team Roper Junior Nogueira's horse herd couldn’t get any better, he buys Lucky Bucky from nine-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo heeler Cesar de la Cruz and steps up his already dominant game. Nogueira and his partner in the 2021 gold buckles, Kaleb Driggers, have a commanding lead in the 2022 world championship race. And this little buckskin horse and a whole lot of horsepower has everything to do with it. “I should have owned Lucky Bucky a long time ago, but God’s timing is always meant to be,” Junior said. “I’m very, very happy with my horses—Timon, Lucky Bucky and Chupapi, and Hali’s hanging out at home and ready if I need her. I have four great horses right now. God’s been good…

Kirchenschlager. Harrison. Brazile. Richard. Yates. Those names have all dominated the futurity headlines since the sport exploded onto the scene back in 2017. Rope horse futurities have, without a doubt, been a game changer for the Open guys, the breeding business and plenty of owners. But in 2022, there’s never been a better time to have a lower-numbered Global Handicaps card and ride a good horse. Futurities—from the American Rope Horse Futurity Association to the Royal Crown and now the Riata Buckle—are offering huge payouts to the select few recreational ropers who are proud of their horse flesh and willing to put their money up to show it off. “This is where the sport can really continue to grow,” said Jay Wadhams, owner and founder of the ARHFA. “There are…

High Call | Ardmore | Athens | Decatur…

In the first year of Calgary’s Rocky Mountain Cup, the team roping paid out $100,000 across three rounds and a sudden-death finals, bolstering the NFR hopes of teams that qualified to the invitational event, like champions Clint Summers and Ross Ashford. The win catapulted Summers and Ashford into the Top 15. Summers rode 18-year-old WSR Hesa Alive by Hesa Sonofa Dun and out of Smokes Alive, while Ashford won the rodeo on 7-year-old stallion Oz Ona Hot Streak by A Streak Of Fling and out of Oz One Hot Momma. “I thanked that committee so much for giving us a chance at that much money,” said Summers, 30, of Lake City, Florida. “There are so many people putting together good runs during the regular season, so most of the time…

Ropers | at home with | Jake Barnes | Clay O | icons | veteran salute | US programs Q: You come from a very close family, don’t you? A: Yes ma’am, and it’s the best thing. My Grandpa Victor and Grandma Myrtle (Begay) live really close to us, so I grew up with three generations of my family spending a lot of time together. Q: Can you remember when you started roping? A: I’ve roped my whole life, but I started roping roping when I was 9 or 10. I roped goats quite a bit before I started roping steers. I didn’t get very good at roping steers until about my freshman year when I was about 14. Before that, I rode junior high bulls and thought I wanted…

Ropers icons Tammy West-White is the co-owner of Best Ever Pads. She’s also the winningest female team roper in the history of the PRCA. According to White, it was never her intention to break the mold and, even today, you won’t hear her talk about her roping career as such. “I just love the sport,” the mom of two said. “My dad, he always said that it’s not a man or a woman. You just go out there and compete and the winning takes care of itself.” For White, the winning did just that. She’s a multi-year California Circuit finalist and BFI roper. She’s competed in the US Finals Open on multiple occasions and won the Oakdale 10-Steer. Denver, Reno and numerous other top ropings have a place on her…

HEADING EDITION "He wins every week." "That guy never misses." "She’s a great run in the #8.5." At every jackpot, big or small, you’re bound to notice someone who stands out. Someone who, more often than not, has a callback or two in the short round and walks to the pay window once or twice throughout the day Of course, this roping game is much more affordable when you’re cashing checks week after week, so what exactly is the secret to winning in team roping’s lower divisions against people with the same number and skill as you? Those who study the number system and teach plenty of schools might just know best. Cory Johnson, Producer, The Roping Co. The Secret: Ability to handle adversity. Why? In a team roping run,…

At the Barrier | industry news | new products | Arizona youth standout Denton Dunning just happened to be in Wyoming for the National High School Finals Rodeo, and a slight detour south to Cheyenne got the 16-year-old 9.5 heeler a chance at a piece of The American Rodeo’s $2-million payout come March 2023. Dunning paired up with Wyoming’s 8.5 switchender Clayton Van Aken to rope four steers in 30.51 seconds at the first American Rodeo Qualifier of the year—the first of its kind held in partnership with the Ariat World Series of Team Roping. It paid $16,940 to the team, including $6,840 for the main average and a massive $9,650 for the American portion of the event. “This was somewhere to rope for good money,” said Van Aken, 30,…

Blake Hirdes and Dalton Pearce won the 2022 Pikes Peak or Bust NFR Open for the National Team Roping Championship after clocking a 5.3-second run during the sudden-death Gold Buckle Round on Saturday, July 16, 2022. The win—at what used to be the Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo—netted the California Circuit cowboys $11,430 a man. That was enough to move Hirdes, of Turlock, into 27th in the PRCA world standings with $34,704 won, and Pearce, of San Luis Obispo, into 29th with $32,149 won at the end of July. “I got a real good start and a couple of ’em had beat me out of there,” Hirdes said. “But a lot of ’em I got a hold of pretty good and give pretty good handles. They were all moving pretty…

Bill Force is a Texas Senior Pro Rodeo Association team roper—the No. 2 header at time of print—who dreamed of playing professional tennis in his younger years. Instead, he joined the Marines. “My military career was a combination of active duty and reserves,” said the retired Lieutenant Colonel and career helicopter pilot, who was also a Maryland State Trooper before he and his family moved to Texas. “Don’t tell anybody, but I’d never been on a horse in my life until I was 40. It’s only a number. I ran a full Ironman at 54—my first triathlon. I’m 68 now. I feel like I’m 30.” It seems the tennis industry missed out. The team roping industry, along with the veteran and first responder communities, on the other hand, have struck…

Competitive Edge 5 flat Brazile freeze frame inner strength game plan horsepower BOYS OF SUMMER Nobody has ever had a more dominant regular season than reigning World Champions Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira have had in 2022. By the end of July, they'd already surpassed the regular season earnings records held by Clay Smith ($150,512 set in 2019) and Travis Graves ($147,653 set in 2010). And in doing so, they had the richest Fourth-of-July run in team roping history each with $35,152 won from June 25 to July 4. Here, they break down some of the runs from just a few weeks that put them in uncharted territory. ST. PAUL, OREGON Kaleb Driggers: I got a really good start on that steer, and he was supposed to really run. I…

Time to Change? There are two schools of thinking on the start: The old-school method, where your horse is rolling from the corner, full-speed to the cow; and the newer style of throttling across the line. I’ve always preferred the old-school style, and I still haven’t figured out how to throttle effectively. But to play the game today, I’m going to have to learn. OLD SCHOOL I personally don’t like to reach, so, when I release off the corner, I want to drop my hand and have my horse running full-speed to the cow. I want them full blast. Back in my day, when I headed all the time, the scores were longer, so you wanted to get full run off the back of the box. I give everything to…

Practically no one under 70 has seen it. It’s not on Wikipedia. Google’s never heard of it. But team roping was team tying in most of the country from the 1930s through the 1972 NFR. Like rodeo’s current events of steer and tie-down roping, it evolved from ranch work—tying cattle down to doctor, castrate or brand. And even though team ropers have dallied now for 50 years, team tying is still relevant—it was added a few years ago to the roster at the prestigious Windy Ryon Memorial. This May in Saginaw, Texas, NFR heeler Ross Ashford and steer roper Laramie Allen won the Knot Tying two-header, 40-percenting the field of just eight teams to earn around $1,500 a man and trophy buckles and coolers. The duo, just 23 and 22,…