Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, If you're anything like me, this time of year has you staying out in the arena late, swatting of mosquitos and rinsing off sweaty horses before kicking them out to the ever-drying pasture. It's the time of year that really feeds the soul for those of us who love this industry—at least those of us in this part of the Rocky Mountains. This is the time of year that we get the great stories, too. You'll see that we honor some of those ropers beating Father Time this summer with Contributing Editor Julie Mankin's story on page 68. Even as this issue went to press, I got a text about a legend named John Keller entering Wyoming rodeos at 90 years young, soaking up the good life in…

The Badlands Bits & Spurs Futurity, produced by ProRodeo Hall of Famer Bobby Harris, will postpone its 2023 event until August 2024 to expand the roping's payout—becoming the highest-paying, premier 4-year-old futurity in the team roping industry. The 2024 event aims to offer $100,000 to the winner on each end, providing ropers the single richest chance to showcase the future of the rope horse industry. The futurity is open to all 4-year-olds in a judged format that pays fast times in the go-rounds, too. “We believe in offering a space to highlight the best young rope horses each year,” Harris said. “Offering a championship of this caliber only for 4-year-olds helps elevate the rope horse industry to the level of other disciplines like the cutting, reining and cow horse. Those…

When Curtis Imming joined the Marines after 9/11, he knew he was going to war—it's why he joined—but he didn't realize how the war would impact the “normal process” of joining, and how valuable that process could have been. “The beginning of 2003, Afghanistan is already going on and Iraq kicks off,” Imming, 41, explained. “I get assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. They're already gone. They're already in Iraq, and I'm in Infantry School.” Usually, most new Marines finish their school and join their units in-country and then deploy together. In Imming's case, he was sent overseas to join up with a unit that had been eating dirt for a while. “They were pushing from the border of Kuwait all the way up to Baghdad and, then, they retrograded…

{ Vital Stats } AGE: 33 ROPE: Triton XS by Classic HOME: Roosevelt, Utah A lot of smaller horses I've ridden in the past—like this mare I'm riding in this set of photos—have trouble loading on their front ends because pulling isn't easy for them. I was roping on her and not being super mindful about the left side. I started to let that side fall out, and it would create problems in the box, through the run and facing. It's a problem that starts slowly, but over time it creates a bad habit that requires some work softening the horse to make their job—and mine—easier. PROBLEMS CREATED An early sign you need to work on your horse softening the left side of her body is your horse not softening to the…

Stepping Up How do you know when it's time to get real with yourself and improve your game? Team roping—not just at the rodeos, but at the rope horse futurities and horse shows, too—has stepped up dramatically. And I've had to adjust my game to do the same. I don't know that it's as much of an ego check as just a reality check, but it takes looking at my program and looking at myself as a trainer and as a roper to do it. We all get caught up in not being honest with ourselves. I'm going to say I haven't struggled the last few years because I haven't done my job. The truth is, my job has gotten harder, and the horses have gotten better and the competition…

Martha Angelone and Jackie Crawford battled through a wolfy Showdown Round to advance—and win—the Triple Crown Round at the 2023 Women's Rodeo World Championship Saturday, May 20 in Fort Worth. For Crawford, 40, who has 20 WPRA gold buckles to her name but had yet to claim a WRWC title, the victory was a long time coming. “Winning this is like the saying, ‘They can't beat you unless you quit,'” Crawford said. “Some of the biggest titles I've ever won, I've failed at them time and time again. With the WRWC, I made it back [to the finals] at the Windy City Roundup with Ruby Manus and we didn't have any luck, and then I came back to the finals in the heading with Annette Stahl last year and we…

Building Confidence in Young Horses Horses need confidence just as much as their jockeys. Here's how World Champion Wesley Thorp instills it in his green ones. In 2020, I won the American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Title in the heeling on a 6-year-old named Juiced Up Cat—a gelding I'd been jackpotting on and taking to the rodeos all that year. He was outstanding, and he always wanted to be a winner. But, when I started to throw him to the fire the following winter, I learned a good lesson. RATTLED I had been taking “Juice” to the jackpots once or twice a week, planning to move him into my second-string spot behind my good black horse. But one day in Dublin, Texas, we had a steer that was really…

MEGA MATCH I: Jake Barnes and Clay O'Brien Cooper vs. Bobby Hurley and Allen Bach The team of Jake Barnes and Clay O'Brien Cooper matching the team of Bobby Hurley and Allen Bach for a marathon of 30 steers each. Three different score lengths, good cattle, good arena with the bottom gate closed…and the best two teams in the world. The lead changed hands several times but never did a team have a lead of more than a few seconds. After 29 steers for each team, the total time was the same…right down to the hundredth of a second. It all came down to the 30th steer! All four ropers share valuable insights between the runs making it a learning opportunity as well. Lots of slo mo. You'll watch this…

ON THE ROAD SUPPLIES WITH THE HORSES FOR THE TRAILER As a reader of The Team Roping Journal, it's a fairly safe assumption that you've got more than a few miles—and probably a few stories to go along with them—tallied up in your horse hauling log. Nonetheless, with the bulk of the summer miles ahead, the time to make sure you and your rig are ready is now. STATS AND FACTS FROM THE ROAD According to USRoper—a premier roadside assistance program designed specifically for ropers—there are 70 million vehicle breakdowns in the United States each year, which equates to one in every three drivers. If you spend enough hours hauling horses, it may only be a matter of time before you come face-toface with a breakdown while loaded. Annualy, the USRoper call…

Ropers | at home with | Jake | Clay O | icons | military salute | USTRC Q: You roped at 11 NFRs, including 2001–2010 and 2012. Roll us through your NFR partners. A: I roped with Matt Robertson at the first one in 2001; Matt Zancanella in 2002–03; Kirt Jones in 2004; Allen Bach in 2005; Jhett Johnson in 2006; Michael Jones in 2007; Cory Petska in 2008; Michael Jones in 2009; Rich Skelton in 2010; and Jake Long in 2012. Q: Was there one partner who just had a little extra magic roping behind you? A: Michael Jones, for sure. We both just knew how we were going to react on every steer. Our roping styles meshed very well. Q: You're the son of NFR heeler dad Dennis…

The legendary Texas ranch and rodeo cowboy they called Cactus Jack was called home to Heaven on May 1. But not before making a million memories with family and friends in his 81 years here. If you're talking team roping, it doesn't get much cooler than winning the first-ever George Strait Team Roping Classic and spinning steers for your son at the National Finals Rodeo. But Jack Stephenson did that, and so much more. Another of the countless feathers in Stephenson's cowboy hat was founding Cactus Ropes with his cousin Joe Mathews and friend Mike Piland in 1991. So it was fun and fitting to reminisce with my old friend Mike—and Jack's—about this true team roping trailblazer. “Jack was kind of a Phil Lyne in high school,” remembers Cactus Ropes…

Derrick Begay and Colter Todd are an unlikely team for obvious reasons. Their entire collective collection of 12 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo back numbers was earned over on the heading side. The magic on this team is in the connection between two best friends, Arizona natives and quiet, humble ranch cowboys of few words, but thoughts that run deeper than the Grand Canyon. There's a third Buddy on this team that you probably don't know much about just yet. His name is SS Buddy Holly and— classic Colter—it should surprise no one by now that Todd bought a 6-year-old to take into the heat of rodeo battle. “I got him right after Cheyenne last year,” said Colter, 39, who at 24 rode away from rodeo and straight home to the…

A couple of headers who've beaten Father Time pretty handily are Dick Yates, 85, who roped at 13 National Finals Rodeos, and Bill Spratt, 83, a rancher and former National Finals Steer Roping qualifier who winters amid the Arizona jackpots. Both said it's not their mechanics that have been affected by the years. They still rope the same—they just don't quite ride the same. “The only thing I notice is sometimes me and my horse aren't on the same page,” admitted Spratt, who sold 11-time NFR header Riley Minor his great horse Cadillac more than 15 years ago. Digging up the core strength and reaction time to stay with his big, powerful head horses means Spratt needs a few more strides out of the box before he feels like he's…