Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, I’ve written a ton about why it’s critical to track the earnings of horses across the industry. For the horse side of team roping to continue to grow—creating more jobs, more revenue and more sustainability for folks at every level—we’ve got to develop data on bloodlines and genetics beyond what’s supported in the Western disciplines already. The rope horse futurities and the Riata Buckle have started to put earnings in QData and EquiStat. But there’s been feedback that we re dismissing some of the great horses of the past in touting “topearning mare” or “top-earning stallion” or even just “highest-earning rope horse of all time” when we describe today’s horses that have won big at the futurity and stallion-incentive events that have been recorded in the databases in…

| Ropers | Jake Barnes If I had it all to do again—knowing what I know now, and with all I’ve learned over the course of my life and career—how would I go about building the most successful possible roping career for myself? I get asked that question quite a bit, and laugh when I look back. I was like a blind squirrel looking for an acorn when I was a kid dreaming of roping for a living. There weren’t a lot of top ropers where I grew up. I was infatuated with roping, and would compare my mindset to a minority kid looking for a way out of the ghetto. I watched the good guys, and studied how they were doing it. My first piece of advice for young…

Competitive Edge 5 flat|next level|TB|freeze|fix it|inner strength|game plan|horsepower Watch Dean Tuftin’s full program, from start to finish, dropping this month on Roping.com. In our program, from 3-year-olds to finished horses, we spend most of our week in circles. We do that to keep our horses thinking about a curve to the left, in the left lead, opening up our shot as a heeler. We want our horses softer through their shoulders, and the circle creates that. 1 The first thing that happens for a lot of people is that the dummy starts moving, and their horse just takes off—and someday, that will translate into what happens in the box. I want my horses waiting on me behind the dummy. I make them to wait until I ask them to follow…

| Competitive Edge | game plan OVERCOMING TOUGH STEERS Cattle are cattle, and some just don’t want to get along no matter what a producer puts into ensuring that he’s got good ones. So, it’s my job as a heeler to stay in a good spot, watch the run develop, and stay committed to my swing. POSITION Position is key to roping tough cattle. I’ve got to stay in a good spot. What I mean by a good spot is that I don’t want to get too close—if you’re too close, it’s hard to use the right parts of your loop. SWING SPEED If a steer hits weird, I don’t want to take the bait. I want to keep my loop and swing speed consistent no matter what the steer…

HEAD HORSES In 2023, the Western performance industry’s top databases—EquiStat and QData—ramped up their efforts to track the earnings on rope horses, from the Riata-Buckle-enrolled horses at all Global Handicaps events to professional ropers’ mounts at the Open jackpots and rodeos. Plus, they count all of the exploding rope-horse futurity money in their systems. This data will help breeders, buyers and the everyday roper make better purchasing decisions for the growth of the horse industry for years to come. But what about the past? What about the great horses, and their great bloodlines, that have no records in our current databases? What’s more, few records exist (in any remotely searchable online space) as to the original money earners at so many famous jackpots and rodeos. Even Kory Koontz’s, Trevor Brazile’s…

Just when I think there is no aspect of roping I haven’t already thought about, I think of another one. The small details that add up to make a difference are truly endless. I don’t think I’ve ever really talked to anybody about the fact that we’re not taught how to use our eyes to help us be successful when we rope. What I’ve come to realize is that if we can see the big picture of every run and also all the details, we can gather helpful real-time information as the run unfolds that we can use to our advantage. When the gate latch trips and the steer starts to move, he’s feeding you information. He’s telling you how fast he’s going to run, and whether he’s going to…

| Competitive Edge | next level To Throttle or Not to Throttle? Dustin Egusquiza grew up in the Southeast, where the barriers are short and the arenas are, too. Here’s how he manages his urge to throttle. When we sat down to talk about this article, I was in the Northwest and not roping my best. A big part of that is how I was scoring—my old urge to throttle across the line came back and, while that can really be a strength in some situations, it hasn’t been for me on the longer starts up here. WHAT IS THROTTLING? Throttling means that, if I feel like I’m starting too early, I try to slow my horse down without stopping him. It’s a fluid pull just to get my horse…

| Competitive Edge | fix it Following the Steer Are you struggling to get in time and catch two feet? Check that your horse is hooking onto and following the steer through the corner. It’s very important to follow the steer, from the time you are heading down the arena to making your entrance into the corner. You see the best guys, when they know exactly when to make the turn, they follow the steer and that’s how they can get in time with them. Even when you throw fast, the horse should be ready to follow the cow and hooked up to the cow. You can throw fast because your horse is hooked up to the cow. HOW? It’s important to learn how to control your horse. Everybody talks…

“Dang, I wish this could have gotten started a little earlier,” said one of the greatest rope-horse producers of all-time. Bobby Lewis was talking about the explosion of futurities recently with some other industry veterans. In fact, Lewis did train 4-year-old rope horses 45 years ago, and even won futurities. But there were no five-figure paydays. They didn’t survive the USTRC. And they’re nowhere on the internet. The hands-down hotbed of young rope horses in the 1970s and ’80s was Nebraska. Howard Pitzer’s sandhills-raised Two Eyed Jack babies were in demand and dominated 4-and-under competitions. Trainers then put horses in the AQHA’s roping classes to pad cumulative year-end point totals in hopes of winning a new Jeep Wagoneer to hook onto their bumper-pull. But futurities were solely to promote bloodlines.…

“Wesley (Thorp) don’t hardly miss. He don’t miss very many, and he heels them fast. If I do my job, it feels like we’re going to win something and we’re going to win good. You’re going to be in the top five holes as long as you turn a steer for him. Wesley is good as can be to be around. When I was having heck, he’d smile and laugh it off, and we’d go and eat a steak afterward. When I’m having heck, I don’t have to look over and wonder what he’s thinking. He stays the course pretty good, and we got out of a slump faster because our attitudes were like we weren’t in a slump, so it made it easier to get out of one. If…

6-&-UNDER Heading A&C Racing and Roping’s Carters Won Time Out and Rhen Richard teamed up at the 2023 Royal Crown in Rock Springs to rope four steers with an aggregate score of 618.09 to win $13,271. Breeders at the Flag Ranch and stallion owners of One Time Honor got $1,196 a piece for the day, while A&C Racing and Roping picked up another $2,250 for second in Round 2 and another $750 for fourth in Round 3. Heeling Jeremy Buhler brought his string of young horses and won first and second at the Royal Crown 6-&-Under Heeling Futurity Aug. 17, 2023—getting the title on Heavenly Catt and placing second on Hot Smokepack, both horses he and his fiancé own. By Catty Rey out of Heavenly Reys by Dual Rey, the…

Ropers | at home with | Jake | Clay O | other gig | resistol jr. | cinch ladies Q: Is there a cool story behind your 3B cowboy name? A: When I was born, they were having a lot of trouble with me. I was a miracle baby in 1991, and my mom (D’aun) was going through so much pain at the time. My grandpa came in there and named me. His name is Bill Brown, and my mom was like, “Billy Bob Brown—that’ll work.” Q: How long have you been roping, and who taught you how to rope? A: I’ve been roping as long as I can remember, and my dad (Kris) was pretty much the one who taught me everything growing up. He had steers at the US…

| Ropers | military salute John Tidwell has early roots in Florida, but he moved around a lot, too, and found himself working labor jobs and even day working a bit. “I’ve been riding horses my whole life,” Tidwell said. “That was all I ever did; I did day work before I even joined the Marine Corps, back in high school. Just doing sorting work and stuff like that.” Tidwell joined up with the Marines when he was 20, and he turned 24 on his first deployment to Afghanistan. “It gave me some direction and everything. I was tired of just doing labor type jobs to get by from paycheck to paycheck, and it wasn’t meaning anything. If I look back on my life, and that’s all I did my…

FEEDING WITH YOUR REINS? I see a lot of the people who I help or who I see at the ropings get comfortable feeding their rope by pushing it into their loop with their coils because it helps them feed. But I try to encourage people roping the dummy to pretend like they have the reins in their hand and they point it to the target. The goal is for everything they feed to come from their right hand. You shouldn’t be subconsciously pushing your left hand toward your loop to help feed. Why? Because you should always be giving your cues to your horse forward toward your target with your reins and your coils in the same hand—not moving toward your right hand as you feed. Moving toward your…

| Competitive Edge | horsepower Jeremy Buhler has quietly roped his way back into contention for another world team roping title. The Canadian cowboy won both the world championship and Wrangler National Finals Rodeo average with countryman Levi Simpson at his first Finals in 2016. He’s headed back to The Show in December, this time heeling for Rhen Richard and riding a cool old campaigner he calls Hoss. Buhler, who’s 35, bought Hoss, who’s 19, from fellow NFR heelers Bucky and BJ Campbell’s dad, Jeroll, in June of 2021. To be clear here, Buhler has three sorrel heel horses in his trailer today. Backing up Hoss is Pork Chop, who’s 12 and gets a lot of the runs up in Canada. Then there’s Splinter, who’s just 7 and comes in…

Professional singer-songwriter and AQHA World Champion Header Paul Bogart answers the phone clearly and with confidence, and from behind the wheel of a Kenworth rig, hauling a 53-foot box of dry goods that needs delivered in St. Louis, nearly 400 miles from his home in Oologah, Oklahoma, because—in addition to headlining music tours, competing on top-shelf horses and raising three children with his wife, Tanya—he is also an occasional driver for his dad’s trucking company. At first glance, he’s a 40-year-old renaissance man. But really, Paul Bogart has spent his years becoming what he always was: A son to both a musically gifted mother who raised her children with her talents and to a trucking operator father who possesses a passion for raising the kinds of horses that can win…