Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i The Team Roping Journal

Cade Rice and Sevens Star Glo are the American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Champions for the second consecutive year, banking $34,000 for a composite score of 938.89 on four head, bringing the stallion’s lifetime earnings to $106,453 in his three years of futurity competition. Again with the help of 2020 PRCA World Champion Colby Lovell, Rice came into the short round high call on the 2017 son of CSR Dual Glo out of the Hes Dun His Time mare Sevens Tootsie Time. Backing into the box after tough runs by Joseph Harrison and 4-year-old stallion Nu One Time Blues and Dakota Kirchenschlager on Kaleb Driggers’ 6-year-old stallion Metallic Payday, Rice had to let his hair down (figuratively) to show the stallion at full tilt. “I looked at Lovell, and…

Ropers | at home with | Jake | Clay O | icons | military salute | big break | USTRC Q: How much did you miss the bright lights of Vegas the last couple years? A: More than you can ever know. It’s been depressing around here. This is the greatest time of the year, but only if you’re there. When you aren’t, it’s miserable. At least for me. Q: You headed for Jade Corkill at your first Finals in 2008. What stands out about that year 15 years later? A: Making the Finals the first time was a dream come true that I actually thought would never come true. Coming from South Carolina and making the NFR is just a shot in the dark. My first NFR will forever…

| Competitive Edge | next level RIB CONTROL ACROSS THE PEN A horse cannot pull a steer and finish a run with his or her ribs to the right. If you rope a lot of big cattle, a horse can get to compensating by pushing their rib cage out into your rope, but that front-loads the pull of the steer and is counterproductive to a good handle and a good finish. WHY RIBS TO THE RIGHT DON'T WORK A horse may be able to pull with his or her ribs out to the right, but that horse cannot face that way. There are plenty of different ways to face, but to finish the run quickly, the ribs cannot be pushed to the right side. The horse can only get halfway…

| Competitive Edge | horsepower Derrick Begay has won about $1.5 million in his professional rodeo career, and is about to rope at his 10th Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. These feats are extra cool if you consider that they’ve been accomplished with one of the smallest horse budgets ever. I can say without asking that Begay has never beat up a banker over borrowing money to buy a horse. And still he wins. The pride of Seba Dalkai, Arizona— where he makes his home with his wife, Justine, and daughter, Brindle Mae, who’s 4 now—has had a dream season heading for his best buddy, Colter Todd. Team Begay-Todd had a top-five regular-season finish, and heads into Vegas bringing the heat. There’s typically a top-flight head horse at the helm of…

“When I back in there, I don’t have to worry about much except for my roping. I knew that’s what I needed when I started heading. I didn’t want to worry if he’d stand there, get in the corner, get me all jacked up and worried if he’d score. I knew I had to have one that all I had to worry about was roping. And I have actually been fortunate enough on that—all three of them I’ve rode the past three years (Jubilant Version, Hesa Alive [pictured] and Mr Joes Shadow Bar) have been excellent at that.” —Clint Summers on “The Score,” available anywhere you stream podcasts.…

| At the Barrier | association news BAREBACK: Evan Betony STEER WRESTLING: Tydon Tsosie LADIES BREAKAWAY: Janae Todacheenie SADDLE BRONC RIDING: Cash Wilson TEAM ROPING: Trey Begay & Dennison Boone TIE-DOWN ROPING: Dontre' Goff BARREL RACING: Graysen O'Connor BULL RIDING: JaCauy Hale ALL AROUND COWBOY: Hiyo Yazzie ALL AROUND COWGIRL: Tara Seaton THOMAS, PROFILI TAKE RESISTOL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR TEAM ROPING HONORS Mississippi header Cole Thomas earned $59,481 on his way to the 2023 Resistol Rookie of the Year in the heading, while Texas heeler Kaden Profili banked $51,048 for the Resistol Rookie of the Year heeling title. Thomas finished the year 32nd overall among team roping headers, while Profili ended the season 39th.…

An avid competitor in the junior high rodeo and high school rodeo ranks in the tie-down and the team roping, Big Springs, Nebraska’s Ralph Saults has been a ranch and rodeo kid from the start. Also from the start, though, he laid a keen eye on joining the United States Marine Corps. “Ever since I was little, I always wanted to be a Marine,” Saults, 22, said. “There are pictures and drawings: I would draw the Eagle, Globe and Anchor. I’ve had family members in the Marine Corps and, in 2019 I talked to a recruiter.” Saults remembers his mom, Jill, being pretty upset that he wasn’t going to college, but his mind was made. He signed a four-year contract and, in 2020, he “hit the fleet.” “Ghost Company,” Saults…

You’re getting ready for the Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale and, with the South Point’s shorter arena and the high-pressure you might be feeling, I want to talk about when you need to throw your rope with confidence for high-percentage shots. Everybody has had the feeling when they get in between swings, and they could have thrown confidently the swing before (but they weren’t close enough) or the swing after (but they feel like they’ve missed their opportunity). That’s natural, and it’s happened to all of us. As long as your horse isn’t chargy, you won’t have to pay the consequences of being unsure when to throw. The biggest thing for the amateur guys is being able to recognize when you are between swings. Go ahead and go…

Preparing for Pressure Nervous in competition? Here’s how to channel that energy. Regardless of how much you practice, there’s no way to game plan for pressure. One way to get around pressure when the money is up is to game plan your process in the practice pen. We need to find one thing that jumpstarts your good habits because, otherwise, you’ll find too many things to try to focus on. And when you try to focus on too many things, you’ll have trouble focusing on anything. At the NFR, I don’t think, “Stay wide. Stay down in my saddle, horse in the bridle…” and so many things that I do need to do well. I think, “Swing to my target.” The rest of the good habits I need for success…

In team roping, “the face” can only happen when the header and the heeler have each done their work. Both having caught, they maneuver at the end of ropes taught with potential energy to turn toward each other—the only way to complete their run. Done well, the face can be a signal of a partnership set for success. When Fred Fellows and Deborah Copenhaver married, they held between them their lives as professional artists, parents, and the rodeo roots that shaped them. And in the moments—or decades (what is time, really)—since, they’ve crafted works whose elements also face: On one end of the line, an accurate representation of the subject and, on the other, the viewer’s dream of witnessing the art in the moment the artist captured; then, between them,…

There’s certainly something to be said for peaking at just the right time in the training process—particularly, in the John Justin Arena Oct. 20, 2023, in the finals of the Open Heading at the American Rope Horse Futurity Association’s World Championship. And certainly A Painted Sunshine (by Second Painted Sign and out of Miss Freckles Handle by Mr Cross Play) and Tate Kirchenschlager did just that as they won the 2023 ARHFA’s Heading World Championship, making Kirchenschlager the first header to win the head side twice on two different horses in the event’s seven-year history. “The first place I showed him was Scottsdale, and I came back second call there and I missed on him,” Kirchenschlager said of the gelding owned by Iowa’s Riley Weehler. “I showed him at Graham…

Riley and Brady Minor are now 11- and 13-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifiers with nearly $4 million in ProRodeo earnings between the Ellensburg, Washington brothers. But before they were “The Minors”— now the longest-running team in the professional ranks—they were some kids, Riley, 16, and Brady, 19, who showed up at the USTRC’s National Finals of Team Roping in Oklahoma City and put a whooping on the big dogs for a $70,000 payday. “I wouldn’t have entered if I didn’t think I have a chance to win something,” Riley, now 35, said. “But I had no idea I would be high callback against all the pros I had always looked up to.” They started the day off with a nearbarrier-breaking 5.58-second run to win the first round, and they…

Competitive Edge 5 flat| next level| Trevor Brazile| freeze frame| inner strength| game plan| roping.com| horsepower As the rodeo season comes to a close and jackpot season kicks into high gear, remembering to ride a patient position is key to consistent catches. After a summer of having to be 3.0 in tough setups, I’ve had to transition to being more patient in the corner and letting the run develop, making sure I hold my lane until the steer makes the first move. I work on not trying to guess what’s going to happen. I want my horse’s shoulder’s up, so I can ride him all the way around the tracks of the steer. 1 The further you go in the summer, the steers get older and the times get fast,…

Cesar de la Cruz joins Roping.com’s coaching lineup this winter, bringing a one-of-a-kind series that incorporates dummy roping, goat-roping, donkey roping and live-cattle practice sessions for the whole family. A nine-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo heeler, de la Cruz cut his teeth in Arizona’s rough-and-tumble roping scene and had to learn the game from the ground up, practicing on goats and donkeys before getting horseback. He’s kept them as part of his practice regimen, and he’s taught his three sons to rope the same way. “We’ve worked with Cesar since he and Colter Todd first cracked out in the mid-2000s,” Content Director Chelsea Shaffer said. “He’s always been ready to help the next generation learn, and his hard-knock education make him an exceptionally relatable and knowledgeable teacher.” Now residing in…

How happy do you suppose the teams were at the Texas amateur rodeos this year seeing “Clay Tryan” on the day sheet? The same Clay Tryan fresh off a $264,955 2022 PRCA season. The one with three gold buckles, four reserve world titles and two NFR average titles. Who won Salinas four times and the BFI three times, and who also won the George Strait twice and matched the world record. That Clay Tryan. Back in April, as quietly as he could, the Montana native stepped away from ProRodeo. He went home to Lipan, Texas, to rope with his kids. No announcement. No fanfare. The 44-year-old walked away in his prime, having banked well over $3.5 million with his favorite Fast Back ropes. One of only six headers in history…