Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, My very? rst newswriting class in journalism school was a doozy. Newswriting 101 in the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University was, to my surprise, obituary writing. I remember the professor, in his 70s after a long career in local newspapers, would rattle of details about someone’s life and death from the front of the room, and give us the spelling of their names—usually an always-challenging Polish name, just for good measure. (If we misspelled a name, we failed the assignment automatically. Names are important…) Obituaries are a universal reality, something every news writer must hammer out at some point in his or her career. For some newspaper reporters, obit writing is an early rite of passage before moving on to different beats like crime or government.…

Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord followed up their win at the Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa with a 4.0-second run in the final round of the 2024 National Western Stock Show and Rodeo to take the $4,655-perman win in Denver Jan. 21. Handily, Denver is a comfortable atmosphere for the gunslingers, who have nine NFR qualifications between them. “I don’t know if it ever feels easy out here, but like I told [Dustin], these setups fit us,” said Lord, from Sturgis, South Dakota. “We’re pretty confident when we show up here [and] we need to go fast at the inside rodeos. We’re just roping like we like we know we can, and it’s working out.” Both 28-year-olds began their journey to their Denver title by advancing from Bracket…

Ropers | at home with | Jake Barnes | Clay O | military salute | big break | USTRC Q: You headed for Brady Minor at the 2006 NFR, and Kinney Harrell at the Finals in 2008. What stands out about each of those trips to Rodeo’s Super Bowl all these years later? A: Just the fun times that came with them both. I was young, and having a lot of fun. It was an exciting time, for sure. Q: Why did you pull up from the fulltime rodeo road? A: Tinlee (Garrett and Brittany’s little girl, who’ll be 7 on March 21) was the No.1 thing. I can hardly be away from her for a week without going crazy, and we have a lot of irons in the fire.…

At this early point in the year, there are some 7-year-olds that are fresh out of the futurity programs starting to trickle out into jackpot and rodeo competition. The American Rope Horse Futurity Association started having its World Championship in Fort Worth in 2017, so we’re seven years into this “modern era” of futurity horses. With that, I’ve heard people say that a good futurity horse won’t make a good rodeo horse, and that great rodeo horses wouldn’t have been great futurity horses. There are cases where that’s been the case, but mostly, you can find the best up-and-coming rodeo horses at the futurities, and some of the best rodeo horses I ever rode would have made great futurity horses. Sic ’Em would have been a great futurity horse. Boogie…

High Call Bobby Lewis’s 2019 stallion Time To Glo pocketed $37,000 on his way to the Gold Buckle Futurities Superhorse title, in addition to winning the winter event’s Futurity Heeling championship. Time To Glo—by DT Horses’ Hickory Holly Time out of AQHA Heading World Champion Look At Her Glo by CD O Cody—scored a 906.00 on four head, winning the third round on his way to the win with American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Champion Cade Rice at the helm. Time To Glo and Rice won $28,000 for the Gold Buckle Stallion Incentive, as well as another $8,000 for the main average and $1,000 for the go-round win. To win the Superhorse title, Time To Glo also had a strong showing in the Futurity Tie-Down Roping with Cody McCartney…

The new year is off to a nice start for Peyton Walters and Joe Mattern, taking home $15,000 for the 2024 WCRA Stampede at The E win. The Texas cowboys stopped the clock Saturday, Jan. 6, in 5.52 seconds to clinch a major win at the start of the new year, something Mattern is relieved by. “I’m feeling really excited,” Mattern, 35, said. “I needed a good win, and it was just awesome. The WCRA does a great job putting on these events. Being the first of the year, it feels good.” Walters and Mattern started their Lazy E stay on the right foot, winning the average of the Qualifying Rounds Jan. 3, with a 12.85 on two head and pocketing $1,268.57 a man. Mattern is one of the WCRA’s…

| Ropers | Big Break Kaleb Driggers was in his rookie season in 2009 when he and Brad Culpepper won the first-ever tournament-style setup at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, raking in $16,593 a man. Along the way, Driggers and Culpepper set an arena record at 4.0 seconds (it’s now 3.3 held by Clay Smith and Jade Corkill), and they battled their way through the wild-card round after two no-times put them in jeopardy of not making it back. “I kind of thought it had to do with knocking them down to get back to the final round, but Brad told me to go ahead and speed it up a little bit,” Driggers admitted to Spin To Win Rodeo back in 2009. “He knows where to go and…

Competitive Edge 5 flat| game plan| TB| freeze frame| videos| horsepower| next level I’ve been teaching a lot lately, and one thing we’re not talking about enough is our heel loop size in relation to the position we like to ride and where we’re comfortable throwing from. Understanding where you rope from and what size loop you use goes a long way. A big loop or a small loop can both work fine, and roping close or from farther back can work well also—you just need to be aware and train your eyes, brain and muscle memory to work with your position. 1 No matter where we’re at, the head loop is built to throw and release, and you can just drop a coil or two if you need to…

THE HORN A horse needs to stop, but more important to me than the stop is what they do with the saddle horn. Them stopping pretty is not that important if they bring the saddle horn to me. A horse that stops pretty and brings the saddle horn is probably ideal, but to me it’s more important that they have good timing with the steer and the saddle horn comes up. If they do both good, they usually stop good. SLIDE OR NO SLIDE? I really don’t put sliders on mine to speak of. That isn’t that important to me. If they don’t have much slide but keep the saddle horn coming to me, I’m good with it. SHOULDERS UP That one sorrel horse I had, Hock, he was a…

Now in it’s 10th consecutive season, National Team Roping invites team ropers to #eNTRup and join the nation as ropers gather around to compete in the NTR National Finals X, presented by Cinch, March 9-16, 2024, at one of Wickenburg, Arizona’s iconic arenas—Rancho Rio. The NTR National Finals caters to numbered ropers of all ages and skill levels to compete for large payouts and prizes. In-Arena Action The NTR National Finals continually strives to cater to the whole rig when it comes to quality jackpotting action and family fun, with the bonus incentive of enjoying the Arizona weather. The NTR National Finals is set to kickoff March 9, when RAM Saturday starts with the #8.5 Megabucks followed by the #8.5 RAM Truck Roping. The day also includes the Rising Stars…

“I’d much rather ride head horses at home slow working than a heel horse. At heart, I am a header and I want to be a header, but it might be a little bit late for me on that deal. I enjoy good horses and fast horses. I can sit in the box and tinker with one without running a steer for 30 minutes. That doesn’t bother me at all. But as a rodeo heeler, I don’t want to go get on a colt and rope trotters. Heading is more fun because I just like riding head horses.” — Two-time NFR heeler and rope horse trainer Billie Jack Saebens on “The Score,” available anywhere you stream podcasts.…

At the Barrier | association news | industry news | Ropers Under 21 years of age in 2024 must have a minimum of 10 entries between January 1 and the start of the 2024 Cinch NFTR in Fort Worth to be eligible to rope at the Cinch NFTR. Those 10 entries can consist of USTRC, World Series, affiliated events including add-on ropings and the Patriot Ft. Worth Finals event. The 10-entry rule is simply to make sure every roper at the USTRC’s Cinch National Finals is fairly numbered to ensure an honest and fair playing field for all. For ropers who cannot attend USTRC, WSTR or Patriot events prior to the Cinch NFTR in Fort Worth, the USTRC is offering a new batch of At-Home-Challenge (AHC) events. These virtual events…

Istarted competing so young. While there’s definitely a learning curve to the physical part, it all comes down to the mental side in the end. A lot of people will work hard enough to reach the highest level with their roping skills. But consistent winning and success also require a strong mental game, and sometimes that winning comes from losing. I’ve noticed that some people are overconfident. That cockiness tends to not be based on truth, though, and they can’t back it up. You gain genuine confidence through climbing the ladder of success. I started out at little jackpots in my area where I grew up, in Southern California, then moved to Arizona as a teenager. From there, my circle got bigger, and I amateur rodeoed in Oklahoma, Texas and…

THROWING A CATCH-LOOP In a just-catch situation? Here’s the secret to Coy Rahlmann’s catch-loop. SITUATION My main goal on that one was to just not miss. This was my hometown rodeo in Sikeston, Missouri, and I had missed the first-round steer. That was the first steer I’d ever missed there, and I wasn’t going to miss the second one. 'ROPE THE AREA' That steer was no different than one that has little tiny horns: I was trying to rope the area instead of the horns to go for a sure shot. Rather than trying to go right horn, left horn and saw the bones off, I went with “bigger loop, block and tackle, throw a big loop out in front of the head and let them run into it.” Tyler…

1. STAY DRIVEN Patrick Smith’s STAY DRIVEN is the ultimate team roping instructional video, exploring the partnership element of the richest recreational sport in the world. STAY DRIVEN breaks down the elements that make a header and heeler successful together, teaching ropers how to build a run as a team to catch more steers clean, win more ropings and get more out of their time in the arena. Over three hours of instruction, with special guests Tanner Tomlinson, Tyler Wade, Wesley Thorp and Junior Nogueira, STAY DRIVEN uses never-before-seen camera angles and visual technology to give ropers a deeper understanding of how to win in team roping than ever before. 2. DRIVEN 2.0 While made 10 years ago, Driven 2.0 remains Roping.com’s most-watched instructional video. Along with detailed roping instruction,…

It would be so easy to fix training issues that stem from physical problems if horses came with a play-by-play guide. Hot in the box? Must be ulcers. Treat with GastroGard. Head horse failing to pull? Hocks or stifles need treatment. Heel horse quartering the stop? Hocks or stifles need treatment. Horse bucking? Get a new saddle or pad. Unfortunately, all four of these problems could have the same cause and treatment. Horses may have ulcers because their sore in the hocks or stifles because a bad saddle fit is causing them to not use their body properly. “Everything in the body is intertwined,” says Dr. Joe Stricklin, a veterinarian and team roper from Greeley, Colorado. “It’s difficult to separate anything out and say this causes this, that causes that,…

NTRL Finals 2024 Jacksonville, Florida’s perfect weather welcomed ropers to the 19th annual NTRL Finals Jan. 24-29, 2024—the largest roping ever east of the Mississippi River. “This was the best finals we’ve ever done,” President John Johnson said. “We paid out $1,003,500 in cash and prizes. The weather was outstanding. The cattle were super. We got out of there at a good time to have supper every night. My staff was tremendous. It just worked. You work your tail off at these things, and everything really flowed. The weather was a huge factor. We were able to use three arenas for the team roping, and another for the calf roping and breakaway we had alongside it.” Ropers came from as far as Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and New York,…