Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2024 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, I don't mean to brag, but I have a superpower. It's one that matters not at all to most of the rest of the world, but it serves me well here in this very specific job as editor of this magazine. I have an uncanny ability to remember every photo I've ever seen in my 14 years (this month!) with this magazine. I know on which one of my dozens of hard drives they live, and I know who took them (90% of the time, anyway) just based on the way the file is named and the composition of the shot. I know, you're really impressed. The magic in this, though, is that I can pull photos for Kory Koontz's musings about developing horsemanship, even without any of…

Aborn-and-raised Coloradan turned Utahn, Ben Jordan and his 13 brothers and sisters grew up under the roof of his father, who ran a repair business. “I worked in the business all growing up,” said Jordan, 32. “My mom died when I was really young … so we had to work quite a bit.” Following a two-year mission trip to Southern Spain, Jordan and his wife Ashley moved to Utah as newlyweds, and Jordan became an apprentice at a plumbing business. Ten months later, he purchased the operation and began building a repair service dynasty in the form of Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric. “We started up in November of 2015,” Jordan said. “We had a kind of determination—we were going to try to grow as fast as we could…

QUIET DOWN Logan Medlin won the College National Finals Rodeo in 2013, but he didn't make his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo until 2020. Along the way, he learned a lot of lessons about horsemanship. Here's a before and after of Medlin getting to the next level. 2013 I like things from this picture, but dang, I was green. I was up to the front, which is good. But on the bad side, my toes are turned out, and they're back there closer to my horse's flanks. Back in 2013, I was really, really bad at getting inside and dumping my left hand down there to my horse's shoulder and telling him to turn in when the head rope would go on. I would be too spread out, and I'd…

At the Barrier | association news | industry news | Global Handicaps is the arm of the Global Event Management System (GEMS) that analyzes performance data to set team roper handicaps. This system analyzes over 350,000 teams per year on $100 million in prize money. Each year, Global Handicaps does a year-end summary, examining trends in handicapped team roping. “While team ropers, for the most part, could or would never want to try to understand the algorithms, this summary was interesting to me, and I wanted to share it with you,” said John Johnson, USTRC President. “There's not much here, but it says a lot. Based on the number of ropers who are always telling me they are afraid of getting their number raised, it appears a lot of ropers…

Luke Brown was on the National Finals Rodeo bubble for the first time when he pulled into Pendleton, Oregon, in September 2008. It was the first year the South Carolina header had gutted it out the whole way to the Northwest run, and the then-34-yearold wasn't loving the pressure. “I had got into Puyallup the week before,” Brown remembered. “Monty Joe (Petska) didn't get in, so I drew a partner, and I drew Michael Jones. I missed the first one, and I thought my life was over, and my NFR dreams were done. But then we won the second round, so that gave me some more hope and made Pendleton even more important the next week.” Brown and then-partner Monty Joe Petska rolled into the Fraziers’ place outside Pendleton with…

Justin Davis (the former NFR header from Texas) told his 15-year-old son Jace to “just have fun” before the 5 header rode into the heading box for November's Riata Buckle #14.5 short round. After all, Jace and longtime family friend Colby Lovell were coming from way down at eighth callback. Instead, Jace commenced to mash the gas like a gold buckle was on the line. They took the lead—and somehow held it. Because when you're 15, first is what's fun (plus you can say you beat a team with Kaleb Driggers on it and heard a “good job” from Trevor Brazile). And when you're the dad, you shout so loud it echoes throughout the biggest indoor arena in America. And not just because of that $51,750. “I can still remember…

Ropers at home with | Jake Barnes | Clay O | military salute | other gig | big break Q: The Jr Ironman Championship is three rounds in four events—tie-down roping, steer wrestling, heading and heeling. What's your favorite event? A: Probably the heeling. Q: How much do you do the other events on a year-round basis? A: I do everything but the bulldogging every day at home. Q: What do you like most about a versatility contest like the Jr Ironman? A: It's just so fun to do all those events at once. And I love that big Lazy E Arena. Q: When your Jr Ironman days are behind you, do you have your sights set on an invite to the Cinch Timed Event Championship? A: Yes, I would…

It's no secret at this point that this year's The Patriot Event in Fort Worth was a screaming success—and a feat of impressive magnitude by the new team behind the event, which was only acquired by the Equine Network in October 2023. Not only did the team pull off one of the biggest ropings of the year in less than six months, but they also managed, in that insanely short timeframe, to identify and prioritize its core value: To honor the real Patriots among us. “We had a #7 roping and the next day, we took the Veteran ropers from that #7 across to the short round, the final round of the Hooey Jr. Patriot roping,” explained John English, General Manager of the Patriot Events. “Then we brought Rich Skelton…

PUTTING HORSEMANSHIP FIRST Kory Koontz has made some of the best-ever heel horses. And he did it without an arena at his house for 19 of the 22 NFRs he made. As a little kid, I got to where I could rope the horns. I could get to where I needed to be, or I could make it work by stepping back and letting my loop do the work for me. As a young roper, you can get really good at all sorts of things with a rope. But if you don't ride your horse well, and you don't put yourself in a position to catch and to win, then you won't ever get very good at team roping because the horsemanship part of it is huge. It's actually the…

Cory Petska has earned a career-long reputation for riding good horses. The 2017 world champion heeler, who roped at 15 Wrangler National Finals Rodeos between 2003 and 2018, has a wife who shares his passion for raising, training and riding great horses in four-time World Champion Barrel Racer Sherry Cervi. They rope and run barrels on all their horses, and one of the current stars of their program is a 9-year-old grey stallion they call Potter. MP Dineros Woodpatch is Potter's registered name, and his sire was PC Frenchmans Heyday. You'll remember him best as Dinero, the big palomino Sherry rode at the NFR in 2005-06, who sired both Sherry's superstar mare Stingray that she rode at the Finals every year from 2009 to 2015, and Hailey Kinsel's sensational Sister.…

Do you worry about the horse market in election years, and what do you think we should expect with 2024? You know, honestly, I think since COVID and all that crap, I think people just gave up on politics totally. And said, ‘You know what, I'm going to go out and make a living. I'm going to spend my money on what I'm going to spend it on. And we're not going to pay attention to the idiots in Washington.’ And that's what they're doing now. Because I mean, I don't know if you can tell the difference between a Republican and a Democrat anymore, but, I don't think people care. I mean, they're going to go to work, they're going make their money and they're going to spend it…