Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, I have had this job (in some form or another) for 15(!) years this month. That feels… pretty wild. I don’t really know what to make of that passage of time. I try to be somewhat self-aware, having an idea of why I do what I do and say what I say. So this anniversary has me reflecting a bit on why I’ve been with this company and this brand for most of my adult life. It’s probably the industry as a whole that’s kept me hooked for this long, and this job is as close to the center of the sport as it gets. We cover the Ariat World Series of Team Roping, the USTRC and the rest of the jackpot associations alongside the ProRodeos and Open…

Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira ended March with a win at the 2025 Bob Feist Invitational worth $154,000, then began April with the 2025 American Rodeo title and another $100,000 each—making it the legacy team’s richest month to date since they began roping in 2016. This American win marks Driggers’ fifth American win—always as an invitee so he’s never been eligible for the million—and Nogueira’s third. Driggers also won the Lone Star Shootout in Abilene with Nicky Northcott March 22, to split another $62,000 and win a Hart Trailer. “The American has single-handedly changed the trajectory of my career and my life,” Driggers said. “To win $100,000 in one day allows us to pay down some debt from rodeoing, buy more horses and invest in some land for later. I…

There are two different types of cowboys—working ranch cowboys and rodeo cowboys. My parents and grandparents were ranchers and cowboys, and my dad (Raymond) roped. I didn’t make a living ranching, and raising horses and cattle. I grew up loving team roping. I consider myself a professional rodeo cowboy. There wasn’t much rodeo on TV when I was a kid, so my knowledge of roping came from the Ropers Sports News. I heard of the icons of roping, like the Camarillos, but it was just from what I read. That was the most famous name in team roping, and to me, they were like movie stars in a class of their own. I wanted to be like those guys. I’d look for the Ropers Sports News in the mailbox, and…

We raised this 4-year-old mare named Lil Foose Sug—she’s by Travs Lil Sug and out of a Runaway Foose mare—and we call her Nala. She’s gritty, quick-footed and just naturally wants to be on your team. I showed her for the first time at Buckeye, and she tried hard, but I could feel she needed a breather after that. I gave her about a week and a half off, and this session was her first ride back. My goal wasn’t to make runs or push her; it was to bring her back down mentally, reset and see where we’re at. I tried to keep things easy on her but still used the time to reinforce some things. Here’s how I approached the ride and what I’m working on with her…

The United States Air Force uses supersonic B1 bombers for special missions that require Mach speed, which is speedof-sound stuff. Fittingly, there’s this head horse out there making roping and rodeo headlines as we speak by the name of B1. He’s the one Kaleb Driggers won his second-straight BFI with Junior Nogueira on in March, and the same horse Brenten Hall’s been doing some serious winning on in the last year. Driggers and Hall were both on a borrowing basis with Brenten’s sister-in-law, Brooke Howell—until April, when Hall closed the deal on having to have him, and bought him from Brooke. Cowboy Sangria is this superstar sorrel 8-year-old’s registered name, and he was bred by the man behind the famous Frenchmans Guy, Bill Myers. B1, as they call him, is…

ON SEVENS HANK 2’S OIL CAN CLASSIC ARHFA HEADING WIN: “I kept Sevens home all winter because he’s just so good that I wanted to save him for the bigger shows. I said from the start I was going to crack him out at Ardmore and then take him to Guthrie for the Royal Crown before Utah. He’s been sound for months, but I stuck to the plan. When a horse backs in the box after three runs, stands there cold, runs hard, stays pure through the turn and faces sharp, the judges notice that. He’s got the mind of an older horse but still has that younger-horse expression. That’s what wins. I love it when a plan comes together. I kept him fresh and brought him out when it…

Ropers from all around the world gathered for the USTRC National Finals of Team Roping held in Fort Worth, Texas, April 20-27, paying out more than $3.5 million. The Priefert latch tripped open for more than 6,500 teams during the week, from the Yeti Open all the way down to the Classic Equine 7.5 Championship. Capitalizing on this momentum, the USTRC is announcing changes to the program for the 2025-2026 team roping season. Legends Divisions to include ladies 30 and over — In 2026, the 12.5, 11.5 and 10.5 Legends Over 40, as well as 9.5 and 8.5 Legends Over 50 divisions, will all be open to ladies age 30 and older. 10-entry rule for ropers 20 and under — Ropers under the age of 21 will still have to…

People talk about loving the process like it’s some kind of motivational strategy. For me, it wasn’t something I had to work at. I just loved it. All of it. I think that was the biggest edge I ever had on anybody: what was work to them was fun to me. I enjoyed the practice pen. I enjoyed the repetition. I enjoyed every little piece that most people treated like chores. I didn’t fall in love with the process because I read a book or heard a podcast. It was natural. I wanted to be so good at roping that I didn’t have to get a “real job.” That was the goal. I didn’t know if it would ever work out that way—I just knew I wasn’t going to stop…

Very rarely in rodeo history has a world team roping titlist come from money. Sure, it would have been nice to have the funding to roll up in a fancy rig full of the best horses money can buy. But in my line of work—in my lifetime that started with growing up at rodeos and ropings, and stayed there—the lion’s share of the legends in our cowboy sport have been rooted in humble beginnings. Excuses, no. Sweat equity, yes. Bottom line, the elite few who reach legend status earn it and are unstoppable because they outwork everybody else and won’t take no for an answer. To take it from the top, 26-time World Champion Cowboy Trevor Brazile—whose unmatched gold buckle collection contains all-around (14), team roping (1), tie-down roping (3)…

When Marcus Theriot and Wyatt Cox collected their 2025 Rodeo Austin branding irons March 29, after winning the average with a 13.9 on three head, the moment marked a triumphant end to a nightmare day. “It was definitely a bittersweet win at Austin,” Theriot said. “That’s a huge rodeo. I won it years ago, and that was one of the bigger wins of my career, for sure. To win it again was the highlight of the day, with the day we had.” The Rodeo Austin short round happened to fall on the same day of the Feist at the BFI, and what unfolded that Saturday was unlike anything anyone could have imagined. At the start of their second-round run of the Feist, Theriot’s head horse—two-time World Champion Kaleb Driggers’ Chevy—inexplicably…

Q: How’d you get on at Cactus Ropes in the first place? A: Cactus Jack Stephenson (who founded Cactus Ropes with his cousin Joe Mathews and friend Mike Piland in 1991) hired me when I was just a broke kid. My first day on the job for the rope company was July 15, 1992. Jack won the first-ever George Strait (Team Roping Classic) with his son, Jacky, in 1982, and they roped together at the 1984 NFR (National Finals Rodeo). Jack won The Strait a second time with Rich Skelton in 1991, the first time the winners won half-ton pickups and two horse trailers. How I met those guys was Jack and Jacky had a roping school, and I went to work the chutes, because I didn’t have any money.…

In the winter of 1998, Ryan Motes rolled into Guthrie, Oklahoma, with a green heel horse, a college rodeo partner and not a whole lot of expectations. He left with $50,000 and a shot of momentum that would carry him into the next stage of his roping career. Back then, Motes was just starting to figure out the heel side. He had spent most of high school heading but had recently made the switch and was seeing solid progress. His partner for the USTRC’s Lariat Bowl was Jeremy Smith—his college roommate and rodeo teammate at Weatherford College. The horse was Bold Dual, a 5-year-old Dual Pep gelding his mom, Danny, had raised, out of her buckskin mare named Bold Sis Rio. It was the first good young horse Motes had…