Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, On page 10, you’ll find the news of the passing of Dustin Bird’s Dolly. She was old—her death wasn’t untimely really. But Dolly—registered as My Frosty Cocoa with the AQHA—is still an immense loss for the horse world and the Bird family. She was another of those ahead-of-her-time sort of horses I’ve written about before. By the time the rope horse industry took off to the extent it has now, Dolly was nearly too old to flush embryos from by the time her career ended. She was too busy being great—winning almost a million dollars across her decade-plus career in ProRodeo—to make too many babies before the ICSI procedures became popular to harvest oocytes from mares without flushing. But she was nearly perfect, when I think of what…

The stage was set when Brye Crites and Tyler Worley rolled into the California spring run, which featured old-school four-head averages back-to-back in Red Bluff and Clovis. Their welcomed win at the 111th Clovis Rodeo was no surprise considering the fact that their four-legged A-Team was meant for center stage running down four 550-pound muleys with the score intentionally set out there to make it interesting, and a heeling barrier added for an extra element of intrigue. The Clovis W was worth $9,170 a man to Oklahoma’s Crites and Arkansas cowboy Worley, and made the miles on the monster 18-hour drive to the next one in Guymon, Oklahoma, much more tolerable. “A win does shorten the drive down,” grinned Crites, 31, of Welch, Oklahoma. “It’s been a long winter, being…

Q: Can you rattle off your NFR partners for us real quick, please? A: Yes. I roped with Richard Durham at my first NFR in 2005; Cody Hintz in 2006; Britt Bockius in 2007; Russell Cardoza in 2009-10; Jim Ross Cooper in 2012; Ryan Motes in 2013; Shay Carroll in 2014; Joseph Harrison in 2017; and Logan Medlin at my last one in 2020. Q: Was there one easiest partnership? A: The one that was probably the easiest one for me was with Logan in 2020. We were good friends, and I really respected his family. Logan helped rejuvenate my career. He was such a good, motivating encourager. He fired me up, and I didn’t have to watch my back. He always did a good job of communicating, and was…

Millie Schmidt’s deployment overseas was so hard on her health that she ended up needing heart surgery. Nobody can argue that team roping isn’t stressful, so she was a little worried about getting back into heeling, which she did before she joined the Army. “It’s actually been good,” she said. “Every time I rope and I’m okay, a little bit more confidence is built.” The 29-year-old spent five years in satellite communications and patriot missile support for the Army. Today, she works at Power of Hope Equestrian Center in Steelville, Missouri, where she started a special program for fellow veterans to get horseback and work cattle, which helps them cope with trauma, reduce stress and feel better emotionally. “Roping has been a huge part of finding myself after my deployment,”…

This practice session is about getting a young, hard-running horse to handle pressure without coming apart. I’m not trying to win anything today—I’m just trying to build a rope horse that can stay calm, listen and handle being asked for more. You’ll see how I work through his tendency to get his blood pumping, how I use scoring and steer stopping to reset his mind and why timing matters when adding pressure. I’ll show you where he’s getting better, where he’s still unsure and how I adjust what I’m doing to fit what he’s ready for. This isn’t about fancy moves—it’s about feel, timing and helping him find his confidence one step at a time. 1. KNOWING THE MIND I’ve been working with this 5-year-old gelding by Winners Version out…

Team Roping Nation’s been cheering hard for the team out there tearing up the trail with the most mileage under their belts. Manny Egusquiza is 48, and his two-time World Champion Heeler Walt Woodard is 69. That’s 117 years between them, when the average world-class team consists of close to half that. At 19, the quarterback’s head horse, Tyes Sleeping Star—they call him Sleepy—is no spring chicken futurity horse himself. But if you hit snooze when these guys run one, you might wake up choking on their dust. Egusquiza and Woodard jumped out and showed us all what they’re still made of in the early going of 2025, with a fifthplace showing at the BFI and second at the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo. All the big dogs were…

“I think the guys at the WCRA are really trying to help the cowboys out. They add a lot of money—we just won $30,000 this week. A lot of our biggest rodeos don’t pay that good. I had to drive 10 hours to get here, but it wasn’t like I had a bunch of diesel costs or extra travel expenses. I just drove down, got to rope, and won $30,000. That’s awesome.” — Rodeo Corpus Christi Team Roping Champion Andrew Ward on “The Score” podcast. Listen to “The Score” anywhere you stream podcasts, and find every episode on teamropingjournal.com.…

Memorial weekend is a special time for families all across the country, as ropers take a break from busy schedules to recognize those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our great nation and in defense of the freedoms we get to enjoy each and every day. For team ropers, the long weekend provides us with the opportunity to load up the trailer and hit the road to one (or maybe more for the die-hards) of the many ropings taking place across the country. “The GEMS system has undoubtedly had an impact on the astounding growth of this sport, and this Memorial weekend was one we can’t help but look back on with awe,” Jett Sharp, event manager for the Ariat World Series of Team Roping, said. “More than…

When Andrew Ward and Jake Long backed in the box to win the 2025 WCRA Rodeo Corpus Christi Saturday, May 10, they were gunning for an $18,000 prize and a spot in Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo for Ward. While Long already had a spot on the Lowriders team, coached by 26-time World Champion Trevor Brazile, Ward needed the Corpus win to join team Free Riders, coached by four-time Bareback Riding World Champion Bobby Mote. They sealed the deal with a 5.43-second run in the Rodeo Corpus Christi Kid Rock Rodeo Round, bringing their coastal earnings to $28,000 a man. The Oklahoma-Kansas team started their week in Corpus Christi strong, pocketing $2,500 for the Wild Card win Wednesday, May 7, with a 6.04-second run. Ward and Long—who have 19 NFR…

Team roping’s big dogs will face all kinds of conditions out on the rodeo trail this month. One of the most unique and most traditional is Salinas out in California. Salinas has always been the ultimate team roping rodeo for a lot of reasons, and so many cowboys will tell you it’s their favorite. It’s one of the rodeos Clay and I miss the most, so we’re headed back to Salinas to rope in the rodeo and PRCA Gold Card Roping this month. Both guys come from the left side of the steer at Salinas, and it’s the only five-header the rodeo guys go to all year. The 40-foot score is the longest in rodeo, and the chute-run steers are typically pretty strong and really run, especially after taking that…

They say you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. That’s not just a motivational quote—it’s the truth, especially in rodeo. Early in my career, I was lucky. I got to be around guys like Roy Cooper, Fred Whitfield and Bobby Harris. And when I say “around,” I mean in the practice pen, in the truck, in their world. That wasn’t normal. Not everybody gets to be around winners like that, and I knew how rare it was. I took full advantage of every second of it. The biggest thing I learned from being around greatness? That it’s attainable. These guys weren’t born on a different planet. They were just people who did great things. And when you’re up close to it, when you get…

Ashtyn Pratz and Tammy Lewis roped their championship round steer in 6.78 seconds to win the Women’s Rodeo World Championship and $64,250 each—beating the pros as qualifiers from the Challenger ranks. Most fans in the stands at AT&T Stadium likely expected to see a veteran pro team rope their way to the big payday. Instead, it was 16-year-old Pratz and 54-year-old Lewis—two gritty and consistent qualifiers—who rose through the WRWC brackets to steal the show. WRWC Team Roping Results Both women entered the WRWC via the Challenger division, a path designed for up-and-coming and non-card-holding ropers. Pratz, from La Mesa, New Mexico, and Lewis, from Queen Creek, Arizona, proved they belonged with the best of them. Their final run not only earned them the title but symbolized what the WRWC…

Gabe Williams and Faron Candelaria’s win at the 2025 Resistol Rookie Roundup proves that when something is meant to be, nothing can stop it. The unexpected duo topped the final-four round on April 26, with a 4.4-second time, amassing $6,258 between them. Held at Cowtown Coliseum in the Fort Worth Stockyards, the fourth annual Resistol Rookie Roundup, presented by The Cowboy Channel, featured the top 10 in the rookie standings competing in a long round on Friday, April 25. The eight fastest advanced to Saturday’s semifinals, roping one more steer to determine the final four for the championship Shootout Round. For the 2025 champs, there were plenty of “almost didn’t happen” moments. To start, until about eight months ago, Williams was a heeler. “Due to a defect in my arm,…

Paul Eaves probably wasn’t supposed to win the 2008 Wildfire Open to the World. At 17, he was a little known talent fresh out of Missouri and still getting his bearings in Texas. He was living at Allen Bach’s place, learning how the big leagues of roping operated. He had no good horse of his own that could handle the long barrier and hard-running steers the Wildfire was known for. He didn’t even have a hat. “That was probably the first big win I ever had,” Eaves said. “I had just moved to Texas. I didn’t know much about anything. Where I came from, something like the Wildfire felt so far away you didn’t even think about it.” The day before the event, he sold a horse just to afford…

Successful old-time breeders never underestimate the influence of a great mare. Nor does defending and three-time World Champion Heeler Wesley Thorp, who’s just one of a handful of pros starting to reproduce their best gals. New technology is allowing ropers to create and freeze embryos out of their great rodeo mares in just a week or 10 days off the trailer. The thing is, it’s also giving any of you a way to custom-make your dream rope horse without ever owning a mare or stallion. Thorp, 29, has been hauling RS Playboys Doc Rea “Rosa” for four years and just bought the bigger Playin Whiskey “Roxy”. On Rosa, Thorp split $63,000 for winning the South Texas Showdown and $45,000 for winning the Clay Logan Open. He split $42,000 this spring…

“I was surprised to some extent when I got the call. It’s the coolest thing— the highest honor you can get being a rodeo hand. It’s a huge honor to be recognized, and have my name thrown in there with all the greats in our sport.” —Steve Purcella The ProRodeo Hall of Fame will celebrate the Class of 2025 this summer with its annual induction ceremony at the rodeo shrine that sits at the scenic base of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs. World Champion Team Roper Steve Purcella will receive this ultimate cowboy honor on July 12. The news of being immortalized as a permanent part of rodeo history comes with a lot of looking back on the road that led him here. Belly laughs and sentimental tears streak his cheeks…