Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, I was first out in the barrel racing at Loveland, Colorado, in the Monday night perf. That’s about as close as my husband, Tory, and I get to a hometown ProRodeo, and he was the next-to-last team out in the team roping, which ran immediately before the barrel race there. That’s a building rodeo, so I couldn’t really get close enough to watch. I was afoot, walking my horse in a few circles before I pulled his cinch and swung back on. I’d already heard Tanner Baldwin and Nano Garza go 4.0 and Tate Kirchenschlager and Buddy Hawkins be 4.5, so I figured Tory would be bringing it, and it would either be fast or no good. Then I heard the announcer, a friend of ours named Bob…

The World Champions Rodeo Alliance announced that an athlete who wins three consecutive WCRA majors will receive a $1-million bonus for the feat. Team ropers Garrett Tonozzi and Joe Mattern nearly won three in a row after winning $62,500 a man at both the Windy City Round-Up and the Title Town Stampede, falling just short of a “W” at the Days of ’47 in Salt Lake City, where they made the short round, but didn’t win.…

Case IH [Farmall Utility A Series] caseih.com/farmall Farmall® tractors have been the hardworking, reliable choice, proven by the fact that millions have been sold since 1923. Case IH is proud to grow this century-long legacy with three new Farmall Utility A Series tractors—models 55A, 65A and 75A. These economical tractors feature a state-of-the-art Case IH FPT engine that requires no regeneration. In addition, our cab and noncab operator stations are easy to operate and provide a comfortable working environment. Whatever the task, you can count on Farmall Utility A Series tractors for reliable, fuel-efficient horsepower and multitasking flexibility. Contact your Case IH dealer for a test drive. NRS [Dutton Bit Bridle Sets] NRSWorld.com , $140–$165 NRS has simplified the bit and bridle buying process by offering this packaged deal.…

With the USTRC’s 30th Cinch National Finals of Team Roping kicking off later this month, and both the Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale XIV and 2019 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo coming right around the corner in December, excited team ropers everywhere are busy preparing to do battle for big money. For me, roping has always been about preparation in one form or another, and it comes in stages. It’s a learning process of continually developing the skills you need to climb to a higher level and succeed. As you make progress, you work to maintain it. Then you work even harder to try and incrementally improve at the physical aspects of roping. Also intertwined in that is developing and preparing yourself mentally for big events. In addition to…

KELSEY BARRY Barry, a 4.5 header out of Charlotte, Texas, set out on her road to the top spot back in November 2018 with $2,500 in earnings from the Jingle Bell Classic. Then, by the end of May, the 27-year-old had amassed $23,280 in earnings, including a $12,700-coup at April’s Texas Championships. Most recently, Barry added $9,250 to her earnings at August’s X-Treme Team Roping Finals for a 100%, No. 1-worthy, USTRC total of $32,530. DELLA BIRD By early January this year, Bird debuted in the Top 10 with $1,970 won at the South Georgia Championships, which the Williston, Florida, 4.5 header promptly followed up on with $5,000 earnings in the #9 Shoot-Out at the 2019 NTRL National Finals. Bird continued chipping away at the standings and—perhaps in celebration of…

Rodeo can be hard, and I get to struggling. I get tired, but I think the only way to overcome that is to have faith. I get my confidence and my strength from God. It’s not easy. We drive every day, and we get caught up thinking about roping all the time. I listen to Jake Barnes and Allen Bach tell me that roping isn’t that important, though. They have reminded me that it needs to be God, family, then roping. But when you’re roping every day, all you think about is where you’re going tomorrow, what horse you’re going to ride, what you’re going to do, what steer you’re going to draw. When it’s like that, it’s easy to let roping climb and become first in your life. And…

As any time spent observing the horses at team roping arenas far and wide will demonstrate, freeze branding isn’t a new concept. In fact, it was first introduced by Dr. R. Keith Farrell 53 years ago in 1966 at Washington State University, where he was employed by the College of Veterinary Medicine. Also known as cryogenic branding, the technique was originally developed for cattle and touted as a way to save the livestock industry $20 million in annual losses suffered on account of hides damaged by scarring from hot brands. Interestingly, the practice of freeze branding cattle today remains secondary to traditional hot brands, with U.S. state brand laws reflecting exactly that—North Dakota only just added the use of freeze brands on cattle to its laws this August, but a…

To the only header in the world with eight gold buckles, the most crucial function of a head horse is setting up the corner for the heeler. Hall-of-Famer Speed Williams—who notably started out heeling—appreciated his two iconic horses, Bob and Viper, so much in part because of their moves in the corner. “The move” of a head horse happens between the pulling of your slack and the towing of the steer. It’s much more convoluted than just “going left,” and tricky to describe in words. The perfect move treads a fine line. If your horse uses too much front end in his move, your heeler will have to wait out some whiplash in the corner because, if there’s any “hit” at all, you’ll whip the steer. But if your horse…

Louisiana’s Cyle Denison, 20, who is currently roping with Lane Mitchell, sports his 2016 Year-End Reserve Champion Header CPRA buckle after a tough summer rodeoing in Texas’s Cowboy’s Professional Rodeo Association and United Professional Rodeo Association. “It was a good year,” Denison said. “I was 17—the year before I could buy my permit and get ready to Pro Rodeo. I was second in the CPRA and third in the UPRA and won the average at the UPRA finals. They’re the biggest amateur rodeos in Texas. I roped with a lot of different partners.” Denison was amongst a wolfy group of team ropers going into the finals that year. “I was like No. 4 going into the finals. I was roping with Corey Hendrick at the finals. I missed the first…

Q: If memory serves, you and Darlene raised a pretty big family, huh? A: Yes, we have five grown kids, including two sets of twins. At one time, we had four kids under 3 years old, then we had five kids under 5. Levi and his twin sister, Kim, are 48 now. Then we had Heide and Holly, who are identical twins and had a lot of fun with that in school. Darlene’s great grandpa was a twin, and three of her cousins had twins, so I guess that came from her side of the family. Ty is our youngest, and he’s 45 now. Ty is partners with Ty Yost on Rancho Rio in Wickenburg—the team roping capital of the world. Q: Tell us about your ranching background and growing…

In 2007, the TV show “Ice Road Truckers” premiered, introducing the viewing public to a thrilling region of the North American continent. What wasn’t shown was Ronald Schmidt—the 2000 CFR Champion Heeler and father of 2013 Champion CFR Header and NFR qualifier Kolton—and his Snowcat T.R.A.S.H. company literally making the road passable for 18-wheelers traveling from Yellowknife, Canada, to remote diamond mines in the Northwest Territories, across what are generally swamps and lakes in the unfrozen months. “What we do is go into swamp and marshlands in northern Alberta and Canada,” Schmidt explained. “We go in on existing cut lines through the swamps, meaning we don’t knock trees down—we just take the snow off the swamp and let it freeze. These snow cats have low distribution and wide tracks, so…

Vital Stats AGE: 40 ROPE: Mach 3 XS by Fast Back Ropes NFR QUALIFICATIONS: 16 PARTNER: Travis Graves HOME: Lipan, Texas CAREER EARNINGS: $2,524,319 In less time than it takes to run in cattle, wrap them and rope, I can use the Smarty to get a lot of practice in. The machine allows me to control and create situations based on what my horse needs. The drills you do on the machine should be exercises that truly help you and your horse in live-cattle situations, and the goal of this drill is to keep your horse running to the steer, even if he checks off to the right. This drill involves following the Smarty in a right-handed circle, keeping an even speed and keeping your horse following the cow. First,…

Vital Stats AGE: 32 ROPE: Powerline Lite S by Classic PARTNER: Tate Kirchenschlager NFR QUALIFICATIONS: 2 HOME: Columbus, Kansas EARNINGS: $478,310 The Team Roper’s Tool Box Every roper shows up to compete with a tool box. Knowing which tools you bring to the table helps you build your game plan for each and every roping. THE HAMMER Some ropers have one tool in their tool box. Maybe all they have is a hammer. They nail the start, throw their whole rope and run to the end of it. If they’re a heeler, they’re firing fast on the first hop. There are lots of ropers who’ve built successful careers like that. As long as you are aware that you only brought a hammer, that’s fine. THE WRENCH There are other ropers…

CHILL THE IRONS • Submerge them in the chosen coolant at least 1 inch deeper than the iron heads. • Coolant will appear to boil. When the boiling subsides, the irons are as cold as the coolant and ready for use. • While the irons are cooling, sedate the animal if using that form of control. • Identify brand location on animal. DRY, CLEAN AND CLIP • Branding site must be dry and clean of debris. • Clip an area just large enough for the brand, being careful to create straight lines and square corners. SOAK • Soak clipped branding site with 99.9% alcohol (room temperature) and wipe away remaining clipped hairs. • Soak again to remove naturally occurring oils and to help conduct cold temperature from iron to hide.…

By the time Denny Gentry and roping’s computer whiz Gary Poythress combined their lists to create the earliest iteration of the number-system’s database in 1990, they had over 10,000 ropers on file. Poythress put those first ropers into the system in alphabetical order starting at 1,000, so the original members of the USTRC have four-digit numbers, listed mostly alphabetically from there. Many of them attended the first ever National Finals of Team Roping in Guthrie, Oklahoma—a roping that hosted 650 contestants who came to see what the talk was all about. That first edition paid out $185,000 and turned heads across the roping community, helping shape what would become today’s massive team roping industry. Jim Brinkman, 60, Nebraska In the late 1980s, Jim Brinkman remembers having a…

Junior Nogueira won his fourth Spicer Gripp Memorial Youth Foundation Open Roping this August, when he and Kaleb Driggers stopped the clock on five steers in 45.47 seconds, worth $42,000. “It’s crazy,” Nogueira said. “I’ve won it four times in six years. I really like that roping. The steers are strong but even and good. Steve does a great job of breaking them in and sorting them. I get to see my Brazilian buddies. I have friends who live and work over in Canyon, so it’s cool to see everyone.” The Gripp paid out $431,000 in 2019, its 25th annual event. This year organizers presented a check for $100,000 to West Texas A&M University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, which the Paul and Virginia Engler Foundation matched. The money will go…

Team roping has come a million miles in the last 25-30 years in terms of financial opportunity. We used to rope at a lot of 3-for-$10 and 3-for-$30 jackpots when I first came on the roping scene. They took a third out for cattle charge, and drew hundreds of teams. Back then—I remember when gasoline was 30 cents a gallon—no one would have dreamed that people would ever put up $2,000 a man in entry fees, or that ropings that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the winners would ever be possible. Now look what the roping industry has turned into. The progression of team roping is real. It’s time to take advantage, as every roper at every level of the team roping game gets set to take his…

Vital Stats AGE: 35 ROPE: Powerline Lite S by Classic NFR QUALIFICATIONS: 2 PARTNER: Caleb Anderson HOME: Stephenville, Texas CAREER EARNINGS: $797,309 Slowing Down Strong Cattle Faster, stronger cattle mean we’ve got to help our heelers the best we can. That means slowing down the steers enough to give your heelers a shot, but not too much to make them lose their rhythm. DRIFT CONTROL On strong cattle, everything is happening fast. But in those situations, ropers sometimes don’t get a hold of the steer’s head enough, causing the steer to drift down the arena. That drifting causes a lot of heelers to rope legs. In these setups (like Cheyenne Frontier Days, pictured), the goal should be to run to the steer, throw, then get the steer’s head bent over…

The Perfect Bit  theperfectbit.com “I like that it’s a dog bone. I kind of like a three-piece mouthpiece. The bars are kind of twisted so it gives it a little more bite, so it has a little more feel. I like that it’s light, but I still get a lot of feel and I can stop good—it does everything for me. It’s not too much bit at the same time. Rio is super light mouthed, and he’s real feely. This bit has helped me to keep him picked up and keep him between my legs.”…

A freak accident while warming up before a run at the Reno Rodeo in June took Jonathan Torres’ A-team heel horse Biggie out for two months in the heart of the 2019 season. The 13-year-old bay ace returned to the active roster the first week of August at the Dodge City (Kansas) Roundup. “I was warming Biggie up in the outdoor warmup arena over by the indoor arena (Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center, where the BFI is held) before our second-round Reno Rodeo run,” explained Jonathan, the little brother and heeling half of Team Torres, which also includes big brother Joshua on the heading side. “There were four horses tied up inside that arena with no saddles on. I’d just started loping Biggie when I saw one of those tied-up horses…

BRAND REGISTRATION REQUIRED ALABAMA ALASKA ARIZONA ARKANSAS CALIFORNIA COLORADO FLORIDA HAWAII IDAHO INDIANA IOWA KANSAS LOUISIANA MINNESOTA MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI MONTANA NEBRASKA NEVADA NORTH CAROLINA NORTH DAKOTA OHIO OREGON PENNSYLVANIA SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE TEXAS—by county VERMONT WASHINGTON WISCONSIN WYOMING BRAND REGISTRATION NOT REQUIRED GEORGIA ILLINOIS—won’t register freeze brands on horses KENTUCKY NEW MEXICO—registration not required for horses NEW YORK OKLAHOMA SOUTH CAROLINA UTAH—registration not required for horses VIRGINIA—registration for horses does not currently exist STATES THAT DON’T REGISTER BRANDS CONNECTICUT DELAWARE MAINE MARYLAND MASSACHUSETTS MICHIGAN NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW JERSEY RHODE ISLAND WEST VIRGINIA…

Researchers and doctors at the University of Texas-Southwestern noticed a trend—ropers who made their way to the institution for treatment of what doctors called “rodeo thumb.” But unlike the usual patients, these team ropers were foregoing replantation, instead opting for amputation. “That’s different from what we normally see, and we wanted to study the motivations behind this decision further,” said Justin Davis, an MD candidate at UT Southwestern Medical School, who helped with the study (and shares no relation to either of the Justin Davises of NFR fame). “I actually attended a couple rodeos and spoke with participants who knew somebody who lost a thumb or lost it themselves. After speaking with someone who had this injury, they would often tell me about somebody else who had the injury and…