Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2020 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, Right before Thanksgiving, a family friend of my husband’s passed away. His name was Gary Lauridsen, and he was 61 when he left this Earth. My husband and I went to the memorial service, and we walked in a bit late, as I’d rushed home from work early on a Friday to get there. We lingered in the hallway outside the 4H building in Greeley, Colorado, where they held the memorial service, and as I listened to the preacher talk about Gary’s life, I looked over to see a photo of him roping with his nephew at one of the World Series of Team Roping’s qualifiers produced by John Johnson in Cheyenne. As the preacher’s words came into focus the longer we stood there, I realized he was…

Body position is something that’s really overlooked when it comes to teaching and working on your roping. We talk about horsemanship and roping, but we don’t understand how much body position has to do with horsemanship. I’m as guilty as everyone for getting after my horse and being disappointed in my horse, only to study the video to realize it was pilot error. Ultimately, we spend all this time training our horses to respond to buttons we push, and we don’t realize we’re pressing these buttons in the middle of a run. { Vital Stats } AGE: 39 ROPE: Helix HM by Lone Star Ropes NFR QUALIFICATIONS: 12 PARTNER: Luke Brown HOME: Lipan, Texas CAREER EARNINGS: $1,839,938 1 From the swing in golf to the quarterback’s throw in…

Just Catch to Win Just needing to stop the clock to win can be as high-pressured as needing to be 4.0. Here’s how I approach it. BACK TO BASICS First of all, you have to remember that you still have to score and do all the little things. You have to stick to the same plan as if you need to be 4.0. RIDE YOUR HORSE Sometimes, when you just have to catch, it means you were roping really aggressive throughout the day—which means your horse just might be anticipating that aggressive-style shot. That means you need to ride through that first throw so you stay with your horse, and he doesn’t take you out. A lot of times we forget about our horse, and we get to leaning when…

• PRO-AM: “The ProAm saddles are like $5,000 a piece and they have tapaderos. We’re changing them up a little but, they are really nice.” • OPEN TO THE WORLD: “We rope for 90% of our money. That’s the Big Daddy.” • OPEN BREAKAWAY: “Walkin’ fresh, 600-pounders. Like cutting cattle.” • OPEN GUNSLINGER: “We let them enter up four times at this one. It’s a five-steer, so come and bring your backup horses or whatever you want to do, but the fees are still high enough that it doesn’t take long for that pot to get big.” • #15.5: “The #15 is a six-header. We do that because we want to let those 7s and 8s come and play, but maybe not for the Open. And, we see the guys start switching ends. So, you…

Buckaloo & Saebens Claim Inaugural Open Victory GOLD BUCKLE BEER OPEN TO THE WORLD With a packed house, the Ariat WSTR Finale XIV kicked off with 53 teams going head-to-head on five steers in pursuit of a total $206,600 cash payout in the association’s inaugural Gold Buckle Beer Open to the World presented by The Team Roping Journal. Oklahoma ropers Bubba Buckaloo and Billie Jack Saebens took home the lion’s share of the winnings, roping five steers in 36.77 seconds, worth $56,600, along with trophy Cactus Saddlery saddles and pads, trophy Gist buckles, and additional prizes—a refreshing way to finish the season after both ropers just narrowly missed this year’s super bowl of rodeo. Last year, the outdoor arena’s Open roping during the Finale became the fifth largest…

Right around his 21st birthday in 2014, header Cam Dahozy and his partner won an International Indian National Finals Rodeo regional roping, qualifying to compete in the #10 Incentive at the Finals, held east of Phoenix, on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. “I told my partner, who I’d roped with all year, ‘This is our shot,’” Dahozy said. The pair went neck and neck with another team, coming into the final round a few hundredths of a second behind them for second high call. “Our fourth-round steer was the steer the other team had in the third round, so we knew he was good. I didn’t really trust my start on that horse. He was long, so I had to stay there a little bit. I called for it and,…

Creating a renowned team roping destination like Dynamite Arena must have required incredible vision and industry foresight, right? Well, no. Not really. Rather, it was the result of one man’s journey and a lot of hard work. Jim Riley was an Arizona native, raised by his mother and grandfather on the family’s North Phoenix dairy. Riley would become an electrician by trade, but his passion was in motorized racing. “His love was the motorcycle racing and the sprint cars—the jalopies,” said Riley’s nephew and subsequent owner of Dynamite, Ron Treat. According to Treat, who sold Dynamite in 2007, Riley was pretty talented on the track, too. “He actually won like the first 37 or 38 races at Manzanita [Park,] when they first opened up [in 1951.]” In an amusing interview…

Question: Trevor, what’s the best method to get a horse to face straight every time? — Kody Morigeau Answer: First, a disclaimer: This is one of those tips I don’t normally tell the general public. So I don’t want to get anybody hurt trying it. To teach my horses to face, I prefer to hook my horses up to a cardboard box or a banner on the ground—something that they’re scared of. Introducing the face that way, they learn to move their feet without me having to put my spur in their sides. Most people will end up dulling a horse’s sides when trying to teach him to face. But with this method, a horse learns to move his feet fast because he’s scared enough of the object to know…

It took Cole Davison 10 years to make his first NFR and now, he’s heeled at back-to-back Finals for the past two years—in 2018 for Kolton Schmidt and behind Tyler Wade in 2019. He says the No. 1 factor that helped him over the Top-15 hump is a horse. Davison, 30, who lives in Stephenville, Texas, with his wife, Whitney, and daughters, Milli and Letti, bought Apollo, now 10, from Rhen Richard, who headed for him the first half of 2016. “I bought Apollo over the phone,” Davison said. “Rhen trained him and took him to some futurities in Canada and Arizona as a 5-year-old and won a lot on him. I bought him after watching a few videos, and I picked him up at Denver in January 2016. I…

The USTRC’s National Finals presented by Cinch will move to Fort Worth, Texas, April 21 to 26, 2020, launching a new chapter in the association’s storied history. The move will allow ropers from across the globe to bring their horses and their families to compete in one of the premier venues in all of Western sports: the Will Rogers Memorial Center. The 120-acre facility offers ropers indoor stalling, multiple arenas and nearby access to Fort Worth’s iconic cultural district—making it one of the West’s leading vacation destinations. “Ropers have been asking that we spread out the dates for the industry’s two largest ropings,” Ty Yost, director of roping operations for the USTRC, said. “Ropers are hard workers, and they were having trouble taking time off so close together for both…

A lot of people have described me over the years as never satisfied. I guess that mindset of always trying to get better is all I know. It’s not a show for me. I’ve just always been out there trying to prove to myself that there’s always room for improvement. The way I see it, there’s always something more you can do to better yourself and be more successful. Taking a day off and taking it easy is not in my DNA. I’m going to be 61 years old here shortly (on April 4), and this lifelong quest for always improving is almost getting scary now that I can’t possibly keep getting better physically. But I do still keep my eye on the ball at all times, and keep working…

In 2019, just about any coverage of the Cinch Ladies Standings included updates on Kelsey Barry’s not insignificant lead over her cohorts. Her pursuit of the lead began early in the year, when the 27-year-old, 4.5 header from Charlotte, Texas, decided she was going to treat her roping less as a hobby and more as something that deserved her commitment. When her efforts were rewarded with winning checks, Barry then decided to focus on the USTRC ropings that would support her endeavor to be 2019’s high-money, all-girl roper … and to get some proper horsepower. “I credit a lot of this year and all my winnings to my good horse, Clyde. He gave me a lot of confidence and I kind of learned how to win on him. I never…

Remember that Daryle Singletary song from the ’90s, “Too Much Fun?” If the annual Wildfire roping in Hamilton, Texas, needs a theme song, that should be it. And, if you’re not already planning on going to the Circle T Arena from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, change your plans, ’cause this event—in the words of its producer, Dru Stewart—is “off the chain.” Stewart knows ropers, particularly those in Texas, can go to any roping they want and have a fair shot at winning some money. What’s not guaranteed at each of those jackpots is the kind of event that delivers good times, good food and stiff drinks in spades. “Here’s the bottom line,” he said, “there’s a team roping at the Circle T in Hamilton literally every weekend and I’m…

FOR SMITH, a second title seemed inevitable for the header from Broken Bow, Oklahoma. He started the 2019 season winning with Jake Long. He changed it up after the spring run, picking up three-time World Champion Heeler Jade Corkill at Reno—his dream partner, the heeler after whom he’d named his son. “He’s been the best that I’ve ever seen, all growing up and starting rodeoing,” Smith said. “His mental game; that dude wants to win more than anybody—almost anybody—because I want to think I want to win that much, too. But, he’s even more aggressive than I am, and his mind is so good about not letting things get in the way.” They got rolling quickly, winning $25,419 a man over the Cowboy Christmas run, and Smith and Corkill finished…