Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2016 i The Team Roping Journal

As the calendar turns from summer to fall, it means one thing to the roping and rodeo world: Finals season. From now until the end of the year, local association finals, national amateur finals and professional finals get into full swing. On the amateur side, most folks have spent the summer months taking advantage of longer days and milder temperatures to hone their roping skills—often with a destination like Oklahoma City, Reno or Las Vegas in mind. The whole idea of a crowning event is to give competitors a chance to find out where they stack up among their peers from across a region or the nation. It’s a test to see how far we’ve come—and how far we can go. Finals give us an opportunity to discover what we’re…

A lot of new talent comes along all the time, and for one reason or another way more up-and-comers get derailed than make it. Why are there components that allow some to succeed while others fall short? There are principles to life that give us cornerposts to string fence on in any career. Attitude—what we pick up at a really young age that becomes a pattern—is our take on those fundamental principles. To make it, you have to be able to overcome hardship and plow through the difficult times. It takes having a goal. In my case, I had a dream. When I was a little kid I saw the Camarillos and the other guys of that day who were the best ropers everybody talked about. I was around ropers,…

When the infamous team roping rumor mill started to buzz with the news of superstars Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira joining forces for a 2016 campaign, roping fans and top 15 ropers alike began speculating about what the new team would mean for the sport. “He was heeling, and I didn’t have a second partner,” Nogueira, originally from Presidente Prudente, Brazil, remembered. “We roped at the Hork Dog last year and kept going as second partners, and everybody was talking about it. It’s crazy having everyone talking about it, because we were just having fun and roping and didn’t even talk about roping ourselves. But then at the end of the year, he just asked me.” “I think everybody else thought we were roping together before we did,” Driggers added.…

The first-ever National Finals Rodeo was held in 1959 in two different locations. The team roping and steer roping were held in Clayton, N.M., while the rest of the events were held in Dallas. Dale Smith, the 1956 and ’57 world champion team roper from Safford, Ariz., qualified in three events that year—and the next, incidentally—setting the standard for an achievement that would become very rare until recently. Smith roped calves in Dallas and team roped and steer roped in Clayton. Interestingly, according to Gail Hughbanks Woener, in her book, Rope to Win, the weather during the first-ever team roping/steer roping NFR in Clayton was miserable: 22 degrees on the first day. The rodeo was held outside. Smith was ninth in the steer roping and 15th in the team roping…

Luke Brown has won nearly $1.5 million in his career in ProRodeo and has three Wrangler National Finals Rodeo average buckles to show for it. So why does he wear a simple go-round buckle from 2014—the year he calls the worst Finals of his life? “That was the first time Libby got to come on stage with me,” Brown said of the Round 4 buckle. “She wasn’t quite a year old yet.” Brown and partner Kollin VonAhn roped that steer in 3.6 seconds, the fastest run of the rodeo and the fastest run of Brown’s career. The run was aboard Brown’s signature horse, Slim Shady, who was 21 at the time. “A friend sent me a picture of that run after the Finals,” Brown said. “I have the steer roped…

OTHER AVERAGE WINNERS: Goat tying: Kaytlyn Miller, Dammeron Valley, Utah, 22.74 seconds on three head Breakaway roping: Sarah Angelone, Cross Junction, Va., 7.16 seconds on three head Bareback riding: Jess Pope, Garnett, Kan., 222 points on three head Tie-down roping: Wyatt Williams, Glenns Ferry, Idaho, 29.79 seconds on three head Saddle bronc riding: Sage Newman, Mel-stone, Mont., 239 points on three head Steer Wrestling: Ryan Gotreaux, Lacassine, La., 11.95 seconds on three head Pole bending: Brooklyn Gunter, Sulphur, La., 60.125 seconds on three runs Bull riding: Judd Hebert, Egan, La., 243 points on three head Barrel racing: Alex Odle, Brush, Colo., 51.681 seconds on three runs Girls Cutting: Kadee Hall, Comanche, Okla., 441.5 points on three runs Boys Cutting: Buster Mendenhall, Jr., Edmond, Okla., 437 points on three runs Boys…

Number and End: I’m a #5 Header. Association of Preference: World Series of Team Roping. I think it’s better produced and the payouts are spectacular, the finals in Vegas are an amazing experience. I’m a legacy, haven’t missed a year, and really enjoy it. Within a year, I try to attend at least 12 World Series qualifiers, because I enjoy the ropings so much. Rope of Choice: I like two ropes currently: the GT4 and Sutton Ropes. Biggest Win: I like to go to qualifiers, but I have placed a couple of times at the Finale, and really, those are the wins that I enjoyed the most. How You got into Roping: I had ridden bulls and broncs in junior rodeo and always wanted to be a calf roper. Unfortunately,…

There’s more to rodeoing and roping for a living than learning the literal ropes. I remember when I first started, I was a mental wreck. I didn’t know anything about the roping business. I was a team roper, but not much of a rodeo roper other than a few amateur and college rodeos. Allen Bach got me to start roping at the PRCA rodeos in 1980 and I felt like I was in a tornado. More than anything, adapting to the travel schedule was really hard on me. Before that, my range was New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado. But when I took off with Allen, all states were suddenly in play. There were times we’d go to three or four rodeos in one day, and use the different…

TEAM ROPING AVERAGE: 1. Laramie Allen, Llano, Texas, Ross Ashford, Lott, Texas, 16.5 seconds on three head, $4,365 each 2. Kade Smith, Post, Texas, Hayden Cape, Earth, Texas, 22.9 seconds on three head, $2,139 each 3. Cade Van Soelen, Durango, Colo., Ryley Beach, Loma, Colo., 23.8 seconds on three head, $2,717.78 each 4/5. Dakota Felton, Mt. Home, Texas, Winsten McGraw, Greeley, Colo., 26.1 seconds on three head, $1,879 each, and Whit Kitchens, Mullin, Texas, Colton Brittain, Rockwall, Texas, 26.1 seconds on three head, $1,358.89 each OTHER WINNERS: All-Around Cowgirl: Kelsey Valdez, La Junta, Colo., $2,015.66 (pole bending and breakaway roping) All-Around Cowboy and Tie-down roping: Garrett Jacobs, Lemitar, New Mexico, 29.0 on three head, $3,280.51 Bareback riding: Lane McGehee, Victoria, Texas, 238.0 on three head, $2,580.75 Saddle bronc riding: Colt…

THE SCENARIO This was the first steer on the first day of Hermiston, Ore.at the Farm-City ProRodeo. HANDLE That steer was dead straight, and Dustin got a really good start. He turned him and handled him really good right there and made my job easy. His head horse, Dolly, can get them turned really fast, so I’ve got to make sure I’m ready. I don’t ride quite as high because she comes back up the arena more. If I make a mistake, I can still be in position and be able to rope them if I’m not as high up the arena. POSITION My position looks pretty good right here. I wouldn’t change too much. I sometimes get too tight, and right here I have good separation and I can…

Team ropers talked all summer long about what the committee at the Fallon County Fair & Rodeo did this August in Baker, Mont. Amidst the never-ending conversation about equal money for team ropers—the event that constitutes more than 40 percent of the ProRodeo cowboy population—Baker delivered not equal, but double money. To take one step back here, the added money at Baker in 2014 was $750 per event. In 2015, they added a zero and upped the ante dramatically to $7,500 in every event. Baker stuck to its $7,500-per-event guns in 2016, and doubled down in the team roping to $15,000—per side. So team ropers were treated to a rare financial opportunity by being the featured event. “We felt that we needed to make some big changes,” said Fallon County…

In August, Jamaican sprinter and fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, flabbergasted his fans and his competition in the Olympic 100 meters finals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when he—despite starting slow—caught up to the field, passed them by, mugged for the cameras and then cruised to the finish line. As these words are written and read, the race for ProRodeo world titles is not finished. With the regular season wrapping up, Colby Lovell and Travis Graves have only just caught up to the field and assured themselves berths to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Though the Bolt comparison is an imperfect analogy, after winning the Caldwell (Idaho) Night Rodeo by roping three steers in 17.6 seconds, Lovell and Graves are among the leaders as they head for the…