Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, I feel like I might need to explain myself: I got carried away. That happens from time to time, and I’m guessing—if you read this magazine and this column with any regularity—you can tell when this occurs. During this issue's production, things were nuts around here. We did double-duty in shipping our Arizona Guide and our regular issue at once, and I was in the thick of video editing for Roping.com and preparing for the Sept. 1 launch of BreakawayRoping.com. So, naturally… I distracted myself from all I had to do and grasped onto what I wanted to do: I talked to guys about their horses because that’s really why I got into this whole game in the first place. You can find the results of that on…

Congratulations to you guys who just qualified for the 2021 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo! That’s the goal of every cowboy who ropes for a living, and it’s a big accomplishment when you get it done—especially for the first time. That first year you go hard, you don’t really know how you stack up. It’s all unfamiliar territory, and everything is new at every rodeo. Before you make that all-important NFR cut the first time, there’s a lot of self-evaluation and a learning curve to navigate. That first year I rodeoed hard—with Bret Beach in 1981—was a whirlwind. When we got to the rodeo in Cody, Wyoming, we were the last team in the last perf at the biggest Fourth of July rodeo, and up until that point had only won…

HEADERS Jill Elwood, of Lindsborg, Kansas, continues to lead the lady headers by a single point. The 53-year-old, 3 roper entered up in May’s Signature Series Missouri Classic, where she earned 8 points for third place in the #9.5 USTRC Legends. Then, in the #7, Elwood took second place and 9 points. When she then won second in the #7 at July’s Oklahoma Championships, she earned another 9 points, giving her a header-leading total of 26. Still a scant point behind Elwood is Rydal, Georgia’s Sarah Toole with 25 points. Toole made her mark known at June’s North Alabama Championships, where the 16-year-old, 5.5 header won the #10.5 for 10 points, and took second and fifth in the #9.5 for 9 and 6 points, respectively, for a total of 25.…

On Instagram this summer, right in the midst of Cheyenne Frontier Days, the PRCA shared a post from Ivy Park. In truth, it appeared a little bizarre there. Where rodeo footage and commentary normally commanded the attention of a devoted following, suddenly there was a hip-hop music video featuring edgy, rodeo-inspired, but urban athletic fashion, promoted by music’s most award-winning female artist, Beyoncé. The post—since deleted from the account—caused a shameful stir. But for those willing to look beyond the unfamiliar, looped in with the not-at-all Western music and dance styles was real and true team roping talent. Enter Glynn Turman. Turman was born in early 1947 in New York City. At just 12 years old, he became a Broadway actor in 1959’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” playing the…

Q: Where is Cut Bank, Montana? A: Cut Bank is 45 minutes south of the Canadian border. I’ve ranched here my whole life, and between my dad and brothers and me, we have about 1,200 head of cows. It’s a lot of hard work, but I want my boys to be ranch-raised, like I was. They’re with me every day, and them getting to grow up like I did is pretty neat. They ranch and rope non-stop, even when they’re just playing. We wake up in the morning, and they’re pretending to be bucking bulls, team roping, branding and doctoring calves 24-7. Q: Name your NFR years and partners. A: I roped with Paul Eaves at three NFRs, 2012-14, and headed for Russell Cardoza at my last two in 2016-17.…

At his first Olympic games, Brody Malone did the USA proud. Brody, 21, has been roping since about kindergarten, which was just a couple of years after his mother, Tracy, and her friend, Penny Johnson, decided to enroll their boys in gymnastics. Brody and his little brothers and sister learned to swing a rope from their dad, J.D. Malone, who grew up with Penny’s husband, JX2 producer Johnnie Johnson. J.D. and Tracy also owned The Roping Pen, distributed around the Southeast. Brody, whom the Associated Press recently referred to as a “rodeo-riding, frog-gigging son of the South,” competed in roping jackpots and junior rodeos throughout Georgia growing up, as well as at the National Junior High Finals Rodeo, all while playing baseball and competing in gymnastics. “I can remember leaving…

PRACTICING FOR YOURSELF We talk a lot about horsemanship in roping, but sometimes, you’ve just got to work on you. Riding my good horse Timebomb the right way is so important, and I spend a lot of time on him thinking about what my hands and my feet are doing. But I can’t always practice just for Timebomb, because these days the jackpots are so fast that it’s like we have to make five aggressive rodeo runs in a row wherever we go. So to bear the burden of making the fast runs time and time again, I’ve got Larry—my gray gelding who lets me practice for me. A PRACTICE HORSE’S PURPOSE Larry is a great practice horse in that he can take as many runs as I need to…

I’m a naturally aggressive roper, so lately, I’ve been really working on making sure my mental game is in line with what my instincts are. The biggest thing I have to do is slow the run down in my mind. The best way I’ve put it to myself—I started doing it this winter when we were doing well—is not worrying about winning first place. They’re dang sure paying more than one place at the rodeos and jackpots. The old adage is that we’re trying to make the best run we can on the steer we draw. I’m trying not to run over myself in the run. Most of the time I make more mistakes trying to be too fast. Being an aggressive guy anyway, most of the time my mistakes…

TOMBSTONE, SAILOR, GREED, DIRTY HARRY, RANSOM, LADY & INK Key Bloodlines: STARLIGHT GYPSY (BY GRAYS STARLIGHT OUT OF DICKERY CHEXX BY MR TONY CHEX) The Starlight Gypsy blood has gotten its fair share of publicity over the last decade as Lari Dee Guy and Trevor Brazile tapped into the secret well of top horses by the late stallion owned by JoAnn Parker. Parker County Oak—Tombstone—was the first in the line of great Starlight Gypsys to make his way to team roping fame. Guy and Brazile bought Tombstone as an unstarted 2-year-old from Parker, and the horse went on to carry Jake Cooper to the 2015 NFR and then Jill Cooper Tanner to the 2021 RFD-TV’s The American $100,000 breakaway championship. His full brother is American Greed, aboard whom Trevor Brazile…

“It’s fun to be able to make horses that you know are going to go on to the next level because we spend a ton of time on them…. It’s just like anything, it’s just time spent. If you spend enough time on them, the maturity comes. Age obviously helps that, but time spent will bring maturity.” —Trevor Brazile, 26-time World Champion, on “The Score,” a podcast by The Team Roping Journal, available to stream or download wherever you listen to podcasts.…

As the 2021 season starts its drawdown to the Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale, October marks a month of regular season endings and 2022 beginnings. The last day to enter the WSTR Finale is Oct 15. Entry forms and information are available on wstroping.com. The event is shaping up to offer $14 million. “We look for this to be the biggest Finale of all time,” said Ty Yost, President of the WSTR. “The city of Las Vegas is thrilled to have ropers back in town. Michael Gaughan and his crew at the South Point are ready to roll out the red carpet.” Ropers who plan to attend the Ariat World Series Finale but have not made stall and room reservations are urged to contact the WSTR office as…

It seems safe to say that Zane Murphy, 26, has no intention of letting life pass him by. A Top Hand Ropes sponsored PRCA header, he also owns and operates Arrow M Leather Work with his partner and fiancée Jordan Crouch while splitting their time between winters in Tolar, Texas; summers in Cheyenne, Wyoming; and wherever the rodeo road takes them in between. “We do a lot of watch bands and phone cases, mainly because we’re always on the go,” Murphy said. “It’s hard to work on rope cans and things like that, but our watch bands are pretty unique because we keep them really close to the same dimensions, in the same shape that Apple sends you. Nobody else really does it that way.” Murphy explains that other leather…

UNDERSTANDING WHERE YOU’RE STARTING When I get on a fresh horse, I like to walk in small circles first so if they’re going to do something, I have control of it without fully giving them their head in a wide open setup. A lot of people get on and kick one into a lope on a loose rein, but pretty soon that horse is bucking and they’ve lost control. FINDING THE FEEL I like to analyze the feel the horse has and see how he’s going to respond to the bridle reins, my leg and my seat. Too often, people will lope a few circles and back into the corner and rope, and that doesn’t set you up for a good practice. GETTING HIS MIND RIGHT I’d rather get on,…

Education is empowering. Though diplomas don’t come with a money-back guarantee for automatic success, higher learning does tend to open doors to more choices in life, fan the flames of financial freedom when applied to a passionate path and, generally, expand horizons. They say knowledge is power, and there doesn’t seem to be a downside to knowing more. Rodeo cowboys are diverse when it comes to academic achievement. Some stuck it out in school. Others flew the college coop the first chance they felt like they had a legit chance to win at the world-class level. By no means does a successful career require a bachelor’s degree. But there are some fun scholastic success stories among us in the cowboy sport. Logan Medlin Agricultural Economics, 2014 Eastern New Mexico University…