Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, The June issue marks the halfway point in the year, with 2022 as close to over as it was to beginning. That also means we’re halfway to packing up and heading to Las Vegas… just six short (so short) months from now. In these next six months, you can expect us to do more of what keeps the team roping world turning: covering every angle of the sport we can manage. Online, you’ll find our coverage of ProRodeo’s circuits, the race to stay inside the top 15, the great horses of the industry and the Resistol Rookie race. We’re expanding that coverage to include the breakaway roping over at breakawayropingjournal.com AND the barrel racing at barrelracingmagazine.com. In our “Year of the Horse” coverage, we’ll continue to follow the…

Since the last reporting of the standings, Jill Elwood and Lorie Patterson—then occupying the No. 3 and No 4 spots in the USTRC Cinch Ladies Standings, respectively—earned enough points by April’s end to claim the No. 1 spots, as well as the Cinch Ladies Year-End Awards. In the course of the year, Elwood, 54, of Lindsborg, Kansa, led the leaderboard once before, after taking second place in the #7 at the July 2021 Oklahoma Championships. However, it wasn’t long before the 3 header was edged out by a few young-gun contenders. By the time she hit the home stretch for the year-end title, she was holding steadily to third place. That all changed in April, though, when Elwood took both first and third place in the #8.5 at the Northeast…

Q: Where did you grow up in Arizona, what was your childhood like and when did you move to Texas? A: I grew up in Tucson, and moved to Texas after graduation. We didn’t have very much money, but my family was rich in love. My mom and dad, Alicia and Mike; older brother and sister, Bingo and Christina; and baby sister, Sandra, and me were all very close. Q: Who taught you how to rope? A: My dad Mike and my nino (godfather) Oscar Leon taught me to rope. My family never had an arena, so we roped at my nino’s and other people’s places. I grew up taking off ropes at ropings with the deal that my payment was getting to run at least two steers after the…

I rope the Pipes a lot, and the more I help people rope, the more I use it. I see a lot of people making some easy-to-fix mistakes, though, when it comes to how you position your body close to the Pipes. STANDING TOO FAR AWAY One thing I see people do heeling the dummy is standing too far away, with too much angle on their heel swing. You’re leaning toward the steer if you’re too far away. Also, if you’re too far away with a steep angle on your rope, your tip is down. You go to throw, and you have no left-leg coverage. What I try to do is to get plenty close enough that my swing is up over the back, with the tip raised up. If…

Roping.com, now powered by The Team Roping Journal, offers new videos every week on skills ropers want to work on, plus live streams and archived content from some of the biggest ropings in the country. Plus, we’ve got the industry’s best horsemanship experts to make sure your mount is at the top of his game no matter where you’re headed next. Here are the most-watched videos of 2022 so far. Lone Star Shootout Open Short Round Streamed live to members only from Stephenville, Texas, Feb. 27, the Lone Star Shootout features the best open teams in the country going head-to-head over three steers in the same format as the old George Strait Team Roping Classic. Watch as Andrew Ward and Buddy Hawkins continue their reign as the team of the…

Effective June 1, 2022, the #8.5 and #7 ropings at qualifiers and the Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale and USTRC’s Cinch National Finals of Team Roping will be “flagged on the heels.” This means that instead of the run being over after the head horse faces and both ropes are tight, the flag will drop when the heeler has his/her dally and the rope is tight to the feet. There are reasons why this rule has been applied to these two divisions, not the least is the benefit to lower number and beginner ropers, safety, flaggers and cattle. Rather than start a debate and take the chance of offending anyone, there is a fact that all roping producers know: before the #7 division was added to the format,…

The Resistol Rookie Roundup, held April 29–30 at Fort Worth’s historic Cowtown Coliseum, was a first-of-its-kind event, offering limited entries only to first-year PRCA or WPRA cardholders. A single round of competition was held in each event with 15 rookies competing in a tournament-style format. The top eight rookies from Friday’s performance competed again with a clean slate on Saturday, after which the top four advanced to the finals. Among those rookies were header Bodie Mattson, 20, from Sturgis, South Dakota, and heeler Trae Smith, 21, Georgetown, Idaho. With a time of 11.3 in the long round, including a 5-second leg penalty, and a 6.0 in the progressive round, the Mattson-Smith team was called back to the championship round where they roped their steer in 5.6 seconds, earning them the…

Starting Out What would you tell an 18-year-old kid in the same spot that you were in when you started rodeoing, without a great horse and without much money? I was once him, and I know how hard it is. You have to go. You have to enter. Even though you get your butt kicked, you still have to. You have to figure it out. It sure is expensive, but I have to be the guy who tells the kid to go for it and figure it out. You have to learn how to win. You have to learn how to ride your horse. Only one guy told me I would never make the NFR. He told me my horse and my partner weren’t good enough. That was a guy…

Speed Williams used to be automatically out on taking a chance on horses with soundness issues. But after three risk-reward dilemmas resulted in happy endings, the living legend has softened on the subject. Speed took a leap of faith on the 10-year-old sorrel he bought from Dustin Egusquiza. But since healing up nicely from bone-chip-removal surgery, the horse he calls Green Light is now the winningest header in history’s No. 1. “In all my years of trying horses, until real recently if they had a bone chip, it was a hard no,” Williams said. “I was roping for a living. I didn’t have time for rehab, or any interest in taking that kind of chance. It’s a gamble, and we’ve all heard war stories about things that happen to horses…

Dear Ropers, The 33rd USTRC Cinch National Finals of Team Roping is in the books! It’s clear that moving the event to Fort Worth in 2020 has been positive. During the week of roping and catching up with old friends and acquaintances, it was great to see ropers from all over the country in one place having a good time, being able to rope, and then enjoying the sights, sound, and nightlife of historic Fort Worth. Even though the overall team counts were up, with the three-arena set up we were all able to get off the grounds relatively early each day to go enjoy dinner, drinks, the nightlife and the hospitality of Cowtown. This sport is supposed to be fun. Not just while we rope but after we unsaddle.…

Producers of the world’s richest one-day Open roping—the annual Bob Feist Invitational—moved the 45-year-old BFI to Oklahoma after 37 years in Reno, but are excited to announce “the final showdown” in Reno this summer. In the last year of its contract with the Reno Rodeo, Ullman Peterson Events’ BFI will produce the Resistol Reno Open Championship, presented by The Silver Legacy Resort & Casino, on Saturday, June 18. The Open is guaranteed to pay at least $100,000 for first place and, like its predecessor, the BFI, will showcase the best 100 teams in the world over five full go-rounds and a short round. “The feedback has been so amazing in Oklahoma that we’ve kept the BFI there,” said Daren Peterson of Ullman Peterson Events. “Still, Open ropers have made Reno…

I was raised out West in Southern California. I then lived in Arizona before moving to Texas for a number of years, and now live in Nevada. There are various types of ground in different parts of the country, and it’s actually really important to your horses and your roping to make the most of whatever type of ground you’re roping in. Optimizing the ground conditions is important in your practice pen, and also for producers of ropings and rodeos to consider—because it matters. When I was a kid, we had a commercial roping arena where we put on jackpots on the weekends. We also went to other people’s ropings in the area. My stepdad (Gene O’Brien) would try to keep water on the arena, because it was clay and…

The goal of the entire run is, once you gain control of the steer’s head, to never lose contact with it. I want the steer’s weight on my horse’s butt, and the way I do that is by keeping my horse’s shoulder’s up and his left hind leg driving under him. This type of handle is what you need at an Open jackpot to win against the best in the world or at a World Series for a 4 or 5 heeler. It’s a handle to keep the flow of the run moving. { Vital Stats } AGE: 29 ROPE: Heat XS by Classic Ropes HOME: Stephenville, Texas NFR QUALIFICATIONS: 1 1 I’ve got the steer roped, and I’m pulling my slack to make sure and keep his…

When I want to start a horse in the heading, I start by steer stopping. IN THE BOX If they’ve never been in the box before, I usually slide my butt bar forward so I’m standing alongside the cow. Some people start from the back and walk to the steer and nod as they’re walking. That works, but I’ve found if I do that, when the gate pops open, the horse veers to the left and I have to find the cow all over again. I’ve found it easier to start next to the cow. My horse might vibrate, but he then easily refocuses to the cow right in front of him. It’s less confusing. THE FIRST STEER The focus is not overdoing it or trying to get to the…

“This is the seventh time I’ve roped at the BFI, and I’ve made the short round five times. I’ve won fifth twice, second once and now first. I’ve had two heel horses of the BFI, and I roped a leg to win first on another. This type of setup fits me better when I can get up next to the cow and read the turn. Riding colts, we make runs out in the arena and that’s what I do more often.” — Billie Jack Saebens on winning the BFI aboard his 7-year-old gelding, Metallic Twist, on Season 5 of “The Score” podcast. Stream or download anywhere you listen to podcasts and find them all at teamropingjournal.com.…