Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2025 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, This year marks our fifth Breeder's Guide in this magazine, and it's a constant work in progress. We started the practice of putting the top-earning competing stallion of the year on the cover in 2024 with Sevens Star Glo, so this year, you'll find AQHA Junior Heeling World Champions Pride And Joyy and Miles Baker front and center on this issue. In the guide itself, which begins on page 61, check out Tate Kirchenschlager and Starlight Oak 017. That horse is a legacy good one, who won the AQHA World Championship in the Senior Heading in 2024, and he comes from the famous Starlight Gypsy line of great horses. His being on the cover is a nod to all the great geldings—like American Champ Parker County Oak and…

The reason that sorrel, blaze-faced head horse Garrett Tonozzi's been riding in recent times looks familiar might surprise you. It's perfectly possible you saw him in action as an ace barrel horse with Garrett's three-time World Champion Barrel Racer wife, Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi, at the wheel. They raised dual-event wonder Rock On Guys, and the horse they call “Lefty” excels at the highest level in both events. Six years ago, the Tonozzis dubbed a couple of yearlings out in the pasture Pancho and Lefty. Rock On Guys was Lefty, and he just so happens to prefer turning the left barrel first. “We raised Lefty, and since we sent him off for 60 days for his first rides as a 2-year-old, it's been me and Brittany riding him,” said Garrett, 39,…

1) RELENTLESS PYC: $165,921.00 2020 mare First Prize Diver x Chars Gun x Playgun Relentless PYC—raised by the Flag Ranch, shown in 2024 by Miles Baker and owned by Solo Select, the Relentless Remuda and Bob Tonkin—scored her biggest win of the year at the Old West Futurity in the 4-&-Under Heading, worth $50,000. But even without that windfall, she'd still be one of the year's top earners, having consistently won and placed all season long. She won the Arizona Sun Circuit in March in Scottsdale and she finished the year the reserve champion at the Gold Buckle Futurities Fall Event. 2) YES IM SASSY: $119,948.00 2018 mare Mr Sassy Frenchman x Full A Irish Whiskey x Paddys Irish Whiskey Yes Im Sassy—shown by the likes of Kaleb Driggers, Dakota…

TRJ: YOU AND YOUR COUSIN TATE BOTH WON AQHA WORLD TITLES, WITH TATE HEADING FOR YOU AND YOU HEELING FOR HIM. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU? “We love each other and we hate each other. We both give each other more crap than anybody. We're our biggest fans, and we're the hardest on each other. When one of us thinks a horse looks good and the other one says it looks horrible, we know we're honest with each other. I bounce ideas off of him all the time. He bounces ideas off of me, and he's a great horse trainer. We love each other, we truly do. And for him to do that today, that was amazing. We don't usually help each other because we always try too hard…

Ropers from across the globe will once more descend on Fort Worth, Texas in both March and April for two of the Western industry's largest events—the March 6-16 Patriot and Hooey Junior Patriot and the April 20-27 Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team Roping. THE PATRIOT The Patriot will pay out over $1 million in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2025, hosting the Junior Patriot Finals and Last Chance Qualifiers across the team roping, barrel racing, calf roping, steer wrestling, pole bending, breakaway roping, goat tying and mutton bustin. The event will also host its full lineup of team ropings for all ages, including a #9.5 Ram Truck Roping limited to 1,000 teams. All Hooey Junior Patriot Qualifiers are listed online at patriotevent.com. THE CINCH USTRC NATIONAL FINALS OF TEAM ROPING…

As the rope horse industry evolves at rapid speed, we're developing more ways to quantify success—and every year, we're learning something. In 2024, when we reported on top horses, we had to do so (from a magazine-print timing perspective) before the completion of the AQHA World Show and the Gold Buckle Futurity. Both of those events shook the QData earnings charts up in a big way, so, truth be told, when this issue came out in January, our numbers were off. This year, we were able to include all futurities and major 2024 shows in these earnings charts thanks to Gold Buckle moving to November. Also, for last year, we pulled these numbers from “futurity” earnings, including timed and judged futurities, but not AQHA competition. With the growth of the…

1) PRIDE AND JOYY: $164,253.16 2019 stallion Stevie Rey Von x Fun N Fancy Free x Peptoboonsmal Pride And Joyy stormed through 2024, winning from start to finish. The 2019 stallion, who started his career with a third place in the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity with Chris Dawson, was raised by Solo Select CEO Ty Smith. Kaleb Terlip, Solo Select and the Relentless Remuda purchased the horse early in his 4-year-old year, and just a few months later, they were on their way to his eventual earnings of $313,423. In 2024, Pride And Joyy won with the likes of Jeremy Buhler, Paul Eaves, Baker and Brazile, including the AQHA Junior Heeling World Championship with Baker in November. 2) COPPERTON: $145,052.87 2019 gelding Spots Hot x Copperish x Metallic Cat Copperton—bred…

Tate Kirchenschlager and Starlight Oak 017 are the 2024 AQHA Senior Heading World Champions, while his cousin, Dakota Kirchenschlager, and DT Hickorys Playtime, are the 2024 AQHA Senior Heeling World Champions. Both men helped each other to win the title in Oklahoma City Nov. 3, with Dakota, 33, winning in a rope-off against Cade Rice and Roll Your Nickles, in which Tate headed for both men aboard Starlight Oak 017, too. For the Senior Heading, Tate, 32, won owner Inderman Schaffner LLC $23,967.33 for the 2017 stallion by Starlights Gypsy out of Lenas Oakling. The Senior Heeling title paid Dakota and owner DT Horses $26,154.82 for the 2017 mare by Hickory Holly Time out of Play Like Clay. The cousins—who grew up an hour and a half from one another…

Q: Was winning Rookie of the Year a goal of yours? A: Yes. I won the junior high, high school and college rookie, so I really wanted to win the PRCA rookie of the year, too. Q: When did you take the lead in the rookie race, and how much heat did you get from other young heelers? A: I only had $5,000 won going into the summer. I had a $10,000 Cowboy Christmas, and moved up toward the top of the rookie race after the Fourth of July. Once I took the lead, it was a pretty tight race the rest of the year with Denton (Dunning). Q: Who all did you rope with in 2024? A: I started with Slade Wood. We roped the year before at the…

On the eve of Veterans Day and in front of a packed and patriotic crowd at the Cowtown Coliseum in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, USMC veteran Ralph Saults came tight on their NFR Showdown steer for firefighter Jeremy Nix in Junior Nogueira fashion. “I may have leaned back just a little bit,” Saults replied in a winner's interview with Katy Lucas for the Cowboy Channel following the run. “It was a tough heel shot, but I got her down.” In a nod to the growth of Charly Crawford's American Hero Celebration over the five years it's been produced by the Liberty & Loyalty Foundation, Nix and Saults battled with 400 teams in the first rounds of the Military/First Responder Roping—a 10 slide—at NRS Arena on Nov. 9 to make…

EASY ENOUGH JohnRyon Foster’s goal is to make a heel horse that can win at the shows, then go on to be successful at the rodeos or jackpots for every level of competitor. Here’s how he sets them up for success. THE HORSE: This is Buffalou, a 2019 son of Cattalou out of a Cats Merada mare Kitty Merada. He won the Intermediate Heeling at the ARHFA and the Reserve AQHA World Championship. He’s a good-minded horse, and he’s really easy to train. His stop and his stride are natural, and a lot that he does is natural for him. That’s what I look for in a prospect. I want the horse to keep his shoulders up, and I want his timing to feel fluid, that matches easy with my…

TRJ: You've been working with Jade Corkill on your heeling. What did it take for you to ask him for help, and what made you reach out? I started watching team roping when I was in high school and college and Jade was the man. If I was going to nail a perfect style down, it would be his. I got to be around Jade enough for him to understand I'm not just doing it to do it. I'm doing it to get better, and I'm serious about it. A lot of people might reach out to him, but few are willing to do what it takes to be good. They want to ask the questions, and they want the knowledge, but at the end of the day, they're not…

They say nearly half of all young Americans start the new year with a goal—something they hope to change or do better. That percentage seems to statistically dwindle as we age, but the New Year's resolution frontrunners in our country typically involve fitness or finance. It's no coincidence that gym memberships spike and credit cards are cut up on January 1 every year. Very few world-class team ropers battle their weight, and they all fight year-round for the hard-earned profit margin that's just the way it is when you rope for a living. Professional team ropers always think there's something they can improve on, and don't back down from the daily grind to get there. That's the thing about high achievers in all walks of life—they never stop striving to…