Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i The Team Roping Journal

Young guns James Arviso and Nicky Northcott added their names to the elite list of Resistol Rookies of the Year, claiming the 2025 heading and heeling titles. For Resistol Rookie Header of the Year Arviso, the season was a year of learning how to play the long game. The Seba Dalkai, Arizona, kid wrapped up his rookie year with $54,037.44, besting Riley Kittle by nearly $13,000. Arviso and 2024 Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year Logan Moore made a statement with their record-breaking run in Burley, Idaho, but the real victory came in what he learned. “Of course I was happy about it,” Arviso, 22, said. “When you’re a rookie, that’s what you set out to do—to win Rookie of the Year. I have bigger plans and higher expectations, but…

Nicky Northcott just took 2025 Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year honors by a landslide, daylighting the field by more than double. He barely missed his first NFR, coming up just $643 short of a trip to the Thomas & Mack in Las Vegas in 16th place. But you can’t get this kid to brag or complain. He instead chooses to focus on his roping and his horses— you know, things he can control. This is a story about the palomino heel horse that joined Team Northcott last year to take some runs off of Nicky’s old faithful Brown, and has now made his move to main mount. To recap Northcott’s sensational rookie rodeo season, he rode in ready on the heels of running the extras with Cory Kidd at…

WHAT’S BEEN THE BEST PART OF YOUR JOURNEY WITH OZ ONA HOT STREAK AND LANE (MITCHELL) TO THEIR FIRST NFR? You can just tell the horse seems happy. It’s just the right fit. The way Lane and Jordi take care of that stud means the world to us. We don’t get to see him every day, and my wife has done so much behind the scenes to make all this happen. Just seeing how happy he is, and he just loves his job, and just the whole journey with Lane, you can tell the horse is happy and they care a lot about him. He’s one of theirs. And that just means the world. You can tell the horse really enjoys what he’s doing and the chance to compete. —Nate…

The 2026 Ariat WSTR Qualification season is underway, and with rising cattle costs, it will be more difficult than ever for producers and cattle contractors to continue to provide the quality livestock WSTR customers are accustomed to. WSTR announced important changes to the program that go into effect Jan. 1, 2026, that address these challenges. Cutoff times: WSTR producers will be able to eliminate unnecessary cattle runs, helping to maintain cattle quality and overall event integrity. WSTR will set an approved time range for each division, which producers may use in the first round of qualifier events at their discretion. WSTR Heartland Finale goes progressive: In the past, Heartland Finale divisions have been two full rounds, with payouts in each of the first two rounds as well as fastest on…

With two world championships and a reserve title in a single afternoon, Junior Nogueira turned the Junior Roping classes at the AQHA World Show into his personal victory lap—winning the Junior Heading and Heeling titles aboard two standout horses, and earning $75,862.85 in the process. Nogueira rode Seven Biggie to the Junior Heading world title with a score of 226.5, earning $28,093.93 for owners Nicks Livestock Services LLC of Refugio, Texas. The 2019 stallion is by Seven S Big Valley and out of Playguns Smokin Gal, bred by John Morgan O’Brien of Beeville, Texas. “It’s a dream come true,” Nogueira said. “Just to be there and get to win something like that, roping against the best guys in the whole world—it means a lot.” Minutes after accepting the gold globe…

Q: What were your early days like growing up in Arroyo Grande, California? A: The best of both worlds. We’ve got the beach, and we got to do a little cowboying. So I got to see both sides of it. Q: When did you move to Texas, and why? A: I moved to Texas the winter of my rookie year in 2015 to take rodeoing further and take roping more seriously. Where I live now is the proving ground, and I want to be the best I can be. Q: Describe your roping style. A: Aggressive. We like to press and push the envelope. My mom (Cindy; daddy Doug and little brother Cayden round out the Cox Fab Four) told me since I was in junior rodeo that it’s a…

After being each other’s first run of the day—and a draw run at that—Tod Dillingham and Jay Mullens made it happen at the Cowtown Coliseum in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards to win the Imus Ranch Quarter Horses American Hero Celebration final round and $30,000. There were 378 teams entered during the Nov. 8 #10.5 Slide at the NRS Arena in Decatur, Texas, from which U.S. Army veteran and header Dillingham and former deputy sheriff Mullens came out on top of the 15 teams that made it back to the Nov. 9 short round. They ended up with a 35.68-second time on four head to seal the deal. Joshua, Texas, native Dillingham served eight years in the Army, from 2004 to 2012. He now works in logistics and supply chain…

KADEN RICHARD For showing, that’s where I like to be—inside a coil, at a comfortable spot. That’s my catch spot. I like that on my throwing hand, my thumb is down and I’ve got good follow-through. Both hands are going towards my target—I like that. That sets up your shoulders and your body to be in line with the target. I don’t want my left hand busy, so I’m trying to crawl out over my horse instead of manually making them rate. I’m trying to keep my left hand down so my horse rates off my swing. That’s been something I’ve had to really work on because I used to want to keep picking up with my left hand before I throw. At this point in the delivery, I’m trying…

Pablos Time carried Trey Yates to a record-breaking 236-point run and a unanimous 2025 AQHA World Show Senior Heeling title, earning $29,412.03 in Oklahoma City Nov. 10. Yates and helper Chad Masters topped every judge’s card in a deep short round to take the title, setting a new event record and notching Yates’ second AQHA world championship—a career milestone at the close of a high-stakes season. “He’s a freak,” Yates said of Pablos Time, a gelding by One Time Pepto out of Perry Shorts. “There’s really no horse that can do what he can do. I’ve never ridden one that moves his feet that fast and can stop and take the pressure.” The win marked a full-circle moment for Yates and the 10-year-old gelding. He originally bought Pablos Time— nicknamed…

THE FUNDAMENTAL THAT NEVER CHANGES When it comes to heeling, there are plenty of styles. Everyone has their own approach, their own feel, their own way of shaping a shot. But no matter what type of heeler you are, some fundamentals do not change. One of the biggest is simple: you have to get the bottom strand of your rope to the ground. It is literally like we are playing jump rope with the steer. If the rope never gets down, the steer will never get over the bottom strand and into your loop. And one of the most common mistakes we make as heelers is rushing the delivery. We turn our hand over too fast, grab slack too soon, and in doing so, we lift the bottom strand. Once…

Everything that happened for me this year came from deciding I wasn’t done learning. Even after winning last season, I hit a point this spring where I felt a big shift. I had a really big learning curve in the spring, and the only way through it was to reach out. I bet there were 10 or 12 guys I reached out to. Anybody who would stand still. We’d talk, ride, watch video—whatever it took. That process changed how I see my job. I quit trying to force things. I’m always trying to find a weakness to touch on, but I learned that fixing holes starts with understanding the horse’s mind, not just its mechanics. I’ve been trying to figure out the softness and the balance and get more into…

Warren Buffett once defined “partnership” as an emotional alliance between two people who are committed to each other’s success. Anyone who’s team roped has ridden that roller coaster of meeting—and not meeting—partner expectations. Now, amplify that by 10. Because, while winning with your spouse means double the money, losing can have a tendency to follow you into the house. Several partners at the earliest USTRC ropings are married to each other. Here’s how some of America’s winningest husbands and wives navigate practicing and competing together—and their words of advice. Marina (Linke) Hadley, a longtime 5 header, always feels the most pressure roping with her husband Tom, who was a 7 for decades. But it makes it that much sweeter when this Wyoming team wins the money. “There was one fall…