Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i The Team Roping Journal

I write this in the wake of my trip to Las Vegas for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and Priefert World Series of Team Roping Finale. Without a doubt, I’ve never watched so much team roping with so much money on the line. Combined, I saw $11.6 million awarded in prize money to team ropers. Amazing. As a fan—and observing other fans—it’s easy to see we all have a rooting interest. At the World Series Finales, audible groans and exuberant cheers were heard when teams either made a mistake or made a run. Observing the different media representatives as they watched their favorites compete was just as entertaining as the rodeo. Press room etiquette is to stifle any sort of cheering (it makes supposedly objective reporters appear decidedly subjective and…

Competition Philosophy: I always treat it as if I’m at someone else’s house and just practicing on their cattle. I can get pretty worked up sometimes, if I let my mind get in the way. I just relax and do what I do my way. Number and End: I’m an 8 heeler and 7 header. I heel more because I get better headers, but I really like to head. Association of Preference: I took a long hiatus from team roping. I started roping again about three years ago. The World Series is kind of what brought me back. It provides such a great opportunity. This year was my first year at the Finale and it was everything everyone had told me it was going to be. Rope of Choice: The…

It’d be pretty tough to top Luke Brown and Kollin VonAhn’s batting average at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Luke’s roped at Rodeo’s Super Bowl eight straight years, and has won the 10-steer average three times. Kollin’s roped in Vegas five times, and rode out of town the champ three of those years. As a team, Luke and Kollin won the NFR average crown two of the three years they joined forces there—in 2013 and ’15. “For whatever reason my headers rope good for me there,” Kollin offered as a simple and selfless explanation of his NFR successes. “I just don’t think anybody could ever plan on doing that. It’s dang sure a blessing to do it, but the chances of going there five times and your headers never messing…

Eric Randle won the richest roping ever this year when he and heeler Zane Edmondson split $350,000 in the Ariat #10 World Series of Team Roping Finale X. Just one year before, Randle won the Bloomer Trailer #10 World Series of Team Roping Finale IX, splitting $304,000 with header Wesley Mucha. Randle won a Gist buckle for each of his wins, but both sit on his living room bookshelf rather than on his belt. “I don’t know if I’ll ever wear them,” Randle said. “It’s the simple fact I can say I did it. I understand it’s just a #10 roping. I know I’m not going to go match The Champ (Clay O’Brien Cooper) or anything. But it’s hard to do. We were one team in 595 other teams this…

Classic announced Dec. 21 that the rope company plans to resume its Classic Equine saddle pad operation by the end of January 2016, with the rebuild of Classic Ropes’ facility in the near future following the Nov. 30, 2015, fire that destroyed the 70,000-square-foot rope shop. “The building and its contents can be replaced, but what’s most important is getting things back up and running as soon as possible to service those retailers that depend on our products and to keep our customers supplied with the products they depend on,” said Ken Bray, CEO of Equibrand, Classic’s parent company. “Plans are being finalized, custom tools are being fabricated, and our skilled team with unwavering leadership are laying the ground work for a new state-of-the-art rope facility. We are rebuilding to…

Luke Brown and Kollin VonAhn needed a win—badly—when they pulled into Salt Lake City’s Days of ‘47 Rodeo this July. They were in an unfamiliar position outside the top 15 at rodeo’s halfway point, and Salt Lake’s big payday would be just the boost they needed. But, the rodeo was already quick—really, really quick. There was already a 3.6, 3.8 and a 3.9, and they needed to be faster than 4.6 to even have a shot at a check. Luckily for them, though, they were the last team out in the last performance of the five-day rodeo. And for VonAhn, there was more on the line than just that $8,613 first-place check. “I told Kaleb Driggers that if I won Salt Lake, I would give him the Polaris I won…

JD Yates has made a career out of great horses, but perhaps none greater than Flits Friend, known as Pac Man, who won the very first PRCA/AQHA Heel Horse of the Year award in 1989. Not only did the grey gelding bred by JD’s dad Dick compete at numerous WNFRs, he won the AQHA World Show with JD’s cousin Jay Wadhams at the helm in the Senior Heeling, racked up futurity earnings for JD’s sister and iconic barrel racer Kelly and tripped steers for Dick at Cheyenne. “That horse was a little bigger horse who felt like a small horse,” Yates said. “He could stop and take a jerk so hard, and you never got out run. You could ride him at the Finals and never worry. He made himself.…

Team ropers Cody Snow and Quinn Kesler were among the eight rookies honored at the Resistol Rookie of the Year banquet held during the 2015 WNFR in Las Vegas. The rookies received airfare, tickets to the rodeo and hotel rooms to attend the occasion. For the first time in history, four rookies qualified for the WNFR, making the race to win the saddle bronc and barrel racing rookie titles come down to the end of the WNFR. CoBurn Bradshaw and Zeke Thurston both made some amazing rides in the saddle bronc riding with CoBurn marking 90 points to both win a round and win the Resistol Rookie title. In the WPRA barrel race, rookies Jackie Ganter and Vickie Carter competed at the WNFR for the barrel racing rookie title, with…

It’s ironic that the one machine that has helped Kollin VonAhn the most with his timing is the one machine he doesn’t have to get in time with. Back in the day, four-time world champ Allen Bach would always turn off the hopping mechanism of the dummies he practiced on. Something just wasn’t right about it. So he designed Smarty with stationery legs. When VonAhn, 31, started going over to Paul Eaves’ place to practice this season, he realized what he’d been missing in a machine. “By Smarty’s legs not moving, I can actually feel my swing getting smoother and more open, which has helped my timing more than trying to time with the legs,” he said. The Iowa native didn’t win the 2009 world championship because he needed help…

We were all so shocked and sad when we got word about Jake’s accident. The main thing, though, was that he was going to be OK. What a huge blessing. Jake couldn’t be with us in Vegas, and we all really missed him. We were all trying not to bother him so he could rest and focus on getting well, but I knew he was watching because every night I did good I had a text from Jake the next morning saying, “Good job.” Jake and I share a special bond of friendship and camaraderie from all those years of 24/7 when we were partners. When you make a living together—especially how we came up with basically nothing but a dream—it’s almost like going to battle together. Happy times and…

Cowboys are notoriously hard working and humble. But while there’s only one route to the top of the Timed Event Championship mountain—it’s a grueling marathon of talent, try, horsemanship and a multitude of cowboy skills—there’s no need for the winner to brag. This title tells its own tale, and if there’s still any doubt the champ’s cowboy friends are happy to proudly sing his high praises because he earned it. The Cinch Timed Event Championship, which this year will light up the world-famous Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Okla., during its three-day, five-performance run from March 4-6, is a tall test featuring 500 runs. Twenty of the world’s top timed-event cowboys face off in five rounds of five events—steer wrestling, tie-down roping, steer roping and both heading and heeling in…