Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, Inside this issue, you’ll find stories of lives changed by the sport of team roping. Think about that. You get to compete with your friends and family, doing something you love, something you’re addicted to and, as an added bonus, you win money. A lot of money. It’s not all about the money, of course, but how lucky are we to be in the one rare Western sport that’s structured in a way to allow ropers to cover the cost of their trips, their horses, their rigs and their ropes. No, this team roping game isn’t about trinkets and ribbons. (Though, I am a sucker for a good trinket.) In the 12 years I’ve been covering the richest roping in the world, I’ve seen dayworking cowboys be able…

Roping for a living is kind of an ebb-andflow process of peaks and valleys. It’s nice when you get on a roll, and ride that roll. I’ve ridden rolls for a year, when it seemed like roping was easy, and I didn’t even have to think about the process that much. Everything was just working, and I was winning, winning, winning. But that’s not always the case, and sometimes you hit a lull. At the bottom of that valley you have no confidence, because you haven’t been roping up to par. When you’re down in that low place, nothing comes easy. You’re searching for answers on how to get it all turned around, and as one of two partners on the team, that’s just your side of the equation. There’s…

SOLO PRACTICE Sometimes you might only be able to fit in practice at an off time of day, when nobody is around to heel for you or drive the four-wheeler. Here’s how you can get some solid practice in by yourself. HEADING SWING CHECK I want to have a good swing to make it easy to catch both horns. I want my elbow at the same height as my shoulder, with my hand outside my elbow when I’m swinging it. I want it to the inside of my elbow and more toward the tip of the left horn when I come across the horns to finish. I deliver my loop with my hand flat, and that will keep my loop flat across the horns. HORSEBACK SMARTY DRILL I want to…

What started in Fort Worth, Texas, in January ended as it should in Las Vegas in December: Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira are the 2022 PRCA Team Roping World Champions. Winning their second straight set of gold buckles, Driggers and Nogueira set a new single season earnings record with $340,708.23 each, besting the former record set by Clay Smith and Paul Eaves of $289,921 a man by $50,787.23, Driggers, 33, and Nogueira, 32, broke every regular season record possible in team roping, having bested the single-season earnings record by the end of July, after starting the season winning Fort Worth and picking up $24,760 there, They entering the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo with Driggers $83,214 ahead of second-place Clay Tryan, while Nogueira was $97,546 ahead of Jake Long, his nearest…

At the Barrier industry news | new products In November 2022, the Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale office estimated payouts at the 16th Finale to be $14 million. By the time the dust settled in Las Vegas, though, the association paid out more than $16 million to ropers at the South Point. That moves the Finale from the fifth richest equine event in the world to the fourth—jumping ahead of Australia’s TAB Everest turf race.…

Ropers ahw | Jake | Clay O | icons | military salute | Jr. Resistol | Cinch Ladies Q: What year did you graduate from veterinary school at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and what were your career ambitions as a young veterinarian? A: When I finished school in 1982, I wanted to be a wildlife vet. I’d spent my summers with the New Mexico state veterinarian, and worked on ranches that ran cattle and sheep. I really enjoyed the wildlife part of it. Dr. Glenn Blodgett, who ran the 6666 Ranch for 40 years starting in 1982 (and just died in November 2022) hired me right out of school to be the veterinarian at the 3-Bar-D Ranch in Canadian, Texas. I was just a young kid, like a…

Doug Miller was born in Pecos, Texas, on Jan. 11, 1940, and was raised on a large ranch 60 miles from town. “It was big country, [and] there wasn’t roads,” he once told The Team Roping Journal. “When you went somewhere, you went ahorseback. My dad always had lots of cattle, and wet saddle blankets makes good horses. We always had 75 or 80 horses in the Remuda. We’d get to working and it would take 6 weeks and we’d have one head a piece that wasn’t crippled by the time we got through.” Miller and his sister, Texas Hall of Famer Mary Dale “Sis” Miller, discovered their love of rodeo at an early age, but furnishing Mexican Corrientes for the industry is how Miller spent many of his career…

When the chips were on the table and the breakaway roping world championship was on the line, Martha Angelone reminded everybody why she earned the nickname “Gunslinger” at the 2020 National Finals Breakaway Roping. A hunger for gold awakened inside Angelone in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, that year. “I even told Jackie [Crawford] today that, ever since I won (the reserve world championship) to her in 2020, I’ve come back and wanted this every year,” Angelone said. “Last year, I didn’t have the Finals I wanted. This year, I had enough of a lead that I could go at them every go round and, if I missed, I missed, and I could try to win the rounds.” Angelone entered the NFBR with a substantial lead—$37,009—over No. 2 athlete Erin…

Reliance Ranches purchased leading rope-horse stallion Show Me The Buckles and stand-out junior stallion Dirty Fling, a nod to the McKinney family’s dedication to raising the bar in the performance horse business. “Nobody has put more into the rope horse business than Reliance Ranches and Gary McKinney,” said Trevor Brazile, 26-time World Champion. “Since buying Show Me The Buckles, we’ve been able to showcase his talents and his progeny to the industry We felt like we elevated the horses exposure, but this is a whole new level that goes beyond what we could do for him. This is the best possible next step in the horse’s career.” The Relentless Remuda’s Trevor Brazile and Miles Baker will continue to raise, train and campaign Show Me The Buckles’ offspring. Brazile and Baker…

I’ve dedicated my whole life to heading. I’ve heeled a little all my life, but ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been a better header. I started roping for a living in 1980, and my main focus has been on heading this whole time. You basically need to pick a side if you’re going to take a shot at roping at the highest level. In recent times, I decided to heel a little more, and it’s been a humbling experience. It’s a very different view from the other side. I’ve always enjoyed heeling on occasion, but the top guys aren’t going to sacrifice their practice runs to let you just play around and have fun. When you’re on National Finals Rodeo track and trying to win gold buckles,…

Ropers | military salute In late October, the Professional Armed Forces Rodeo Association held their annual World Finals and retired Airman Travis Beck won the heeling and the all-around titles, not to mention he clinched the chute-dogging championship as well. “I’ve kept the title for six years, but I don’t know how,” the multi-year all-around champ stated, humbly. “When you go in five events, in the military world, I’m doing well and holding my own, I guess. It’s not that there’s not hard competition.” In military rodeo and ProRodeo, Becks go-to event is the bulldogging, but he’s also a regular competitor in the heading and tie-down roping. He’s quick to point to his fellow competitors as his markers of success, though. “I spent the last three months roping with my…

LETTING IT FLY How Dakota Kirchenschlager let the work he’s putting in at home speak for itself at the Riata Buckle. This is our third-round steer from the 2022 Riata Buckle at the Lazy E Arena. We’re using this run because these pictures really show the kind of run I want to make when the money is up on five head—especially on a young horse. In these images, I’m riding DT Misty Cat, a Hickory Holly Time mare owned by Dean Tuftin’s DT Horses. We’ve showed her to some success throughout the year, but this futurity was about throwing her into the fire, and she didn’t disappoint. 1. THE START Colby (Lovell) was nodding, and I wanted a good exit out of there. I really had a hold of her.…

LAUNCHING IN 2023 Kick off the new year with hours upon hours of new footage from our leading coaches and new faces, too. We’re adding new courses and coaches every week, so if you don’t see your favorites here, don’t worry. 1. Brock Hanson and Ryan Motes Get inside the practice pen for two days of roping with Brock Hanson and Ryan Motes as they ride both outside horses and their own prospects. Their conversational style addresses common issues the everyday roper faces with both their rope handling and their horsemanship. The footage is shot in 4K and includes slow-motion analysis of each run on each horse. 2. Nick Sartain The 2009 World Champion Header Nick Sartain is also a high-money winner at the Ariat World Series of Team Roping…