Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2023 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, This month kicks off our most intense season of digital coverage of team roping ever. Expect weekly updates on the Resistol Rookie of the Year race, the PRCA circuit races, the Top 15 and the best horses in the game, and we'll expand that coverage across team roping (teamropingjournal.com), breakaway roping (breakawayropingjournal.com), barrel racing (barrelracingmagazine.com) and tie-down roping (calfroping.com). As if that wasn't work enough, we've also begun behind-the-scenes work on each of those websites with an eye toward elevating your online experience and optimizing your ability to find the content you crave. Hopefully you'll get a chance to poke around and explore the new websites for yourself soon, but we'll be in touch to let you know when to expect those changes. In an era not so…

Derrick Begay and Colter Todd roped two steers in 8.8 seconds at the 2023 Clark County Fair & Rodeo in Logandale, Nevada, to take the win, some might say by fate. The team was not originally entered in Logandale but took the opportunity to fill in when it arose. “We actually got called probably a week before Logandale,” said Begay, who has made nine trips to the Thomas & Mack on the heading side. “They (the PRCA) called and asked us if we wanted to go because some teams drew out.” Begay called Todd but was met with no answer—Todd's ranch in Willcox, Arizona, goes without phone service. They only had 1.5 hours to make their decision, and that time went by before Todd finally gave Begay the go-ahead to…

Ropers | at home with | Jake | Clay O | icons | military salute | Q: What's life like in tiny Munday, Texas? A: It's really fun. I always thought I wanted to get out of there and go somewhere bigger where more people rope. But it's a great place. It's less expensive, and more laid back. My two brothers can head me more steers than I can heel in Munday, and we have a golf course two miles from our house. We work, we rope and we golf. It's paradise. Q: You grew up in a family of six, right? A: Yes, my mom and dad, Kelly and Todd, had Chace, our sister, Tori, me and Kreece, in that order. My brothers and I are five years apart,…

Ropers | icons The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has boomed to more than 9,000 contestant members who, each year, compete at nearly 700 rodeos nationwide and in Canada. The cowboy sport is Americana at its finest, and the love of this game is a cherished tradition handed down from one generation to the next. Today we talk of Jake and Clay, and Speed and Rich. They're flat amazing and have helped take the team roping event to previously unimaginable new heights. As awesome as they are, it's important for us all to turn back the pages of rodeo's history books from time to time to remember where we came from. I'm here to tell you about the guy who carried original Rodeo Cowboys Association Card No. 562 in his back…

Late last year, Shada and I bought back a 2003 gelding named Higgins Frenchman for our son Treston from the Richey family. Treston is really getting into team roping, and “Wishbone” is a known commodity for me: He's the horse I rode at multiple NFRs in the team roping, and he was my short-score horse for years. It's rare that a horse can go from NFR horse almost 10 years ago to junior rodeo horse at 20 and stay as sound and as honest as Wishbone has. I wish I knew the secret—the exact combination that made him last for nearly two decades in this game—but here are some things I think could have helped him stay in the game this long. Wishbone—by May Be A Frenchman out of Clints…

Cory Petska has ridden some great horses in his career, which includes a gold buckle won with Erich Rogers in 2017, a Wrangler National Finals Rodeo average crown won with Tee Woolman in 2005, and 15 NFR back numbers between 2003 and 2018. Petska won his world championship on his signature sorrel, Chumley. But it's the bay mare who's been Cory's No.1 since retiring Chumley after the 2018 NFR—MP Driftinorphanannie—who's earned billing in his heart as his best-ever heel horse. “Annie”—who's by Lone Drifter and out of a mare owned by late ProRodeo Hall of Famer Dale Smith—is 19 now. “Lone Drifter is an own son of Driftwood Ike, who sired Colter Todd's buckskin head horse Frisco (Clay Cooper's iconic buckskin, Ike, was out of an own daughter of Driftwood…

Andrew Ward and Buddy Hawkins stayed strong on a herd of tricky cattle at California's Red Bluff Round-Up to take home the average win on Sunday, April 23, 2023, with 27.0 seconds on four head, worth $8,510 a man. Age and oft-roped cattle made for a tougher set in Red Bluff. The herd was roped in October of 2022 at The Capitalist and have been going ever since, including being roped at the Broc Cresta Memorial the day before the slack started in Red Bluff. But, at least when the entire herd is equipped with tricks, the field is fair. “It was evenly tricky,” Ward, 32, of Edmond, Oklahoma, said. “So, I don't think anybody was disappointed or anything; we knew what we were getting into. We knew we were…

According to Egyptian legend, only one Phoenix existed at a time and, at the end of its long and beautiful life, it would build a nest atop the Temple of the Sun, set it aflame and, after being consumed by the inferno, rise from the ashes anew. Retired Navy Capt. Todd Hornbuckle, 48, is the great-grandson of 2014 Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame Inductee Richard “Dick” Quay Hornbuckle. As such, the younger Hornbuckle has Douglas, Wyoming, roots in the family's working ranch, and learned to ride and rope as the day's work demanded. He entered a few jackpots, too, under the tutelage of his Uncle Kirk, but pursuit of the ROTC program in college put Hornbuckle on a military path, and he went decades without swinging a rope while his…

| Competitive Edge | next level Releasing the Pressure The last four to five years, I've gotten to hang out a lot with NCHA Hall-of-Fame trainer TJ Good, and I've got to be around some great horsemen with him. It's changed me—and the whole roping industry has changed from what we thought was good to actual, really broke horses. And one thing I've learned is that I want my horses always looking for a release. The only way to do that is by relaxing and teaching them to trust me. REACTIONS For me, I'm more or less training my horses how to react to a situation rather than training them into a set pattern. Everybody trains a horse to go through the steps, but I'd rather train them to know…

In late February, NFR average title record-breakers Tanner Tomlinson and Patrick Smith were running away with the Lone Star Shootout. Their 9-on-two during the three-head finals of the Open roping in Stephenville, Texas, meant they had all day to win it. Until their final steer took a nose dive before the neck rope came off. Would you know what to do? By not immediately pulling up—or “declaring” themselves fouled—the pair's snappy finished run (plus the inevitable 10-second penalty) cost them literally $60,000 and victory by two full seconds. But it shouldn't have. They had a rerun coming, if only they'd pulled up, We've got the skinny on today's rules to help you give yourself a fair chance, no matter what the gate man or the steer or the equipment or…

| At the Barrier | news The Riata Buckle Earnings Bonus Program will compile results to record earnings from Riata Buckle horses at USTRC, WSTR, NTR and NTRLs. The Riata Buckle has revolutionized team roping's stallion incentive game, offering a $2.5-million roping to ropers of every level this Nov. 2–4 at the Lazy E in Guthrie, Oklahoma, riding horses of all ages enrolled in the Riata program and leveling up with their new—but little known—Riata Buckle Earnings Bonus Program. What Is the Riata Buckle Earnings Bonus Program in 2023? In 2022, the Riata Buckle pumped $2 million in new earnings into the industry's earnings databases QData and EquiStat and, in 2023, the stallion incentive is upping the ante. The Riata Buckle has begun reaching out via text message to ropers…

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SEEING YOUR SHOT The jackpot world's winningest heeler breaks down how he knows when to throw for a sure-shot. Watching a steer hit and then figuring out when to throw is an element of heeling that takes repetition, experience and practice. In this run from the 2023 Lone Star Shootout, you can tell, frame-by-frame, what I'm looking at, what I'm waiting for and how I deliver. 1 THE CORNER My tip is pointed toward the steer's butt as I'm making my entry. I like the angle of my swing in this photo—it's correct, and I like the distance I have between my horse and the steer. Because right there, the corner is just starting to happen. I'm trying to figure out what the next hop is going to be, so I'm…

Four-time World Champion Caleb Smidt joins eight-time NFR qualifier Justin Maass and horse trainer Logan Harkey (coming in July 2023!) on Roping.com with an entire category dedicated to calf-roping instruction, from flanking and tying 101 to the finer points of teaching a futurity calf horse to work the rope. MOST WATCHED CALF ROPING VIDEOS 1. FLANKING AND TYING 101 Justin Maass and his crew of students demonstrate what a great flanking and tying practice looks like at Maass's home arena. Maass covers position for flanking and tying, calf control and techniques for tying big calves in any situation. 2. KNOT ROPING Reigning World Champ Caleb Smidt talks Roping.com members through an entire knot-roping session on a green tie-down mare, focusing on her stop and her ability to work the rope.…

Weird things can happen during a run. Knowing what to do is easy thanks to one universal rule across associations: a steer belongs to you as soon as you cross the scoreline—except if you got a bad gate, the barrier malfunctioned, or your steer fell down, turned around or stopped before the neck rope came off, But even then, you must pull up and declare the foul immediately to get a rerun. Other rules vary among associations. If you have someone rattle the chute for you at a PRCA rodeo, you're fined $25; in the WCRA, chute-rattlers will be disqualified. The latter, too, assesses a 10-second penalty for crossfire instead of disqualification. And any USTRC event using a rope barrier follows PRCA rules. Here are a few good ones to…

A mad dash ensues as the final week of months of preparation begins the kickoff to the largest roping in the country. Eight fully loaded trucks roll into the Will Rogers Memorial Center for the Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team Roping. Three chutes, six boxes, all the panels, the roping office, and sports desk all get set and the three team roping arenas take shape in Cowtown. The vendors roll in, the banners are hung and after all of that, it all begins with team number 1A of the Lawley's 16.5 Shootout. Starting with the Decatur warm up events, just over 7900 teams roped over the course of 11 days competing for over $4 million dollars. This terrific payout came from all levels of entry fees calculated in the…