Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2023 i The Team Roping Journal

Ropers | at home with | Jake | Clay O | icons | salute | other gig | big break | USTRC Q: OK, let’s cut to the chase—how are you and Marcus related? A: Marcus’s dad’s sister (Lisa Theriot Curry) married my dad’s brother (Charles Curry). I’m not sure what you call Marcus and me, but we’re like brothers. Q: Tell us about your immediate family. A: My mom and dad are David and Resa Curry, and I have three little sisters, Colby Ellen, Cloe and Charlsey Rai. Q: How long have you been heeling, and who’s had the most influence on your roping career? A: I’ve been heeling most of my roping days, which started when I was big enough to ride. I’d say my dad’s had the…

Kay Keller of Rock Springs, Wyoming, arranged a surprise party on a Friday this summer for her husband John’s 90th birthday. “But then she called me and said, ‘Clay, we’re going to have to change the day of the party now,” recalled their son, Clay Keller. “And I said, ‘Why, Mom?’ And she said, ‘Because your dad’s entered twice at the amateur rodeo that night in Green River!’” Some things never change. Long before he was inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame, John Keller was eaten up with “cowboying.” He’d run away from his Ohio home at 15 to exercise racehorses from Kentucky to South Carolina, then hitchhiked at 17 to Wyoming to get on broncs at the Cody Nite Rodeo. Keller found work at a ranch near…

Not all big breaks mean big wins. For Junior Nogueira, his big break came in the form of a fourth-place, $7,500 paycheck at the Wildfire Open to the World in 2014, just two months after Nogueira showed up at a Jake Barnes clinic with never-before-seen talent. Nogueira’s story is for the ages, and one we’ve told before: Of coming to America, barely speaking any English, being mentored by the legendary seven-time World Champion Barnes, making the Finals his first year, becoming the PRCA’s AllAround World Champion just two years later and building a family and a future in the States with two more heeling gold buckles in 2021 and 2022. Those big moments have gotten their due—but the little moments we’ve never written about provide more perspective on how long…

Competitive Edge 5 flat|Trevor Brazile|freeze frame|game plan| roping.com|horsepower The day we shot these photos, I was riding green head horses all day, and we were roping some easy muleys to help build these young horses’ confidence. Ryan Motes was getting ready for the rope horse futurity in Fort Worth, so we were really focusing on making controlled runs that felt easy and helped our horses feel comfortable in their position and fundamentals. 1 We’re using a score lane here, and it’s got three hurdles the steers have to go over before they can run. I like the scoring lane for both young and old horses. The majority of box problems come from two main causes: 1) Horses that want to be overachievers and want to run to catch the cow.…

Reading Cattle There are no hard-and-fast rules on reading cattle. But there are guidelines you can try to learn, and the investment in that knowledge costs nothing but time. One time, I read an article on Joe Baumgartner, famous bull fighter, and he said reading cattle is something nobody can teach you. You have to be around cattle as much as you can, looking at them, watching them move through the herd, watching them eat. It’s just the same thing as when you go in an airport and watch people walk by—you wonder what they’re like, who they are, what they do for a living, what they’re thinking, and you can judge them. It’s the same thing in a steer pen—and you might not always be right. Here’s a quick,…

“From a pleasure standpoint, I team rope. I lived there in Chandler (Arizona), and Allen Bach lived across the street; Clay O’Brien lived down the street. I mean, it was really easy. And that was before there was a numbered system. So everything was about mixed ropings. And mixed ropings were a real big deal in Arizona. So I lived team roping. So when I started doing the NFR, when you look at the broadcast team, if you’ve got Bob Tallman, Hadley Barrett, Randy Corley and me, I knew more about team roping than all three of them combined. So I wasn’t really intimidated to give my opinion. I didn’t even think twice about it.” —Pam Minick, on “The Score” podcast, discussing her stint calling the play-by-play for the NFR…

At the Barrier | industry news | association news | WSTR and USTRC Membership Renewals Membership sales for 2024 began Oct. 1, 2023 and are valid thru Dec. 31, 2024. This includes standard and Key Card Memberships. All ropers must have either a standard USTRC or WSTR membership to compete at either association’s sanctioned events. Note: Membership information can be found digitally by logging into your account at either WSTRoping.com or USTRC.com or on the Global Roping app. WSTR and USTRC Dress Code Requirements Competitors must adhere to the dress code of cowboy hat or no hat, cowboy boots, pants and a button-up collared shirt. Collared polo shirts are acceptable at all sanctioned events, except the Ariat WSTR Finale. A full button-up collared shirt is required at the Finale. WSTR…

Independence, Kansas, native Mike Hall did not grow up roping. “My dad said, ‘Horses are liabilities, Michael; you don’t need one of them,’” Hall said, mimicking his father’s tone to a teenage son, laughing. “Now, my kids have Junior rodeoed. That’s what they wanted to do. Everybody wants a horse when they’re a kid and I was like, ‘You know what? I’ve always wanted a horse.’” Hall bought a couple of horses and “winged it,” he says, but he’s had help along the way. Good help. “Levi Pippin, his dad, Tony,” Hall said of the people who helped him figure things out. “Cricket Long would be Jake Long’s dad. He’s from down there where I’m from. Those guys were instrumental in teaching me the groundwork and on how to sit…

WHAT IS ‘DRAW’? I use the phrase “draw to cattle” a lot, and I have to be careful because, in the cutting, “draw” means pulling away from the cow. But in the heading, when I say I want draw to the cow, I mean I want my horse to be physically drawn toward the steer without having to be coaxed or guided. I want my horses hunting the cow. A lot of people, especially in the heading and tie-down, talk about a horse really needing to run to cattle. The heading is so competitive now, you’ll see a lot of horses reached on a lot, or they learn to run a route or pattern but they don’t have the magnetic draw to the cow that keeps them good over the…

Sixty-four years ago, in 1959, Jim Rodriguez Jr. won his? rst of four world team roping titles at 18. To this day, he’s the youngest cowboy ever to win a gold buckle in any event.? at was also the year the inaugural National Finals Rodeo debuted in Dallas, though the team roping, steer roping and barrel racing were held in Clayton, New Mexico. Rodriguez also won his? rst of four NFR average crowns at that very first Finals, heading for legendary all-around hand Gene Rambo. Now 82, Rodriguez will be inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City on November 11. This will be Rodriguez’s fourth Hall of Fame induction. He was a member of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame’s inaugural Class of 1979, and also…

I started roping horseback as a little kid. I was cruising down the arena and throwing at ’em at 5 years old. I don’t remember people telling me what was right or wrong. I’d had a rope in my hand since I was 3, but it was a game of trial and error. Because I’d roped on the ground non-stop, 24-7, my swinging and throwing were actually pretty well developed. But when I got horseback, I started developing some bad habits. I headed a lot when I was really young, and don’t remember leaning down to head. That makes sense, since the horns are out in front of you. But when I’d have a chance to heel one every now and then, I would really lean over to throw. And…

Dustin Bird doesn’t have a ton of time to be a professional team roper anymore. The five-time National Finals Rodeo header did manage to win the Montana Circuit this winter, as well as the average at the Montana ProRodeo Circuit Finals. But that was in between hauling his steers to many of the circuit rodeos and jackpots in Montana and beyond, running cows on his family’s multigenerational operation in Cut Bank, raising two wild cowboys with his wife, Alicia, and making some appearances as a stuntman on the hit Taylor Sheridan series, 1883. Most team roping fans have heard about Bird’s in-arena successes and cattle business in previous articles, but the million-dollar header is part of a group of Native Americans from the Blackfeet Reservation who’ve been tapped over the…

| Competitive Edge | horsepower Nelson Wyatt will rope at his second Wrangler National Finals Rodeo next month. He spun for Levi Lord at his first Finals in 2020. At press time in late September, his 2023 NFR partner was TBD, as the field of 15 headers and 15 heelers had not yet been set. The thing that was certain is that his four-legged friend Colt has been a boss this year, and a consummate teammate no matter the conditions or who was on the back side. Wyatt, 30, who was the 2017 Resistol All-Around and Heading Rookie of the Year, has made a rather unexpected dream season out of 2023. “I came home in August after Dodge City last year, so I didn’t get into San Antonio or Houston…

One of the announcers of Johnny Johnson’s upcoming 19th National Team Roping League (NTRL) Finals in Jacksonville, Florida, is also a team roper. He had an epiphany the other day. And checked GPS to confirm. But it’s true: A drive from his house in Fort Worth to Jacksonville is shorter than a drive from Fort Worth to Wickenburg, Arizona. Just food for thought. Sunny north Florida boasts a bucket-list roping in the open-to-the-world NTRL Finals, held Jan. 25-29, 2024. The five-day extravaganza has all the electric atmosphere and big paydays of 1990s-era USTRC Finals weeks, and was patterned that way, with Preliminary and Shootout ropings. Plus, it adds even more entertainment, activities for the kids and three arenas going at once. “You rope your first steer, ride out to the…