Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2024 i The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, I'm sitting at the Title Fights in Abilene, Texas, as we're finishing up this November issue. This magazine is a tricky one—it goes to the printer before the ProRodeo season officially closes, and before the Riata Championships and before the American Rope Horse Futurity Association awards its world championships. This cover, then, is always a gamble. Unless there's an insurmountable lead in the PRCA world standings, deciding who to give the cover to is sort of a crapshoot. But late-season standings leaders Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord made this call a little easier by pulling off a come-from-behind win at the Pendleton Round-Up that gave us the chance to put Levi on the cover for the first time in his career. And for the second year in a…

Ropers at home with | Jake Barnes | Clay O | icons | hero salute | USTRC Q: Have you lived in Chihuahua all your life? A: Yes, my family has been here since my great-grandfather. I went to junior college at New Mexico Military Institute. Then I came home to graduate from college and also get my master's degree from Tec de Monterrey here in Chihuahua, which is like a Mexican MIT. After that, I went to Harvard for the Owner/President Management program, which is like a doctorate degree. Q: Talk about your business back-ground, and all the industries you're involved in. A: My grandparents on my mom's side came from Lebanon, so I'm half Lebanese and half Mexican. Our core business here in Chihuahua is in the mining…

| Ropers | icons After a tremendous day of roping at an event he'd helped produce for the past six years, Randal “Randy” Crump of Clarendon, Texas, died suddenly in the company of some of his most favorite people at the age of 56. Though the community around Randy is still navigating the incredible loss, accounts of his passing suggest he left in the same manner he lived: without fanfare and with joy in his heart. “I'm at one of my favorite places doing my favorite thing with some of my favorite people,” Randy reportedly told his dear friend, Tricia O'Gorman Stroope, in their final conversation that day. “This is the best day ever.” On Sept. 1, Randy was in Erick, Oklahoma, producing the annual Dalton O'Gorman Memorial Roping with…

Dustin Egusquiza's heading game hasn't changed much since he got his card in 2016, if you ask him. But where he is in his career has, and his understanding of how to best use his masterful ability to drop all his coils has evolved. Showing that skill off in the Thomas & Mack, though, is still his greatest test. Heading into the 2024 Finals with more won on the season than he's ever had before, Egusquiza reflects on the key moments of his journey and how he'll use those experiences to address the little yellow arena this time around. 2017: NATIONAL FINALS RODEO My first NFR with Kory Koontz was my best NFR. I think we won $110,000. The first round, I was so nervous I couldn't see the steer,…

Some horses have strengths that shine in certain set-ups. It's a luxury to have, say, one you ride at one-headers over short scores where you're trying to be 3, and another for long-score averages the likes of Salinas and Cheyenne. It's a rare special four-legged individual that's great in all conditions. Then there's the Pendleton Round-Up, where choosing what to ride on the grass is a conversation all its own. Here's how Pendleton Hall of Famer J.D. Yates, first-ever Pendleton team roping champ Kory Koontz and 2024 Pendleton all-around champ Coleman Proctor see it… J.D. Yates Pendleton Round-Up Hall of Famer Yates won the 1994 all-around title and three steer roping championships on the grass in 1991, '94 and '01, and has won about every hole in the team roping…

WHAT HAS BEEN THE DIFFERENCE MAKER IN YOUR SWAP FROM HEELING TO HEADING, TO GET YOU TO YOUR FIRST FINALS? I've tried the heeling deal so long, and I had great partners, and I just wasn't good enough. So just whenever (my younger brother) Brit decided he wanted to stay home, I decided to try heading. If Brit would've kept wanting the head, I would've never switched. But when Brit decided he wanted to stay home, I thought, ‘You know what? I'm going to try something different.' I had way better opportunities partner-wise as a header than I did as a heeler. And so I started trying to gather up horses. Obviously, me getting a better opportunity partner-wise was huge. And then the horses that I've got and come across…

At the Barrier association news | industry news The consignment list for the 2024 Riata Showcase Horse Sale is stacked with offspring of the roping industry's leading stallions, producing a first-of-its-kind sale in roping's largest venue at the Western industry's largest event. The sale coincides with the $18 million Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale, selling an exclusive 40-50 head of horses just before the Open kicks off that afternoon. “Our primary goal is to display horse-power out of our stallions,” Riata founder Denny Gentry said. “We are bringing a limited selection of horses—quality over quantity—to present a great sampling of great rope horses and prospects in the top venue, at the top event, to represent our stallions.” Buyers will can register at the top of the escalators as…

| Ropers | hero salute Kelsey Willis of Wagener, South Carolina, first ran across the pages of this magazine in the spring of 2022. In that story about retired police officer Greg Ziel, Ziel had discovered Willis Performance Horses and was learning to rope and to ride—a daring combination that Willis, 37, specializes in. In the beginning, though, Willis was Texas-bound with big plans. “I [roped and] rode cutting horses, and I moved out to Texas after a year of college,” Willis said. “I was always into colt starting, and I had done a little bit of teaching.” Willis then met and married his wife, Brittney, now a professional photographer who's cutting her teeth shooting rodeo at Little Britches Rodeos, and became a father to daughter Riley, 11, and son…

Rodeo will always remember the roar of The Lion. Leo Camarillo was a four-time world champion team roper who in 1975 also won the coveted world all-around crown, and still holds the record for the most National Finals Rodeo team roping average wins with six. Leo's little brother, Jerold, is also a world champion team roper and ProRodeo Hall of Famer. Cousin Reg was the quiet one, and best known as the consummate consistency king. But make no mistake, Reg Camarillo was a steady wind beneath Leo and Jerold's wings, and a pivotal player in their revolutionary roping careers. Everyone who witnessed that legendary era of team roping will be thrilled to see Reg celebrated with the National Rodeo Hall of Fame's Class of 2024 at the National Cowboy &…

Last month, we talked to five top headers to review the most common mistakes they see fellow ropers making in their horsemanship. This month, we are doubled down by talking to five heelers—who've got NFR and horse-training experience—to tell us what mistakes they see ropers making in their riding and how to fix them. BUT—there's a twist this time. Their answers were nearly all identical: a heeler's greatest horsemanship issue? Crashing the corner. But they all had a somewhat different explanation of why it's happening and somewhat different suggestions on how to fix it. So instead of five different horsemanship problems like we offered with the headers, we are going to dedicate four pages to letting five guys explain the same thing, five different ways, so maybe, just maybe, one…

Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord added the Pendleton Round-Up title and $12,223 a man to their names after roping three steers in 17.9 seconds, a cherry on top of their season. “Those are just moments you think you'll know what they feel like, but you don't really until it happens,” said three-time NFR heeler Lord. “I just rode to the side and watched Coleman (Proctor) rope, then I saw the steer beat him out of there and, at that point, I knew we got it done. Then you just start running around: you go get on the horse, run across the field and then all the pictures and victory lap. It's one of a kind over there.” Make no mistake—Egusquiza and Lord still know money is important in this game.…

Last year, Dustin (Egusquiza) and I did good enough all summer to be near the top of the world standings, but we still missed the Cinch Governor's Cup in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, because we didn't have enough tour points to get in. Tour points are awarded mostly based on averages—which means last year, we won a lot of go-rounds, but we didn't catch two in a row as much as we'd have liked, and we missed the 2023 Governor's Cup by a point because of that. This year, we went into Sioux Falls' Cinch Governor's Cup first in the tour standings. I can't say we roped any different— we just consciously thought about when we get in those situations, making sure to pay more attention to the second one.…

If you ask former bull riding champ and jackpot king Mike White if he and his wife, Hannah, go to Jacksonville, Florida, from time to time for the Cinch NTRL Finals, White says no—they drive the 15 hours out there every single time. The Whites, of DeKalb, Texas, never miss the Jacksonville event, coming Jan. 22-26, 2025, for several reasons. One is the first-class facility where you rope all three preliminary steers back-to-back in three separate arenas. Another is the weather and location—what's not to love about roping on a gorgeous 70-degree day 30 minutes from the beach? But mostly, it's the quality of the cattle. According to White, it's hard enough to win a team roping without drawing bad cattle. So, out of the increasing number of jackpots all…