Logan Allen and Trent Vaught had never roped together prior to the 2024 Great Lakes Circuit Finals, but they walked away with the average title Nov. 16, a first for the Iowa and Arkansas men.

Allen, 38, and Vaught, 30, roped three steers in 19.1 seconds to pocket a total of $8,060 after placing in every round. The 2024 trip to Louisville, Kentucky, was Allen’s first in the team roping, but he’s qualified 14 times in the saddle bronc riding and three times in the bull riding. When Saturday night rolled around, a sold-out show with 14,000 people in the stands, the realization kicked in.

“I was more just anxious because I was sitting there, we were last out because we were high team, and I wished I could just go,” Allen said. “Then everybody goes in front of us and it gets a little closer, and I’m looking at the bucking chutes, watching everybody saddle, and I’m like, I wish I was saddling the dirtiest, rankest bronc right now because I’m way more comfortable there.”

On the contrary, Vaught’s made the trip to Freedom Hall four times in the team roping, and it’s a relief to finally add the title to his resume. 

“It took me four years,” Vaught said with a laugh. “It’s exciting to get it done. The people and victory laps make it exciting. I think it’s a lot of fun getting to do it in front of more people.”

Smooth gets the win

Allen and Vaught didn’t rope together during the regular season, but they both made it as individuals 12^th in the standings. Knowing that dropping coils and being 4.0 wasn’t going to be their run, they aimed to start the week off with a solid, clean run they could build off for the aggregate. 

“I knew we were going to be first out the first night, and Chance—my brother-in-law who works for me—we would rope steers all day every day on colts,” Allen explained. “And then we’d get on our good horses, and I’d head for him and we’d run three steers, basically just a little mock setup. I’d say, ‘OK, I’m first out, I know it’s going to be point of the shoulder at minimum,’ and so we’d practice it. I would just always say, let’s get our first steer down. I knew if I went to Louisville first out, got our first steer down in some kind of 6.0-second run, it would set up something good for the rest of the week.”

Allen and Vaught kicked off the circuit finals Nov. 14, with a 6.2-second run to split third, fourth and fifth in the round for $733 a man. They kept things rolling with a 5.4 in Round 2 to win second in the round and $2,198 each. They entered Round 3 first in the average and drew a steer that stepped left.

“I think it worked out great because it didn’t let Trent relax,” Allen said. “He had to get up there and heel him before we got into the wall. He heeled the crap out of him. It took our mind from just being clean to we had to be aggressive and get him.”

They won fourth in the round with a 7.5 for $733 a man to clinch the average for $4,396 apiece. 

“It’s the best it’s been since I’ve been there, but the steers were also better, so that makes the roping better too,” Vaught said. 

Louisville Horsepower

Allen rode two horses in Louisville: Two Jumps and Mac. Having two solid horses allowed him to be more strategic and choose his horsepower based on their draw. Two Jumps got the call in Rounds 1 and 3, and Mac came in clutch in Round 2 on a softer steer.

“On Two Jumps, I didn’t want to see neck rope and then the next night come back and ask him to see halfway out,” Allen said. “The third night, if we were sitting good in the average, I knew I wasn’t going to have the slow one since we already had him; I was going to have to see neck rope again. I still wanted to ride Mac—he’s the one that got me there, so part of me was like, you deserve to go. I just thought I’d keep him for a longer score and then keep the other one for a little bit quicker, and it ended up working out.”

Vaught’s 10-year-old gelding Gunner got the call on the heel side each night.

“He’s really my only good one,” Vaught said. “He is just easy, stays free and keeps his feet moving. He doesn’t ever cheat me.”

See ya in July

Allen and Vaught will rope together again next July at the NFR Open in Colorado Springs, a rodeo Allen didn’t think he’d make again after swapping ends of the arena. For Vaught, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime.

“it’s a big opportunity to go up against the best and see where you line up,” Vaught said.

The post Logan Allen and Trent Vaught Pair Up for 2024 Great Lakes Circuit Finals Win appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

As young adults embark on the best four years of their lives as they head to college each fall, thousands of young rodeo athletes are also preparing for the next step in their budding careers: college rodeo.

Since 1949, the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association has given college students the opportunity to develop their skills inside the arena while also furthering their education. With hopes of making the College National Finals Rodeo, college rodeo is an influential chapter for rodeo athletes prior to the professional level. But, new chapters can be intimidating. So, how does college rodeo work?

So, what is college rodeo and NIRA?

The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association gives students enrolled in a college or university the opportunity to continue their rodeo careers after high school. With over with over 135 colleges and universities with sanctioned NIRA organizations and over 100 rodeos a year, NIRA continues to offer college athletes the opportunity to develop their rodeo careers while simultaneously furthering their education. Students must be in good standing and meet specific academic requirements to be eligible to rodeo. A student has six years of eligibility from the date of high school graduation to compete in college rodeo with a limit of rodeoing four years, plus a fifth if pursuing a masters degree or serving as a student region director. Each member school has a coach or advisor to oversee practices, aid in the membership process, ensure students are eligible and help students through this chapter of school, rodeo and life.

Regions? How does that work?

NIRA is divided into 11 geographical regions across the United States. Each region has roughly 10 rodeos a year where athletes work to earn a trip to the College National Finals Rodeo, held in Casper, Wyoming, each June. Your college determines what region you will compete in. The region breakdown is as follows:

• Big Sky Region: Consists of colleges and universities in Montana and Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming.
• Central Plains Region: Consists of colleges and universities in Kansas, Oklahoma and the northwest corner of Missouri, west of I35.
• Central Rocky Mountain Region: Consists of colleges and universities in Wyoming, Colorado and Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska.
• Grand Canyon Region: Consists of colleges and universities in Arizona; New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico; Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari, New Mexico; San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico; Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, New Mexico; New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico; Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexicos; and ENMU – Ruidoso in Ruidoso, New Mexico.
• Great Plains Region: Consists of colleges and universities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
• Northwest Region Consists of colleges and universities in Oregon, Washington, the northern panhandle of Idaho (bound by the Salmon River to the south) and that part of Southern Idaho within the boundaries of Canyon County College of Idaho; Caldwell, Idaho; and Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia.
• Ozark Region: Consists of colleges and universities of Arkansas, the part of Louisiana north of the Red River and the Mississippi River, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, Indiana, Eastern Louisiana, Ohio and Illinois.
• Rocky Mountain Region: Consists of colleges and universities in Utah and Idaho (south of the Salmon River), Colorado Mesa University and Colorado Northwestern Community College.
• Southern Region: Consists of colleges and universities in East Texas (all member schools east of I35, Denton, Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, Uvalde and down Eagle Pass) and the part of Louisiana south of the Red River and the Mississippi River.
• Southwest Region: Consists of colleges and universities in New Mexico and West Texas (all member schools west of I35, Denton, Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, Uvalde and and down Eagle Pass)
• West Coast Region: Consists of colleges and universities in California and Nevada.

To see what specific schools are in each region, click HERE.

Do all schools have college rodeo programs? What happens if mine doesn’t?

No, not all schools have college rodeo programs—these are called non-member schools. Have no fear, though, you can still rodeo as an independent. To college rodeo at a non-member school, students need to become an independent member of NIRA by applying individually (if you are at a member school, typically your coach or program advisor will do this for you). For independents, you will typically be required to have your school administration sign and verify your status.

Can I rodeo at a junior college?

Absolutely! There are many junior colleges with NIRA programs (and successful ones, at that). As long as the school is accredited and in good standings, you’re good to rodeo.

How do I become a NIRA member?

To become a NIRA member, you must be enrolled in an accredited college. At the beginning of the school year, students will fill out a membership form and pay their dues, often with the help of their coach or advisor. Remember: If you are at a non-member school, you must fill out an independent membership form. Students must be eligible and in good standing to compete at their regional rodeos.

Wait, we have to actually be…students?

You sure do—that’s why it’s college rodeo. To be eligible, students must:

• Be enrolled at a college or university listed in the Accredited Institutions of Post Secondary Education publication 
• Maintain a 2.0 GPA or higher 
• Take at least 12 academic credits per term 
• Be in good standing 

What’s this WCRA College Trifecta?

College rodeo athletes have been given the opportunity of a lifetime with the WCRA College Trifecta. NIRA and the WCRA have teamed up to offer a $10,000 Top Hand Bonus at the 2025 CNFR. The Top Hand Bonus will award a total of $10,000 in cash to the contestants who earn the highest points in any single event at the CNFR and have nominated with the WCRA. The Top Hand Bonus will be awarded to any college rodeo athlete who:

• Wins their event in their region
• Wins at least one go-round at the CNFR in said event
• Wins the CNFR national title in that event
• The athlete must have nominated with WCRA at the CNFR to be eligible for the bonus.

If more than one athlete completes the trifecta, then those athletes will split the bonus.

The post What is College Rodeo? appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

And the 2024 Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year goes to…Cody Johnson, for the musical masterpiece he calls “Leather!” Let the record show that that’s Cody’s own roping hand on that album cover. This guy’s cowboy songs are legit, because he is one. And a win for him is a win for our entire Western world, because CoJo’s hell bent on keeping country in country music. 

“People have poured their passion—hearts and souls—into this album,” beamed the happy CMA champ, who was quick to credit others who gave all alongside him to “Leather.”

Johnson, who sang a duet of “I’m Gonna Love You” with Carrie Underwood at last night’s CMAs, team ropes every chance he gets when not performing center stage. He poured his heart and soul into another passion project in recent times. That resulted in the inaugural Cody Johnson Championship Event, which was a weeklong rope-a-thon in Belton, Texas in October. Andrew Ward and Jake Long left the first-ever CoJo Open $32,500 richer, and pulling brand new gooseneck stock combo Bloomer Trailers with shiny new Bill Fick Ford F-350 dually trucks. 

“Cody knows who we are, because he’s one of us,” added World Champion Team Roper Colby Lovell. “He lives it, and he means it when he sings about it. Cody’s our concrete cowboy with the power to stand up for rodeo, ranching and cowboys in places where people judge from the outside in. He’s worked his hands to the bone, so he’s not a guy who’s ever going to forget where he came from. Cody Johnson has brought the cowboy hat back.”

“Cody’s stayed true to himself, and stuck to his guns,” said World Champion Team Roper Kaleb Driggers. “He’s not afraid to get up on that stage and talk about his belief in God, love for America and everything we stand for as cowboys.” 

Cody Johnson lives it every day, and it shows.

“Team roping has all but consumed my life since 2020, and roping is what I do to get away from the smoke and lights,” Cody said. “When I’m out there horseback with a rope in my hand, I just get to be who I am at the core, and that’s a cowboy.”

Congratulations, CoJo!

The post One of Our Own Wins 2024 CMA Award: Congratulations to CoJo!  appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Rhen Richard and SJR Diamond Bond have been a force in the rope horse futurity game since the horse’s 4-year-old year, and he ended his aged-event career with a bang, winning the Gold Buckle Futurities 6-and-Under Heading Nov. 16 in Abilene, Texas.

The son of CD Diamond out of ARC Its Go Time by One Time Pepto won the average by 10 full points with a 919.35 for $11,000, and he picked up another $19,000 for first in the Elite Stallion Incentive—of which $9,500 will go to Richard’s A&C Racing and Roping and $9,500 will go to CD Diamond’s owners at San Juan Ranches. The horse won another $9,000 in the Elite Breeder’s Incentive, of which $4,500 will go to Richard and $4,500 will go to San Juan Ranches, too. 

We caught up with Richard after his final big win in the show business on SJR Diamond Bond.

TRJ: Was this your first time at a Gold Buckle Futurity?

Rhen Richard: Yep.

TRJ: Now that you’re a full-time futurity trainer, do you have time for futurities all over the country, or what finally made you come to this one?

RR: We came because we knew it was a good event. Before, we just didn’t have the right horses. It’s not that we didn’t want to come, you know what I mean? I’ve been a bit horse poor all year, and I just got a couple horses back this fall, so it made sense to come now. It doesn’t make sense to drive here when you only have two horses to show. That’s why we missed the first ones.

TRJ: I asked you this yesterday, but you didn’t really have an answer. The yellow horse, he’s six, right? Going to be seven. What do you want his future to be?

RR: I don’t know. He has the potential to be a rodeo horse, but it’s hard to say. I’ve got a couple of guys interested in him, but it has to fit, you know what I mean? He’s a lot of horse but a good one. I’m not planning on rodeoing, but I’m not ruling it out either. If someone has to have him, I’ll sell him. If not, I’ll keep him and try to do him right.

TRJ: Does Chad (Richard’s dad) put much pressure on you when it comes to those decisions?

RR: Not really. When you have a good horse, it’s not hard to sell. I’ve never tried to sell that horse. When it’s time, I think he’ll sell easily.

TRJ: What did he do well this week? What did the judges like about him yesterday?

RR: He was flashy and worked great yesterday. He scored well, ran hard, and was physical pulling. It would take something really good to beat him. He’s tough when he puts a day together. He was solid everywhere.

TRJ: He’s one of the few you didn’t raise. How does he fit into your program with those bred to run?

RR: When he puts his run together, it feels good. But I’m used to horses with a lot of run who don’t have to give everything in the tank. With him, sometimes I’m asking for everything he has, which is tough mentally for a young horse. Managing a horse like that is harder than managing one like Kenny’s Brookstone, who doesn’t have to give everything to perform well.

TRJ: What about the rest of your program? Is it more winter’s version-centered or racehorse-centered for the next couple of years?

RR: We’ve got a lot of crosses. Our coming 2-year-olds include four or six from racehorse lines by Reys Smokin Dually out of running mares. We’re starting to see the lines we like on the bottom side, especially since I’ve been home riding two-year-olds all summer. Horses from certain lines are really promising.

TRJ: For everyone who doesn’t know, what is that line?

Rhen Richard: It goes back to a mare named Runninn Brook Gal who won the All-American Futurity, out of a mare called RJK Runaway. We bred multiple studs to that mare and now have about ten mares going back to that line. It’s working well on the cross, producing good horses like Kynis Brookstone and Shes Mischievous.

TRJ: Shes Mischievous was a horse Kaden trained and showed. But you’ve been riding her lately?

Rhen Richard: Yes, I took her to Cody Johnson. She had a chance to win but broke a barrier once. She’s proving that futurity horses can make rodeo horses. She’s always been a standout.

TRJ: What’s her lineage?

Rhen Richard: She’s Winners Version out of a mare called Miss Mischievous, who goes back to that Runnnin Brook Gal line. We plan to flush her this spring for some cool stuff.

TRJ: What about your rodeo horses? Did Deets get sold?

Rhen Richard: Deets got hurt last year right before the NFR, which is what I planned on riding. We never figured out what it was, but he’s just started coming back. It’s hard to say I won’t rodeo because he’s a horse you can win on anywhere. I sold Rich, the horse I rode at the NFR last year, to Wyatt Bray. My old horse is 23 and done. The yellow horse and the black mare are situational. If I wanted to rodeo, I could.

TRJ: And, before we go, Kaden just kicked your butt in the 4-and-under heading, right?

Rhen Richard: Yes, he does a great job. I can get on any of his horses and feel like I can win. He needs to know he’s that good. The horse he just won on is nice, with the potential to be a top rodeo horse. Caden’s always got horses that can win at any level. It’s great to see him succeed.

Related Articles:

• SJR Diamond Bond and Rhen Richard Win Second Consecutive Royal Crown 4-&-Under of 2022
• Richard and SJR Diamond Bond, Rice and First Class Vintage Claim Royal 4-Year-Old Titles in Buckeye
• SJR Diamond Billy & Billie Jack Saebens Get 6-&-Under *Heading* Win for $39K at First Gold Buckle Futurity
• NOPE, Different Buckskin: Cody Snow to Debut Southern Ranches’ Futurity Standout SJR Diamond Billy at Bob Feist Invitational
• Marepower: Tauna Alcorn and Mike Bacon Win $122K Riata #12.5 on SJR Diamond Metalica and Play Like Boon

The post SJR Diamond Bond Closes $70K Futurity Career with Gold Buckle Maturity Win in Abilene appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Bradley Massey and Zack Mabry took control of the 2024 Southeastern Circuit this spring and never looked back, winning the year-end titles with $25,200.55 for Massey and $24,307.55 for Mabry. 

The Florida and Alabama team went into the Southeastern Circuit Finals Nov. 8-10, in Davie, Florida, with $6,143.78 and $11,470.47 leads, respectively. They added $2,225 a man to seal the deal on Massey’s fifth year-end title—one of which was on the heel side—and Mabry’s second.

“I still work at it like I’m 20, I still rope three or four days a week,” Massey, 38, said. “I always feel like I have a pretty good horse for down here, and probably the biggest thing is that almost every year I have one of the best heelers. And if I do my job, most of the time, I win. There’s a lot of guys down here that are roping good, too. I mean, Marcus Theriot is down here almost every year, Keven Daniel made the Finals four times—there’s a lot of guys that rope good. So, I don’t think it’s luck, but I just kind of got it figured out somehow or another.”

For Mabry, the second title is just as sweet, and being able to finish what they started is the cherry on top.

“it’s always good to be able to win the circuit,” Mabry, 33, said. “I’m not a guy that’s going to strike out and go to Reno or anything, so winning the circuit’s kind of something that a guy that stays home can do. It means a lot.”

Kicking it off early

Getting an early start on the season was key in Massey and Mabry’s 2024 success. The team picked up $2,482 a man for second at Northwest Florida Championship Rodeo in Bonifay Oct. 5-7, 2023, and $2,865 each after winning the 10th Annual Arcadia Fall Rodeo (Florida) Oct. 21-22. 

February and March are prime time in the Southeastern Circuit with a sizable portion of their rodeos taking place in the spring, and they raked in $12,294 a man between from January to March.

“I don’t think anything in our run was necessarily that dominant, but I think that we caught some steers early in the year that were big steers, and then we just kept placing along,” Mabry said. “It seemed like we hit at a few of the bigger rodeos, and that helped, but what helped us the most is we never had a month or two where we got cold; it’s not like we were red hot, it just was kind of steady.”

The Southeast summers might be hot, but Massey and Mabry actually slowed down for much of the summer. Regardless, when the regular season ended, Massey led the pack with $22,975.50 won on the year and Mabry with $22,082.50.

Looking to 2025

As Massey continues to add year-end titles to his resume, he begins to etch himself in the Southeastern Circuit history books. With a family at home, his goals on the circuit front keep him plenty busy.

“I’ve worked at it for a long time,” Massey said. “I’ve never went and really tried to make the NFR—I always had different goals. I know a lot of people can do it with families, but I’ve never felt that I could. My boys play travel baseball, my girl rodeos, and when I was young, I never felt like I roped good enough. Then when I got to where I felt like I roped pretty good, I felt like I had too much other stuff going. So, I’ve always put a lot of emphasis on [winning the circuit].”

But with a chance at some of the 2025 winter rodeos and their tickets punched for July’s NFR Open in Colorado Springs, there’s a chance Massey and Mabry may enter outside the circuit here and there.

“I think there’s an outside chance,” Mabry said. “We’ve still got a chance, maybe, to get into San Antonio and Houston. If we were to get into San Antonio and Houston again and did good, we might enter around a little bit. And I bet that when we go out [to Colorado Springs], we’ve talked about entering for three or four weeks, mainly just because I want to go.”

The post Bradley Massey and Zack Mabry Seal the Deal on 2024 Southeastern Circuit Year-End Titles appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Koby Sanchez and Trace Porter took home the 2024 Southeastern Circuit Finals win after roping three steers in 17.6 seconds in Davie, Florida, Nov. 8-10.

The Louisiana team had their sights set on the NFR Open in July, especially after having a successful July trip out west in 2024. Now, they’re locked in for 2025.

“The NFR Open has always been a goal to try to get to through the average from our circuit finals,” Sanchez, 23, said. “But our rounds pay so good—it’s almost $3,000 round. You still can win a lot of money even if you’re not in the average. So, it kind of goes both ways. But getting to Colorado Springs is a really, really big plus to stay hooked to that average.”

For Porter, who finished 22^nd in the world standings in 2018, he’s been itching to rodeo hard again. Thanks to their high-paying circuit finals, their $7,788 weekend may have set them up to hit the road again in 2025.

“We started some businesses, but I just wanted to go again,” Porter, 32, said. “We started at Springdale and went all the way to the Salt Lake rodeos. We stayed gone probably four weeks just to see how we stood as a team. We actually did some winning; we won right at $10,000 in three weeks. So, this win down here can set us up where we can maybe actually rodeo a little bit.”

How to win the Southeastern Circuit Finals

Sanchez and Porter went into Davie with their sights set on the average and the NFR Open.

“The first round, we didn’t really know a lot about the steers,” Porter said. “We just wanted to get one down and start playing the average game. [Koby] had done pretty good in the past of roping good down there, but neither of us had ever done any good in the average. So, we just wanted to start playing the numbers game, just knocking them down.” 

Their first steer was a touch strong, but they made him work and laid the foundation for the average race with a 7.1-second run. Luck was on their side in Round 2, and they won second in the round with a 5.3 for $2,225 a man.

“We came back on a steer that everybody was wanting, and we got him,” Sanchez said. “He was real good, and we used him.”

Their third-round steer had some tricks to him, but Sanchez took a good start to beat his zigzagging. They split third in the final round with a 5.2-second run to pick up $1,113 apiece and seal the deal on the aggregate title for $4,450 a man. 

Sanchez and Porter have been friends for years and, after roping here and there over the years, decided to enter full-time together in 2024. Sanchez credits Porter on the heel side for much of their success. 

“We decided we were going to rope full-time this year, and it was good,” Sanchez said. “He’s been doing it a while, and he sure is great; he doesn’t miss very many, and he sure catches two feet. It’s nice to know, usually, when I turn them, they’re about heeled.”

Down the horse rabbit hole

For Sanchez, his rookie year was plagued with horse problems. Both of his good horses went down in October and, from the fall of 2023 through June, he rode 13 different horses, mounting out at nearly every circuit rodeo. Until RV Elvis 701 came along. Sanchez bought the 7-year-old gelding a week before heading west for the summer, and they clicked immediately. 

“I went and tried him, and I loved him,” Sanchez said. “I threw him straight to the wolves. I bought him, we went to the Franklin, Tennessee, rodeo, and went to three or four rodeos that week. The next week we left and headed to Greeley.”

On the heel side, Porter rode a 14-year-old who’s been in his barn the last decade. King Of The Cats, aka “Gangster,” was a practice horse for nearly seven years, until the time and practice made him top of the line.

“All of a sudden, it just kind of got to where time made him better,” Porter said. “For so long, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t like the horse. All of a sudden, my good horse went down probably two years ago—he got old –and I really didn’t have nothing coming, so that horse I just kind of started. It was time for him to be ready, and he sure stepped up.”

The post Koby Sanchez and Trace Porter Win 2024 Southeastern Circuit Finals  appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

PBR (Professional Bull Riders) and Kid Rock announced today that the transformative Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo will return to Arlington, Texas, and AT&T Stadium on May 16, 2025. 

The landmark, team-formatted rodeo featuring rock n’ roll icon Kid Rock LIVE in concert, will again launch the biggest weekend in Western sports, with the the 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast – Championship taking over the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys on May 17-18, 2025.  Three-day ticket packages for the 2025 Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo and 2025 PBR World Finals – Championship are on sale now. 

“Last May we mashed up rodeo and rock and roll to celebrate cowboys and America in a party no one will ever forget,” said Kid Rock. “It’s time for year two, and we’ve got even bigger ideas to continue pushing rodeo into the entertainment mainstream. Nothing’s cooler than rodeo and rock-n-roll.”

“In 2024, the PBR alongside entertainment icon Kid Rock reimagined and changed rodeo forever,” said Sean Gleason, CEO and Commissioner of the PBR. “Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo delivered an exciting team-formatted all-star rodeo inside the NFL’s largest stadium, capped off with an unforgettable concert from Kid Rock.  We are making some exciting tweaks to this transformative concept and can’t wait to welcome even more fans to AT&T Stadium in 2025.”

Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo is a reimagined rodeo produced by PBR in partnership with Kid Rock. During the music-infused event, six teams, each led by a legendary rodeo head coach, compete head-to-head in bracket-style competition across barrel racing, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, and breakaway roping. 

The all-star rodeo team competition and upbeat production is patterned after the successful formula PBR brought to bull riding through the Camping World Team Series launched in 2022.

Five of the six teams will feature one returning member per discipline from the 2024 Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo. They will fill the second open position in each discipline via a draft. 

The sixth team will again be comprised of athletes who qualify through the WCRA (World Champions Rodeo Alliance) Major held in tandem with Rodeo Corpus Christi in May 2025. 

At the first-ever Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo last May, the WCRA team rode lights out, winning three gold medals in Round 1 before cementing their title as champions by winning four of the disciplines in the championship round. 

Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo begins at 7 p.m. CT on Friday, May 16. Following the can’t-miss rodeo, the PBR World Finals concludes with the Championship when the 2025 PBR World Champion will be crowned and presented the coveted gold buckle and $1 million bonus. The 2025 PBR World Finals – Championship begins on Saturday, May 17 at 7:45 p.m. CT and concludes on Sunday, May 18 at 1:45 p.m. CT. 

Ticket packages including Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo (May 17) and PBR World Finals – Championship (May 18-19) at AT&T Stadium are on sale now and can be purchased online at PBR.com and SeatGeek.com, or by calling (800) 732-1727.  

Stay tuned to PBR.com for the latest news and results and be sure to follow the sport on all social media platforms at @PBR. 

About PBR (Professional Bull Riders): 

PBR is the world’s premier bull riding organization. More than 800 bull riders compete in more than 200 events annually across the televised PBR Unleash The Beast tour (UTB), which features the top bull riders in the world; the PBR Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour (PWVT); the PBR Touring Pro Division (TPD); and the PBR’s international circuits in Australia, Brazil, and Canada. In 2022, the organization launched PBR Teams—10 teams of the world’s best bull riders competing for a new championship—as well as the PBR Challenger Series with more than 60 annual events nationwide. PBR events are broadcast on CBS Television Network and Paramount+; Merit Street Media and Merit+; and in Spanish on TUDN. PBR is a subsidiary of Endeavor, a global sports and entertainment company. For more information, visit PBR.com, or follow on Facebook at Facebook.com/PBR, X at X.com/PBR, Instagram at Instagram.com/PBR and YouTube at YouTube.com/PBR.

About Kid Rock:

Kid Rock is a multi-platinum award-winning American rock ‘n roll icon. His music has been characterized as a melting pot of musical genres; from rap-rock in the ‘90s with singles “Bawitdaba” and “Cowboy,” to the multi-chart hit “Picture,” a collaboration with Sheryl Crow, to the global smash hit, “All Summer Long,” charted at No. 1 in eight countries across Europe and Australia. Rock has sold nearly 30 million records worldwide and has earned a reputation as one of the hardest-working acts in rock n’ roll, blowing the roofs off arenas and stadiums on countless cross-country tours and treks around the globe. Kid Rock holds the Michigan record for most tickets sold with 150,000 for a run of ten consecutive sold-out shows, and he set the Little Caesars Arena attendance record in his hometown of Detroit with 86,893 attendees in six sold-out shows. Kid Rock is also a passionate supporter of those who serve in the US Armed Forces, in addition to many other charitable causes through his Kid Rock Foundation. His newest album, Bad Reputation, was released through his own Top Dog Records label. The album features crowd favorites, “Don’t Tell Me How To Live,” “We The People,” and “My Kind of Country,” a song he co-wrote with Eric Church and Adam Hood.

The post Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo is Returning to AT&T Stadium in 2025 appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Just four years after the start of the Breeder’s Guide in 2020, The Team Roping Journal has the honor to share 150+ pages of the best studs and programs in the game.

The TRJ Breeder’s Guide offers the premier opportunity for breeders, stallion owners and specialists within the industry to market and promote their horses and their services to the most captive audience in team roping. The last few years, our Breeder’s Guide provided stallion owners and breeders with more than one million impressions at the start of breeding season, marketing stallions and programs across teamropingjournal.com, Instagram and Facebook. The Breeder’s Guide will once again be shared in the January 2025 issue, and the ad reservation deadline is now Nov. 15, 2024.

Why Now?

With the explosion of the Ariat World Series of Team Roping’s payouts and the growth of the rope horse futurity industry, the demand for top-level horses has never been higher. Ropers across the globe are searching for ways to maximize their horsepower, and are finding solutions through premium prospects, proven broodmares and the best studs in the game, guaranteeing big wins for years to come. 

Key Deadlines

Ads close: Nov. 15, 2024
Materials due: Nov. 15, 2024

For more information and to reserve spaces, contact Kayla Lombardo or Nick Griggs

Kayla Lombardo: (704) 242-2553 or KLombardo@equinenetwork.com
Nick Griggs: (806) 290-2077 or NGriggs@equinenetwork.com

The post TRJ Extending 2025 Breeder’s Guide Deadline appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

It’s almost impossible to find an achievement, award or accolade that’s eluded Trevor Brazile. He’s won more than anyone else in the history of our sport. The Rodeo Historical Society just found a way, and honored our cowboy king with the 2024 Ben Johnson Memorial Award on Saturday night, November 9 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. 

This prestigious award is given each year in the name of a remarkable cowboy with the rare distinction of being both a world champion team roper (1953) and an Academy Award-winning actor. Pride of Pawhuska, Oklahoma Johnson, who died in 1996 at 77, won his Academy Award in 1971 for his role in The Last Picture Show. 

Everyone knows about Trevor’s 26 gold buckles and $7 million-plus in career earnings. But what are the marks of a truly good man and worthy rodeo role model and hero for our kids and the generations to come? For me, it’s a simple list, and Brazile checks every box.  

Beyond his second-to-none work ethic and talent, Trevor Brazile is a man of God who puts his family first. He left his career while still winning world championships, because Shada, Treston, Style and Swayzi mean more. 

This week, there are two images of Trevor in my mind that tell this tale. One was the sweet scene I saw when I went to find him for a hug as the induction ceremony concluded. While many were grabbing another beer and making plans with friends about which bar they would meet at later, I watched Trevor walk straight over to Delmar Smith. 

Dear Delmar is pushing 100. He gets around with the help of a walker and scooter now, and was cupping his hand to his ear all weekend, while apologizing for forgetting his hearing aids at home. Most there had no idea that Delmar was a world-famous bird-dog trainer in his day, and is the King of the Chutes at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, where Delmar cracked the gate for generations of cowboys at the Timed Event Championship. Trevor made that man’s night. Mine, too.

The other picture I just happened to run across this week was from the Pendleton Round-Up the year a couple of rodeo photographers got in Trevor’s road in the steer roping. I’m not sure anyone else on this earth could have had the presence of mind to navigate that horse, hold his slack and spare two lives, while also sacrificing a much fatter paycheck had he not shown the world what ultimate cowboy sportsmanship and humanity look like. I don’t know who took that picture—heck, it might even be a screen shot taken from the telecast—but I thank whoever did that for stopping time on a true cowboy classic. 

“This is such an honor,” Trevor said. “You are my people, and there’s nowhere I feel more at home than with you all. When I walk into a place like this it takes me back to my roots. I’m so thankful for this Western industry I get to call mine.

“That same grit Ben Johnson had is the only thing that can turn that potential that everybody has into reality. I gladly carry the torch. Thank you.”

Raised right, and cowboy to the core. Thank you, and congratulations, Trevor!

The post Worthy Hero: Trevor Brazile Honored With 2024 Ben Johnson Memorial Award appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Jake Smith and Jonathan Torres both won their first year-end circuit titles, claiming the 2024 Wilderness Circuit heading and heeling titles.

Smith claimed the heading title with $41,138.34 won on the circuit front after roping with Douglas Rich this year, and Torres won the heeling with $43,414.02 after heeling for Nelson Wyatt.

For Smith, 2024 has been a year to remember as he’s heading to his first NFR in December, and winning the Wilderness Circuit was the cherry on top.

“I’m just tickled to death,” Smith, 31, said. “I’m excited. I was wanting to do better at the circuit finals than I did—I didn’t do a great job for Doug, and it wound up costing him winning the year-end. I was really wanting him to win it with me. But don’t get me wrong, I’m still excited that I did end up winning the year-end, and I’m excited get to rope with Torres at the NFR Open.”

Torres, who’s ready to heel at his third NFR, won a tight battle atop the Wilderness Circuit standings after the circuit finals Nov. 1-2, in Heber City, Utah.

“My main goal is making the NFR, but then going up there and winning the circuit’s still pretty cool,” Torres said. “Obviously the prizes are cool—saddle, buckle—and then you were the champion of that circuit for the year. It’s a lot of work, a lot of determination, a lot of goals. A guy has to meet his rodeo count. So just connecting all the dots makes it feel like you’ve accomplished your task or your goal.”

Wilderness works for Smith

Oklahoma’s Smith is actually a Prairie Circuit cowboy, but with trying to make the NFR, the Wilderness Circuit had more money up for grabs and worked easier logistically. 

“Last year we counted up, and we went to like 18 Wilderness Circuit rodeos last year, and that wasn’t even our circuit,” Smith said. “We went to that many. So I was like, well, heck, we only got to go to a few more in that circuit. And it seemed like it’d be way easier; I knew there were a few that we didn’t go to just because we didn’t even really know about all those rodeos. It just seems like those rodeos are getting better and better out there, too.”

Smith and Rich kicked off their circuit season with a $5,515-a-man trip to the Clark County Fair & Rodeo in Logandale, Nevada, Apr. 10-14. They headed out a few weeks early for the Reno Rodeo—held at the end of June—to enter some more circuit rodeos, and they kept the ball rolling with $6,245 apiece on the circuit front in June. 

The beginning of July brought in $4,264 a man before their biggest hit of the year: Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo. Smith and Rich took home the Salt Lake City win and pocketed $14,623 apiece, giving Smith a nearly untouchable lead in the circuit.

“Salt Lake obviously was huge—which I don’t even think it’s going to count for next year—but Salt Lake was a huge, huge hit for us,” Smith said. “Right there at the beginning, I know we won the one in Eagle Mountain, and we won a few thousand there it seemed like for the first couple weeks at those circuit rodeos.” 

For the first-time NFR qualifier, making the circuit finals hasn’t even been on his radar the past few years, until the addition of the NFR Open.

“For the last several years, I haven’t even attempted to do it,” Smith admitted. “But the NFR Open is so good and it’s gotten to where you see how much that rodeo pays and everything, and it seems like it’s hard to miss it.”

Torres’ Wilderness strategy

Like Smith, the Wilderness Circuit was easier to work for Florida native Torres.

“The rodeos are great—Utah has a bunch of really good rodeos and they pay really good,” Torres said. “I just thought while we’re out there already traveling around, going to the best rodeos and stuff, it’d be nice to get the circuit in, too. I hadn’t made a circuit finals in a while just because I was Southeastern; well, that’s hard to make. Then I was Texas, and that’s a little tricky.”

Torres was on the money with his decision—literally. His biggest circuit hit came in Reno where he won second and pocketed $9,861 during his trip. June, in general, was a huge month for Torres as he picked up $18,317 on the circuit front that month.

When the season came to a close, Torres and Rich were neck and neck heading into Heber City with Torres trailing by just $217.32. Torres wanted to win as much money as possible, considering the circuit finals counts for the 2025 world standings, but he was also hopeful he and Rich could both make the NFR Open. 

“We’re pretty good buddies and, obviously, the way it turned out, it wasn’t that great,” Torres admitted. “I was hoping we could win the average and win the year-end because then it would’ve dropped down where he could have roped with Jake, and I would’ve roped with Rhen. But, unfortunately, It didn’t work out that way.”

Smith and Torres will take on the NFR Open in Colorado Springs July 8-12, 2025.

The post Jake Smith and Jonathan Torres Win 2024 Wilderness Circuit Titles appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Erich Rogers and Paul Eaves won the inaugural Hondo Rodeo Fest Nov. 9, 2024, for $20,000 a man.

Rodeo hit Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Nov. 7-9, for the Hondo Rodeo Fest in Phoenix, Arizona, and it featured eight of the best teams in the game.

World Champions Rogers and Eaves roped three steers in 14.83 seconds for the $20,000 aggregate check, and they picked up $23,000 a man between the three rounds. The massive earnings also helped lock in the Maverick Award for top earning athletes on the weekend, which they split with barrel racer Lisa Lockhart. Rogers and Eaves both pocketed $16,600 for the award, bringing their total earnings to $59,600 a man.

Hondo Rodeo Fest team roping results

Round 1, Nov. 7

1. Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira, $12,000
2. Erich Rogers and Paul Eaves, $7,500
3. Andrew Ward and Buddy Hawkins, $3,500
4. Coleman Proctor and Logan Medlin, $1,500

Round 2, Nov. 8

1. Andrew Ward and Buddy Hawkins, $12,000
2. Coleman Proctor and Logan Medlin, $7,500
3. Erich Rogers and Paul Eaves, $3,500
4. Tyler Wade and Wesley Thorp, $1,500

Round 3, Nov. 9

1. Erich Rogers and Paul Eaves, 5.44, $12,000
2. Coleman Proctor and Logan Medlin, 9.25, $7,500
3. Derrick Begay and Colter Todd, 13.70, $3,500
4. Andrew Ward and Buddy Hawkins, 19.91, $1,500

Average

1. Erich Rogers and Paul Eaves, 14.83 on three, $20,000
2. Coleman Proctor and Logan Medlin, 23.21, $12,500

Who was invited to the Hondo Rodeo Fest in the team roping?

The Hondo Rodeo Fest hand-selected the 2024 team roping contestants. The team roping field has a combined 132 NFR qualifications and 13 world titles. The 2024 invitees to the Hondo Rodeo Fest in the team roping are:

When and where is the Hondo Rodeo Fest?

The Hondo Rodeo Fest will take place at 6 p.m. MST Nov. 7-9, 2024, at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Hondo Rodeo Fest concert lineup

Each day, concerts will take place following the rodeo action at the Hondo Rodeo Fest. Here’s who is on the 2024 schedule.

Nov. 7: Hank Williams Jr. and Whiskey Myers

Nov. 8: Brooks & Dunn and Turnpike Troubadours 

Nov. 9: Zac Brown Band and Old Dominion

For ticket information, click here.

The post Erich Rogers, Paul Eaves Win Hondo Rodeo Fest: Results and More appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

At the conclusion of the 2024 PAFRA World Championship Rodeo in Clovis, New Mexico, Sept. 21, Adam Pollard and Tarrant Stewart—who have each supported the Professional Armed Forces Rodeo Association in varying capacities for many years—got to take home World Champion buckles after splitting the win in the team roping.

2024 PAFRA World Champion Header: Adam Pollard

Throughout his life, 53-year-old USMC veteran Adam Pollard has won plenty of awards from his time in the arena—enough to earn him a 2021 induction into the Military Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum—but the PAFRA World Champion Header buckle he won in September was a first for the Midland, Texas, native who served as PAFRA’s president in 2013. 

“I was on a heel horse,” Pollard said, explaining that he’s been focused on improving his heeling and was hoping to put a run together on that end. “My header missed in the first round, and I had entered on the head side. I thought, ‘Well, here we go. Let’s see what we can do.’”

Pollard, who is currently serving as president of the Military Rodeo Cowboys Association, drew a partner in 28-year-old Army veteran Dakota Smitherman, who won the World Championship title in the tie-down this year.

“He’s a very talented young man,” Pollard said of his heeler. “He rides the right kind of horses. He practices the right way. Things that, as somebody who’s been roping for 30 years, I watched that kid rope and I go, ‘He’s figuring it out the right way.’ His technique is right. His horses ride the right way; he’s very relaxed. It’s an awesome thing to watch.”

2024 PAFRA World Champion Heeler: Tarrant Stewart

Pollard shared the winner’s circle with Tarrant Stewart, whose dad, Charlie Stewart, is a Vietnam veteran and a 20-year PAFRA member who’s still competing. 

“My twin brother [Newell] and I got grandfathered into that organization,” Stewart explained, hinting toward PAFRA’s family-friendly membership setup. “I’m a big sponsor of it, and my dad was a Vietnam vet. He was there. So my brother and I, we got to go and rope with our dad. That’s how we got into that about 10 years ago.”

In that time, Stewart has secured himself a few World Championship buckles, including in 2019 and in 2018, when he shared the title with his brother. This year, he headed for active-duty Airman Dakota Lindboe.

“I live in Floresville, Texas, and Dakota actually moved to Floresville about a mile down from my house,” Stewart said. “We met at a jackpot, and I invited him to start roping with us. He and I have become friends and now we practice together.”

Lindboe, originally from Florida, grew up pulling steers for guys like Kaleb Driggers and Clint Summers, but he put the rope down in 2009 to join the military. By the time he got back to it, Super Looper and Spin to Win had become The Team Roping Journal. This is the first time he and his wife, Mandy, who is also active-duty Air Force and a barrel racer, entered up at the PAFRA event.

“We had an awesome time and thought it was a really good event,” said Lindboe, who was riding a horse he’d acquired in the last six months. “He’s a 16-year-old gelding I got from Matt Schieck. I think Cash Duty was riding him. He’s everything I need. He’s fast. He’s good and levelheaded. I was really lucky to find him.”

For the World Championship, Stewart was putting in the practice hours on one of his Riata horses, Hez Short On Time. 

“I’ve got a 5-year-old that we futuritied on, and we’ve been using him at the Riata,” Stewart said, explaining that he missed last year’s PAFRA due to a scheduling conflict with the Riata Championships. “I’ll tell you this: I’ve heeled about three ropings (I’m predominantly a header), and I was able to catch three for Mr. Dakota. So that was good.”

Pollard and Stewart both offered a nod to PAFRA’s leadership, noting that entries in the team roping may have doubled since last year. The organization also just announced a new March 1, 2025, rodeo to be held at the Cowtown Coliseum in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

—TRJ—

Thank you to Equinety for helping us share stories of military members, veterans and first responders in the team roping community.

The post Adam Pollard & Tarrant Stewart Crowned 2024 PAFRA World Champions appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Derrick Begay and Colter Todd cleaned house in the Turquoise Circuit, picking up both the Turquoise Circuit Finals and year-end titles in 2024.

The reigning NFR average champions roped three steers in 19.9 seconds at the circuit finals in Camp Verde, Arizona, Nov. 1-2, to win the aggregate title and solidify their year-end titles with $18,309.42 won on the year. The win marks Begay’s fourth year-end title and third average win and, despite having 11 NFR qualifications to his name, he still remembers his first circuit finals in 2004.

“I got there and I was like, ‘Wow, I made it,’” Begay, 41, reminisced. “I get there and they gave me a coat that said circuit finals qualifier, and I would not leave this coat out of sight. I wore it proud; I walked around with it all weekend. It was probably hot—it was in Arizona still. I got home, put it up on the coat hanger in the closet and just took care of this coat. I wore it to all the special occasions, to town when I wanted to and just showed it off a little bit.”

The coat still hangs in his mom’s home, and their 2024 wins still mean just as much.

“Yeah, I’ve gone past that, and I’ve won the year-end and average before, but as the old saying goes, it never gets old,” Begay said. “It always means something because every year is different.”

Todd, on the other hand, has one other average title and one other year-end title, and they came from the Great Lakes Circuit in 2004. With 20 years between the accolades, they have their own significance. 

“It’s all at the moment,” Todd, 40, said. “The Great Lake Circuit, that was way back; that was when I was young and it was just, ‘You bet.’ I was heading, and that was special back then—that rodeo paid outstanding for a circuit finals. Then this one, it’S a bit more just because of roping with a good friend and you just want to do good.”

Turquoise Approach 

While Begay and Todd set their sights on the NFR, they keep their rodeo count lower than others and official every rodeo they enter, making it easier to hit their circuit count. 

“Turquoise is fairly easy,” Todd said. “We did have to fly from Puyallup to Scottsdale (in September) to get our count, but it’s not too bad, really. I think we only have to count 10, and there’s enough decent rodeos that it’s not too bad.”

READ: Humble Beginnings: Advice From Derrick Begay

Begay and Todd kicked off their circuit season with a $2,059-a-man check at the 79th Annual Yuma Silver Spur Rodeo in Yuma, Arizona, in February. They picked up another $4,777 a man before the start of the summer run, and they finished the regular season second and fourth with $11,898.42 a man. A key to winning in the Turquoise Circuit is hitting at one or two of the big rodeos: La Fiesta De Los Vaqueros (Tucson, Arizona); Cave Creek Rodeo Days (Arizona); Home of the Navajo PRCA Rodeo (Window Rock, Arizona); World’s Oldest Rodeo (Prescott, Arizona); Lea County PRCA Rodeo (Lovington, New Mexico); and New Mexico State Fair & Rodeo (Albuquerque, New Mexico).

“What kind of closed the gap for us there at the end that gave us a chance to catch up with those guys is Albuquerque,” Begay said. “That’s the only one that kind of stands out. We won third or fourth, but Albuquerque is the one that got us close enough to those guys that were doing good in the circuit.”

The final straw

Despite having four NFR qualifications to his name, Todd still felt some pressure at the circuit finals.

“One, I’m roping with my best friend and I kind of feel like I let him down a lot this year,” Todd, who just missed the 2024 NFR at 16th, admitted. “And for him, he has a lot of family that comes, so I guess I shouldn’t say a lot of pressure, but it definitely isn’t just a common rodeo for me. Plus, you always want to do good and either win the year-end or the average there because of getting to go to Colorado Springs.”

Begay and Todd kicked off the circuit finals with a bang, tying for the win in Round 1 with a 5.8 for $2,040 a man. In the second round, Begay’s horse slipped leaving the box, but they still tied for fourth with an 8.2 and picked up $291 each.

Watch on Roping.com: A Family Legacy- The Todd Family

They went into the final round tied at the top of the average and drew a steer to help them take the win. A 5.9-second run won them fourth in the round for $583 apiece and clinched the $3,497-a-man aggregate title. They pocketed $6,411 a man in Camp Verde to also knab the year-end title. It was also a sweet taste of redemption after the 2023 circuit finals.

“This year, I’ve said it before, but doing it with Colter, that was cool for me,” Begay said. “Last year we had a really good chance—we were really good on two and come back on the last steer to win the year-end and the average. All I had to do was catch the steer clean, but I broke the barrier.”

Begay and Todd will head to the NFR Open in Colorado Springs next July. In 2024, the team qualified off the year-end and pocketed $10,750 a man to greatly impact their season.

“This year, [the NFR Open] helped me—it’s what got me to the Finals, I guess,” Begay said. “So for this year, it was important.”

The post Derrick Begay and Colter Todd Sweep Turquoise Circuit with 2024 Average and Year-End Titles appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Tonight’s the night Reg Camarillo will be inducted at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City with the Rodeo Historical Society’s Class of 2024.

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 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 & Western Heritage Museum’s November 9, induction ceremonies in Oklahoma City. True to form, Reg is honored and humbled by the unexpected recognition.

“I didn’t see this coming,” said Reg, who’s 79 now and lives in Fresno, California, with his wife, Kimberly. “Hall of fame induction just wasn’t something I was looking for or expecting. It’s a big deal, and a huge honor. But what the hell did I do?”

The Glory Days

Let’s see now…Leo and Jerold were Rodeo Cowboys Association rookies in 1968, which was the year Reg finished up his two-year stint in the Army during the Vietnam War.

“I always say I was drafted twice—into the Army, and by Leo and Jerold,” Reg grins. “And I say I served in two wars—Vietnam, and the team roping wars.

“I heeled a lot early on and was considered a heeler at one time, but Leo and Jerold wanted to heel. I couldn’t heel like they could. I went and stayed with Leo and Jerold one winter before I went into the Army, then I went to visit them at the Cow Palace (rodeo in San Francisco) right after I got out. It was the fall of 1968, the end of their rookie year, and Leo said, ‘It’s time. You’re coming with us.’ I joined the RCA in 1969.”

Reg was Leo’s first partner, and at the go-twice rodeos Reg also roped with Jerold. Reg and Leo won the National Finals Rodeo average three years in a row from 1969-71. Reg also won the NFR average with Jerold in 1975.

Reg roped at 11 NFRs, eight of them with Leo. Reg and Jerold roped at two NFRs in 1975 and ’79, and Reg headed for young Allen Bach his rookie year at the Finals in 1978, before Bach won his first world title in 1979. The Lion is still king, with a record six NFR average titles (Leo won his first NFR average as a rookie heeling for fellow Californian Billy Wilson in 1968). But Reg’s four says it all about his consistency, and how he was counted on by his famous cousins.

Cowboy Calculator

The finances at the Finals must be mentioned here. And remember, folks, most of the major rodeos didn’t even include team roping in the Camarillos’ heyday. At Reg’s first NFR in 1969, he and Leo placed in three of that year’s nine rounds and won the average, for a total of $1,039 a man. Allow me to run the inflation calculator for you on that, which in 2024 would still only be $8,912.

“The first year we made the NFR, I didn’t really even want to go,” Reg remembers. “They said the go-rounds were going to pay $300 a man to win them. But then, a lot of rodeos didn’t pay that at that time.”

Reg and Leo won two rounds, placed in three others and won the 10-head average at that next NFR in 1970, and each won $1,732. They won their thirdstraight NFR average in 1971 by placing in four of 10 rounds, and got out of town (Oklahoma City) with $1,145 apiece.

Back then, a turtle could have outrun the pace of NFR-payoff progress. When Reg and Jerold won the 1975 NFR a few years later, they placed in two rounds along the way and with the big average check still only left town with a less-than-grand total of $1,491 a man.

“I was very blessed to have two of the best partners in the world in my cousins,” Reg said. “They could really rope, and rodeoing was Leo and Jerold’s passion. I was mostly interested in winning money. Winning championships wasn’t my passion, like it was theirs.”

You’ll never hear it from Reg, but his cowboy contemporaries haven’t forgotten that he, too, should have a gold buckle. There were three years, 1976-78, when the PRCA-predecessor RCA ran a failed experiment that crowned the world champions based on sudden-death NFR earnings after wiping the regular-season earnings slate clean.

Leo won $30,761 and Reg $26,723 in 1976, which that year made Leo the lone PRCA champion (that was before headers and heelers were crowned separately). Bucky Bradford and Ronnie Rasco were the high-money winners at the Finals with $2,256 a man, and were named the world champions.

Reg and Leo were the reserve world champions with $2,180—so Reg missed out on a world championship and Leo lost out on a fifth gold team roping buckle by $152. Leo always regretted having to two-loop their last steer, which kept Reg from winning the world that year.

Same thing happened to Jerold when he won the 1977 regular season, and the Motes brothers won the world based on NFR earnings. Ditto on 1978 regular-season champs Doyle Gellerman and Walt Woodard, when George Richards and Brad Smith won the most at the NFR and were crowned the world champs.

Familia

Reg was the fourth of Rudy and Pearl Camarillo’s six kids, who also included late brother Sonny and four sisters, Ruth, Carolyn, Sylvia and Virginia. They grew up in Southern California, and would venture north to Santa Ynez for weekends, holidays and summers with Rudy’s brother, Ralph, and his wife, Pilar, who were Leo, Jerold and little sister Christie’s parents.

“My dad was a welder who roped a little when he was younger,” Reg remembers. “We always had a roping dummy and a bucking barrel around, and he was more instrumental than anyone in teaching me my roping fundamentals. My dad got into cutting horses, but Uncle Ralph was serious about roping. And when I went to stay with them, it was always a roping match on the swinging steer with Leo and Jerold and Sonny to see who had to do the dishes after dinner or clean the corrals.

“We were like the four stooges. We laughed, we fought and we challenged each other every which way, like four brothers. Whoever got their jeans on last in the morning had to go do chores. Everything was a competition.

“It was Leo and Jerold’s passion to be champions. I wasn’t as worried about it. When we got to rodeoing, Leo and Jerold paid attention to (world championship) points, but if a roping paid more than a rodeo, I’d just as soon go to the roping.”

Roping Revolutionaries

The Camarillos will go down in history as team roping game changers, Reg included.

“We opened the eyes of a lot of people,” Reg said. “People started practicing more, because it was evident how good Leo and Jerold were, and that working harder was the only way to stand a chance against them.

“I have a lot of fond memories from our rodeo days, though a lot of the big rodeos didn’t even have team roping, much less equal money. It was always a fight to try for equal money, because the other directors thought it was taking money away from their event.

“During that time, things started getting more rapid when people started watching Leo and Jerold rope steers around the corner, like they did. Guys started picking up on how they timed steers, and it changed everything. I was a little more conservative. I was always going for the win in the average. When we went out of the average, we had good luck in the rounds. But my consistency was pretty fair, and I wasn’t reaching like HP (Evetts).”

These Days

Reg trained horses when he left the rodeo trail. He now works for Kovak Ranch Equipment, and he and Kimberly just became first-time grandparents. Their daughter, Lacey, followed in her father’s military footsteps.

“Lacey’s a combat medic who’s been to Afghanistan three times,” Reg said proudly. “Her husband, Travis Womer, flies Black Hawks (helicopters). His day job is as a U.S. Marshal, and they both serve in the National Guard. Lacey and Travis live in Oklahoma, and had a baby girl, Remington Pearl, on August 9. They call her Remi.”

Reg Camarillo Fan Club

Reg has always been a man of many admirers. His family, friends, teammates, contemporaries, friendly rivals and cowboys who came behind him have all looked up to him.

Cousin Jerold

“Reg and Sonny were around a lot when we were kids,” Jerold remembers. “We were family, and everybody thought we were four brothers. Reg was one of the most consistent headers of all time. He didn’t take big chances to win first, but he roped every steer and always gave Leo and I a chance. We relied on Reg. We loved roping with HP (Evetts), too, but he threw a lot of line and took a lot of chances. Reg was a sure thing.

“At the go-twice rodeos, Leo and I roped with Reg and HP. They were opposites as ropers. We might win first or nothing with HP, and win second or third with Reg all day long. HP went for the gusto every time. Reg took that sure shot and made sure we won something.

“Outside of the arena, Reg didn’t like to party. He liked good food, but was pretty frugal. When you needed something done, you could count on Reg. He’s always been a very dependable person. Reg never cared about the spotlight. When people wanted interviews, Reg and I were most likely going to go take care of the horses and let Leo handle the media. He loved it, and that was good by us.”

HP Evetts

“Reg ran to the hip, and he always had a good horse,” said 1974 World Champ Evetts. “You never knew with me, but you were going to get a good throw with Reg. Reg was cool. Him and Jim Wheatley were big buddies, and when they rented an apartment in Mesa, Arizona for the winter a few years, I stayed with them. Reg was funny.”

Tee Woolman

“I came along right after Reg quit rodeoing, but Reg flagged the Finals a few times (seven) when I roped there, and did a great job,” remembers three-time World Titlist Woolman. “I thought it was outstanding to bring somebody in there who knew what team roping was all about. Reg was a team roper, so he knew the rules and how the game was played.

Read: Rare Cowboy Company: Tee Woolman

“When I was roping with Leo and all my horses were hurt, he said, ‘Let’s go see what Reg has.’ He had old Wildfire, his big bay he won so much on. Leo loved roping behind him. He was a huge monster of a horse (16 hands and 1,250-1,300 pounds, according to Reg) with a long mane and tail. Wildfire was really a pretty horse. I rode him, and I bought him.

“Leo and I were headed to rope at the Forum in Inglewood (California), and when we were leaving, Reg said, ‘OK, son, don’t let him get your rope.’ I was used to little quick horses, and he caught me off guard and ducked so hard on our first one that I lost my rope. But we won the second round.”

Jimmy Rodriguez

“Reg was a very good, consistent header,” said Rodriguez, who was an original 1979 inductee at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, but just last year inducted in Oklahoma City. “He never got all the praise he should have roping with Leo and Jerold, but he was very important to those teams. He scored good, and very seldom made a mistake.

“I always admired Reg. He was always a very good person. He was very quiet, but if he told you something, you could believe it. When he gave you his word, you could go by it. Reg flagged the Finals the year Leo and I roped together there in Oklahoma City (1981), and did a great job. I never thought Reg got the credit he deserved. I’m glad to see him being recognized now.”

Dick Yates

“We got acquainted with Reg the last year he was in the Army and stationed at Fort Carson (between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Colorado),” recalls 13-time NFR header Yates. “JD was pretty small, but Reg stayed with us some and went to a lot of jackpots with me, and rode my horses (including one he called Smokey). Reg was a great header, but he heeled a lot when he was here in Colorado, because he out-heeled most people in this country back then.

“Reg is a really nice, kind-hearted guy, and he became one of the family. JD and Kelly were pretty little when Reg was around here a lot, but they just loved him. When he left, they both cried.”

Jake Barnes

“Reg is a legend in my mind,” Barnes said. “When I was growing up, if you mentioned one Camarillo, you mentioned them all. They were the godfathers of team roping, and you can’t say the Camarillo name without mentioning all three of them. Growing up in a small town in New Mexico, all our news came from the Ropers Sports News. And it was all about the Camarillos.

Learn from Jake Barnes on Roping.com

“Reg was about done rodeoing when I came in in 1980. But I grew up hearing and reading how great he roped. And I know he always rode great horses. The cattle were big and the scores were long back then, and Reg ran in there and roped so many steers. No roper had a better batting average than Reg.”

Clay Cooper

“I thought Reg was one of the absolute greats,” Cooper said. “No. 1, he headed for The King. And if The King roped with Reg, that meant he trusted that Reg was going to do his job— which he did. Reg rode good horses. I loved his swing, his loop and his handles. He set runs up really nice.

Learn from Clay Cooper on Roping.com

“I watched Reg rope primarily at the big ropings—Oakdale, Chowchilla and Riverside (California)—and he was just an artist. He rode the barrier good, and his run with Leo was great looking start to finish. Reg turned every steer, and won a lot. He was also a nice person who always had a smile on his face. Reg was just a great guy in and out of the arena, and it was great for a young guy like me to see that.”

The Lion

Leo, Jerold and Reg were pioneers in roping and rodeo arenas, and also when it came to team roping schools. I was there for some of those schools, and took ropes off at the back end with my brothers while staying at Leo’s house. Leo was always so proud of Reg.

“I started amateur rodeoing with my cousin Reg in 1965, and we clicked,” Leo once said. “Reg was the epitome of a team-style roper. He was enthusiastic about winning, understood the game, and had a consistency about heading and handling steers extremely well. Reg went to Vietnam for two years, but when he made it back from the war in the fall of ’68, I immediately recruited him to fight the rest of his battles with me in professional rodeo.

“As part of the Camarillo Trio, Reg played a significant role in changing the game and introducing dally-style team roping to the world of rodeo. It wasn’t long before influential rodeo figures noticed our style, and Reg, Jerold and I became summoned ambassadors of the sport. In 1969, we put on the first dally-style team roping school in Sturgis, South Dakota. We had 60 students.

“Reg played smart, and he played to win. In both the team roping arena and the arena of life, Reg had it figured out. And in both arenas, he’s been the best partner I’ve ever had. The best friend I’ve ever had. And the best example of champion character I’ve ever known. Reg was both a revolutionary competitor and a leader. He was one of the founding fathers of team roping, but his heart and integrity were bigger than any award.”

The post The Other Camarillo appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

The 5-year-old stallion Pride And Joyy now has $313,423 in QData earnings, with his latest win at the 2024 AQHA World Show in the Junior Heeling with the Relentless Remuda’s Miles Baker Nov. 4, 2024.

The win—worth $25,703 for their final score of 231.5—was Baker’s first AQHA World Championship, and it was Pride And Joyy’s second heeling globe, having won the Bronze Globe in 2023 for third with Trevor Brazile.

Watch: Miles Baker’s Entire Program ONLY on Roping.com

“(What sets him apart) is his ability and being hooked up to a cow and then obviously training is a big part of it, but if you don’t have the right tools or the right horse, you can’t train a fish to climb a tree,” Baker said. “And that horse, with the training stacked on his ability and his mind and everything, it just makes him elite. I was telling Ty and Melanie (Smith), I said I could literally have somebody could get on him the week before the NFR, have the arena set up, make five or six runs a day and take him out there and have a legit chance to win a gold buckle on him. And he’s a 5-year-old. And he’s just that good of a horse, and I’ll be the first to say it.”

Pride And Joyy’s Origin Story

The stallion is by Stevie Rey Von out of Fun N Fancy Free by Peptoboonsmal. Solo Select CEO Ty Smith bred the horse, then sold him to customers on the East Coast as a colt.

“Those owners sent him to Chris Dawson to start in the cow horse,” Baker explained. “Chris showed him at the Snaffle Bit, and we went to watch—we weren’t watching for the horse, but I noticed him right away. I went home and told Trevor, ‘Chris Dawson had the rope horse down there. He had one he could fly and was just quick.'”

But nothing came of it that fall, and Baker just tucked his affinity for the stud in the back of his brain.

“Then sometime after the first of that next year—2023—Ty and Melanie called and were like, ‘Hey, there’s a stud that we need to go look at. He did pretty good down at the Snaffle Bit Futurity.’ And I was like, ‘Which horse was it?’ And they said, ‘The one that Chris Dawson rode, his name was Pride And Joyy, and I got so excited because that was the horse that I picked out.”

Baker didn’t need to go try the horse, he told Ty Smith. He’d already picked the horse out, and he knew he wanted to own and ride him.

“I knew what it was going to feel like. And Ty was like, ‘No, go get on him and ride him.’ And so I went over there and I was on him for maybe two minutes tops, and I just knew that I knew what he was, and so that’s how we got him.”

Show Time

Baker has won big money on the stud over the last two years at the Riata and at jackpots, but Brazile has done most of the piloting at the futurities. When Brazile had shoulder surgery after Christmas 2023, PRCA World Champion Heeler Jeremy Buhler jump rode Pride And Joyy to wins at the Royal Crown in Buckeye, Arizona, and the ARHFA in Houston.

“I mean, if you stuck any of the top heelers in the world on him, they could back him in the box at the BFI and win on him that day without ever running one at home,” Baker said. “That’s what I think is one of the things that makes that horse so good.”

But Brazile had been back on Pride And Joyy since his mid-year comeback, and Baker hadn’t ridden the horse at home in months before the week of the World Show. Brazile prioritized his daughter Style’s high school basketball game over showing the team roping horses in Oklahoma City, and he gave Baker a few day’s notice to get ready.

“I got on them about four days before the World Show,” Baker said. “I’d run two or three on Kilo before or every day leading up to it. And I went down and roped with JohnRyon the day before we went up there to run some way from home and make sure that I still knew how to set ’em up and show ’em. But they were good. It was definitely not a tough transition.”

Results: AQHA World Show 2024

Full story on Pride And Joyy? We’re dropping it on The Score with Miles Baker next week. You won’t want to miss it.

The post Miles Baker Rides Pride And Joyy to 2024 AQHA Junior Heeling World Championship appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

With the two-day Horns N’ Heroes Team Roping Clinic for military and first responders completed, folks can now tune in to watch our nation’s heroes rope along with the best in the business during the American Hero Celebration with Charly Crawford.

5^th Annual Hillwood Land & Cattle American Hero Celebration, Produced by Liberty & Loyalty 

Mission: Liberty & Loyalty Foundation (formerly American Military Celebration) is a non-profit 501c3 organization started by professional team roper Charly Crawford to benefit Armed Forces service members and first responders. The foundation produces Western lifestyle and roping events for its participants that promote leadership and teamwork while encouraging camaraderie, forming support systems and making memories. Through these events, the organization has raised more than $800,000 in charitable donations for groups like Building Homes for Heroes, Brotherhood For The Fallen, and Charlie Five. In 2024, the Liberty & Loyalty Foundation will also be adding the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to its list of beneficiaries.

American Hero Celebration Schedule of Events

*Don’t miss the online silent auction to support the AHC and Liberty & Loyalty’s mission to empower heroes and change lives. Auction closes Saturday, Nov. 9, 1:00p CST.

Friday, Nov. 8, 2024 — 9:00a start

The Nov. 8 ropings are free to attend.

Open Roping*

• Details: Five-steer average; Progressive after 1
• $20,000 added / 80% payback
• Location: NRS in Decatur, Texas. Top 2 non-NFR headers and heelers will advance to the AMC NFR Showdown, Sunday, Nov. 10
• Sponsored by: Imus

The Military / 1st Responder /Pro Roping*

Mil/1st Headers will compete first with the professional ropers they draw. The Mil/1st Heelers will compete next.

• Details: Enter 2x; Progressive after 2
• $10,000 added to each end; Legend Tack and Silver Buckles to the average winners
• Location: First three rounds at NRS in Decatur, Texas.
• Sponsored by: Higginbotham

*Live coverage by X Factor Roping

Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024 — 9:00a start

The Military / First Responder Roping*

• Details: 10 slide; Enter 2x; Progressive after 2
• $30,000 added
• Location: First three rounds at NRS in Decatur, Texas. Top 15 are invited to the Heroes Gala Back Number Ceremony and advance to Sunday’s Imus Ranch NFR Showdown.
• Sponsored by: Kinetic Vet & Signature Equine Hospital

*Live coverage by X Factor Roping

3^rd Annual Heroes Gala 2024

The Gala is an opportunity to support the continued production of the American Hero Celebration and plays a key role for the military and first responder non-profit organizations and scholarship programs in the Liberty & Loyalty Foundation’s network. Along with dinner, guests will be treated to:

• Back Number Ceremony for Top 15 Military and First Responder winners advancing to the Imus Ranch Showdown
• Keynote speaker Todd Hornbuckle
• Special guest Wise County Sheriff Lane Aikin
• Live auction emceed by Ferron Lucero offering prizes like:
  • Covered S Ranch Helicopter Hog Hunt and Aoudad Sheep Hunt
  • SWAT Member for a Day 
  • African Safari Bowhunt

• Location: Decatur Conference Center Great Hall
• Time: 5:30 – 10:30 p.m.
• Dress: Denim & Diamonds / Western Chic
• Address: 2010 U.S. 380, Decatur, Texas 76234
• Ticketed Event (get tickets HERE)
• Gala Silent Auction

Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024

Imus Ranch NFR Showdown presented by JPMorganChase

• Time: 1:00p
• Details: Top 15 Mil/Pro Roping headers and heelers pair up with NFR-qualified team ropers. Enter once. 
• Location: Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.
• FREE Tickets Available thanks to Higginbotham
• Watch: Cowboy Channel

—— TRJ ——

More stories from the ropers of the American Hero Celebration

The post The 2024 American Hero Celebration Honors Our Country’s Heroes appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Hall of Fame horseman J.D. Yates added yet another AQHA World Championship to his career with Sue C Royalty, the 2020 mare owned by Tearney Ranch and by One Time Royalty out of Sue C Lena.

The mare marked a 229.0, worth $25,298.85 for the win against 76 other 5-and-under horses in the Level 3 Championships.

Watch J.D. Yates ONLY on Roping.com

“Luke Jones started her as a colt,” Yates explained. “Then Tate Kirchenschlager’s mother-in-law owned her, and Phil Tearney knew of the horse. She came up for sale, and Phil bought her. I’ve had her for about six months. Tate had her started roping, and I put my own spin on her.”

Yates had his son and NFR average champion Trey on the back side, and Yates said he made more of a jackpot-style run than a flashy horse-show run for the win.

“I guess that’s what the judges were looking for this year,” Yates said. “I mean, I don’t have her where I feel like she should be yet, but I mean, she does two things really good. She scores and she can run. She let me catch up there good. She just did what she did. The senior horse that I had really drug his ass. I didn’t win on him, and I thought he was a winner. So I don’t know. I guess it’s what sitting up there when you got the pencil is what they decide they like. I mean, after all, it’s what we call a horse sale and what we’re doing is just selling the horse to the guys up there with a pencil.”

Yates won the Reserve World Championship in the Junior Heading on Drag All That, a 2019 gelding by All That Boon out of Double R Dragtime for $20,781.20, and he won the Reserve World Championship in the Senior Heading on 2017 stallion Cee My Special Nite, by Gunners Special Nite out of Cee Dun It Do it, for $19,687.45.

More on J.D. Yates:

• J.D. Yates Sends Five Horses to the High School Finals
• At Home With: Dick Yates
• No Doubt About It: J.D. Yates’ Still Got It with Royal Crown Heeling Win on Probably A Shiner

The post J.D. Yates and Sue C Royalty Reign Supreme as 2024 AQHA Junior Heading World Champions appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

As of Oct. 28, 2024, Florida’s Lexi Andrews has continued to lead the USTRC Cinch Ladies headers with a total of 58 points. In the heeling, Colorado’s Jimmi Jo Montera’s 56 points also keep her in first, but Whitney DeSalvo is continuing to chip away at the gap between them.

The Leaders

Lexi Andrews

Lexi Andrews, who turns 17 before the New Year, keeps her position at No. 1 in the Cinch Ladies headers standings with 58 points and a 20-point lead over Shawnee Murphy in the No. 2 spot.

Jimmi Jo Montera 

Greeley, Colorado’s Jimmi Jo Montera, 56, maintains her 56 points since the last report, but her lead has decreased by 9 points because of an October check won by Whitney DeSalvo.

The Top 5

Headers

This month’s Top 5 standings for the Cinch Ladies header remains unchanged. 

Heelers

Whitney DeSalvo of Springfield, Arkansas, arrived in the No. 2 position behind Montera after heeling at July’s mega-jackpot, The Daddy, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In October, DeSalvo, 29, added to her points earnings when she entered up in the #14.5 USTRC at the Integrity Team Roping Finals in Fort Smith, Arkansas, produced by Integrity Team Roping. There, she took second place to add 9 points to the 15 she’d earned in July, for a net of 24 points, again worth the No. 2 position for the month.

Behind DeSalvo is Tillie Winters, who hails from Stephenville, Texas, and earned her 17 points for the No. 3 position at July’s Stephenville Qualifier when she took fourth place for 7 points in the #9.5 USTRC and followed that up by winning #7.5 USTRC for a full 10 points.

Winters is staying ahead of a four-way tie for the No. 4 spot by 7 points. While Alma, Nebraska’s Sage Dieter and Westminster, South Carolina’s Maddie Smith maintain that tie from last reporting, newcomers Shelly Holliday of Choteau, Oklahoma, and Nicole Juaregui from Seminole, Texas, join the 10-point party after scoring first-place wins.

2024-2025 USTRC Cinch Ladies Leaderboard 

(as of 10/28/24. Go to USTRC.com for current standings.)

USTRC Cinch Ladies Standings: Headers

USTRC Cinch Ladies Standings: Heelers

Current USTRC or Key Card/Key Card Max membership is required to participate in the Cinch Ladies Year-End Award program. Earned points begin counting at time of membership purchase thru the NFTR’s last shootout event. The season begins the Monday after the last USTRC Cinch NFTR event and ends the last day of the next USTRC Cinch NFTR event.

Ropers must enter at least one Shootout division in the USTRC NFTR to be eligible. The award will be announced at the end of the USTRC Cinch National Finals of Team Roping event.

The points breakdown is as follows: Starting with At Home Challenge Events, ropers will earn 10 points if they win the Challenge. No other points will be awarded. At Signature Events, points will be awarded to those winning an aggregate check. It starts at First Place with 10 points, Second = 9 points, and so on as far down as the roping is paid. During the Cinch NFTR, the placing points are simply doubled. First Place is worth 20 points, second = 18, and so on. For complete rules, please visit USTRC.com. 

—TRJ—

The post Cinch Ladies Heelers Hosts Top 5 Fall Season Shakeup appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

As of Oct. 28, 2024, Alabama’s Tanner Banks has jumped into the driver’s seat on the head side with 63 points. Alabama is also on the move in the heeling as Brit Smith, now at No. 2 with 86 points, inches in on leader Houston Childers. 

The Leaders

No. 1 Header: Tanner Banks 

Tanner Banks has been steadily climbing the heading ranks, now boasting 63 points atop the leaderboard. The 18-year-old has just a 5-point lead over Lexi Andrews at No. 2.

When Banks hit up the Southern Alabama Championship, produced by Allen’s Roping Productions, in October, he started closing the gap on Andrews after finishing third in the #13.5 USTRC for 8 points. But his third-place finish in the #12.5 USTRC, also for 8 points, was enough to push him past Andrews to the top of the leaderboard.

No. 1 Heeler: Houston Childers

The 2023 Resistol Jr. Champion Heeler Houston Childers remains strong at the top of the heeling standings. The 16-year-old from Fairmount, Georgia, leads the pack with no change to his 98 points this month. 

No. 2 Heeler: Brit Smith

Brit Smith continues to climb in the heeling standings, now sitting second with 86 points. Smith, who turned 18 on Halloween, is just 12 points behind standings leader Childers after earning 17 points to jump from third to second.

Like header Tanner Banks, Smith cashed in at the Allen’s Roping Productions’ Southern Alabama Championship to make his standings moves. Smith won second in the #13.5 USTRC for 9 points and third in the #12.5 USTRC for 8 points to keep on climbing toward No. 1.

The Top 5

Headers

Hayden Hines jumped from sixth to third in the heading standings, now sitting just three points behind Andrews with 55 points. The Monroe, Georgia, header won fourth for 7 points in both the #8.5 USTRC and #7.5 USTRC at the Southern Alabama Championship to move inside the Top 5.

Heelers

This month, Brit Smith made the only moves in the Top 5 of the Resistol Jr. Champion heeling standings, pushing Cole Shook down to third with 74 points, Jaytin Harrell to fourth with 44 points and Kale Roark to fifth with 43 points.

2024-2025 USTRC Resistol Jr. Champion Standings

(as of 10/28/24. Go to USTRC.com for current standings.)

USTRC Resistol Jr. Standings: Headers

USTRC Resistol Jr. Standings: Heelers

Current USTRC or Key Card/Key Card Max membership is required to participate in the Resistol Jr. Champion Program. Earned points begin counting at time of membership purchase thru the NFTR’s last shootout event. The season begins the Monday after the last USTRC Cinch NFTR event and ends the last day of the next USTRC Cinch NFTR event.

Ropers must enter at least one Shootout division in the USTRC NFTR to be eligible. The award will be announced at the end of the USTRC Cinch National Finals of Team Roping event.

The points breakdown is as follows: Starting with At Home Challenge Events, ropers will earn 10 points if they win the Challenge. No other points will be awarded. At Signature Events, points will be awarded to those winning an aggregate check. It starts at First Place with 10 points, Second = 9 points, and so on as far down as the roping is paid. During the Cinch NFTR, the placing points are simply doubled. First Place is worth 20 points, second = 18, and so on. For complete rules, please visit USTRC.com. 

—TRJ—

The post Tanner Banks Takes Over Resistol Jr. Heading as Brit Smith Gains on Houston Childers on the Heel Side appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Rhett Anderson and Jared Fillmore won their first Wilderness Circuit Finals Nov. 2, 2024, after roping three steers in 20.3 seconds.

Anderson, 34, and Fillmore, 24, pocketed $5,608 a man during their trip and punched their tickets to the NFR Open in Colorado Springs next July. 

“It’s just such an opportunity to get to go to Colorado Springs,” Anderson, of Annabella, Utah, said. “I like those rodeos where there’s less guys but more money.”

Aside from the money and qualification, the win hits deeper for Fillmore. The Payson, Utah, kid didn’t come from a roping family but craved being around the sport. But at 13, Fillmore was in an auto-pedestrian accident. Fillmore was in a coma for weeks, suffered 37 broken bones and had two brain surgeries in order to recover. He proved doctors wrong when they told him he’d never walk again, nor ride a horse. This title, 10 years later, is still a miracle in his eyes.

“That’s a God thing, and I realized that God brought me through that,” Fillmore said. “I kind of always relate anything in my life by looking back on that. People are always like, ‘What do you think about before you make a run?’ And I’m like, well, I always think about my mom sleeping on a metal bench for two months while I was in the hospital. That’s what gets my blood pumping.”

How the Wilderness was won

Anderson and Fillmore—who kicked their partnership off at the BFI in March—got the ball rolling in Heber City with a 6.6 in Round 1.

“We didn’t really know what [the steers] were going to be, but he was a little bit stronger,” Fillmore explained. “Rhett did a good job; he got out of the barrier good and then we went and caught. With that steer, I think we were both pretty happy to just catch the first one clean because it didn’t seem like there were too many very aggressive runs in the first round.”

They won third in the second round with a 7.1 for $1,246 a man and locked in their spot at second call back for the third round. After watching the team before them miss Saturday night, they knew they could focus on catching and letting it play out.

With a 6.6-second run they not only picked up $623 apiece for fourth in the round, but they also locked in the Wilderness Circuit Finals aggregate win with a 20.3 on three head for $3,739 each.

On the head side, Anderson rode a mare he calls HB that he got from late NFR qualifier Quinn Kesler and his wife Jessie.

“That horse I rode, she actually just had two colts in the last two years and this was her first outing back,” Anderson, the 2014 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year, said. “So, I was honestly just trying to get a feel for that horse. She got better each time, and I’m pretty lucky to have her.”

Fillmore rode his old faithful—a gelding he calls Watson. 

“He’s the most friendly, gentle giant in the world,” Fillmore said. “It’s kind of funny—when I first got him, I thought he may never make anything big time, but he was just a great horse to have around. Then he’s kind of stepped up and he’s not the most talented horse, but he never takes an extra step and he always is really solid.”

On to the next one

With trips booked for the NFR Open in July, Anderson, who welcomed his second son in January, may switch things up and enter outside the circuit more in 2025.

“Especially now that I’ve got this other horse and I’ll have two good horses, I feel like I’ll probably venture out more,” Anderson said.

For Fillmore, practice starts now.

“I think that it’s a pretty cool opportunity, and I feel excited for it,” Fillmore said. “It’s a ways away, but I’ll just keep working and I’m really excited for it. I feel like it’ll be a blessing to be there.” 

The post Rhett Anderson and Jared Fillmore Win First Wilderness Circuit Finals Title appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

CD Lights, the former NCHA World Champion and $2 million NRCHA sire, will have two offspring in the finals of the 2024 Junior Heeling at the AQHA World Show Nov. 4, with JohnRyon Foster bringing back Jonezin For My Boss and Casey Hicks showing Shiney Candle Light.

Trey Yates will bring the most horses back with three: Hermosilla Blue, Flashed Out and Shiney Nu Sparkle.

Joseph Harrison will show both Copperton and Nu One Time Blues, his two highest earning horses of 2024, while Miles Baker will ride two Relentless Remuda stallions Pride And Joyy and The Darkk Side, who’ve earned six figures each this year.

The post Legendary CD Lights is Only Sire with Two Offspring in 2024 AQHA World Show Junior Heeling Finals appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

The 2024 AQHA Junior Heading World Championship clean-slate final round is a who’s who of head horse training, with Casey Hicks, Clay Lewis, J.D. Yates and Dakota Kirchenschlager each bringing two horses back to the Finals of the 77 horses shown in the Level 3 in Oklahoma City.

Yates will show Drag All That at first out, the same horse he won the heeling prelims aboard on Nov. 2. The winningest horse entering the Finals is The Darkk Side, last year’s Junior Heading World Champion with Trevor Brazile. Miles Baker will pilot the horse this year.

The post Here’s Who Ropes Today in 2024 AQHA Junior Heading Finals appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Tate Kirchenschlager and Starlight Oak 017 is the 2024 AQHA Senior Heading World Champion, while his cousin, Dakota Kirchenschlager, and DT Hickorys Playtime, are the 2024 AQHA Senior Heeling World Champions.

Both men helped each other to win the title in Oklahoma City Nov. 3, with Dakota, 33, winning in a rope-off against Cade Rice and Roll Your Nickles, in which Tate headed for both men aboard Starlight Oak 017, too.

For the Senior Heading, Tate, 32, won owner Inderman Schaffner LLC $23,967.33 for the 2017 stallion by Starlights Gypsy out of Lenas Oakling.

The Senior Heeling title paid Dakota and owner DT Horses $26,154.82 for the 2017 mare by Hickory Holly Time out of Play Like Clay.

All AQHA World Show Results

The cousins—who grew up an hour and a half from one another in Yuma and Kersey, Colorado, respectively, both train horses now after their ProRodeo careers took them to the Finals. Tate lives in Stephenville, and Dakota lives north in Whitesboro, but they rarely help each other in the show pen.

“I would honestly say if you ask both of us, we probably try too hard for each other,” Tate said, explaining why they don’t often help one another. “I want to see everybody win, but I do want to see Dakota win probably more than anybody in the heeling, and I’d say he’d probably say the same about me in the heading. I know when I back in there heading for him, there’s extra pressure. I can say that.”

“We love each other and we hate each other,” Dakota added, joking. “We both give each other more crap than anybody. We’re our biggest fans, and we’re the hardest on each other. When one of us thinks it looks good and the other one tells it looks horrible, we know we’re honest with each other. I mean, I bounce ideas off of him all the time. He bounces ideas off of me. He’s a great horse trainer. I mean, we love each other. We truly do. And for him to do that today, and I was helping him. That was amazing.”

AQHA Senior Heading World Champion: Starlight Oak 017 and Tate Kirchenschlager

Starlight Oak 017 had won $63,324 (per QData) before picking up the big check in the AQHA’s Senior Heading on Nov. 3, but still, the stud had flown relatively under the radar. That’s in spite of being a full sibling to American Greed, Lari Dee Guy’s horse who Trevor Brazile showed to high-money futurity horse status back in 2021, and Parker County Oak, the gelding Jake Cooper rode at the NFR in 2015, then let his sister, Jill Tanner, ride to win the $100,000 American Rodeo breakaway title on in 2021.

Watch Tate Kirchenschlager’s Full Training Program, ONLY on Roping.com

“I don’t even think Tyler started roping on this horse until he was almost 5 years old,” Tate said. “He just kind of used him as a ranch horse. Then the futurity deal was here and he thought, well, we better get to roping on him. And Tyler’s honestly done everything with him. I’ve had a chance to show him a couple times, and that’s about. He didn’t have a fair shake at being a futurity horse. It wasn’t like he got started in the roping as a 3-year-old and shown as a 4-year-old.”

The sorrel stud has mostly been a help horse for Tate, running dozens of steers at the American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Championship in October.

“He stays at Tyler’s most of the time,” Tate said. “Honestly, before the Fort Worth Futurity, shoot, Tyler used him outside ranching on him. This horses, I guarantee he’s been more miles outside than he has steers in an arena. And then Tyler brought him to me two days before the Rope Horse Futurity and I practiced on him once. I bet I made 40 help runs on him at Fort Worth, then Tyler took him back. He brought him in my house one day before the World Show. I ran five steers on him, and we brought him up here. So I mean, he’s going to work the way you ride him. If you want to make a rodeo run or a help run, ride him that way. If you want to show him, ride him like you’re showing, and he’s going to work.”

The good-minded stud comes by it naturally, with his cross producing some of the winningest horses in the sport of team roping over the last decade in the Starlight Gypsys raised by JoAnn Parker.

“Tyler’s wife could literally rope on him the day he gets home,” Tate said. “He, he’s just a good, good horse. He don’t have to be stalled up. You can turn him out. He’s just a good all-around horse. He wasn’t raised in a show barn or nothing like that, and he didn’t go through the Snaffle Bit sale. I mean, he was raised on a working ranch and yeah, that’s what he is.”

AQHA Senior Heeling World Champion: DT Hickorys Playtime and Dakota Kirchenschlager

Dean Tuftin’s DT Hickorys Playtime was, alternatively, an NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity standout as a 3-year-old, winning $30,000 for sixth in 2020, having earned $59,891 in her limited career leading up to the 2024 AQHA World Show.

Watch Dakota Kirchenschlager’s Full Training Program ONLY On Roping.com

“We got her when she was 6 in July of last year,” Dakota said. “They had roped on her a little bit at Dean’s. I don’t know exactly how much, but she was definitely started, and we just kind of took off with her from there.”

Her only other team roping check came in Rock Springs this past year in the jackpot held alongside the Royal Crown, picking up $3,450 for first in the #16. She made the finals in the Platinum Medal as a 6-year-old, but they had bad luck. She was good on two in Fort Worth in 2023, too, but again had tough luck with a third-round no-time. So, while Dakota has plenty of big-name horses in his program, this mare, like Tate’s stud, flew under the radar in the heeling.

But she’s a Hickory Holly Time, and that counts for something, because they’ve been proven winners in the team roping. The former World’s Greatest Horseman champ is 2024’s leading sire of money earners across all roping disciplines, with $474,301 won before the World Show. He’s second all-time with $1,252,974 in progeny earnings, behind only Metallic Cat—who has nearly twice the performers on record per QData’s leaderboards as of Nov. 4. Dakota won the first Riata Open on a Hickory Holly Time mare, too—DT Hickorys Mistycat.

“At the end of the day, at the end of an event, whether it’s the World Show, the Riata, the Futurity, it takes a horse that is very special to have the stamina to go for four days,” Dakota said. “I mean, we’ve been here for three, four days now. It’s cement everywhere. You put 10 bags of shavings in there and they’re still going to get sore and tire and them horses, they’re always there. There’s something about ’em. I’ve had great success with ’em, whether it’s heading on ’em or heeling on ’em. I look up sometimes and I’ll have 10 or 15 Hickory Holly times at my house, and we got some we haven’t showed any yet. We’ve been roping calves on them other people own. I think the horses are going to do some huge things. I’m very excited for the future of everything Dean’s done for me with the Hickory Holly Times. And I think that it’s just a good horse is a good horse, and they’re very exceptional that they can go hard and you can take ’em and haul ’em across the world, and they can still—when most horses are getting tired and giving up—them horses, they’re right there ready to finish the job.”

—TRJ—

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Cade Rice will compete in the AQHA World Show’s Senior Heeling Finals on four head—the most of any competitor—when it kicks off Nov. 3 at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City.

Full AQHA World Show Results and Working Orders

Of the 88 horses entered, Rice will show in the Finals Jungle Cat, Roll Your Nickles, Sevens Star Glo and Chic O Dual in pursuit of the AQHA’s golden globe, with Chic O Dual also working earlier in the day in the Senior Heading Finals.

Chic O Dual’s sire, Dual Spark, is one of two studs with two progeny back in the Finals. Hall of Famer J.D. Yates will show another son of Dual Spark, Big Smokin Time out of Big Smoking Wonder. Lil Joe Cash also has two sons in the Finals, with Trey Yates showing Travalin Joe and Dustin Rogers showing Johnnys Lil Cash—a horse that’s also making it back on the head side.

Of note, DT Sugar Chex Whiz will compete with Billie Jack Saebens. She’s a former AQHA World Champion in the tie-down roping with J.D. Yates, and Saebens won the Heel Horse of the Year title on her for Dixon Flowers Quarter Horses in 2019. Since then, the mare has become roping’s blue hen broodmare of this generation as the dam to DT Hickorys Blue Steel who will compete in the senior heading finals, as well as The Darkk Side, who led the junior heading prelims and will compete in the junior heading and heeling finals with Miles Baker.

2024 AQHA World Show Senior Heeling Working Order

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When the AQHA’s Senior Heading Finals kick off Sunday afternoon, Nov. 3, Brad Lund will be a busy man.

Lund will show Playmates Blue Blood, Hat Six Okie Jonez, DT Hickory Blue Steel and Senoritas Holly Time—bringing back four horses in a class of 73 in the Level 3 heading.

Watch Brad Lund’s Full Program on Roping.com

Hickory Holly Time is the only sire with two offspring in the Finals, and Lund will show both: DT Hickory Blue Steel and Senoritas Holly Time.

AQHA World Show Heading Finals Working Order

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It’s easy to be gracious when things are going your way. It’s life’s curveballs and challenges that test our true character. How many of you watched the last perf of the San Bernardino (California) Sheriff’s PRCA Rodeo with me from the very edge of your seats at this year’s regular rodeo season finish line on Sunday, September 29, because the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo teeter totter was in full swing? 

A 2024 trip to Vegas came down to one steer between a two-team buddy group. When it was over, three of the four friends—Erich Rogers, Paul Eaves and Derrick Begay—made the Top-15 cut. Colter Todd was the odd man out, and finished 16^th in the world on the heeling side. It’d be a big, fat yikes—if this wasn’t two of the coolest cowboys of all time we’re talking about here.

To set the stage for you, if you weren’t in that moment with the rest of us, the two teams pulled into San Bernardino with a mere $84 margin between them. 

“We had to beat them, regardless of what they did, for me to make it,” Colter explained, calm as ever when it was over. “But it was actually fun. It was like we were in the practice pen running one last steer to see who makes the Finals.

“The hardest pill for me to deal with mentally was that I felt like I was on the downhill slide, and had been doing bad instead of climbing and battling. In the end, I felt like I failed the last 30 days of the regular season.”

Rogers and Eaves rode in to rope the team before Begay and Todd this time. That was not the order they roped in most of the year when they buddied, but the way all the trades turned out it was how it was right there at the end. 

Rogers and Eaves stuck it on one in 5 flat to take the lead of the rodeo. So when Begay and Todd rode in next, the only play was to try and win it. Begay took his shot, but did not connect. That’s the understandable hard part for him. 

“I should have roped that steer all day,” said Begay, who does not do excuses. “My horse scored good. I had a good go. The steer was good, and the timing was there. That’s a steer I catch every time. Nothing was out of whack. It was an easy shot. Everything felt good, and I missed.”

That Begay would man up and own it was predictable. That Colter cared most about his header and best friend making it was also par for their cowboy course. 

“It went exactly how it was supposed to go,” said Todd, who won last year’s NFR average with Begay. “For me, it’s fine. I don’t rodeo for a living (he ranches). Not that I don’t care or have any emotions. But the way it ended up coming down to that last steer, it was bittersweet, but also cooler than heck.”

They rode out the back end at San Bernardino knowing the 500-mile drive back home to Arizona—Seba Dalkai for Begay, and Willcox for Colter—would be a long one. 

“Not much was said,” according to Begay. “I was bummed out. We got in the truck, and I started driving. We stopped at In-N-Out (Burger), then kept going. So many things were going through my head. A guy dreams about making the NFR. My wife is due December 21, so she’s probably not even going to go to the NFR. Now I’m not going to get to rope with my best friend. If I didn’t go, Jonathan Torres would get to rope with his partner (Nelson Wyatt, who finished 16^th on the heading side). 

“I finally said a few words. I told Colter, ‘The main reason I pro rodeo these days is because of you.’ The thought of going to the Finals without Colter did not make me happy.”

Naturally, Colter wasn’t having any of that. And he placed all the blame directly on his own two shoulders. 

“I just didn’t rope good enough,” Colter said. “To fail at the end is hard. After the second round at Sioux Falls and before we roped our steer at Mona, Utah, the heading was done and Begay was in. That meant so much to me. He roped good enough. He deserves to be there. 

“This is the first major failure I’ve had to deal with. It’s good for me, but it’s not easy. I had $94,000 won the first of August. To have that fall through does not feel very good. But I’m pumped for a guy like Tanner Braden, who’s been on the bubble a couple times. I’m not the guy who needed to make it the most, and I’m happy for everyone who did make it.” 

Of course he is. So Colter of him. Wyatt finished $3,081 behind Begay with $101,988 on the regular season. Todd ended up $3,843 behind Eaves with $105,069. They only went to 70-some rodeos, when team ropers can count 80.

“That the way it went was meant to be is the only way I can wrap my head around what happened here,” said Begay, who’ll head for Torres at Derrick’s 11^th NFR in December. “We were taking care of business. That it was meant to be is the only explanation that makes any sense. 

“We did have rodeos left, and could have gone to places like Pasadena, New Braunfels and Stephenville (Texas). But we’re supposed to make it with what we entered. We didn’t want to do anything stupid and force it. We went to all the good ones where we could ride our own horses.”

They did it their way, just like they live the rest of their lives. And their conversations haven’t returned to this subject since they were in that truck driving home from San Bernardino a month ago. 

“Fall’s a good time for cowboys,” Begay said. “And when you get home and back to your life, you get busy and forget about rodeo. Colter and I both do that. Being back home on the desert puts a good feel back in me. 

“I’ve been gathering cows. Colter came over this morning to preg check cows with me. Colter does the preg checking. We worked the cows and weaned the calves before heading to our (Turquoise) circuit finals, which starts tonight in Camp Verde (Arizona).”

These are family-first cowboys with life perspective.

“There was a time when I got nervous, and thought, ‘What if I don’t get Begay in?’” Colter said. “For me, it’s fine. I don’t rodeo for a living. It’s not that I don’t have emotions or care. There was no reason not to make it with what we won early. As a competitor, it was hard for me to lose ground until right there at the end. But the way we roped, Begay needed to make it. I obviously did not.

“It absolutely crossed my mind before we roped that last steer that those other guys rodeo for a living, and have sponsor contracts. They have to make the NFR. Bottom line is that it worked out exactly how it was supposed to.”

It’s all good for these guys. But still…

“It’s hard to let a friend down,” Begay said. “For me to make it and him not is a feeling I’ve never had before. It’s a letdown. But we both know we have to accept the outcome. 

“It’s disappointing, but it’s going to be OK. Because we’re best friends. Colter’s not just a team roping partner, and rodeoing isn’t our life. If rodeo is all that mattered to me, I’d move to Texas and rope all day. Cowboying is our life.”  

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Garrett Tonozzi won his fifth Mountain States Circuit year-end title while helping Conner Herren win his first in 2024.

While Tonozzi is a two-time NFR qualifier, Herren’s only 20 years old and finished his last rodeo season as a permit holder. As he prepares for his Resistol Rookie year, the Crooks, South Dakota, heeler knows his qualification to the NFR Open—held in Colorado Springs each July—could be vital to his rookie year.

“I think it’ll be cool—it pays a lot, and it’ll be fun,” Herren said. “Garrett’s been everywhere so it’s nothing new for him. It’ll also definitely be good if we can do good there because I’m going to go to Denver this year and maybe Tucson and stuff, so a few more than last year, but we’re probably just going to circuit rodeo again.”

Tonozzi and Herren won the 2024 year-end titles with $30,454.63 and $32,700.08 won on the year, respectively. For Tonozzi, who makes his home in Lampasas, Texas, his goals have shifted over the years.

“Anytime you can win a circuit, it means a lot,” Tonozzi, 39, said. “Especially since I’m not rodeoing here as much anymore, just going around to the circuit rodeos, so that’s the end goal of the year. And it’s always good to reach your goals.”

Tonozzi and Herren’s summer

A year ago, Tonozzi was looking for a young kid to work for him, and a mutual friend suggested Herren. When Herren went to Texas to meet him and rope, Tonozzi had another idea.

“I was like, ‘You don’t need to be working for me, you need to be heeling at all the rodeos,’” Tonozzi said with a laugh. “That’s kind of how it got started. And then he went back to Arizona for the winter, and he came back to my house in Texas in March or April and stayed there for a couple months. We just practiced and went to a few littler rodeos and then started circuit rodeoing in June when we got up to Colorado.”

Tonozzi and Herren kicked off their circuit partnership in June and really got the ball rolling at the Greeley Stampede where they won the short round and second in the average to pocket $6,878 a man. That gave them the perfect momentum heading into the toughest time of year for their circuit: July.

“The whole month of July, you’re roping against the best guys in the world,” Tonozzi said. “It’s the best rodeos and everyone’s in your circuit in July, so it makes the competition level high. But it’s fun getting to rope against everyone and there’s the big slack at Greeley and stuff like that.”

Tonozzi and Herren stood their ground against NFR teams, picking up $3,938 apiece at the Central Wyoming Fair & PRCA Rodeo in Casper between their round finishes and taking fourth in the average. They also won fifth in the first round of the Cheyenne Frontier Days for $2,688 each. 

“Greeley was really good, Casper was great for us, but we kind of just plucked along, too, at a lot of the smaller rodeos,” Herren said. “Just winning checks here and there always helps. The horsepower definitely helped; Garrett’s always riding a great horse, and my horse did good all summer.”

They added another $3,382 apiece to their July earnings, followed by $4,688 a man to wrap up their season in August. Tonozzi and Herren went into the circuit finals in Loveland, Colorado, Oct. 25-26, with a $5,488.21 lead on the head side and a $6,474.53 on the heels. They pocketed $3,367 a man to seal the deal on their year-end titles.

Opportunity of a lifetime 

The opportunity to rope with Tonozzi didn’t just bring on a year-end title, it’s also molding Herren into a better roper.

“He was very, very green—he still is, he’s young—but he seemed like he really soaked it in good,” Tonozzi said. “He was always wanting to learn and experience more and learn about rodeoing. It’s not just about going and catching the steer; there’s a lot more that goes into rodeoing. I think it was a little eye-opening to him and a good experience for him.”

Herren’s already noticed a difference himself, and he looks forward to putting what he’s learned to practice in 2025. 

“Riding better, keeping my horses good all summer,” Herren said. “I’ve just been more places, and I have more experience now. I feel like I hadn’t been to any of those rodeos and now that I have, I feel like it’s just an advantage for next year.”

The post Garrett Tonozzi and Conner Herren Pick Up 2024 Mountain States Circuit Year-End Titles appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

The 2024 WCRA Reliance Ranches VRQ Champion Program has been extended through April 6, 2025, meaning there’s still plenty of time to get in the race for $25,000 bonus.

At the end of each year, the WCRA crowns its Reliance Ranches VRQ Points Champion in each event, awarding a $25,000 bonus to the winners. Due to the cancellation of Rodeo Carolina after Hurricane Helene, the 2024 program will pay out at Rodeo Corpus Christi in May of 2025. This will also be the final chance to win the VRQ bonus as the WCRA will discontinue the RRVRQ Bonus Program following the 2025 Rodeo Corpus Christi.

So wait, how’s the VRQ bonus work?

The Reliance Ranches VRQ bonus is an incentive that pays out cash bonuses to the top four athletes in each discipline who earn the most points throughout the year (points are earned by nominating ProRodeos, amateur rodeos and other events with publicly verifiable results to the WCRA). The VRQ points are earned based on the athlete’s finish in each rodeo event. The top four athletes in each discipline with the most VRQ points at the end of the year will be eligible for the bonus.

Athletes are required to qualify for and participate in a minimum of one WCRA/WRWC major event to be eligible for the bonus. Athletes must also participate in the Program Finale, aka Rodeo Corpus Christi, to be eligible for the bonus.

The nomination period started Sept. 11, 2023, and has now been extended through April 6, 2025. In 2023, Andrew Ward and Buddy Hawkins won the $25,000 bonuses in the heading and heeling.

THE PAYOUT FOR THE VRQ BONUS PROGRAM IS AS FOLLOWS:

• First Place: $25,000
• Second Place: $10,000
• Third Place: $7,500
• Fourth Place: $2,500

Don’t forget about Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo

The WCRA’s newest prize for the champion in each event: a spot on the WCRA’s Free Riders Team at Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo in 2025. 

Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo inaugural event wowed the industry with a stoplight setup for timed events, a thrilling concert and team-based format that saw the WCRA Free Riders take the gold. Now, WCRA competitors can win their way onto the reigning champion team at Rodeo Corpus Christi.

Who leads the VRQ Bonus Program?

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Teagan Bentley and Bryton Scheller came from third high call to win the 2024 Mountain States Circuit Finals Oct. 25-26, with a 16.3 on three head.

Bentley and Scheller pocketed $7,575 apiece between the rounds and the average in Loveland, Colorado, finishing out a tough year for both ropers with a taste of redemption. For 20-year-old Bentley, the win is a pleasant ending to his rookie year.  

“I didn’t have the rookie year I wanted to, so it was special to come back and finish out the year on a strong note, rolling into the winter,” Bentley, of Casper, Wyoming, said. “Now we have a little momentum rolling our way.”

For Scheller, the win isn’t just a career highlight, it was also a personal triumph for a kid who never thought he’d rope again. In the early fall of 2023, Scheller was leaving a roping when he was hit head on by a vehicle that had blown a tire. Scheller suffered a broken pelvis, a traumatic brain injury, a tear in his stomach and other injuries as a result. Scheller went at physical therapy with a multitude of determination and focus in hopes of roping again.

“It means the world to me,” Scheller, 23, said. “With my wreck last year and everything, I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to rope again. It’s pretty special.”

Loveland play-by-play

Bentley and Scheller didn’t start 2024 as partners. When the end of the season approached, Scheller was on the circuit finals bubble and needed a partner for the last three rodeos. He called Bentley, whom he’s known forever, but things didn’t go their way and Scheller didn’t make the cut.

Bentley was prepared to rope with JC Flake, who finished 17^th in the heeling world standings, in Loveland. But the day entries close, Bentley learned Flake couldn’t make it, so he called Scheller.

The third team out in Round 1 Oct. 25, Bentley and Scheller split third in the round with a 6.2 for $842 a man.

“The first one, we just went and caught him just to get our week started off without any penalties,” Bentley said. “We got to see what we needed to do after that, and it ended up being kind of a light round.”

They drew a good steer in the second round and used him, winning third in the round again, this time with a 5.2-second run for $1,122 each. They entered the third round Oct. 26, third in the average, and while they didn’t think they could beat the high call team, they focused on making the best run they could to give them a chance. 

“We were just trying to ride it out,” Scheller, an Ault, Colorado, native, said. “Winning the average was our only goal. We knew [our steer] was pretty good. We weren’t trying to be 4.9 for sure, but it just worked out in our favor.”

Bentley and Scheller won the round with a 4.9 for $2,244 a man and solidified the average win for $3,367 apiece.

“I think neither one of us had anything to lose, and we didn’t really have any pressure,” Bentley said. “We knew Garrett (Tonozzi) and Conner (Herren) had so much won on everybody that there was no way we could catch them, so there were honestly 11 guys going for the average. We all just knew that we were going to have to win the average, so there wasn’t a whole lot of pressure on us; we would either win it or we wouldn’t, but we ended up doing good.”

Bentley and Scheller’s horsepower

Bentley rode a grade gelding he calls Cisco that he traded for a few years prior. That trade turned into Bentley’s No. 1 mount.

“He’s just the old reliable,” Bentley said. “If I have money on the line, that’s the one I get on. He’s solid every time—nothing changes. I know what he’s going to do, and he lets me go fast if I need to go fast. He never takes my throw away, and he scores really easy; he’s just easy to get along with.”

The team had some star power on the heel side. Scheller rode a gelding called Cruiser that he bought from 13-time NFR heeler Brady Minor earlier this year.

“I could never get rid of him,” Scheller said. “I could take him to the circuit finals, or my little brother could get on him and head on him. My little cousin can get on him and go run barrels even. I’m very lucky to get to own him.”

Colorado in July

Bentley and Scheller aren’t partnered up in 2025, but they’ll team back up to represent the home turf at the NFR Open in July. 

“It being in the middle of July is kind of the busiest time of the year, so it’s nice to be able to go over there and rope for that much money against a lot less teams than you normally have to rope against,” Bentley said with a laugh. “It’s a nice little incentive to be able to go over there and not have to rope against 115 of the best guys in the world.” 

The post Teagan Bentley and Bryton Scheller Get Redemption with 2024 Mountain States Circuit Finals Win appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Mason Appleton and Rance Doyal finished what they started and won the 2024 Prairie Circuit year-end heading and heeling titles.

Appleton and Doyal finished the season with $29,831.30 and $27,728.64 won on the year after pocketing $5,554 a man at the Prairie Circuit Finals Oct. 17-19, in Duncan, Oklahoma. While Appleton won the Great Lakes Circuit heading title in 2022, this marks both Appleton’s and Doyal’s first Prairie Circuit year-end titles.

“We didn’t go a whole lot, honestly, but when we did, we always did good,” Appleton said. “It seemed like when we caught, it was pretty fast. We just seemed to try to catch a lot and it just happened to be fast enough to win quite a bit.”

The pair of Oklahoma boys may be young—20 and 24—but they held their own against some tough NFR teams in the Prairie Circuit. Holding the standings lead all summer and winning against them in Duncan was a confidence booster.

“It felt good, but the thing was we got to circuit rodeo all year, so in my opinion, we had it easier than them guys,” Doyal said. “They could only go to what they could get to, but to be able to show up and do good at the circuit finals and actually still be able to compete with them at the finals, it helped a lot as far as knowing where we were at.”

Permanent lead

Appleton and Doyal kicked their 2024 partnership off at the Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo in May where they picked up $5,055 a man. They pocketed another $5,001 at the end of May and beginning of June between the Fredonia, Kansas, Wilson County Pro Rodeo; co-approved Mt. Pleasant Rodeo in Texas; and Oklahoma’s Hugo Pro Rodeo to take the lead in the standings. 

The Prairie Circuit gets quiet during much of June and July, but when things picked back up in August, they got the ball rolling right off the bat. They pocketed $12,782 a man in August with major hits at Lawton and Vinita, both in Oklahoma.

“Lawton was dang sure a good one,” Doyal said. “And then Guymon in May. Those are the two that really helped us win the circuit. Besides Dodge City, those are probably the two best circuit rodeos there is.”

Appleton and Doyal entered the circuit finals with an $8,532.42 lead for Appleton and a $6,429.76 lead for Doyal.

“We knew we didn’t have to do anything special up there,” Appleton said. “We were just kind of roping just to go up there and enjoy our weekend. We didn’t have a whole lot of pressure on us, so that was nice for sure.”

They didn’t back off the gas, though. Appleton and Doyal won the first round with a 4.6 for $2,279 a man and won third in Round 2 with a 6.7 for $1,139 each. Their third-round steer took the average title from them, but they still managed to split second in the aggregate for $2,136 apiece.

Colorado Springs bound

The year-end win punched their tickets to the NFR Open in Colorado Springs in July marking Appleton’s second trip and Doyal’s first.

“I’m very excited,” Appleton said. “I went up there two years ago and we didn’t do any good, but that’s a cool rodeo. I liked that rodeo a lot when I got to go up there; I’m excited to go back.”

Appleton and Doyal are partnered up again for 2025 and are considering rodeoing harder, depending on how the winter treats them. Appleton helps two-time NFR qualifier and rope horse trainer Billie Jack Saebens with his futurity horses, too, so they’ll work their schedule around the shows.

“It’ll be a good experience this year because we’ll go to some shows and then whenever we go to Colorado Springs, we’ll be able to go to a few other rodeos,” Doyal said. “Probably them two weeks with Sheridan, Casper and Cheyenne—all that.”

The post Mason Appleton and Rance Doyal Secure 2024 Prairie Circuit Year-End Titles appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Garrett Rogers and Bo Patzke roped their way to the 2024 Columbia River Circuit Finals average title in Redmond, Oregon, Oct. 17-19, while Riley and Brady Minor sealed the deal on the year-end titles with $30,433.93 won on the circuit front.

Rogers and Patzke roped three steers in 16.9 seconds for $3,593 a man to win the average—a second time for Rogers and a first for Patzke.

“It’s still kind of sinking in, but it feels really cool,” Patzke said. “I never really thought about winning the Columbia River average, but I just thought it wasn’t exactly as big of a deal as it is. Now, it’s sinking in; I’m like, holy smokes, this is pretty big.”

The Minors, who have 24 NFR qualifications between them, are Columbia River Circuit veterans, now with six year-end titles for Riley and seven for Brady. With the addition of the NFR Open in Colorado Springs each July, NFR teams like the Minors have a bigger incentive to get their circuit count in.

“You kind of prioritize your circuit rodeos a little bit because you can win so much at Colorado Springs,” Riley said. “So, we definitely go to a few more—or try to. The Columbia River Circuit’s so good that there’s so many big rodeos in it. They’re towards the end of the year, though, so everybody’s entered, and it can get pretty tough.” 

Rogers and Patzke capitalize in Redmond

Patzke, 36, hasn’t ProRodeoed since 2018. He spent the last six years being a dad and family man but, in January, he made the decision to buy his PRCA card again.

Rogers,31, and Patzke are on the same page in that their priorities do still lie outside of rodeo right now—Rogers is a two-time NFR qualifier but now has a cattle operation, two kids and a wife at home, and Patzke shoes horses and works full-time for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, on top of being a father. 

“We started out only planning on going to four,” Patzke, of Lostine, Oregon, said. “Then we had pretty good luck at first, so we just started entering to make the circuit finals.”

Rogers and Patzke only ended up going to 17 rodeos, so they made the Columbia River Circuit Finals in Redmond, Oregon, lower in the standings. The team went into Round 1 focused on doing their jobs and letting the cards fall where they may.

Their first steer was a little strong and ran up the rope, but they managed to split fourth in the round with a 7.6 for $299 a man. Round 2 treated them much better with a 4.8 to win the round and $2,395 apiece. Going into the third and final round second in the average, Rogers and Patzke did what they needed to and won the round with a 4.5 for $2,395 a man. Patzke credits Rogers for their win.

“It was the way Garrett headed—he outheaded everyone there,” Patzke said. “And he handles cattle so good that it’s pretty easy to heel behind him.”

Their trip to Colorado Springs will be Roger’s third trip to the NFR Open (plus a few RAM National Circuit Finals trips, too) and Patzke’s first.

“Garrett went there this last July, so he had to turn out of a [circuit] rodeo and I found a calf roper,” Patzke said with a laugh. “So, I’ve heard about it from him, and he did good back there. It sounds like an awesome rodeo.”

Minors seal the deal on the year-end

While the Minors may not have finished the regular season as they planned, they bounced back with the 2024 Columbia River Circuit year-end titles.

Riley and Brady—who finished 17^th and 19^th in the PRCA world standings with $100,100.30 and $98,420.05 won on the year—got their first circuit check in May at the PRCA Last Stand Rodeo in Coulee City, Washington, for $1,963 a man for first. In June they had a $4,244-a-man trip in Prineville, Oregon, at the Crooked River Roundup, but they didn’t take control of the circuit standings until late July. 

Though the Minors hit the road with NFR dreams each year, they’re still capable of getting their circuit count in because of how valuable the Northwest run is.

“There’s a lot of good rodeos for us,” Riley said. “That’s the thing is if you live in Texas, those guys can’t hardly get to their circuit rodeos because they’re gone too much. But the Columbia River’s easy to get to your rodeos. We count a few small ones that maybe you shouldn’t, but usually, if we’re driving by or they’re close to the house, we try to count them. They’re not too far.”

Riley and Brady rounded out their year on the circuit front winning $6,469 at their hometown rodeo in Ellensburg over Labor Day weekend, followed by $2,304 between the Lewiston Roundup in Idaho and Othello PRCA Rodeo in Washington. They went into the circuit finals with over a $6,000 lead and adding another year-end title to their track record.

In 2025, the brothers still have the NFR on their minds, but they’re playing things by ear.

“Just kind of start out this winter and go from there,” Riley said. “I don’t really have any plans. Like they say, to make the Finals, you got to rope better.”

The post Garrett Rogers and Bo Patzke Win 2024 Columbia River Circuit Finals; Minor Brothers Seal the Deal on the Year-End appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Treston Brazile one-upped himself in the ARHFA World Championship Non Pro Heeling in 2024—winning both first and second place to 2023’s first-place—earning a total of $14,580.

“I was a little more nervous than I usually am because I was on [Pride And Joyy],” Brazile, 16, said. “I’ll usually ride one or two of Miles [Baker’s] and he couldn’t care less if I messed up on them. But I really wanted to do good for the stud’s owners.”

Brazile did just that, topping Round 1 on Woody Be Spotted and Round 2 on Pride And Joyy, entering the short go as first and second high call. From there, it was time to execute with his dad Trevor Brazile on the head side spinning the steers for him.

No. 1 Woody Be Spotted

With scores of 229.34, 229.11 and 230.06 for an aggregate of 688.51 on the flashiest horse in the pen, Brazile won the Non Pro Heeling for the second year in a row.

“I’ve showed [Woody Be Spotted] since I got him, and I won it on him last year,” Brazile said. “He loves this arena and has won a lot at the US Finals and things. A lot of people would think [the judges] don’t like Appaloosa’s, but he’s so flashy, and when he stops he frames up. He’ll take a hit and that’s the main part of the run.”

Owned by Relentless Remuda, Woody Be Spotted added $8,100 to his ledger with the win.

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No. 2 Pride And Joyy

Brazile had the opportunity to ride one of the hottest rope stallions going in the Non Pro Heeling, too, finishing with an aggregate of 686.97 following scores of 227.99, 231.7 and 227.28. With the effort, “Kilo” won $6,480.

Owned by a partnership including Relentless Remuda, Solo Select and Kaleb Terlip, Brazile admitted there was more pressure with “more people in my corner.”

“I think I get more nervous on a horse that’s so talented because they know their job, and I just have to do my job,” Brazile said. “It’s like a Ferrari on autopilot. He’s a super amazing horse and I’m super blessed to get to ride him.”

Brazile thanked the stud’s owners for the opportunity to ride him as well as his dad Trevor for heading for him all day. Trevor had shoulder surgery earlier in the year, meaning that Baker headed for Brazile while Trevor healed.

“When my dad got back it was like he never left,” Brazile said. “They handle cows very similar, but there is something different about roping with dad. He doesn’t like to help, but I make him help me all the time.”

As for roping goals, Brazile says he plans to make it to the ARHFA Open Heeling Short Go in 2025 before turning his attention from the horse show business to rodeo.

The post Treston Brazile Beats Nerves, Goes 1-2 in 2024 ARHFA Non Pro Heeling on Woody Be Spotted and Pride And Joyy appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Beto Cisneros clinched the 2024 ARHFA Non Pro Heading Championship by nearly four points, garnering more than $8K with his aggregate of 687.69 points.

Astride the Lisac families’ 4-year-old bay gelding Time To Travel, known in the barn as “Hotdog,” Cisneros scored a 229.11 and 229.56, winning Round 2 for $1,300. With Billie Jack Saebens on the heels, Cisneros sent himself to the Short Go in the high callback position.

From there, Cisneros was primed to do what he’d driven down from Colorado to do—win the roping. With a 229.02 he did just that, earning $7,340 for a total of $8,640.

“Winning this is huge,” Cisneros, 23, said. “The last run, I just knew I needed to keep clean. I went in the box, and talked to myself, ‘I need to score, rope and face good.’ I scored good, and everything went well. I was a little late off the barrier but I roped him and Billie Jack did the rest.”

Cisneros says the gelding sired by Hickory Holly Time and out of Travelin Miss Jonez (by Travelin Jonez) was started in a cowhorse program before being purchased by Cisneros’ girlfriend’s family, Wade and Timmi Jo Lisac.

“Hotdog is real good and easy to rope on,” Cisneros said. “He’s been easy since day one, he just goes with the flow and is very honest.”

Cisneros is an electrician by trade, and plans to continue showing Hotdog in the roping futurities as his side hobby. He thanked the Lisac family, Singleton family, Billie Jack Saebens as well as Jay and Lu Wadhams for putting on the Futurity.

2024 ARHFA Non Pro Heading Average Results

The post Beto Cisneros and Time To Travel Capture 2024 ARHFA Non Pro Heading Championship appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Logan Moore stayed hooked atop the 2024 Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year standings to take home the coveted title with $66,026.39 won on the season.

The 23-year-old from Pleasanton, Texas, took control of the standings in July and never looked back. When the tight race came to an end, Moore beat out Arizona’s Denton Dunning by $5,857.84.

“It’s amazing—it’s a goal that I’ve set for myself since I was a kid and to know I can achieve it against some really, really tough rookies this year, it felt really good,” Moore said. “This means the world.”

Moore didn’t only have his sights set on the prestigious title—he was also looking ahead for 2025. 

“I’ve always wanted to win Rookie of the Year in the PRCA,” Moore said. “I’ve done it at the junior high, high school and college levels, and that’s been a goal, but another goal I had was to get into the buildings in 2025 and set myself up. Of course, I wanted to make the NFR—I’m not saying it’s a long shot, but that’s been pretty difficult to do in a rookie year. I think I had a good year, though.”

A rookie year to remember

Moore first made waves on the rookie race after he returned to the ProRodeo road from his CNFR trip. Heeling for Resistol Rookie Header of the Year Tyler Tryan, Moore pocketed $10,191 over the Fourth of July to jump to No. 2 in the race.  

“Livingston, Montana, over the Fourth of July helped us a lot,” Moore said of their $4,974-a-man win. “We didn’t do good in the first round at Reno—I messed up—but roping in the second round at Reno and winning third in the round was a pretty big win, too. That was a fun run.”

Thanks to a third-place finish at the Central Wyoming Fair & PRCA Rodeo in Casper, Moore took final control over the heeling standings. August was nice to Moore, bringing in over $25,000 and pairing him up behind three-time NFR qualifier Shay Carroll. The fourth quarter brought some challenges, but Moore pushed through.

“The last two weeks were the roughest time of the year for me,” Moore admitted. “I was making mistakes and I really couldn’t put my finger on why I was making them or what was going on. I got to come home and rope right before Mandan and when we went to Springhill, and I got it all worked back out, so we finished strong.”

Sophomore season

Learning how to fight the inevitable battles that come from the rodeo road is a rookie lesson Moore will apply year after year, too.

“The rodeo season’s not over until the very last week of the season,” Moore said. “There’s so much money to be won every single week that you have chances at everything. I also learned everybody ropes great, but as long as you’re placing here and there and you keep your momentum, you’ll have a good summer. That’s the main thing: Just keep your head down, keep roping and there’s so much money that you can win.”

Finishing his rookie season 29^th in the world standings also checked off another of Moore’s 2024 goals: get into the 2025 winter rodeos.

“It’s just important because there’s a lot of money to be won in the winter,” Moore said. “Last winter I was sitting at home watching the rodeos. I don’t like that whenever I want to be in them. I grew up 30 miles from San Antonio, so it’s pretty much the hometown rodeo for me; that’ll be cool to rope there.”

The post Logan Moore Wins 2024 Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year Title appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Tyler Tryan remained undefeated in the 2024 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year race, racking up $79,694.85 in season earnings.

Tryan, 18, won the coveted title by $39,097.67, giving him the richest rookie season of the last decade and landing him 25^th in the PRCA heading world standings to qualify him to the major winter rodeos in 2025.

“It feels good to win it,” Tryan said. “I’m glad I won it, but I’m also glad I got into Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth. It could have went better and it should have, but it all worked out.”

Tryan’s rookie season

The eldest son of three-time World Champion Clay Tryan kicked off his year winning the first ProRodeo he entered on his permit. Tryan got the ball rolling at the Home of the Navajo PRCA Rodeo in Window Rock, Arizona, where he won second and pocketed $3,027 and picked up major momentum grabbing checks everywhere he entered the week of June 5-8. 

Over the Fourth of July, Tryan—who roped with fellow Resistol Rookie of the Year contenders Logan Moore and Denton Dunning—pocketed $10,191, with the Livingston Roundup Rodeo win in Montana for $4,974 highlighting the week.

“That was the first time I was ever 3 seconds, and that’s not an easy rodeo to win, so that was probably my best moment of the summer,” Tryan said.

Tryan went on to have a $23,606 August, and he wrapped up his rookie season with a third-place finish at the Cowboy Capital Of The World PRCA Rodeo in Stephenville and second at the Decatur PRCA Rodeo.

He also learned a valuable lesson about adapting a short-term memory mindset.

“You get to run a lot of steers, so don’t worry about that one,” Tryan said. “Get over it and try to move on and worry about the next one.”

While breaking rookie records is a feat the Lipan, Texas, kid is proud of, he had also set his sights on a much bigger goal and feels he could have turned more steers in 2024.

“I was excited I got to 25th (in the world), but also a little disappointed where I ended up, too,” Tryan admitted. “Everyone’s end goal is to make the NFR, and when you don’t do it, it’s disappointing. Even if you didn’t think you were going to make it.”

Tryan will keep roping with Dunning in 2025, and he continues to look for ways to level up. 

“Making the Finals for me and him, that’s both our goals, to be honest,” Tryan said. “That’s the main goal right now. He’s living at our place right now and we’re both trying to get better at it. I need to do better for him. He’s got it all figured out.”

The post Undefeated: Tyler Tryan Wins 2024 Resistol Rookie of the Year by $39K appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Grayson Colt Bolejack, 1, died Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, in Wichita Falls, Texas, after a fire engulfed the family home.

Grayson Colt, who would have turned 2 on Christmas, was the son of 23-year-old rope horse futurity trainer Clyde Bolejack and partner Sierra Branson.

“To know Grayson Colt or ‘JR’ to many was to love him,” Branson wrote on Facebook. “Boy was he crazy for his cows and making you laugh.. and boy oh boy did he LOVE to sing. He was so intelligent, loving and most of all my whole world… I will never get the image of my whole world burning to nothing right in front of me out of my head, my baby boy… my home… every single thing.. all gone. I will ask God till it’s my last day on earth to give me strength to get through another day. Grief terrifies me.. I’ve never lost a family member, I’ve never dealt with a loss of any type. All I ask is prayers for my family.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to support the family, who lost everything in the fire just days after the conclusion of the American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Championship.

Clyde and Sierra lost everything in the fire, and family is accepting donations at 1200 Adell Circle in Weatherford, Texas, 76088. Sierra’s clothing sizes are small (shirts), 00/1 x 36 (pants), 8 (shoes), while Clyde wears a large shirt, 31×36 in jeans and 10.5 in shoes.

Bolejack’s personal Venmo account is @Clyde-Bolejack for direct contributions. The family requests privacy at this time as they process the loss.

We will continue to update this page with news on how to contribute.

The post Grayson Bolejack, 1, Dies in Wichita Falls House Fire appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

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The new ProRodeo team of Andrew Ward and Jake Long survived the pressure cooker of the CoJo Roping high-stakes short round, walking away with new Bill Fick Ford F-350s and stock-combo Bloomer Trailers, plus $60,000 in cash.

In a roping that had seen sub 5-second times all day long, Ward and Long just had to be 8 to win it all at high back. Ward got out the barrier, and they made a 6-second run in the middle of the pen to seal the deal. We caught up with them after their win.

Full Results: CoJo Roping

Team Roping Journal: Okay. Tell me about that short round. What was going through your head as everybody was breaking the barrier? There were barriers, legs—what were you thinking, or were you not thinking?

Andrew Ward: I listened to what we needed to be, and they said eight-something. So, then I’m trying to get out of the barrier. Obviously, I don’t want to break the barrier, but I don’t want to miss it by a long way because it’s not a real long arena, and the steers are running. I thought I did a good job of just sending Biscuit at the right time, and it made my job a lot easier when I got a good start.

TRJ: Jake, how much maturity did you use on your heel shot?

Jake Long: That has not been my forte over the years, but the older I get, the more I’ve worked on that in the practice pen. Truthfully, it sounds stupid to be a high-level heeler and be nervous that you have to go be nine flat, but I’m wired so aggressively that I really have had to work on that. And truthfully, it doesn’t bother me now. I kind of rib around a little bit. But I think the scariest part about it is you look like an idiot if you miss one when you have to be nine. If I have to be 4.2 and if I miss him, it’s like, ‘Well, he’s just trying to win.’

TRJ: Did you know that steer when they ran him in?

AW: I didn’t know. I didn’t watch. It’s hard to watch a lot of the short round, so I sat back there in the warmup arena a lot and then just walked up probably five or six to go and ran the cow. So, I didn’t know.

TRJ: You didn’t know ’em either, Jake?

JL: I don’t know any of ’em. I could rope the same, probably 10 or 12 steers in the practice pen, and they’re always new to me. I don’t pay attention at all. I remember ’em after I run ’em usually, but kind of the same deal. Me and Clint were the 10th call, so I roped and then I was kind of hustling around because I didn’t know how long it’d take me to get around there. By the time I walked around, I think the fourth call was in the box. So, it was kind of weird. I didn’t know what was going on. I had no clue what was winning or not winning. And then I didn’t even realize the last two or three teams before us had to be some kind of eight, I think, or long seven. So, it was crazy.

TRJ: That’s crazy. And what year did you win the George Strait?

JL: I won it in 2010. It’s been a minute.

TRJ: Do you still have that trailer?

JL: I have the trailer. I had to sell the truck pretty well immediately. I was pretty broke back then, so this rig is not going to leave my possession ever—until it quits running, I guess, on the side of the road somewhere.

TRJ: No, Bill Fick will send you something else even then. He’s pretty good about that. If it quits running on the side of the road, he sends you another pickup.

AW: He’s done it. He bailed me and Buds (Buddy Hawkins) out one summer to make the Finals, and he did it.

TRJ: He’s a pretty good dude that way.

AW: He’s amazing. I love Bill. He’s great to us.

TRJ: Andrew, did you get to go to the George Strait?

AW: I did. I won third the last year they had it, and we’ve been saying it all day: We didn’t think that there would ever be a roping for the Open guys that gave a truck and trailer again. Then Cody came up with this, and we’re so grateful to him. It takes a guy like Cody to put something like this on, and he stepped up. That’s amazing.

TRJ: Jake, Roger was Roger today. But what was Roger scared of at the end of the arena after the roping?

JL: I don’t know what got into him. I was away from the house the other day, and my wife called me and said, “Was Roger sound when you came home?” I went to Coleman’s and roped for a few days, and I said, “Yeah, he was fine.” Then she said, “Well, he’s three-legged right now.” And I’m like, “That’s awesome, because the Cody Johnson’s tomorrow.” So, I ran him over to the vet, and I talked to Charlie (Buchanan) at Signature, and he’s like, “Well, what do you want to do?” And I was like, “Well, the problem is the biggest roping of the year is tomorrow, so I kind of need him to be sound.” So, he had some medical assistance in being sound.

I don’t know if he was just feeling his Cheerios, but he did feel better today. I went ahead and gave him the medicine to really make him feel good. And I will say he was really, really running, but he didn’t like the flashes and stuff at the back end for some reason. I don’t know why, but on day one, I waited on the photographer. The team was fixing to go, so I stopped back to let her take her pictures. When they went to flashing, he didn’t like that. And from then on, that end of the arena was not good. Luckily, Andrew turned them all a little closer to the boxes.

TRJ: And Biscuit—you haven’t been riding him as much as you used to, but in these situations, Biscuit is the numero uno still?

AW: Oh, yeah. He’s a special horse. Anytime I need to step on the gas a little bit, like a roping, it’s nice to have him. He speeds it up for me.

The post Ward, Long Kick Off Partnership with Historic CoJo Roping $60K Win, New Trucks & Trailers appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Wyatt Muggli and Casey McCleskey conquered tough steers and a tough field of competition to win the 2024 Prairie Circuit Finals in Duncan, Oklahoma, with a 26.7 on three head, Saturday, Oct. 19.

Muggli and McCleskey pocketed $5,697 apiece between the rounds and the average win, topping a field of NFR teams like Coleman Proctor and Logan Medlin, J.C. Yeahquo and Buddy Hawkins, and Andrew Ward and Kollin VonAhn.

“All my heroes were in it,” McCleskey, 25, said. “Kollin (VonAhn) and all those guys, so it’s fun to rope with them for sure. Then to come out on top—it was great.”

After switching partners up in 2023, the Oklahoma and Texas guys—who roped together in 2021 and 2022—decided to team back up, and it’s paid off.

“We’ve run so many together and we practically lived together for a while a couple of years ago,” Muggli, 28, said. “We get along pretty good and know what’s going on and what the other person’s going to do.”

Play-by-play

Muggli and McCleskey had a strong but honest steer in the first round. Muggli played it smart on the barrier, making sure they knocked him down and they were right outside the money with a 7.3.

They remembered their second-round steer from Round 1 as one that started slow but then ran hard in the field. For Muggli and McCleskey, though, he was quicker at the line.

“I waited on that, but he just followed the gates,” Muggli said with a laugh. “And when the gates opened, I knew I was in trouble, and I dropped; I was late. It was one of those times you knew you weren’t going to be able to hit him, so I ran my horse until our steer started checking off and veering off the bucking chutes. I headed him down there in that corner.”

While it wasn’t ideal, they made the run work and stayed in the average. They entered Round 3 fourth overall and, despite thinking they couldn’t win the average, misses, legs and barriers plagued the field, opening up their chances. They won the round with a 6.3 for $2,279 a man and took home the average title. 

Muggli credits McCleskey for cleaning things up on the heel side.

“Casey did a great job all week,” Muggli said. “The first steer was big and strong and real wide, and he did a good job heeling him. Then the second one was really hard to heel. Of course, we were running him and he was running as fast in the circle as he was down the arena, so he did a really, really good job this week.”

Duncan horsepower

On the head side, Muggli rode a 19-year-old gelding he bought seven years ago from Cory Kidd. Kidd was staying with Muggli, and when he headed back out on the rodeo road he left “Kidd” behind.

“It was pretty smart—he left the horse with me and I bought him,” Muggli said with a laugh. “I had another I was riding at the time, so he was kind of my second-string horse. But he was always the horse I ended up riding. I’d say, ‘Well, this setup isn’t going to fit this horse, so I’m going to ride Kidd,’ or ‘Well, the steers are going to be too strong here, so I’m going to ride Kidd.’ He’s the one I ride everywhere now.”

McCleskey had the help of 8-year-old futurity-turned-rodeo horse Titos Special Nite. McCleskey’s boss Steve Orth trained and futuritied on the gelding, and McCleskey had the opportunity to show him as a 4-year-old. Four years later, McCleskey bought him this July.

“When I moved back here, I sold one of my good horses, so I was riding him here and there,” McCleskey said. “Then the opportunity came to buy him, and the Horn family let me purchase him from them. It’s been really good. He’s been a blessing for me for sure.”

NFR Open

Both Muggli and McCleskey have been to Colorado Springs before but not since it became the NFR Open. Having the opportunity to rope for a major purse is something they look forward to.

“I’ve got a little boy who’s about to be a year old, and we go to lots of amateur rodeos and circuit rodeos,” Muggli said. “Between the amateur finals and circuit finals, this time of year is when we are actually able to get a little ahead as far as our rodeoing. Going up there is going to be a very good deal. There’s lots of good rodeos that time of year up there, so we’re real excited to go.”

The post Wyatt Muggli and Casey McCleskey Conquer Prairie Circuit Finals appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Braden Pirrung and Dylan Hart won the battle of the Badlands Circuit, taking home the 2024 year-end heading and heeling titles.

For the majority of the season, Pirrung and Hart went head-to-head with Pirrung’s younger brother Payton and his partner Logan Schliinz. But thanks to the Badlands Circuit Finals in Minot, North Dakota, Pirrung and Hart came out on top and punched their tickets to July’s NFR Open in Colorado Springs.

“It means quite a bit,” Hart, 30, from Flandreau, South Dakota, said. “I set the goal at the beginning of the year to win it, and we got it done.”

The 2024 title marks Pirrung’s second year-end victory and Hart’s first.

“It’s always a goal when you decide to circuit rodeo that year,” said 26-year-old Pirrung of Hartford, South Dakota. “It’s always my goal to do the best I can, and it feels as good as it did winning the first one. It’s a good feeling and it gives a guy some confidence going into the winter.”

Pirrung and Hart’s year

When 2024 kicked off, Pirrung was partnered up with two-time NFR header Jr. Dees, who wanted to shift focus to heeling. Longtime friends, Pirrung and Dees had decided to give their 14-year-old dreams of roping together professionally a shot. 

Over the spring run on the West Coast, however, Dees was offered the chance to head for JC Flake, and both he and Pirrung knew it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. Pirrung had also decided he was ready to head home and get back to chasing cows and riding colts. Along the way, he gave Hart, who he’d known practically their entire lives, a call.

“I decided to stay home and go to strictly circuit rodeos,” Pirrung said. “Besides Cheyenne, I didn’t go out of circuit once this year, which was unlike me; the last three years I’ve rodeoed a bit. It was fun though. I wouldn’t say it was relaxing because no matter what you do, you’re going 110%. Whether circuit rodeoing or rodeoing, it seems like you’re always gone. But I got to stay home more and hang out, and got a lot more accomplished that way.”

Pirrung and Hart kicked off their partnership in June and, after a rough start, they made some money moves over Fourth of July—a crucial time in the Badlands Circuit. Between Dickinson, North Dakota; Belle Fourche, South Dakota; Killdeer, North Dakota; and Mandan, North Dakota, Pirrung and Hart pocketed $7,680 a man to give Hart a sizeable lead in the heeling standings.

“We had a really good Fourth,” Hart said. “It kind of slowed down after that, but then we kickstarted it again and kept winning—and never looked back.”

All came down to Minot

The year-long battle between the Pirrung brothers and Hart and Schliinz came down to the circuit finals. Big brother Pirrung entered the circuit finals second, and Hart entered No. 1.

Pirrung and Hart had a successful circuit finals, winning second in the average and picking up $6,542 for their weekend. Pirrung finally passed his little brother, and Hart maintained his lead.

“[Payton’s] never made it before, so I was pulling for him,” Pirrung said. “We were first and second all throughout the year, and it was all the sweeter because his horse broke its leg this winter, so we rode my two head horses. He rode Richard—the yellow horse I rode at the finals—half the year, and I rode the sorrel. Then we swapped halfway through.”

Colorado in July

Pirrung is looking forward to his second trip to Colorado Springs, giving him a shot at redemption.

“I’m excited to go back over there,” Pirrung said. “I had a lot of fun the first time I went. I ended up breaking a barrier to win the first round and it didn’t go our way in the second round. I’m ready to try my luck again and get a little redemption.”

With the money up for grabs, Hart is excited for his first NFR Open trip as well. 

“I can’t wait,” Hart said. “I’m excited to get to the next level.”

The post Braden Pirrung and Dylan Hart Clinch 2024 Badlands Circuit Year-End Titles appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Bodie Mattson and Trae Smith picked up the 2024 Badlands Circuit Finals win Oct. 13, in Minot, North Dakota, after roping three steers in 17.7 seconds for $3,568 apiece.

The win marks Mattson’s first Badlands Circuit Finals team roping title and Smith’s second in a row. After going into Minot sixth in the standings, Mattson, 22, and Smith, 24, set their sights on the average title.

“We knew we were kind of back in the pack and honestly, in my mind, winning the average was a bigger deal for us than winning the year-end because all the money counts [toward the standings],” Mattson, of Sturgis, South Dakota, said. “We still got a spot to Colorado Springs. We got to rope at Colorado Springs last year with different partners and it was a good learning experience for us to realize how much money is available there.”

Hockey rink battle

Mattson and Smith kicked things off with a 6.5 in Round 1 to split third for $892 each. After watching some teams mess up in the first round, they knew they could set up their week early. 

“We were trying to knock the first one down in a timely manner, but not a stupid fashion,” Mattson said. “We made a smart run in the first round that set our week up to know whether we either had to step on it a little bit or be in a good spot just to ride that out.”

In the second round, they drew a steer that had taken another team out in Round 1. 

“That was really the only one that made me nervous,” admitted Smith, a Georgetown, Idaho, native. “Me and Bodie watched the video on him before we roped and went with the game plan of he was going to get the steer out of my way, and whenever I thought I could catch him, to take the chance.”

Mattson and Smith turned a tough steer into cash and picked up $595 a man for fourth in the round with a 5.7-second run. They came back to Sunday’s matinee leading the average on two head and sealed the deal with a 5.5 to also split second in the third round for $1,487 a man. Smith credits Mattson for setting steers up for him and making his job easy.

“Bodie is very consistent; with the way he handles cattle, I can ride to my spot and know where the cow’s going to be,” Smith, the 2019 Badlands Circuit year-end champion heeler, said. “I don’t have to guess where they’re going to go. It makes my job easier and helps me be more consistent.”

All in all, they left the circuit finals with $6,542 each.

Minot horsepower

While the steers are good and the barrier is friendly, the setup at Minot is no walk in the park. With a hockey rink for an arena, the draw and horsepower play a huge part in success there. 

Mattson called on his main mount Let R Buck Pendleton, aka “Pendleton.” A been-there, done-that gelding, Mattson knew he could afford to give him some time off before the circuit finals.

“My horse was phenomenal up there,” Mattson said. “It was the best he’s worked all year. I got to come home and give him some time off. I didn’t rope on him for three weeks beforehand, except for the Wrangler Finals, and he made it really easy for us. He scored really good, left flat and seemed like I got some pretty good rolls and didn’t have to reach as much to keep him on a shorter rope and let Trae have the whole arena to work with.”

Smith, meanwhile, rode a horse of Brett Fleming’s after his good horse—who he’d won last year’s circuit finals on—underwent surgery for a bone chip in his fetlock following the Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo in Salt Lake City.

Back to Colorado

In 2022, Mattson and Smith won the inaugural Resistol Rookie Roundup. They decided to pair back up in 2024, thanks to common goals. 

“We both wanted to go more out of the circuit than our partners wanted to, and we thought it’d be a good pairing,” Mattson said. “We roped all year, and I finished just outside the top 50 and he was just inside the top 50. This was dang sure a good steppingstone for next year.”

Both Mattson—who is the reigning NFR Open tie-down roping champion—and Smith are looking forward to heading back to Colorado Springs in July.

“It’s an unbelievable rodeo,” Smith said. “To be able to go during that week and run at that much money can really help a guy’s year go from an OK year to a ‘We have a chance’ type of year.”

The post Bodie Mattson and Trae Smith Capture 2024 Badlands Circuit Finals  appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Offspring of stallion Gunners Special Nite carried Trevor Brazile to his long-awaited first ARHFA World Championship and Joseph Harrison to his fourth, marking the first time in ARHFA history that two colts from the same sire swept the titles.

Both horses also won the 4-&-Under World Championship earlier in the day, another first at the $200,000-added event in Fort Worth’s John Justin Arena.

Full Results: 2024 ARHFA World Championship

“We’re super excited, and we’ve been a fan for a long time of the rope horse business,” said Tom McCutcheon, who stands Gunners Special Nite and who won $235,000 on him in his reining career. “It’s really exciting for me to see it and be successful. His colts are so good minded, it’s not a surprise to me. We’ve been fortunate to get some nice colts in the right hands. We’ve never pushed him toward the roping because he’s one of reining’s top sires, but I guess that might change.”

RR Gunners Affair & Trevor Brazile

In the eight year history of the ARHFA World Championships, Brazile has been high call in exactly half of the Open heading short rounds. But the King of the Cowboys finally walked out of the arena with the title Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, on RR Gunners Affair, a 4-year-old, owned by Jared Wittwer, in just his third trip to town, and $51,000 for his efforts. (That’s $6,000 in go-round winnings, plus $20,000 for the 4-&-Under title and $25,000 for the Open title. Chrome Cash and Royal Crown Stallion Incentive earnings aren’t posted yet.)

“This thing has always been good to us, but it is, it’s nice to finally win it,” Brazile said. “I don’t know that you ever—even once you win it—you don’t want to win it any less because this is a great win. They’ve got a great crowd, and it’s just a culmination of a big year for these horses, and it’s a new group annually, and so they go against their peers and it’s a lot of fun…We really take pride in this and when we do come to town, we want the horses to look and ourselves to look like the work we’ve been putting in.”

Watch: How Miles Baker Started RR Gunners Affair

RR Gunners Affair is a maternal sibling to WND Affair, the horse Brazile and Baker owned who won the ARHFA World Championship on the heel side with Harrison in 2021.

“That dam is old-school reining-bred,” Brazile said. “She’s worked for our industry. They’ve all had plenty of gas, been stone-cold soldiers in the box and been big with good structure.”

Because he made the short rounds in both the 4-year-old and Open divisions, RR Gunners Affair had to make two short-round runs under the bright lights with the big crowd and loud music. But he wasn’t phased, marking a 236.71 and 233.56 in both short rounds and finishing with a 944.55 in the 4-&-Under and a 941.40 for the Open win. In the Open, Brazile bested himself on RR Buckles Clubhouse (by Show Me The Buckles out of Hail Olena) at second place, for $20,000 with a score of 938.8.

“We had a great day in the prelims of the heading. We had a terrible day in the prelims of the healing, so it was definitely a roller coaster as far as that goes, because we went from one day where we were, I felt like the horses were great. Me and Miles had good days, and then to the next day, 24 hours later, we couldn’t do much right. So it’s just part of it, and I love it for the horses when we win. I hate it for the horses and the owners when we don’t, but it’s not from lack of effort.”

The irony of two Gunners Special Nite siblings getting the titles isn’t lost on Brazile.

“You would’ve probably lost a lot of money in a bet on that,” Brazile said. “In the heeling, I see it a lot, but that mare they crossed him on was kind of old-school reining. I think she goes back to a Major Vaquero, and they said it was just a bigger, grittier line. Whatever it was, they tapped into something that dang sure had enough zing in the run, and the size and grit that it is no surprise to see him in the heeling win. But that’s the only Gunners Special Nite that I’ve ever headed on.”

Brazile had the help of two-time and reigning World Champion Wesley Thorp on the heel side.

“Wesley was perfect for me, and I was less than perfect on the goes I gave him a lot of times too,” Brazile admitted. “I mean, the steers were not ideal to heel sometimes, and you would’ve never known it with him. I mean, he literally was perfect. He got two feet every time I turned him and didn’t take long to do it.”

One Nite Special & Joseph Harrison

Joseph Harrison brought his string of seasoned futurity horses to town for the ARHFA World Championship, but his youngest—the 4-year-old One Nite Special—came out on top when the dust settled Friday night.

“We say this about all the ones that we do good on, but he really is pretty special for a 4-year-old man,” Harrison said. “To be honest, he’s still a hair immature. I think some of those horses as 4-year-olds, especially those Gunners Special Nites, have a little bit of a reputation for being just a hair immature when they’re young, but they’re extremely talented. They’re pretty horses, and they’re fun horses. That little horse there, he is just fun.”

One Nite Special placed in the first round for $1,500, and then won the third round for another $4,000 to come back high call in both the 4-&-Under and Open short rounds. For the 4-&-Under, Harrison and One Nite Special won $20,000, and for the Open, they picked up $30,000. When Chrome Cash and Royal Crown Incentive money is added into the mix, the horse’s earnings for the two days in Fort Worth will top $60,000.

This is Harrison’s fourth Open title at the ARHFA, but his first since 2021.

“He’s honestly a little cowy,” Harrison said. “I mean, just a little bit. Not bad cowy, but pretty kind of good cow. He really wants to hook you into the cow in a good place and stuff like that. So I mean, for a 4-year-old I can kind of put my hand down on him more so than I can some of the other 4-year-olds.”

The post Brazile on RR Gunners Affair, Harrison on One Nite Special Sweep ARHFA World Championships on Gunners Special Nite Colts appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

JohnRyon Foster was the first and second high call in the Open Intermediate Heeling Finals on Buffalou and Wood You Know, executing under pressure to hold his positions and win $20,000 and $15,000, respectively.

He picked up another $8,000 when he finished eighth in the Open Finals on Buffalou, and $3,000 more for finishing in the top 20 on both Jonezin For My Boss and Wood You Know.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little nerve wracking,” Foster, 27, said. “I was trying to keep everything together and stay focused since I had multiple in the short round. I knew that if I did my job on my horses that we could get it done. Besides, at this point, everything that went into [training] is harder than doing your job in the finals. I’m just happy to be here.”

In addition to his total of $56,000 won between four horses in the Intermediate and Open Finals, Foster also collected the 2024 ARHFA Year-End Intermediate High Money Earner Superior Trailer.

2024 ARHFA Intermediate Heeling Champion: Buffalou

The 5-year-old son of cutting stallion Cattalou, Buffalou proved he had the grit to hold his No. 1 callback position and score an aggregate of 937.5 on four head to earn $20,000.

“Me and my dad are partners on him, and I showed him part of his 4-year-old year before he got hurt,” Foster said. “I only got him back this year and started showing him at the end of the year. He’s always been really good, but we’ve finally starting to put all the pieces together.”

According to Foster, Buffalou sustained a left hind suspensory injury that needed a lot of time off and rehab. But when he came back—aside from being fresh—Buffalou was ready to work.

“He’s good minded, easy to train, stops good and does a lot of things correctly,” Foster said. “I just have to do my job.”

Foster plans to show Buffalou his 6-year-old year in the futurities before keeping him as a personal jackpot horse.

2024 ARHFA Intermediate Heeling Reserve Champion: Wood You Know

With an aggregate of 933.43 on four head, Wood You Know (Woody Be Tuff x Little Bow Knows) garnered $15,000 in winnings for owners Nancy Galbreath and Dee Merritt.

Now 4 years old, Wood You Know was in cutting training with $2 million rider R.L. Chartier until he was 3 years old.

“He’s special and a really talented, mature 4-year-old,” Foster said. “R.L. did a great job with him. He was really broke, so it was an easy transition to rope horse. Some of the cutters can be a little cowy in the roping but he’s been easy. I think he likes this job a little better.”

2024 ARHFA Intermediate Heeling Results

The post JohnRyon Foster Goes 1-2 on Buffalou and Wood You Know in ARHFA Intermediate Heeling Finals appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

If winning the all-around at Cheyenne and Pendleton is 39, I can hardly wait to see what 40 will look like on Coleman Proctor next year. The pride of Pryor, Oklahoma isn’t done racking up rodeo accolades in 2024. He’s been going gangbusters in the world team roping race with New Mexico native Logan Medlin. They’re both top-fivers on their respective sides rolling into Las Vegas, and by proving pretty darn handy at a second event, Coleman’s also in hot contention for the world all-around crown; currently third behind only Shad Mayfield and Junior Nogueira. 

Proctor’s just been named the Big 4 Rodeo Association’s “Best in the Northwest” for stacking up the most points at the Pendleton Round-Up, Lewiston Roundup, Walla Walla Frontier Days and Kennewick Horse Heaven Round-Up. And he’s pretty proud and pumped about it. 

“To win the Big 4 is a dream come true,” said Coleman, who won $31,302 at the four rodeos that have participated in this popular cowboy coalition since 1948. “I first went to the Northwest 17 years ago, and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would pull off winning such a prestigious award. This is definitely one of the greatest accomplishments of my career.”

The past champions roster of the Big 4 Award reads like a rodeo who’s who. The impressive list includes the likes of Jim Shoulders, Dean Oliver, Larry Mahan, Tom Ferguson, Fred Whitfield, Cody Ohl, Stetson Wright and Cowboy King Trevor Brazile, who was Best in the Northwest a record five times. 

For being the 2024 champ, Coleman will be awarded a saddle custom made to his specifications by Blake West of Wild West Saddlery in Hermiston, Oregon. Blake’s the guy who crafted the 2024 Pendleton steer roping saddle. Coleman’s the guy who finished second behind Trenton Johnson there. So the Big 4 Award gives Coleman a second crack at a very similar saddle. 

“Blake asked me what tree I want in my Big 4 saddle,” Proctor said. “I chuckled, and said, ‘Same one that’s in that Pendleton steer roping saddle.’ This is a heck of a consolation prize for almost winning Pendleton. I don’t think there’s a more cowboy award than winning the Big 4. I want to ride this saddle, especially when I’m cowboying at the house.”

Proctor will be presented his prized prize at the Big 4 Rodeo Association Reception presented by Pendleton Whisky on December 4 at the South Point in Vegas. 

“Being a kid from Oklahoma who grew up hearing about these great Northwest rodeos makes it extra special to be crowned the champ for winning the most at four special rodeos you don’t want to miss,” Coleman said. “I won money at three of the four (all but Kennewick), and there were (ProRodeo) Tour implications at all four. This award means a lot to me.

“With the level of competition that’s in the PRCA now, you’re shocked whenever you pull something this big off. To be crowned the Big 4 champion is something I take great pride in. It’s like Pendleton just keeps giving back to me.”

Banking over $30 grand at four rodeos that between them paid out $1,797,000 this year alone is rank, though it was technically the 14 points he earned at them that won it for him. Oh, and the week Coleman and Medlin won $2,012 at Lewiston, they also pocketed just shy of $20,000 for 40-percenting them at the Cinch Playoffs in Puyallup, Washington. 

Proctor and Medlin kicked off the 2024 Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo in Duncan, Oklahoma last night with a second-place run in Round 1. Coleman’s steer roping there today before they run their second one tonight. He’ll then charter to the final round of the CoJo Roping in Belton, Texas tomorrow (Saturday; Coleman qualified for the finals with Medlin and Coleby Payne) before he heads to the Indian National Finals Rodeo in Vegas on Sunday. Proctor is one quarter Cherokee, and will head for Griffin Passmore at the 2024 INFR at the South Point. 

“We’re rodeoing like it’s the Fourth of July,” Proctor grinned. “And next week’ll be another round of chartering between the INFR and Bart Hutton’s inaugural South Texas Showdown in Uvalde. 

“This Big 4 Award is just the cherry on top of what’s been an incredible year. The all-around at two of the greatest rodeos I’ve wanted to win since I was a little kid. Now this. Amazing.”

The post Coleman Proctor is ‘Best in the Northwest’ at the Big 4 in 2024 appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Larry and Bobbie Rice’s Flag Ranch will have four representatives of their illustrious breeding program in the ARHFA heading short round when it kicks off at 7 p.m., ridden by the likes of Miles Baker, Kaleb Driggers and Colby Lovell.

At sixth call, Baker will show Lunchbox, owned by Ryan and Kristen Morrow. The 2019 gelding out of Young Laneys Paint by Smart Painted Lena has won $82,650 according to QData, including a third-place win at the Riata Championships in the Open in 2024. He’s a 701.25 on three.

“Larry Rice was ahead of his time, crossing the race horses on the cow horses,” Baker said. “He was taking good cow horses on good race horses and crossing them so he’d have really good ranch horses, and they ended up turning out to be good rope horses. Now we’re all trying to breed the same horse he had a vision for 10 years ago. We’re seeing the outcome of it now. There’s so many he bred and raised because we’ve had to go buy them from him because we wasn’t raising them ourselves yet.”

At eighth call, Driggers is on Blowin In Time, a mare he owns with partner Jake Cooper in Kingpin Genetics. She’s a 4-year-old mare by One Fabulous Time, who stands at the Lazy E, out of Blowing Withthe Wind by Fury Of The Wind. The mare has no performance earnings to date. She’s a 698.46 on three.

“The one we have is just a good cross,” Driggers said. “She’s got sting to her—in a good way. She can run so I’m not scared to be off the barrier a little bit. She’s got really good footwork. The most important part to me is that she has the speed but doesn’t get long through the turn. She collects up and uses her feet right.”

Relentless PYC, the champion 4-year-old of the Old West Futurity, will be 11th call with Baker with a score of 697.86. She’s won $106,521 per QData in her short career already, all with Baker. By First Prize Diver out of Chars Gun by Playgun. She’s owned by the Relentless Remuda, Solo Select and Bob Tonkin.

Lovell will ride Pepinstep at 13th call with a 697.2, a 2018 son of One Time Pepto out of Better Sue by Bet On Me. The stallion won the Riata’s #14.5 in 2023, and he’s already got $100,593 won with very limited hauling for owners at the Theorem Ranch.

“Mr. Larry studies the game,” Lovell said. “There’s an art to breeding horses and he’s got it penciled in.”

The Flag Ranch also bred Chics Magic Corona, the gelding Rhen Richard won the 2022 ARHFA World Championship aboard.

The post Flag Ranch Brings Four Horses to ARHFA Heading Short Round appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

The 2024 ARHFA World Championship Heeling Short Round is set with 25 handy horses and riders ready to make their bid at the World Championship—and these are the bloodlines that built them.

Woody Be Tuff has three offspring in the 2024 ARHFA short round, the most of any stallion. A Savanah Cat has two colts in it, and one of them—Cheyenne Red Cat—is also in the heading short round. Bet Hesa Cat has two offspring in the top 25 as well.

They will compete Friday, Oct. 18. The day kicks off with Intermediate Heading and Heeling, followed by the 3-and-4-year-old finals and finally, the Open Finals starting at 7 p.m.

In the heeling finals, they’ll run slow to fast time, with Jonezin For My Boss and Bet Hesa Shiner tied for the No. 24 position.

2024 ARHFA Short Round Heel Horses

1. One Nite Special

Gunners Special Nite x Thelmas Whiz

Rider: Joseph Harrison

Owner: Chris Young

Breeder: Mike Michelle Preston

Score: 709.07

2. Canteburys Cherry

Centebury Cat x Cherrey

Rider: Hunter Koch

Owner: JD and Lindsey McGuire

Breeder: Rodney Wrinkle Cutting Horses LLC

Score: 706.59

3. DT Hickorys Eyecandy

Hickory Holly Time x Esperanza

Rider: Dakota Kirchenschlager

Owner: DT Horses LLC

Breeder: DT Horses LLC

Score: 704.82

4. JKC Smart Playen Sis

Playen Spades x Lectric Jerry

Rider: Shay Carroll

Owner: Shay Carroll

Breeder: John Coltharp

Score: 704.81

5. DF Bet Hesa Legend

Bet Hesa Cat x Gunna Be A Legend

Rider: Billie Jack Saebens

Owner: Patrick Gideon

Breeder: DF Rope Horses

Score: 704.71

6. Buffalou

Cattalou x Kitty Merada

Rider: JohnRyon Foster

Owner: Rob Foster

Breeder: Glenn and Shari Hirt

Score: 703.71

7. Rockk Star

Peptoboonsmal x Aristocratic Star

Rider: Hunter Koch

Owner: JD and Lindsey McQuire

Breeder: Star C Land and Cattle

Score: 703.24

8. Copperton

Spots Hot x Copperish

Rider: Joseph Harrison

Owner: Cox & Moore Partnership

Breeder: Jimmie Smith

Score: 702.67

9. Cheyenne Red Cat

A Savanah Cat x Harpers Holly Tucker

Rider: Kaleb Driggers

Owner: Kaleb Driggers

Breeder: Joe Hutchison

Score: 702.51

10. Sippin Patron

Dual Patron x Vahalla Foxy Shiner

Rider: Joseph Harrison

Owner: Justin Ochs

Breeder: Rylee Ochs

Score: 701.95

11. Wood You Know

Woody Be Tuff x Little Bow Knows

Rider: JohnRyon Foster

Owner: Nancy Lynn Galbreath

Breeder: Alexa Stent

Score: 701.6

12. A Nu Kinda Cat

A Savanah Cat x Ima Dallas Chic

Rider: Steve Orth

Owner: Don Bradshaw

Breeder: Don Bradshaw

Score: 701.38

13. Smart Rey Movin

Dual Smart Rey x Catsa Movin

Rider: Kaleb Driggers

Owner: Kaleb Driggers

Breeder: Lakeside Ranch

Score: 700.37

14. Mayhemm

Metallic Rebel x Katniss

Rider: Dakota Kirchenschlager

Owner: TNT Performance Horses

Breeder: Beau and Ashley Galyean

Score: 700.23

15. The Notorious B I G

CD Lights x DT Sugar Check Whiz

Rider: Billie Jack Saebens

Owner: Southern Ranches

Breeder: Dixon Flowers Rope Horses

Score: 699.8

16. CR Woody Be A Dual

Woody Be Tuff x ARC Catty Dual

Rider: Rhen Richard

Owner: A/C Racing & Roping

Breeder: Center Ranch

Score: 697.52

17. Elon Von

Stevie Rey Von x Shineydiamonsjackie

Rider: Bubba Garcia

Owner: Tripp Townsend

Breeder: Salt Fork Cattle

Score: 696.78

18. Playing Tuff

My Playinstylish x My Books Are Tuff

Rider: Lane Reeves

Owner: Hard Way Land and Livestock LLC

Breeder: Kit and Charlie Moncrief

Score: 696.49

19. The Spook Dun Time

Shine N Spook x Ice Cold Dunit

Rider: Steve Orth

Owner: Sara Hudson

Breeder: Clark Reining Horses

Score: 695.82

20. Reyzin With Grace

Woody Be Tuff x Reyzin

Rider: Cade Rice

Owner: Shane Walters

Breeder: Gale Force QH

Score: 695.4

21. SJR Diamond Ombre

CD Diamond x SJR Stylish Marilyn

Rider: Rhen Richard

Owner: A/C Racing & Roping

Breeder: San Juan Ranch

Score: 695.22

22. Probaby Smart N Nu

Smart Nu Shiner x Probably Red Buck

Rider: Daniel Reed

Owner: Chris Sutton

Breeder: Mike Van Egdom

Score: 695

23. Not White At All

Not Ruf At All x Snappy Lil Spook

Rider: Trevor Brazile

Owner: Relentless Remuda LLC

Breeder: Vaughn Zimmerman

Score: 694.31

24. (tie) Jonezin For My Boss

CD Lights x Travelin Miss Jonez

Rider: JohnRyon Foster

Owner: Randy & Theresa Quarne

Breeder: Stephen Roseberry

Score: 693.62

24. (tie) Bet Hesa Shiner

Bet Hesa Cat x Nic A Shiner

Rider: Ryan Motes

Owner: Gianna Hansen

Breeder: Gianna Hansen

Score: 693.62

The post Pedigrees of the Top 25 Heel Horses in 2024 ARHFA World Championship Short Go appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

The $7.8 million sire Gunners Special Nite—who himself earned $235,000 in the reining—is the first horse to sire both heading and heeling high-call horses in the Open division of the American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Championship.

ARHFA Short-Round List on CHC

The 4-year-old gelding One Nite Special and Joseph Harrison hold a 2.48-point over the second-place team of Canteburys Cherry and Hunter Koch—setting Harrison up to vie for his fourth ARHFA heeling championship. Meanwhile, on the head side, Trevor Brazile will rope for his long-eluded title on the Relentless Remuda’s RR Gunners Affair, also by Gunners Special Nite.

“To be honest, Miles (Baker) had good luck a couple times with Gunners Special Nites,” Harrison said of the stud owned by Turnabout Farm Inc.. “Steve Orth had a buckskin and had good luck. I had said something in an interview that maybe I hadn’t rode a Gunners Special Nite, and I wanted to.”

Arizona’s Chris “Gucci Man” Young heard the interview, and he called to tell Harrison about a 3-year-old bay he should try.

“He sent him to me, and here we are,” Harrison said. “He’s the first one I’ve ever rode. Miles told me they could be a hair immature minded. I noticed right away with mine, that he plays all the time. He’s playing when you catch him, he’s playing while you saddle him, he’s always playing. He’s playing when you school on him and ride him at the house. But when you get to town, he’s not playing.”

Brazile pointed to the skills of the small herd of Gunners Special Nite horses that have found their way into the Remuda string over the last few years, including Gunners Nite Train who Baker’s shown the last two years, and RR Gold Starr, who Baker showed for the first time this week.

“They naturally want to have their butts down and their shoulders up,” Brazile said. “That comes easy for them.”

Gunners Special Nite is the No. 8 all-time leading reining sire with $7.8 million, and he’s No. 50 on QData’s all-time leading rope horse sire list with $201,744.

Harrison will first go for the 4-&-Under Heeling title at 2 p.m., followed by the Open finals at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18.

“He’s had a touch of bad luck,” Harrison said of the horse who placed at the ARHFA Sun Circuit this March and second at the Royal Crown in Guthrie. “I should have won way more on him than I have. I’ve messed up on him from second or third high callback or better. He’s just a good horse. He’s big enough, he’s strong enough. All of Miles’ have been good bodied, strong. They’re all big, strong, pretty horses.”

Harrison has had the help of Clay Smith, while Brazile will count on Wesley Thorp.

The post With Harrison & One Nite Special, Gunners Special Nite Dominates High Call Spots at 2024 ARHFA World Championship appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

World standings leaders Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord took home the 2024 Texas Circuit year-end title with a historic $60,782.21 won on the year after competing at the Oct. 8-11 Texas Circuit Finals in Waco.

The win marks Egusquiza’s third Texas Circuit year-end title and, for Lord, it’s his first Texas title but fourth circuit title overall.

“It’s pretty awesome to come back,” Lord, 28, said. “I won the Badlands three times, and then I kind of got away from going to any circuit finals. To win two circuits is kind of cool.”

Even though the pair is ranked No. 1 in the world right now, Egusquiza has a sincere appreciation for the level of competition the Texas Circuit delivers.

“It’s not the main goal, obviously, but to come out on top of the Texas Circuit is coming out on top of a pretty tough group of guys,” Egusquiza, 29, said. “It’s not easy to win the Texas Circuit; you have to win a lot, and most of the best team ropers live in Texas. With a setup like that, even the guys that didn’t make the NFR this year could go 3.0 seconds at any time.”

Egusquiza and Lord’s big year

While getting to rope in the bright lights of Vegas is the top priority for Egusquiza and Lord  each year, getting into Waco made the list of 2024 goals because of the NFR Open in Colorado Springs.

“Getting into Colorado Springs, I think, is worth taking a chance on a little bit less money at four or five rodeos just to have a chance to go,” Egusquiza said. “It’s such a good rodeo and at an important time of year. We had to watch this year and that wasn’t really fun. So, we’re looking forward to getting to go there in July.”

The team has been roping together for two years, and in their first year as partners they decided to skip the circuit race, hesitant to official 15 rodeos in Texas. But as more of the smaller rodeos in the circuit begin to add better money, the incentive to go again has been increasing.

Egusquiza and Lord had $4,000 won on the circuit before 2024 even started and, when it did, they went on an absolute tear in the winter. In January, their Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo win in Odessa paid $7,313 a man. Then they won Rodeo Austin for $12,792 each in March, which they followed with an $11,069 week at the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo.

When Egusquiza and Lord got to Waco for the Texas Circuit Finals last Tuesday, they already had the year-end won. Because Circuit Finals earnings count toward 2025, though, they wanted to leave with as much money as possible. They won the first two rounds for $2,331 a piece, but they slipped a leg in the third round. As the teams behind them began to fall apart, however, they remained second in the average race despite the penalty.

“The last round there were only two clean times when we rode in, and there was only one team behind us,” Egusquiza explained. “It was pretty clear cut: just get the steer caught, win a little bit of round money and win second in the average and get out of there. It wasn’t in our style, really, to just lay up, but you don’t want to mess up in that situation.”

They finished the rodeo with a $583-a-man run in the fourth round to put them second in the average for $3,496 each, which contributed to thier circuit-season total of more than $60,000. 

“It’s pretty crazy to win that much in one year on the circuit,” Lord said. “To do that at just circuit rodeos—I’ve never heard of anybody doing that. It worked out pretty good for us. It seemed like every time we were at a big circuit rodeo we did good. Texas has a few big ones, and we seem to do good at all of them, so we ended up getting to quite a lot of money.”

The post Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord Win 2024 Texas Circuit with Over $60K appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Up-and-coming rope horse trainer Mike Kunzler gathered the 2024 ARHFA Heading Limited Championship on Briena “Bri” Wells’ gelding Celtic Tuff, worth $7,500 for a score of 692.07 on three head in Fort Worth’s John Justin Arena.

Roping against one of the most consistent groups of futurity head horses ever put together, Kunzler and Celtic Tuff narrowly missed the Open Finals by 0.58 of a point, but he’ll enter the Intermediate finals Friday, Oct. 18 at high call.

“This horse is consistent,” Kunzler, 25, originally from Park Valley, Utah, said. “He lets me compete against guys that rope a lot better than me. When he has a choice to [short you] or let you do good, he always chooses to do good. Today, I think I could have scored better on my first steer and that would have helped my score.”

In Celtic Tuff’s blood

Bred by the iconic Center Ranch, sired by Woody Be Tuff and out of High Brow Cat daughter Sucha Smartlookn Cat (a full sister to WR This Cats Smart), all of Celtic Tuff’s siblings have been cow horses. It’s only fitting that one of his biggest career wins comes with the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity unfolding in the background of the Will Rogers Memorial Center.

“I’ve rode a couple of Woody Be Tuffs, and I really like them,” Kunzler, who now lives in Whitesboro, Texas, said.

Now 6 years old, Celtic Tuff has been in Kunzler’s string for three years. The ARHFA World Championship is his last kick at the roping futurity game—and he’s garnered $78,932 in QData earnings doing it—but his owner Wells plans to jackpot on him going forward.

Kunzler trained for J.D. Yates and Dakota Kirchenschlager before going out on his own. Now, he rents stalls from Kirchenschlager and the pair practice together every day. Kunzler said that being his own boss has its challenges, but aims to keep between eight and 12 horses in training to continue building his business.

2024 ARHFA Heading Limited Results

The post Mike Kunzler Captures 2024 ARHFA Limited Heading Championship Aboard Celtic Tuff appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

The 2024 ARHFA World Championship Heading Short Round is set with 25 handy horses and riders ready to make their bid at the World Championship.

They will compete Friday, Oct. 18, starting at 9 a.m. with the Intermediate Heading and Heeling. In the heading finals, they’ll run slow to fast time, starting with No. 25 The Darkk Side.

2024 ARHFA Short Round Head Horses

1. RR Gunners Affair

Gunners Special Nite x Cowgirl Affair

Rider: Trevor Brazile

Owner: Jared Whittwer

Breeder: LIL EQUINE LLC

Score: 707.84

2. Cheyenne Red Cat

A Savanah Cat x Harpers Holly Tucker

Rider: Andy Holcomb

Owner: Kaleb Driggers

Breeder: JOE HUTCHISON

Score: 703.71

3. Tia B French

Frenchmans Fortune x Tia B Girl

Rider: Kaleb Driggers

Owner: K4 Partnership LLC

Breeder: JOE GOETZ

Score: 703.26

4. RR Buckles Clubhouse

Show Me The Buckles x Hail Olena

Rider: Trevor Brazile

Owner: Bryan Beaver

Breeder: MICHAEL O COE

Score: 702.34

5. Yes Im Sassy

Mr Sassy Frenchman x Full A Irish Whiskey

Rider: Kaleb Driggers

Owner: Neal or Jody Wanless

Breeder: BILL MEYERS

Score: 701.98

6. Lunchbox

One Time Honor x Young Laneys Paint

Rider: Miles Baker

Owner: Ryann and Kristen Morrow

Breeder: FLAG RANCH LLC

Score: 701.25

7. Foose Is Smoking

Reys Smokin Dually x Runaway Foose

Rider: Rhen Richard

Owner: A/C Racing & Roping

Breeder: AC RACING AND ROPING

Score: 699.25

8. Blowin In Time

One Fabulous Time x Blowing Withthe Wind

Rider: Kaleb Driggers

Owner: Kingpin Genetics

Breeder: FLAG RANCH LLC

Score: 698.46

9. SJR Bet He Sparks

Bet Hesa Cat x CD Sparkle

Rider: Tate Kirchenschlager

Owner: Belo Wiley

Breeder: SAN JUAN RANCH

Score: 698.34

10. Dun Diamond Cat

Dun Diamond Tom x SR Matilda Cat

Rider: Colby Lovell

Owner: Jerry Crowell

Breeder: RAY SMITH

Score: 698.34

11. Relentless PYC

First Prize Driver x Chars Gun

Rider: Miles Baker

Owner: Relentless Remuda/Solo Select/Bob Tonkin

Breeder: FLAG RANCH LLC

Score: 697.86

12. Time To Glo

Hickory Holly Time x Look At Her Glo

Rider: Trevor Brazile

Owner: Time To Glo Partners

Breeder: BOBBY LEWIS

Score: 697.7

13. Pepinstep

One Time Pepto x Better Sue

Rider: Colby Lovell

Owner: Theorem Ranch

Breeder: FLAG RANCH LLC

Score: 697.2

14. Stylin Bill

Stylin Cat x Billie Sue Canoso

Rider: Miles Baker

Owner: Relentless Remuda LLC

Breeder: GREG NITE

Score: 696.71

15. PC Suncashin

Judge Cash x PC Sophia Frost

Rider: Miles Baker

Owner: Relentless Remuda LLC

Breeder: COWAN BROTHERS LLC

Score: 696

16. Chex Out My Finey

One Fine Vintage x Tangys Last Checks

Rider: Kaleb Driggers

Owner: Kingpin Genetics

Breeder: ROBERTSON RANCHES

Score: 695.18

17. Mr HH Badger

CC Blue Ten x HH Smart Holly

Rider: Chad Masters

Owner: Mitchell Bazzell

Breeder: DON STUDDARD

Score: 694.79

18. Seven S Blackjack

Catty Hawk x Seven S Cattle Kate

Rider: Andy Holcomb

Owner: Cowan Ranch, Inc.

Breeder: TERRY STUART FORST

Score: 694.7

19. Kynis Brookstone

Brookstone Bay x Skinny Kyni

Rider: Rhen Richard

Owner: A/C Racing & Roping

Breeder: AC RACING ROPING

Score: 693.71

20. Joe Jack Cash

Lotta Shineycash x Red Joe Missy

Rider: Chad Masters

Owner: Chad Masters

Breeder: CALVIN CAMPBELL

Score: 693.4

21. Tin Cat Ghost

Gunners Tinseltown x Elans Smarty Ghost

Rider: Colby Lovell

Owner: Paul Eaves

Breeder: JAMES G COWLES

Score: 693.38

22. DCC Fools Gold

Metallic Echo x DCC Smooth Sugar

Rider: Tate Kirchenschlager

Owner: Dasco Cattle Co.

Breeder: DASCO CATTLE CO

Score: 693.28

23. A Tru Painted Cat

High Brow Cat x Paulas Lady Rolex

Rider: Jojo Lemond

Owner: Heather Hankins

Breeder: MARK CROSS

Score: 693.04

24. Doc Red Gipsy

Hairpin Gipsy Blue x Goldies Lady Doc

Rider: Chad Masters

Owner: Chad Masters

Breeder: MARTIN L HAGGARD

Score: 692.71

25. The Darkk Side

Once In A Blu Boon x DT Sugar Chex Whiz

Rider: Trevor Brazile

Owner: The Darkk Side Syndicate

Breeder: DIXON FLOWERS QUARTER HORSES

Score: 692.65

The post Pedigrees of the Top 25 Head Horses in 2024 ARHFA World Championship Short Round appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.