The Team Roping Journal

Dear Roper, As this issue hits your mailboxes, our team is loading a U-Haul for Las Vegas, packing with us a giant Vibe TV—one that we use to run our show, “The Replay,” from the Finals. We kicked off “The Replay” last year to bring in experts like R

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| industry news | new products | The Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale and The American Rodeo will host their three regional contender finals in February, with 12 teams going head-to-head on one steer for $40,000 in prize money. Tulsa, Oklahom

Rhen Richard and his herd of horses have won a monumental 10 futurities in 2022 alone, so it makes perfect sense that the Utah switchender and his great horse Chics Magic Corona would finish the season as the 2022 American Rope Horse Futurity Associa

Colby Lovell and Reys Of Pep had just marked the highest score of the entire 2022 American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Championships at second callback as Lovell coiled up his heel rope and rode back up Fort Worth's John Justin Arena. Lovel

ahw IJake IClay O I military salute lother gig Ur. Resistol ICinch Ladies Q: Where did you grow up, and what kind of family did you grow up in? A: I grew up in Halfway, Missouri, which is a little bitty town, population 73. There's a post office, a g

I grew up dreaming of living like my heroes, and making a living with my rope. It intrigued me that cowboys like the Camarillos could make a career out of doing what I also loved to do, and it fueled my motivation to try to make the (National) Finals

There are five first-time team roping qualifiers at this years Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Tanner Tomlinson, Lightning Aguilera and Jake Orman will head at the Thomas & Mack for the first time, and Brye Crites and Jonathan Torres will make their

“I'm a horse show guy, mostly,” said A Kyle Vinyard, a Chief Warrant Officer in the U.S. Army, who just became the AQHA Level 2 Amateur Heeling World Champion. “I've got a pretty nice heel horse and I like to show him.” Showing is a hobby that Vinyar

A son of a King Ranch cowboy, Marcus Becerra grew up with a rope in hand and started flagging some 15 years ago. “I started flagging when I was in college,” said the now 37-year-old, who began taking in-arena gigs with the Texasbased Team Roping Asso

Last month, Waynesville, North Carolina's Walker Guy finally clinched the top spot in the standings and, this month, he shows no signs of ceding it. Guy now boasts 118 points, up 27 points from the 91 reported in the November issue of The Team Roping

Without change from the November-issue reporting, USTRC Cinch Ladies header Tracey Nelson of McDavid, Florida, holds onto her 38 points and the No. 1 position this month, keeping her four-point lead over Mathews, Alabama's Carrie Blanton, still with

Working through challenges on a green head horse. The horse I'm riding here is 8 or 9, and he was a heel horse. I've had him about 30 days, because the owners want me to transition him to the head side. On this day of practice, I was working on getti

As I prepare to rope at my first Finals, and as I work on my roping in general, I've been trying to ride farther down the arena to set myself up for a faster shot. When the head rope goes on, a heeler can want to chuck his or her horse to the inside

Most people have only so much time to work on their roping, and there are so many things to work on. They break it down to their loop, their swing, their delivery, their angles, their position and their horsemanship. Obviously, their goal is to catch

Freeze Frame with Lightning Aguilera Photo by Phil Kitts SITUATION: One-header at Albuquerque, New Mexico RESULT: 4.8-second run, worth $3,895 a man This was one of the last weeks of the season, and I was pretty much on the bubble. We left Pendleton,

The Heel-O-Matic allows me to separate my roping from my horsemanship, breaking things down into manageable parts that I can address one at a time. Here's how I work on a heel horse that wants to be strong through the turn. Wait until the dummy goes

As Jake Orman gets set to nod his head in the Thomas & Mack Center for the first time, he'll be doing it from the back of his signature steed, Frank. It's been rather rare to see Orman on anything but the now-18-year-old gray the last several years,

Jake Barnes and Clay Cooper won their seventh set of world team roping titles together in 1994, which was the last year a lone team roping titlist was possible. Each got his own gold buckle, because their earnings were identical. Flip the page on tha

The horses are getting younger, the head horses are getting faster and the heel horses? They're stacked with good ones. Every year we break down the pedigrees of the best horses in the world that claw their way to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo,

Horse racing has long been called the Sport of Kings. Bolstered by royalty who've gained wealth thanks to centuries of class structure, colonialism and, of course, black gold, the Thoroughbred racing industry is oozing with wealth. And team roping? W

“For the first 30 days, it was ugly, just teaching that horse to come back to me. I had him elevated, because he was just not broke. You're pulling on him, and he's wanting to go. I think most horses that don't know how to come back to you, they're g