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.

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.

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.

After a tremendous day of roping at an event he’d helped produce for the past six years, Randal “Randy” Crump of Clarendon, Texas, died suddenly in the company of some of his favorite people at the age of 56.

Though the community around Randy is still navigating the incredible loss, accounts of his passing suggest he left in the same manner he lived: without fanfare and with joy in his heart.

“I’m at one of my favorite places doing my favorite thing with some of my favorite people,” Randy reportedly told his dear friend, Tricia O’Gorman Stroope, in their final conversation that day. “This is the best day ever.”

On Sept. 1, Randy was in Erick, Oklahoma, producing the annual Dalton O’Gorman Memorial Roping with fellow roper and lifelong friend Ike Hanes. Though Hanes had to work this year and left the onsite duties to Randy, the two men had been partnering on the production since the untimely death of Michael Dalton O’Gorman, who passed away at the age of 20 in 2019.

“Randy was with him when he passed away,” Hanes said of O’Gorman. “We’ve given away about $90,000 so far in scholarships since we’ve been doing it.”

Randy had a few years on Hanes, but the two began roping together pretty much as soon as Hanes was able to join the ranks. 

“He grew up cowboy and pretty rough and poor, to be honest with you,” Hanes said of the man he also describes with humor as a hillbilly. “When you say someone would give you the shirt off their back, he was that kind of guy. But he did it his own way. I mean, he would come to an Open and he would put on his T-shirt, and he’d have on his weird boots and his Wranglers that were too tight. You’d see him over there and, if you didn’t know him, you’re like, I’m not roping with that guy. I mean, he just looked like a hillbilly. He’d have on a hat that looked like he’d been in a dryer—a flat cowboy hat that he’s had for 15 years—and just whip your butt.”

Ironically, in numerous Facebook tributes to Randy, ropers far and wide remember him as the guy who partnered with them first when no one else would, making sure to introduce them to more ropers to add to their partner pool, too. It seems that no matter what Randy was dealt, he was often able to do the greatest amount of good with it.

“One year at the Coors Finals, I was in college, but I was roping with him,” Hanes said of entering up with Randy some 17 years ago. “I remember him making it to the Coors Finals in a two-horse trailer, and he had an old Ford gasoline pickup. He was by himself and, when he showed up there, he had jugs of water in the back of that truck because that pickup was overheating. So, he’d had to pull over. He’d drive 50, 60 miles and it was hot—the Coors Finals was in July—and he would have to fill his radio up with the water and then that pickup would get hot and he’d have to fill his radiator up with the water. 

“He made it all the way to the Coors Finals like that, and then he won a bunch of money,” Hanes continued. “And that’s just kind of how he rolled forever. He didn’t care what you thought or how he was dressed. It’s just one of those deals; you just have to tell the truth. You don’t have to lie about guys like him.”

From the outside looking in, it’d be fair to question if any of the stories were made up, especially listening to his wife of 10 years, Buckie, describe the unicorn of a man she married. Not only was Randy an avid and talented team roper and a seven-time WRCA World Champion Ranch Rodeo qualifier, he was also an incredibly caring husband.

“I absolutely loved watching him rope,” Buckie offered. “I loved going with him, and he took such good care of me. We would get to roping early and especially if it was outdoors so he could get me a good place to sit so I could sit in the pickup. In fact, it’s been about three months now, and we went to Levelland and he roped. And anyway, we rode with a gentleman and the man parked way out in the parking lot and, in his defense, there were quite a few team ropers that day, but Randy, he went and got me something to eat for breakfast. 

“I looked at him and I said, ‘Baby, if all these men in here took care of their wives like you do me, these stands would be full.’ He said, ‘Well, if all these women took care of men like you do me.’ And he just was larger than life.”

In short, the two were good for each other. 

“When he met Buckie, things changed for him,” Hanes explained. “She brought him a different kind of peace.”

Another place Randy found his peace was in the roping arena. 

“I’m a nervous Nelly,” Buckie admitted. “He would back in the box, and I would just be up in the stand rocking, saying, ‘Father God, Father God, Father God;’ just a nervous Nelly. It never bothered him. He’d be laughing backing in the box; no biggie.”

“I mean, no situation was too big for him,” Hanes added. “And it didn’t matter if he was up for $10 or $10,000, he didn’t get nervous and he would just do anything for anyone.”

Randy did win plenty of checks over the years. He also won a truck just in time to have a good backup when his favorite ’06 Ford began showing signs of wear. And yet, he didn’t have many buckles.

“I said, ‘You don’t have any buckles,’” Buckie recalled. “He said, ‘Why do I need buckles?’ I said, ‘Well we go to so-and-so’s, and they’ve got all these buckles.’ He said, ‘I can only wear one at a time. Some kid at a roping worked hard running the chutes and pushing the cattle. If he hadn’t been doing what he was doing, then I couldn’t have won,’ and he’d just give him the buckle.”

One buckle that had eluded Randy, though, was from the Dalton O’Gorman Memorial Roping he and Hanes put on. 

“He called me the night before and asked me, ‘Do you think I should rope?’” Hanes recalled. “I said, ‘Yea, rope. Screw it. It’s a roping. If you win, you win. Who cares?’ He didn’t want to torch everybody in our own roping, but he’s had troubles at that roping. Me too. Me and him were high call one time and I slipped a leg, and we just had terrible troubles at that roping.” 

Buckie was shopping for a mother-of-the-bride dress for her daughter’s wedding, so she couldn’t make the event either, but she and Randy were in close contact throughout the day.

“I said, ‘If you can rope, you need to enter up and you need to rope, because since when do you not rope?’” Buckie told Randy. “Then he called back, and he said, ‘I won second and fourth and I won the fast time. I got you a buckle.’”

When Randy called Buckie next, he was getting ready to go swimming, proud to have fit into a borrowed pair of shorts belonging to Brice Bennett.

“I don’t know if you know Brice, but he’s a tall, skinny thing,” Buckie revealed, painting a humorous picture of a stout Randy modeling a perhaps not-quite-his-size pair of trunks to the pool. “They had sent me some videos and he had just been doing cannonballs off the diving board, trying to splash [the kids] and he was just cutting up. And they said he went off the last time, and that was it.”

The passing of Randy Crump is a loss the roping community will feel for a long time. He was employed by honest and unglamorous work at the feedyards and for TXDOT and he’d not had much success in his marriages before meeting Buckie, but Randy never burdened anyone around him with anything other than the good.

“He was always happy,” Hanes said. “He always had a smile on his face. And every time you saw him, he was never in a bad mood at a roping. I don’t think I ever met hardly anyone that truly loved to rope more than him.”

Loved to rope and loved his people, according to Buckie.

“I never heard him complain about getting up and going to work,” Buckie said. “Ever. He got up, he went to work, and he came in, ‘I’ve got to do so-and-so and so-and-so. You want to go? You want to get? Let’s go and do.’

“It was about us being together, about being with his family, his grandkids and his kids. That’s what life was about. And he said, ‘It’s about the person.’ I struggle with that because I like new shoes and I like purses. But stuff just wasn’t important to him. It was about being together with the ones you love and being happy.

—TRJ—

The post Randy Crump (1968-2024) Left a Legacy of Good appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Dear Roper, 

I’m sitting at the Title Fights in Abilene, Texas, as we’re finishing up this November issue. This magazine is a tricky one—it goes to the printer before the ProRodeo season officially closes, and before the Riata Championships and before the American Rope Horse Futurity Association awards its world championships. 

This cover, then, is always a gamble. Unless there’s an insurmountable lead in the PRCA world standings, deciding who to give the cover to is sort of a crapshoot. But late-season standings leaders Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord made this call a little easier by pulling off a come-from-behind win at the Pendleton Round-Up that gave us the chance to put Levi on the cover for the first time in his career. And for the second year in a row, PRCA Photographer Clay Guardipee nailed the shot on the grass to make this win come to life in print. 

In that vein, I remind you all to purchase your roping photos from the photographers who spend their days camped out in the cold and the heat at arenas across the country, just to snap an image that brings you all joy when you think fondly on the memory. From Shelby Lynn Photography, who spends so much time at the Ariat World Series of Team Ropings, to Andersen CBarC, who again photographed the Riata Championships, they provide a priceless service to you all that requires skill and stamina. 

Time flies when you’re having fun, and the next issue that drops into your mailbox will be the December 2024 issue—our last of the year, the issue that previews all of the glory of team roping in Las Vegas. 

We’ll see you between now and then, so make sure to say hi somewhere down the road. 

Chelsea

The post Cover Shot: An Inside Look at the November 2024 Issue appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

It’s hard to say which aspect of J.D. Yates’ career is most Hall-of-Fame worthy. There’s the staggering fact he made the first of his 21 NFR appearances as a 15-year-old kid. There’s also his horsemanship. Yates has won somewhere north of 47—yes, 47—AQHA world championships, plus multiple futurities. 

That means he’s hired someone to rope the other end countless times and depended on the other guy to finish off the winning run. Nobody got better at choosing good help. Yates relied heavily on his cousin, Jay Wadhams, over the years and, more recently, on his son Trey.

Today, good helpers are becoming more and more in demand. We thought it’s worth highlighting a few of the best helpers—and help horses—in history.

A good horse

Two horses raised by the Yates family probably took more runs and got more wins than any other help horses over the years. 

“Mailbox could really take a jerk and had a lot of suck-back and could get those head horses to come around,” Wadhams recalled. “I took him everywhere and used him to help J.D. And they had a gray head horse I rode called Taxi that J.D. later tripped on.”

Dick and Jan Yates raised Mailbox, registered as Mighty Pokey To, by Bar Flits Pokey and out of Mighty Mindy, the same dam as Kelly Yates’ great Firewater Fiesta. Mighty Pokey To was a full brother to Flits Friend—the horse Yates won the first-ever PRCA/AQHA Horse of the Year title aboard in 1989. Taxi’s name was Fortune In Taxes—also bred by the Yates family—by Zan Gold Jack and out of the same mare, Mighty Mindy, by Mighty Wild.

Yates remembers those as the two go-to horses, plus a little bay called Spock (registered as Are Mac San, by Are D San out of Shilohs Danae by Jericho Lark) that carried him to at least two AQHA world titles. That was also the horse Wadhams rode inside the Thomas & Mack Center in ’96 when he heeled for Yates (not a bad help horse). In true Yates fashion, Mailbox was also heeled on at the NFR and Yates roped calves on him, plus his sister Kelly ran barrels on him quite a bit.

“A good horse is one you can win on,” Yates said simply. “That doesn’t mean everybody thinks it’s a good horse. It’s one that you personally can ride to win on. Jay mainly rode Mailbox and Taxi to help me, and they were two solid citizens who gave you the same look every time and never took a throw away.”

Older, veteran horses on both ends have been Brock Hanson’s ace in the hole as a helper, too. The Western Colorado native headed for Ryan Motes at the 2012 NFR before switching to heeling. His prowess on both ends has made him one of the most desired helpers in the game. Truth is, he makes his sole living doing that now—and on a better string of horses than he ever had rodeoing.

“A lot of my help horses have been to the big rodeos and big jackpots,” Hanson said. “They’re super seasoned and finished; mostly over 12 years old. I try to take horses that aren’t going to make very many mistakes. I’m proud of the horses I’ve put together.”

Of the six head Hanson hauls to each futurity, he has his favorites. But when it’s short-round time, he steps on the gray named Ranger ID Coon—his own “safety net” he bought from Jeff Hilton last year by Ranger Cookie out of Blanton ID JoAnn, by Docs Leo Poco Pine. Another of today’s highly sought-after helpers, Tate Kirchenschlager, has turned a fair number of steers for big wins on the other side aboard two of the best. One is Lady The Star, the bay mare he calls Mystery that his father raised, by Star The Boss out of Fly Sally Fly by the Easy Jet son Freedom Flyer.

“She scores good and can run, plus take a lot of runs,” he said. “We call her Mystery, the bay mare who ropes the horns for you. The other was a sorrel gelding owned by Cole and Whitney Davison, called Lucky, (named BR Frenchmans Effort by Frenchmans Specialty out of the superstar barrel horse Rods Last Ladybug), that I rode for a few years. Kaleb Driggers owns him and rodeos on him now.”

The main criterion? You’d better be able to run 20 steers a day on the horse and get the same trip every time, said Kirchenschlager.

“It’s a different kind of horsepower,” said Hanson. “I’ve tried a lot of good head horses that won’t make good help horses. Most high-end horses don’t ever make more than eight to 10 runs at a time. It takes a special horse to run 24 steers in a day and maintain good behavior in the box. They have to stay in my hand and leave off my hand. Because if the futurity horse is over there staring down the barrel and ready, I don’t want him waiting on me. That’s a good way to get fired.”

Hanson rotates his head horses every two to three runs, unless a certain heeler likes a steer handled a specific way. He never runs more than five steers on a horse per go-round. 

“If you get a horse gassed, by the time the short round comes around, his juice is missing,” Hanson explained. “He can’t keep his feet moving light enough to load the steer correctly, so you end up hitting the steer and doing a bad job heading.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Team Roping Journal (@teamropingjourn)

Mad skills

It’s the help horses that allow a staggering catch percentage for today’s best helpers. At last fall’s ARHFA World Championships, Driggers helped on five different horses to chase 130 steers—headlined by his BFI-champion jackpot horse, Oliver, the now 10-year-old gelding Chics Like Hickey (by Hick Chickaroo out of Dee Bars Lust by Dee Bar Rock). He missed one, and got the buzzer once. Then there’s Hanson, who rode six horses on the head side and three to heel. Of his 93 sets of horns, he missed twice and got two buzzers. Of the 78 he heeled, he only missed one leg, one time.

“It’s kind of like the first steer at a 6-header like the BFI,” explained Hanson. “Take a low-risk shot and make a run that can be repeated all day. Get tapped off. A run that’s repeatable looks really good at futurities. Four identical runs will tell the judges it’s no accident.”

Back when Wadhams was helping at Quarter Horse shows, he was simply paid to catch. So he never took chances. Now, time is factored into the score. Helpers have to be closer to the barrier, take more chances and be more correct, he said. 

 Hanson’s goal is to catch up to the super-fresh steer, match pace with it and gain control of it going down the arena to provide the perfect handle. Then he sets up the futurity horse to be shown with an aggressive heel shot or to come around and get set up for a big stop.

“I try not to trick ’em,” he said. “It doesn’t go well every time.”

And although time is a factor, Hanson said it doesn’t count for as much as you might think.

“Time does matter—you can’t lay off,” he said. “But in the middle of the arena, you can get that steer shaped so that heeler can get plugged in and set up for the turn. The difference between being 6.5 or 8.0 seconds means you’re flirting with a point and a half. Whereas, you can make up 3 or 4 points if your heeler isn’t rushed.”

Futurity heelers want you to hit them a little so they can post up and hold the steer, and that can smoke a header’s coils in three runs. Hanson counts on his Fast Back Ropes, and Kirchenschlager likes the longevity of his Heat head ropes by Classic. On the heel side, Hanson said helping on the back end is simple: get in there and catch two feet.

“If it sets up good, you can heel fast,” he said. “But what works best is if that header sees you about to throw, he still has a stride or two to get that young horse stood back up and set up for the big face.”

Mental game

For Kirchenschlager, helping is far more nerve-wracking than showing a horse.

“They chose you out of everybody there,” he said. “And they already have so much money invested. They’re counting on you to rope at a very high level. Messing up for those people ruins your day. It really does.”

When Kirchenschlager is showing, he likes to choose a helper he’s had previous success with, such as his old Colorado buddy Shay Carroll, or Davison or Hanson. The latter also knows the excessive time, energy and money invested by owners and trainers. So, he’s determined to be absolutely mistake-free.

“If I mess up, they miss the opportunity to make all their blood, sweat and tears pay off,” Hanson said. “I hate it. It kills me.”

Wadhams recalls helping Yates in the heading one year on one of the Lazy E’s greatest mares. But he’d also been paid to help the last horse out, that really needed a win to become the year’s Superhorse. All eyes were on that last run—on the helper. 

“J.D. was winning it, but I never let that play into anything,” Wadhams recalled. “It didn’t matter who I was helping, I tried to catch every steer. I’d still rather miss while showing my own horse than for someone I was helping. That’s just the way I was.”

Hanson, too, said he’s completely changed his practice methodology to provide the exact same look for everybody in every round. 

“To be a good helper is pretty hard, and it’s mentally grueling,” Motes said. “There are only a handful of people with the mental grit and ability to stay hooked and focused.”

And, at times, it resembles a bulldogger and hazer helping and trying to beat each other all in the same go-round. Less than two months before they roped together at the 1996 NFR, Yates and Wadhams were each showing Junior heel horses at the World Show and happened to tie for the world title. They had a rope-off.

“I was showing a 6-year-old heel horse of Ed Gaylord’s called Top Hat Jack and J.D. was showing a 5-year-old called Poco Bar Tivio from the Cross Bell Ranch,” Wadhams recalled. “We roped, and then actually switched horses right there in the arena and headed for each other. He beat me.”

With rodeoing, you know your partner has the same costs as you do and that he doesn’t win unless you win. But there’s more pressure at futurities. The best helpers have been part of several big wins, but they tend only to remember the rare flubs.

“I almost melted down right in the arena once,” Hanson recalled. “I was helping Bob Mote at the 2023 Royal Crown in Rock Springs. I’d seen his horse progress, so I knew he’d been working his butt off. We were high call. He gets a great start and sticks it on him. It’s just a layup for me. And I completely miss the steer. I wanted to just crawl out of the arena and have him rope-whip me at the back end. Bob deserved that win. He earned that win.”

Roping for hire

Hanson said he’s about the most expensive helper going, but if he happens to miss a steer, he discounts his rate by 80%. Compensation has definitely changed over the years. When Wadhams was helping at Quarter Horse shows, he’d earn $100 a day to rope four, plus get half the jackpot money. 

“I helped so many that I might make $1,000 or $1,500 a day, which was a hell of a job,” Wadhams recalled. “Staying at the Hilton and eating at the steakhouse was better than staying with J.D. in the Capri camper.” 

Today, some guys split a paycheck into straight thirds between the owner, trainer and helper. Hanson doesn’t feel a helper deserves that proportion, plus he likes to know that if he does a good job, he’ll make an exact amount. 

“I’m a flat-fee guy, for the most part,” Hanson said. “It made sense to me because I’ve invested in my own horses and pay for my own fuel, stalls and more. I’m liable to have up to $2,500 in expenses just for me to go. And I feel like someone would rather pay an extra couple hundred to me and know I’m not going to show up on a colt or a horse that wasn’t good enough to enter so it gets helped on.”

Kirchenschlager, too, is a flat-rate guy. And he’s big on tipping if a lucrative win comes together. 

“Helping is the most unnoticed job in team roping,” he said. “I don’t do it to get credit, but because I just like to compete and to be a part of people winning.”

While this story is about the competitors at shows getting the flag, everyone is clear: without the owners of these horses, this world wouldn’t go ’round.

“If my guy wins, I don’t want credit,” Hanson said. “He just hired me to catch. I don’t deserve an ‘attaboy.’ Owners are the ones sticking their necks out to make this all work.”

—TRJ—

The post The Most Unnoticed Job in Team Roping: Celebrating the Best Helpers in the Game appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

Kelsey Willis of Wagener, South Carolina, first ran across the pages of this magazine in the spring of 2022.

In that story about retired police officer Greg Ziel, Ziel had discovered Willis Performance Horses and was learning to rope and to ride—a daring combination that Willis, 37, specializes in. In the beginning, though, Willis was Texas-bound with big plans. 

Switching gears

“I [roped and] rode cutting horses, and I moved out to Texas after a year of college,” Willis said. “I was always into colt starting, and I had done a little bit of teaching.”

Willis then met and married his wife, Brittney, now a professional photographer who’s cutting her teeth shooting rodeo at Little Britches Rodeos, and became a father to daughter Riley, 11, and son Reese, 9.

“I became a paramedic,” Willis explained. “That is something that people in my family had done. So the fire service and EMS background, it was something that I kind of fell into because I needed insurance when I was training horses, and I grew to love that, so I got out of roping for a few years.”

Making connections

With a bit of family life under their belts, the Willises built a home facility and began training and offering lessons for a whole range of riders and rodeo up-and-comers, including Ziel, who was readying to rope at Charly Crawford’s American Hero Celebration in Decatur, Texas, in 2022. After, Willis submitted his own application for entry into the Horns N’ Heroes Clinic with Crawford and Trey Johnson and was accepted into the 2023 program as a heeler.

“From a coaching aspect, Trey helped me so much with my heeling,” Willis said. “He’s probably one of the coolest teachers that I’ve ever been around because he simplifies things. For my own teaching, it was really cool to see the drills they used and kind of the way they broke things down.

“Especially with some of my younger students, I get so technical,” Willis admitted. “That’s probably the single biggest thing—how they were able to take all the technical jargon and really slow it down and make it something that people could understand. That’s what I hope to have accomplished with my teaching.”

But sometimes it also just takes a real-world experience to really light a fire.

Future champions

“We had six of the students that I coach, including my two kids, qualify for the National Little Britches Finals in Oklahoma in July,” Willis reported. “Pretty much all my kids got the pants beat off ’em, but it was their first time out and it was really good. 

“I told them, ‘This is the pinnacle of junior rodeo between this and the high school finals. So when you’re here, you need to take something from it.’ Just like I decided when I was at Charly’s and Trey’s I was going to get everything I could from it. So that’s what we focused on instead of them getting discouraged because they were getting beat by kids who had been there and done that. What they ended up doing is they let it burn a fire in them.”

Since that inaugural finals experience, Willis’ kids have anteed up. His own two were saddling up twice a day, every day to prep for their next rodeo,

“They went to our first Little Britches Rodeo, and they won every single event, and each of them won the all-around,” Willis stated proudly. “Riley won the junior girls all-around for the weekend, and Reese won the junior boys all-around. And they’ve kept it up. They’ve had four rodeos so far, and Reese in one of his events is ranked seventh in the country right now and Riley’s 14^th.”

Back at it

For his own roping, Willis has found a practice buddy in the BFI’s first onsite veterinarian, Andy Clark, DVM, who, according to Willis, paid his way through veterinary school in California as a PRCA header who roped with the likes of Walt Woodard and the Camarillos and company. In the spring, Clark and Willis entered up for an IPRA rodeo in the area.

“I entered him and he said, ‘This is the first rodeo I’ve entered since Salinas in 1980,’” Willis said. 

Willis is tentatively eyeing up a run at the 2025 International Finals Rodeo (IFR55), but he won’t be mad about it if the timing isn’t right for him because his kids and clients are making their own goes.

“We’re going,” Kelsey stated. “And I was really thinking that I was going to regret that and be like, ‘Oh man, what if this or that?’ But I have so much fun going to these junior rodeos and hauling these kids around. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Attn: South Carolina Ropers: Join the Ziels and Willis Performance Horses to support a great cause

—TRJ—

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

The post Unanswered Prayers appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

In the last few years, the Relentless Remuda has evolved. We’re still looking for the same end product, but the industry has gotten to the point that Miles (Baker) and I are both riding 3-year-olds and up, and we can’t start every 2-year-old we’d like to start.   

Everyone wants to be a futurity trainer or team rope for a living, but there are way too few people specializing in 2-year-olds. There’s a huge market for somebody to take a horse from 2 to 3. There are way more people who can take a 3-year-old on and make him a rope horse. A lot of people can start one, but a lot of horses don’t reach their full potential because those trainers don’t have the right skills to give a horse the foundation he needs to be a great rope horse. 

A great start stays with them a lot longer than someone fixing one later. The great foundation can’t be overplayed. They can be rode poorly after their 2-year-old year, but in the right hands, they can come back to that base. But if they’re ridden badly from the start, there’s no baseline to come back to. 

In my 2-year-olds, my needs are real simple: I want them really broke and broke right. It takes consistency, it takes repetition and it takes riding them for what they are each day. It isn’t going from Point A to Point B in 30 days. It’s looking at the horse as a whole picture. 

There’s some guys who need to spend the first 30 days on a colt, and there’s somebody better for the next 60 days. Some people are good for two months beyond that. It’s just a balancing act. There are not many guys hanging their hat on that profession, and if that’s something you have any passion for, it’s a great spot to make your mark in the industry. 

So how do you get your foot in the door? You’ve got to bet on yourself first. You have to show people what you can do. I’m not going to bet my colts’ futures on anybody I haven’t seen a consistent product that I like out of. I don’t want to bet them on a one-hit wonder, and I want to know they can do it and create it time and time again. By the time somebody gets good, they want to go into another market versus staying somewhere long enough where they’re the renowned 2-year-old guy. Those guys can stay booked up, and for the most part, your overhead costs can be down from rope horse trainers. But you can be charging the same amount.

—TRJ—

The Colt Starting video library on Roping.com teaches you how to lay a solid foundation for young roping prospects. With step-by-step training, his collection is ideal for ropers at any level seeking to enhance their skills and understanding of starting horses from the ground up.

The post The Rope Horse Industry Needs More Colt Starters appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.

After a slow start to 2024, it took Tyler Tryan until early summer to take the lead in the 2024 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year race. Armed with lessons learned this first year out on the hot and dusty, the son of three-time World Champion Header Clay Tryan, who’s 18 and calls Lipan, Texas, home, is ready to take on his sophomore season as a professional header. 

Q: Take us through the first three seasons of your freshman pro rodeo year, with fall yet to play out at press time at the end of August.

A: I didn’t get to buy my card until my birthday on February 28, so I just jackpotted this winter. I won the first (pro) rodeo I entered (he and Logan Moore were 4.4) in Bryan, Texas, to fill my permit, then took off for the spring rodeos in California, which didn’t go very good. The summer went good, but it could always be better. I just want to get better out here, realize what I’m doing wrong and try to fix it.

Q: Who all have you roped with this year? 

A: I started with Logan Moore, then roped with Denton Dunning for two weeks in June. I started roping with Denton again at Caldwell in August.

Q: How many different horses have you had out there this year, and do you share head horses with your dad? 

A: I’ve had three horses out there with me. The main two (Johnson’s the 19-year-old sorrel and Butters is the 8-year-old palomino) are my dad’s, and I have a red roan of my own, Roan, who’s 10. 

Q: What’s been your favorite rodeo so far?

A: I thought Reno and St. Paul were really cool. Reno was my first really big crowd. Same with St Paul. Packed house, loud, and those trees in the arena and the shape of it are just unique. 

Q: For those who haven’t gotten close enough to notice, when did you lose your right thumb, and how has that impacted your roping style? 

A: I cut off my thumb on February 28, 2022, which was my 16^th birthday, at the Patriot Finals at the John Justin Arena in Fort Worth. I was roping with Denton Dunning, and we were no good on our first steer. Then I reached a pretty good ways for our second one. I remember my hand going numb and looking down. That’s about all I can remember. I don’t feel like I’ve changed anything. I could have, but I was out for such a long time that once I started roping again, I just learned to grab my rope like I do now and started roping.

READ: Rodeo Thumb – Research on Whether to Save or Amputate

Q: Was it a bigger physical or mental challenge to rebound from that? 

A: I’d probably say more mental. I was out a year and a half. I didn’t get to swing a rope, and had 10 major surgeries on my right hand. The hardest part was just sitting there watching the ropings. There was a lot of waiting. It sucked, but waiting for the best possible outcome was the best option for me. 

Q: How long have you known you wanted to rope for a living?

A: Since I was a little kid. I’ve always been the kid in the way at the ropings, who roped the dummy all day. It’s about all I’ve wanted to do, and that hasn’t changed.

Q: What are the advantages of coming from such a famous roping family?

A: You grow up in it, so you’ve already lived it. There are advantages, but you still have to work to get it done on your own.

Q: Are there any downsides, pressure from extra expectations included?

A: I don’t see any. I don’t see it that way. 

Q: On the Tryan side, there’s your dad, NFR header Uncle Travis, NFR header Uncle Brady, NFR heeler Grandpa Dennis, NFR barrel racer Grandma Terri Kaye Kirkland and NFR heeler cousin Chase Tryan. Have they all impacted your young career?

A: Yes, they’ve all given me advice at some point. I spent a lot of time in Montana with my grandpa as a kid. He watches me rope and points out things he thinks I need to work on. But he doesn’t say much. He likes to let me figure it out on my own as much as possible. 

Q: Your mom, Bobbie, is from another well-known roping family from Montana, the Robertsons, which include her NFR heeler brother, Matt Robertson, and sister, Arena de la Cruz, married to NFR heeler Cesar. Does your mom still rope?

A: Her whole family ropes. When my mom was younger, she got in a bad horse wreck and hurt her hip. It hurts when she tries to rope, so she doesn’t rope much anymore. 

Q: Do your little brothers rope, too?

A: Braylon heels, and he’s already a 9 at 16. He’s going to be legit. Dash ropes, but he’s more into golf and baseball right now. 

Q: What else do you like to do besides rope?

A: I play a little basketball at the house, and play a little golf. It’s a little bit disappointing when your 10-year-old brother (Dash) is five times better than you at golf. My fun is spending hours in the goat arena, roping the Shorty, and anything that involves a rope. The best way to stay sharp out here rodeoing when you don’t get to practice much is roping the dummy.

WATCH ON ROPING.COM: Full Heading Dummy Roping Lesson
WATCH ON ROPING.COM: Full Heeling Dummy Roping Lesson

Q: Is rodeoing full time what you expected? 

A: Yeah, pretty much. You’ve got to get good enough to do it full-time and as a career, but that’s the plan. The entering and trading never end. Getting to compete is the best part by far. All the driving is the worst part, but I’m getting more used to it.

Q: Who do you get the most advice from?

A: My dad, by far. He doesn’t say too much. He mostly talks to me about how to keep my horses working good, and helps me with little things like my swing when I’m struggling or which horse to ride where. 

Q: What were your goals for 2024 going into this season?

A: To get better. The NFR was a long shot, because I didn’t have anything won to start the summer with. So the goal was to get out here, see where I was at and try to get better. I also wanted to make sure I got into next year’s winter rodeos to give myself a better chance. 

Q: What do your biggest roping hopes and dreams look like now?

A: I want to make the NFR. I need to get a lot better pretty fast to do that. These guys are awesome out here. They head so good, it’s unbelievable. You have to keep evolving with the game to make it out here.

—TRJ—

The post Tyler Tryan Talks Rookie Year Reflections, Rodeo Family and Dash’s Golf Game appeared first on The Team Roping Journal.