8/28 Drew Horner: Uncoiled. Being a Professional Team Roper
0To wrap up our series of the stepping stones into Pro Rodeo and how each different system works, lets talk about what a typical rodeo season looks like for a professional team roper. I mentioned earlier that in order to have a good year and make money being a professional team roper, you have to be a good jackpotter. A prime example of this is Clay Tryan. He is the best header at the jackpots and he is always at the National Finals in Vegas every year. A rodeo season is technically all year long. There are no designated dates that define the rodeo season. The beginning of the year is October 1st, and the end of the rodeo year is September 30th. In order for me to help you all understand what its like, I divided it up into the four seasons; winter, spring, summer, and fall. Here is what it looks like.
Clay Tryan with Travis Graves at the 2012 NFR. PRCA photo.
The first part of the year is the winter, from January to the end of March. This is apart of my favorite time of year. All we do is go to big rodeos, and we don’t have to travel constantly. We get to go in and out of home. A couple rodeos to mention here are Denver, Colorado, Rapid City, South Dakota, Fort Worth, Texas, and San Angelo, Texas. Those are all good rodeos. The big rodeos this time of year are San Antonio, Texas, and Houston, Texas (which is not part of the PRCA, but is actually the biggest and best rodeo we get to go to all year).
We also have some good jackpots this time of year. The first two majors are during this time, and we also have a few fill in ones here and there to go to. The first major is the Wildfire in Salado, Texas. This is an awesome jackpot. The format changes every year, but it’s usually a 5 header enter 2 or 3 times. The steers the past couple years have been little, light weight, and fresh. The long barrier adds to the toughness here. Only the best can win in these conditions.
The George Strait is the next major in March. By far my favorite roping! The king of Country himself, George Strait, puts on a roping that is, hands down, the most fun roping to compete at. It is the biggest paying jackpot out there. The format is fun too! You can enter 3 times and the fees have varied over the past couple years from 500 to 600. It is a two- day format. They usually get over 500 teams entered, so they run the roping in sets of 10% of the amount of teams entered. 500 teams would make 50 team sets. Then, out of each set, they take the top 5 teams in two rounds. If you are in the top 5 teams in one of those sets, you progress to Saturday, where you can win BIG! The top 50 teams from Friday out of each set progress to Saturday. It’s a clean slate. The roping starts completely over now. It is 50 teams competing in a 3 round format. The fastest on 3 win. The prize line for this roping??? Every year it’s a truck, trailer, saddles, buckles, and rope bags. OHHH; and it paid $130,000 A MAN to win it! pretty sweet!
The next part of the year is the Spring, from April to the end of May. This time of year is Jackpot Heaven. If you like to open jackpot, then you need to go west to California. We typically leave Texas about the second week of April. We used to be able to go to the Hork Dog in Las Vegas first, but I don’t think that roping is going to be going on anymore. The rodeos we go to when we leave for 4 weeks are almost all Tour Rodeos. Rodeos like Logandale, Nevada, Red Bluff, and Clovis, California are tour rodeos. We wrap up the 4 weeks gone at Guyman, Oklahoma, which I’ve talked about in another blog about the Top 5 toughest roping set ups. This time of year is not all about the rodeos though. We only go to about 6 rodeos the 4 weeks we are gone, but we go to about 10 jackpots. It’s awesome! Most of them are 5 rounds, enter twice for fees that are about 250 to 500 a man. All of them are good jackpots, but a few of the bigger ones to mention are, the newest one, the Broc Cresta Memorial Roping, and Petska’s jackpot. Both of these ropings are great and fun to compete at. Having this many ropings within this short amount of time is why I have said you HAVE to be a good jackpotter to have a good year as a professional team roper. When you get home from the west at the end of April, you get a little time off. I usually take this time chill and hangout with my friends and family, and get to go to church for a couple weeks. I’m still working though. I take advantage of this time home to get into a routine and practice for the upcoming summer run. It’s a good time for me to hit the gym and get in the best shape I can, and also get myself and my horses ready for what a lot of people would consider the most important time of year, the summer.
In their seventh season together, former world champions and NFR average winners Trevor Brazile and Patrick Smith used a $120,000 payday at the BFI to add to their impressive resume. – Photo credit Taylor Stoecklein
The summer consists of the month of June, July, and August for the rodeo season. Typically, from January to the end of May, we might have gone to about 20 rodeos. During the 3 months of Summer, we might go to 40 rodeos easily! It’s rodeo season, and there are only two jackpots. When we leave Texas, the first place we go to is Reno, Nevada for the Bob Fiest Invitational, the Top 100 teams that enter get in. This roping has a typical ‘old school’ feel to the sport. It’s a long barrier, 6 round average. It is a fun roping to compete at. They offer a huge payout and a great prizeline. Wining this roping automatically gives you prestige in the roping world. After this roping is over, its rodeo time. The year gets the busiest this time of year. A ton of great rodeos to mention here, but a few are Reno, Nevada, Salinas, California, and Cheyenne Wyoming. This time of year is critical to a good year just because it doesn’t matter where you are in the standings, you can make a push here for the top 15. Only the best survive here though. This time of year, you don’t get to practice. You travel however you can to get to rodeos, and you compete every time you throw your rope. This is where the veteran’s experience kicks in. When you don’t get to practice, it shows. People start making mistakes and horses get tired fast. Experience is important during the summer. After July, you can start seeing who is doing well in the standings. A few guys usually have over $60k won, and have pretty much made the Finals. For the other guys, crunch time starts. The tour rodeos are about over, and time is running out. You got plenty of chances left, but you need to win. The other jackpot this time of year is the WestStar. It is a GREAT jackpot. They take the top guys in the world and put them in a 5 round average. Fees are $400 a man this year, and they add over $10,000 every year. The payout is awesome and the prize line is always good! By looking at the importance of the rodeos and how many there are, you can see how the summer could be considered the most important time of year.
The Fall contains the end of the season, and also the start of a new one. It is the months of September through December. September contains critical rodeos and the Tour Finales. Ropers on the bubble, places in the standings between 10 through 20th, are traveling to go to every rodeo they can to clinch their spot to the Finals. Everyone wants to do well this time of year, because it influences who makes the finals and gives big opportunity for guys to win a gold buckle at the end of the year. The top 15 is decided after September, and the new season begins in October. October holds the All American Finals and also the last major of the year, the US Open. The US Open takes the best guys in the world and puts them on a great stage, in a 6 round average for a good payout. It is fun to rope at this roping. November is slow, but hard at work for the Finals. Finally, December is here, and that means the National Finals Rodeo in Vegas. The finals takes the top 15 contestants in the world from each event and presents them on the biggest stage in Pro Rodeo. This is what we work for all year long! This event is a dream for most guys, and only a few can even make it once. The best guys in the world make it here consistently year after year. This is the goal for professional team ropers.
My favorite time of year, by the way, is the Winter and Spring months. We don’t have to travel as much and it seems like every rodeo we go to a big rodeo. It’s a fun time of year. I hope you guys have enjoyed this series of blogs I put together. Let me know what ya’ll think and if you guys have any questions, let me know of my Fan Page. Also you can follow me @drewhorner24 on Twitter and Instagram. It’s been fun getting to talk to a few of ya’ll and talking about roping and life on the road. Keep the questions coming! I’ll be talking to you all soon! DH
