Dear Ropers,

Spring is in the air! March 21st will be the first official day of Spring. Which hopefully means not so many indoor practice sessions. All of those outside pens (when dry) will start being used more often. And boy will I be ready to ride and rope again! Looks like the middle or end of May for me. My due date is April the 5th. And who would guess but our Ardmore, Ok roping is April 5th and 6th! At least that roping is 4 miles from my hospital. But hopefully, I will go early and you can come to Ardmore to rope and see our brand new baby boy! Well enough about that, lets talk about the ropings we have had this year. On January 25th we had a church roping at the Hardy Murphy Coliseum in Ardmore Ok. At this roping you only had to come to the church service and your entry fee was free! And if you wanted to rope for the pot we let the guys have the option of putting up $50 and everyone drew 4 runs. After the draw we ended up with 180 cowboys entered which made about 388 teams. We were certainly blessed to have Clay O?Brien Cooper conduct church service for us that morning along with Lenora Miller?s singing. Both of these took time out of their own schedules to come and bless us and they too will be blessed in return! After church the roping started. The heel end was capped at a #4 and the head was open this way everyone got to play. And to make it fair we put a handicap on the roping for a few seconds off for the lower number teams. The winning team was a #7 point team. It was Ricky Stewart and Ranse Butler. These guys were the high call back with a 14.82 on two and roped a 7.12 on their call back steer which by 4 seconds made them the winners of the roping. 2nd place went to 2nd high call back Chas Riley and Chris Dennis with a total time of 25.05. We had a high point saddle to give away and it ended up that 1st in the average had to rope off for it. Winning the saddle was Rickey Stewart from Fox, Ok. Rickey donated the saddle back to us so we would have another church roping this spring. If you came you know how much fun we had and if you didn?t you don?t want to miss our next one. The next church roping will most likely be at our house, to cut down on expenses. Nothing fancy just an outdoor arena but it works! Looks like we will stick with that format and give away a Running P saddle along with some other prizes.
The weekend after that roping we went to Ada, Ok and held our first AATRC roping for 2003. Ada is always a great place for us and we always have lots of fun there. The fabulous weather was in the 60?s! Who could have asked for better, especially on the first weekend in Feb. With the cattle situation, as everyone knows, we had to rope a little fresher steers that everyone was used to last year. But, believe it or not the catches were about the same! We did chose the very best for the short round as we always do. That is a priority for us. We are ropers also and try to do the very best in service to you. From the office to the stripping chute we try to think of the roper first. Everyone who caught 2 was in the money round which made about 160 teams to rope. As always the top 5% win shootouts to our finals and that ended up at the top 43. If you are curious about if you made it or not you can go to our website at AATRCROPE.COM and check out the results. Winning this roping was Tracy Marion and Wade Johnson both from Okla. These guys were the 3rd call back and had a clean run of 8.29 for a total of 26.06. Although Tracy was happy after the run you might bet he hoped to be bumped! As a team roper you might reread that last sentence because it sure doesn?t make sense! Let me explain?High call back was his son and as a parent you don?t mind taking 2nd place to your kid. But it wasn?t meant to happen that way in Ada on Feb 2nd. Tracy remained in first place with the top two call backs having a no time. 1st was good for 2 Running P saddles and $3500, Congratulations Tracy and Wade. 2nd went to Dwight Adams from Nebraska and Roger Johnson from Humansville, Mo. These guys drove awhile to come rope with us. And I bet the drive home didn?t seem so long. Coming from the 17th call position they roped a 7.96 for a total of 28.90and was good enough to win 2nd. 3rd place with a time of 29.44 went to the 8th call back Rufus Hendricks and Joseph Harrison they had a 10.40 on their call back. If you ever think you are to far down to place just ask Ken Holt and Jeremy Stewart who were the 79th call back and roped a 9.44 on their last steer. After everyone had roped they ended up 10th place and won $1000 and 2 buckles! Ken thinking what most would think roped his call back and hit the road home. Feeling a little under the weather he was ready to get home and figured they won a shootout with that run. It was a nice surprise to look at our web page that following week and see he placed 10th. I hope everyone who came had a great time. And don?t forget Glenrose Tx on March 22nd & 23rd. This will be our first #6pt of the year. So tell all those #3?s to load up and come rope! Also April 5th & 6th is Ardmore, Ok and it will be a #4.
CHANGESA few changes in our schedule has been made. We were going to Topeka, Ks on May 24th & 25th (Memorial weekend) but the Nascar races are that weekend in Topeka and hotels are scarce and if you find one you would of had to pay over 100 per night. So we moved that roping to Humansville, Mo. On the same weekend. Humansville is about 40 miles north of Springfield, Mo. Not far from Ok, Ks or Ark. We were going to be in Athens, Tx May 31st and June 1st. This roping will be moved to the next weekend of June 7th & 8th. I want to remind everyone about our #6 pt ropings this year. There was some confusion between some ropers. We are opening our AATRC membership up to #3?s and will have about five #6 pt ropings capped at a #3 this year. It will not change our #4 AATRC ropings. It will just enable us to have a #6 shootout and a #4 shootout. This will still be a good thing for #1 and #2 ropers. You will be able maybe draw #3?s and there will be a handicap. These ropings will be progressive on one. Also we will be making a change in our entry format. Starting in April you may enter once and draw one for $70. Or draw 2 for $70. You may still enter up to 16 runs this time for only a total of $560. We are doing this for those who want to enter with more partners and keep it were you can afford it. Plus if you want to just draw you can still do that (2 for $70, 4 for $140, 6 for $210, 8 for $280, 10 for $350, 12 for $420, 14 for $490 or 16 for $560.) We will see how this entry format goes for the future. Any comments are greatly appreciated on the entry format.
A few weeks ago I received an email from a lady with several negative things. We very seldom receive comments as this one! So I decided to print her email along with my return email to her. Just in case there are others who feel or have thought the way she did you may know where we stand and the facts.

The email I received:
Just a few comments and suggestions. Perhaps a 6 roping would not be
> necessary due to your entries falling off, if:
> You didn't rope in your own ropings. When your son is always winning in
the
> dummy ropings, and the buckles and the saddles go to him, it gives people
> the feeling that you are double dipping, or being just plain greedy. Same
> for you two. By the way,,, how long has it been since your numbers have
been
> raised???
> Also, using religion to make a living is way overboard. It would be one
> thing to offer a church service before the roping begins, but forcing
people
> to engage in a service after the first round, is a bit too much. That
phoney
> feeling keeps creeping in.
> Oh, and when you get a pro roper to come in for a roping, remember people
> have seen them before. Gushing and praising them is way over the top.
> Everyone knows they are there for one thing MONEY.
> Hope this brings a few things for you to think about. Take it as you like.
> But that is the concensus amongst the ropers. Thought you would like to be
> aware of this.
>
>

This is my reply:
Dear Sharon,
Just so you will know a few facts. First of all, I have never won a
saddle or trailer at one of our ropings. Last year I roped in around 11
ropings of ours and won around $1100 and two buckles. All of those placings
being far down in the average. Second, in the dummy ropings you may only win one
buckle per year. My son, who is a 5 year old little boy who loves to rope, won
ONE BUCKLE and then could not win any more because he won his one for the
year. At the finals it was open to all the kids and yes he won the saddle.
How about you tell him he could not rope in it because his mom and dad put
the roping on and it looks greedy to some people. He gets the same treatment
as any other kid and should. It is not his fault that he ropes well. Third,
my USTRC number is up to the USTRC. We go by USTRC ratings and I am a #2. I
also am 8 months pregnant and have not roped in 4 months and probably won't
be able to rope for a while! Call the USTRC if you think I am misrated. My
husband is a #3 and is not able to rope in our AATRC ropings. Fourth, we do
not use religion as a way to make money. We want everyone to know about
Jesus Christ and his salvation. Jesus Christ is the only one I have to
answer to. And when he returns those who heard about him and excepted him
into their lives will spend eternity in heaven not hell. That is worth it if
a few people feel that we are phoney, and using religion to make money. If
you wish to not hear about it then you do not have to attend church. Church
service is not forced upon anyone. Who is able to get up at 6:30 am and go
to church and get their horse ready to rope? It is a convenience for ropers to
go to church after the 1st rotation. Fifth, I don't know which pro roper you
are talking about coming in for a roping. We have had several. The pro that
comes to our finals and puts on mini seminars for the ropers and shares his
love for the Lord. He comes for FREE. And as for the others that have
attended our ropings they too come to share their love for the Lord and want
nothing in return. The one that came and preached at a church roping
for us that he did for FREE. And actually donated some of the money to put this
roping on. So therefore, your saying that they are there for the money is
WRONG. I choose to believe this is not the majorities feeling only a few.
And also referring to our numbers being down is the reason we included #3's,
you must not know the numbers of our AATRC ropings last year. Claremore,
Ok in November had around 1300 teams and our finals numbers were right at
1800. I do want you to know that I am printing your letter in the teamroping
magazines along with my comments. If you wish for your name to be put in
there I will be happy to print it. If not that is fine

2 Timothy 3:12;Matthew 5:11&12; Romans 12:14

Buddy & Kelly Norman