Dear Ropers,
The last few ropings to report about are April 2nd and 3rd at Ardmore Ok and April 23rd and 24th in Meridian . In Ardmore the weather was grand! (70’s all weekend) The weekend started off with a #12 and #14. The cattle were great all weekend! Thanks to RWC Cattle Co. Winning the #14 was Roy Deen & David Miller with a 32.67 on 4. These guys represented their home states of Okla. and Texas and are much know by most ropers in those states! They were high call back with a 24.14 (one 8 and two 7’s) and roped their call back in a 8.53 giving them the victory and making them $1352 richer. In the #12, high callback also won the roping. Cody Camerer and Teddy Kreger (both Okies) were a very respectable time of 33.59. They started with a 9 sec run then got faster and faster each time. 7.79 was their time on the call back steer, which was good enough for $1410! Now you have to remember the score was stretched out there for these guys! We moved it back for our #10 ropers (with no complaints!). Randall Norman and Cooper Bruce roped strong and held it together in the short go. Coming to the money round 2nd high back, with a 29.19 on 3, they roped a leg for a total of 12.84 on their call back steer and won the roping $1400 and 2 Fear Not Saddles. 2nd place was Josh Cardin and Quincy Qualls only .35 hundredths of a second behind first! Just an interesting note: only 4 out of the top 10 caught in the money round. Last hole was 64.71! The next day was our #8. 15 came back to the short go on Sunday in the #8. High call back legged but was still fast enough on 4 to win the roping. Bobby Griggs and Cody Dees were 39.68 on 4 winning 2 Fear Not Saddles and $1500. 2nd place in the average went to the 3rd high callback, Josh Hensley and Derrick Jantzen with a 40.12 on 4. We also awarded 2 buckles one for the high lady and one for the high 14 & under roper. The high lady was K C Stone and 14 & under was Cooper Bruce. Congratulations to all our Ardmore winners! And we can not forget tomorrows champions! (the dummy roping winners) 5 and under Hot Shot Elmore, 6-9 Bailee Bruce and 10-12 Clay Deen. Our next stop was Meridian, Ms. This was the first time we visited the Lauderdale County Expo in Ms. The facility is great for the that time of year. Winning the #10 was high call back Bill Crowell and Robert Pearson with a 47.05 on 4. Second went to Mike Culbreth & Evan Wedgeworth with a 48.09. Only Eight teams came back to the short go in the #10! At this roping we awarded $1000 bonus to the high point roper. The winner was Bill with 11 pts. After the #10 we went into the #8. 82 teams came back for the 10 saddles, 10 buckles, 10 rope bags and $10,000! Winning the roping was the 4th high team back. Marty Davis and Lebarron Mclead went in to the short go with a 19.23 on two and roped their call back clean with a 9.81. This gave them the victory (along with $1800 & two trophy Fear Not Saddles) with a 29.04. Second went to 12th high back Daryl Pardue and Tony Noto with a 30.60 on 3. Darryl decided to showed out Sunday and placed 2nd, 8th & 9th! This was good enough for the high point bonus prize of $2000 in the #8. **Once again only 4 teams out of the top 10 caught. So remember you don’t have to have a call back in the top 10 to pocket the cash and prizes!
The year is flying by and summer is on its way! That means we here at the AATRC offices are looking forward to one of our biggest ropings of the year, Ft Smith Ark! I know what you are thinking…the summer is hot in Arkansas! Well, that’s right but so is this roping! $Lots of cash, 20 saddles, 20 saddles blankets and 20 rope bags will be awarded in the #8 roping, and in the #10 we will award 2 saddles, 6 blankets, 4 rope bags and lots of cash! There will only be 400 teams taken to rope in the #10 so make sure you take care of that pre-entry business the Monday before the roping. You can go to AATRCROPE.COM for more info on our up and coming ropings along with all the results from the past. You will also now see all our ads in the Spin to Win. The Spin to Win is now the official magazine of the AATRC. We are delighted to team up with such a professional group of people! This merger can do nothing but better our association and help those member who are interested in taking their team roping up to a higher level. Everyone wins! And talk about winning let me remind you all that at the end of the year we will award a bonus cash prize to the high point roper of the #8 and the high point roper of the #10. You might have wondered how we would determine the winners. This will be done through a point system of the top 10 places of each roping. 1st place receiving 10 points and 10th place receiving 1 pt. (Check out the totals on our website).
In conclusion to this months letter I want to leave you with a note on how to “Walk in Victory.” (This is what we call the end of the newsletter.) I have found that one thing is for certain and that is tomorrow always comes. And how we choose to walk in each day is determined on our choices! We can walk in victory or lay down in defeat. Now sometimes that walking in victory is preceded by getting up from a fall! In Philippians 3:14 it says, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” The key word here is press on. There are times in our lives when we feel like we can not go on. (We have all been there) But as I said earlier tomorrow always comes and we must continue on, but when you continue on make sure that you are headed in the way that Jesus has laid aside for you. When Paul was talking about pressing on towards the goal he was talking about living his life for the Lord and not letting the world slip in. As a runner has his eyes on the finish line let yours be on God. In the next chapter in the 8th verse it says, “…what ever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, what ever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” Meditate on and memorize God’s word, (such as this verse) this will keep you keeping on!
Life is full of lemons…Let us make lemonade!
Kelly Norman
AATRC / Fear Not Productions