EQUISTAT AD
A MESSAGE FROM WCRA PRESIDENT
BOBBY MOTE
W
elcome to the Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo. The World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA) is proud to partner with Days of ’47 and bring athletes to the City of Saints for the fifth straight year. WCRA’s base of athletes is larger than any one rodeo organization in the world. From schoolteachers, to minister, to retired Las Vegas trick riders mixed with the most accomplished rodeo processionals, WCRA is able to deliver the most diverse collection of athletes the industry of rodeo has ever seen.
Where else in the sports world, can you see a full-time ICU Nurse, Las Vegas Trick Riders, a 54-year-old bull rider, and the pros in the same arena? | 800.XXX.XXXX 2 | JULY 2021can’t WWW.WCRARODEO.COM You and it| just doesn’t happen anywhere else in sports. WCRA is proud of what it has built, and we only foresee continued growth in the community. 2 | JULY 2022 | 833.368.3787 | WWW.WCRARODEO.COM
WCRA is the only rodeo organization on network television with over 8.6 million viewers in the last two years. Fans will be able to relive the action of the Gold Medal Round on A CBS Network Broadcast on July 31. We hope you enjoy your night at the rodeo as you witness the best collection of athletes in the world who have Climbed the WCRA Leaderboard by competing in thousands of qualifying events across North America to earn a position in this event. We appreciate you and we look forward to entertaining you in one of the best arenas built for rodeo in the heart of Salt Lake City.
WCRA PRESIDENT - 4X WORLD CHAMPION BAREBACK RIDER
CONTENTS
2 President’s Welcome
July 2022
5 Welcome to UDO47 6 UDO47 History & Board 8 About WCRA 10 Women’s Rodeo Feature 16 Who’s Triple Crown Eligible? 24 Bareback Riding 28 Steer Wrestling 32 Team Roping 36 Saddle Bronc Riding 42 Breakaway Roping 46 Triple Crown of Rodeo Feature 52 Barrel Racing 54 Bull Riding 60 WCRA Social Media 64 UDO47 Schedule of Events
FEATURES
10 WCRA SWINGS DOOR WIDE OPEN FOR WOMEN IN RODEO The World Champions Rodeo Alliance lives up to its #AllForRodeo hashtag.
Based on the belief that talented rodeo athletes deserved better than the same old status quo, Team WCRA set out to raise the rodeo bar in a big way.
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A MILLIONS REASONS TO LOVE THE TRIPLE CROWN OF RODEO
There aren’t many cowboys or cowgirls who’ve won $1 million or more in their entire careers. Considering the stats on how rare that really is, the World Champions Rodeo Alliance’s $1 million Triple Crown of Rodeo presented by the Lazy E Ranch and Arena is borderline mind boggling. Rodeo presented by the Lazy E Ranch and Arena is borderline mind boggling. The $1 Triple Crown of Rodeo is an annual bonus that’s up for grabs to any rodeo athlete, or group of athletes, who manages to win three straight WCRA majors. To date, two contestants—tie-down roper Riley Webb and breakaway roper Tacy Kay Webb, no relation—have taken their shot at the lucrative, ground-breaking pot of gold. Published by: Cowboy Publishing, a Morris Communications Company Magazine Group John Lunn / Publisher & Vice President, Morris Enthusiast Group Mobile/Text: 512-470-7447 | Office: 817-569-7116 | john.lunn@morris.com Kyle Jones / Editor / Director of Communications World Champions Rodeo Alliance Phone: 512.306.3310 Email: kjones@wcrarodeo.com
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16-24
Triple Crown of Rodeo Eligible Athletes
Welcome to the World’s Only Gold Medal Rodeo in the heart of Salt Lake City. We are thrilled that you have joined us. The Utah Days of ’47Rodeo has become a must stop on the summer rodeo schedule for contestants from the junior high level all the way to the pros of the sport as they vie for gold, silver and bronze medals awarded to the top three, setting this rodeo apart from any other rodeo in the world. The 2022 rodeo will mark the seventh time in the history of rodeo where riders will have an opportunity to compete for Gold, Silver or Bronze Medals. The first two times were in conjunction with the Olympic Winter Games in Calgary (1988) and Salt Lake City (2002), when rodeo was part of the Cultural Olympiad and the other four times being the Days of ’47Rodeo in2017-2019. The medals awarded at the Utah Days of ‘47 Rodeo are produced by OC Tanner, the same company that made the Olympic medals for the champions of the 2002 Olympic
Winter Games. The Utah Days of ’47 Cowboy Rodeo will once again be a stop on the WCRA Triple Crown of Rodeo (TCR). The TCR is an annual bonus that pays $1 million to any one athlete or collection of athletes who wins the Event Championship of the same discipline in any three consecutive WCRA Major Rodeos. In addition to the Gold Medal Rodeo, fans are encouraged to enjoy the historical exhibits, commercial
exhibitors, great food, carnival and pony rides and preshow activities in the area including the Young Guns Rodeo featuring the future stars of the sport. Fun Zone activities open at 4:30 p.m. daily and is free to the public. The Young Guns Rodeo will take place in the main arena beginning at 4:30 p.m., and a rodeo ticket will be required for admission. Rodeo action begins at 7:30 p.m. nightly followed by fireworks. We also invite everyone to visit the larger-than-life Lewis Feild Bronze at the Days of’47 Arena, saluting Feild’s significant impact on the state of Utah and Professional Rodeo. While in town be sure to experience all the amazing things Utah has to offer like world class golf, hiking, fishing, rafting and much more. You won’t be disappointed.
For more information visit www.utahdaysof47rodeo.com and follow Day of 47 Rodeo on social media.
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Setting the
GOLD STANDARD
in Banking and Rodeo
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nearly 150 years of experience Utah’s oldest financial institution Only local bank with a statewide distribution of local branches Understands how to guide the financial reins Staff of experts eager to help you make the 8-second whistle and reach your full financial potential. partner, Zions Bank has contributed well over $1 million A longtime pa to the Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo helping to keep Utah’s pioneer heritage alive and well in the Salt Lake Valley.
WORLD CHAMPIONS RODEO ALLIANCE
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ince launching in May of 2018, the World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA) and its partners have awarded over $13.0 million in new money to rodeo athletes. Qualifying is based on points, rather than dollars won, through our world ranking points system.
he WCRA is a professional sport and entertainment entity, created to develop and advance the sport of rodeo by aligning all levels of competition. In partnership with PBR, WCRA produces major rodeo events, developing additional opportunities for rodeo industry competitors, stakeholders and fans.
WCRA SWINGS DOOR WIDE OPEN FOR WOMEN IN RODEO By: Kendra Santos
The World Champions Rodeo Alliance lives up to its #AllForRodeo hashtag. Based on the belief that talented rodeo athletes deserved better than the same old status quo, Team WCRA set out to raise the rodeo bar in a big way. Since its debut in May of 2018, rodeo contestants have cashed checks totaling more than $12 million—and counting. No one has benefitted more from the WCRA movement than women, and they could not appreciate it more. Texas cowgirl Hope Thompson, who’ll compete in the breakaway roping here at the $562,500 Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo at Utah State Fairpark, is the perfect poster person to prove this point. With an impressive showing that earned her all-around cowgirl honors
at the $750,000 Women’s Rodeo World Championship in Fort Worth in May, Thompson is now the winningest rodeo athlete in WCRA history—man or woman—with $207,200. “The day a girl can rope for a living is here—the WCRA is why,” Thompson said. “That I’ve won more than $200,000 at these events alone is unbelievable in one way. But on the other hand, it’s totally believable, because this opportunity is for real. The WCRA made this possible. None of us will ever forget that.” Thompson dragged down a whopping $99,660 at the inaugural Women’s Rodeo World Championship, which was held in 2020 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
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“This is life-changing money,” she said, visibly stunned by the size of the windfall win. “It’s a great time for women in rodeo. It’s literally exploding, and the WCRA has everything to do with that.” Thompson travels with a living legend Lari Dee Guy, who has as much perspective as anyone on the monumental progress and growth set in motion by the WCRA. “When the WCRA got going, huge things happened,” said Guy, who’ll also be breakaway roping here in Salt Lake City. “People started looking differently at women in rodeo.” The National Cowgirl Hall of Famer grew up in a time when there wasn’t much financial future for women in rodeo who
didn’t barrel race. “When I was growing up, I was told to go to school and get my degree, which I did,” she said. “After college, there wasn’t much a woman could do roping when it came to actually making a living. But I always loved to rope and make horses. There was no way anyone could tell me I couldn’t make a living with my rope.”
“The day a girl can rope for a living is here.” - Hope Thompson
She refused to take no for an answer. And when Texas-native Guy took home $79,000 from the 2021 Women’s Rodeo World Championship at the South Point in Las Vegas, including the team roping title she won with Colorado’s Jimmi Jo Montera, Guy was blown away when millions of mainstream sports fans watched the women of rodeo work on CBS. Yes, for the first time in history, a women’s event became one of the most viewed rodeos of all time. “What’s so great about the WCRA is the opportunity that it brings to all women—professional cowgirls, stay-athome moms, career women, young girls and everybody else,” Guy continued grateful-
ly. “The WCRA gives us all the same opportunities, and I think that’s awesome. The WCRA will succeed because the people who are behind it are going to do everything they can to make it work for the cowboys and cowgirls—all cowboys and cowgirls.”
ily at St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital in Bryan, Texas. “My co-workers have been really nice about trying to help me out, so I can rope some. I try to pay them back in small ways, like working Sunday nights when I get back from rodeos, so they can have the night off.
Texas ICU nurse Tacy Kay Webb lit up Utah State Fairpark last summer. After helping this great nation navigate a worldwide pandemic from the front lines, Webb used a few days of well-deserved time off to make the trek to Salt Lake and take on the world in her signature event of breakaway roping. Webb is yet another example of why the WCRA works for talented rodeo athletes from all walks of and stages in life.
“When I think back on that night (she won the 2021 Days of ’47 Rodeo), it still makes me smile. To get a standing ovation with so much emotion was amazing, because I know there were a lot of nurses, doctors and front-line workers in the crowd there that night who know what we went through.”
“Working three days a week and my team at work being super supportive is what lets me make it work and balance my job at the hospital with rodeo,” Tacy Kay said of her work fam-
Webb is from a well-known rodeo family, but her parents raised Tacy Kay and her pilot brother with the philosophy that there’s more to life than rodeo. And their daughter was born with a passion for helping others. She left Salt Lake City— and hurried home to be right on time for her next shift at the Tacy Kay Webb
hospital—with $27,800 jingling in her jeans. It’d take a lot of shifts at the hospital to make that much money, but Webb considers rodeo her outlet, not her income.
it like that. I want it to be fun. I love that the WCRA gives us all a chance to compete at the highest level, whether we want to burn up the roads and hit it hard or not.”
“Nothing compared to my win here in Salt Lake City last year,” Webb said. “Money-wise, that win was in a league of its own. I knew I wanted to be a nurse, because I’m such a people person. Taking care of people and comforting them and their families in hard times makes me happy.
Webb is one of the hottest hands in the sport right now, and yet she’s made up her mind when it comes to priorities.
“We all travel at different paces, and I’m not one of the hard-core girls who stays gone all the time. I just try to pick and choose and get to some of the best rodeos. My parents have always told me that rodeo will always be there and can always be fun. They said, ‘Rodeo’s a great lifestyle, but it doesn’t need to be your livelihood.’ It makes it more fun for me not to have to win to eat. I never want to look at
“I love to rope, but my job and helping people mean so much to me,” Tacy Kay said. “I see really sad stuff all the time at the hospital, and it makes everything else seem smaller. I enjoy helping people with their battles and when life is really hard. My background in rodeo helps me be a better nurse, too. You have to be able to think fast on your feet as a nurse. Rodeo has taught me to react quickly to whatever’s thrown at me, and that comes in handy at the hospital.” Three-time World Champion Barrel Racer Hailey Kinsel of
Cotulla, Texas, has basically done it all and won it all in her professional rodeo career. The two-time Days of ’47 titlist will be back at Utah State Fairpark to battle it out with the best in the business, and the relative latecomer to the WCRA party likes what she sees. “I feel so fortunate to have come along in the bloom of rodeo,” Kinsel said after her $63,400 win at the 2022 Women’s Rodeo World Championship. “I got so lucky with the timing of my career. A win like this will pay for a lot of fuel this summer. We all need to be thankful for opportunities like this one. They really are too good to take for granted.” Kinsel is a renowned minimalist when it comes to how hard she hauls her horses. A blonde bomber she calls Sister is her headliner horse. But Hailey had only ridden Sister at four rodeos when she stormed the WCRA’s 2022 Women’s Rodeo World Championship earlier this year on another palomino wonder horse, Jules, whom she borrowed from special friends and fellow Texans Donna and Damon Hodges. “Donna and Damon thought maybe Sister needed a backup,” Hailey grinned in the Fort Worth winner’s circle. “Jules deserves this success, and I’m proud to be a part of her family. Jules is the story of a horse people believed in.” The same can be said for her four-legged superstar
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Hailey Kinsel Sister, who started as a mother-daughter project for Leslie and Hailey Kinsel. For Hailey, the beauty of the WCRA is offering contestants big money on big stages minus the miles of traditional, full-tilt travel. Jackie Crawford is a 20-time world champion cowgirl with a miles-long resume and a little bit of gypsy blood. She’s also the only rodeo athlete never to miss a WCRA major. Like Lari Dee, Jackie’s spent most of her career competing for the love of the game more than the monetary compensation that was so sorely lacking. They’ve worked hard all their lives, dreaming that the day would come when their dedication would be rewarded. “I’ve had this dream that wom-
en can rope for a living, and it’s here,” said Crawford, who’s the mother of two young children. “This is big money, and it’s real money. You can win enough at one of these major WCRA rodeos (including Days of ’47) to compare to maxing out in a couple good years in the past. What’s not to love about what’s happening here?” So appropriately, Crawford was the all-around champ at the WCRA’s inaugural Women’s Rodeo World Championship. “It’s such an exciting time to be a part of this sport,” she said. “To get to raise another little girl (Jackie and cowboy husband Charly’s baby girl, Journey) who gets to take advantage of what these girls—the women who came before me, and the young girls now—have paved the way
for just makes me so proud. I want women to know they can have it all. It’s hard, and it’s challenging. But I can do it, and so can they.” To think of what women pioneers of eras past would give for what the WCRA has done for women today is awe-inspiring. The Jackie Crawfords and Lari Dee Guys have seen enough to get that. “Watching what the younger generation is getting to do and where our sport’s headed from here gives me joy,” Guy added. “Where will this all be when I’m sitting on the couch watching? I remember when having 15 girls show up to rope at a rodeo was pretty good. Now we’re roping for hundreds of thousands of dollars. For that I am very grateful.”
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TEAM ROPING HEADER
THE MARK OUT It all starts with the Mark Out. The athlete must have the heels of his boots in contact with the horse’s neck, when the horse’s front feet hit the ground on the first jump. Not doing so will result in a score deduction of five points per side.
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THE SPUR STROKE The athlete displays his abilities and control of the ride through his spurring motion. The spur stroke starts above the shoulders and rolls back to the riggin. Timing is everything. The athlete wants his feet set above the shoulders, before the horse’s front feet hit the ground.
SCORING THE RIDE Bareback Riding is a judged event in which 50 points come from the horse and 50 points come from the athlete. The perfect score is 100. Horses are scored on how hard they buck, how high they jump, how hard they kick, and the strength of the drop and roll. The greater degree of difficulty, the higher the score. Highest score wins.
THE HEAD CATCH Reaching speeds up to 30 miles per hour, the athlete moves his horse alongside the steer which weighs in at nearly 600 pounds. The athlete then jumps from his horse to grab the steer by the horns.
THE HAZER
STEER WRESTLING 101 Meanwhile this guy, known as the Hazer, runs on the other side to keep the steer moving in a straight line.
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TECHNIQUE With a blend of brute strength and timing the athlete stops the steer, uses his left arm to grab the nose and wrestles the steer to the ground.
THE BARRIER The barrier is the starting line, starts the clock and gives the livestock the allotted head start. If the athlete breaks the barrier before the steer, a five second penalty is added to the time.
FASTEST TIME WINS When all four of the steer’s legs are off the ground and pointing in the same direction, the Official drops the flag and the time stops. The fastest time wins!
THE HEELER
THE HEAD CATCH
The team consists of a Header who is responsible for catching the head of the livestock and the Heeler, responsible for catching the back feet or heels of the stock.
There are three legal head catches; clean around the horns, around the head or a half head. Any other catch results in a no time.
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THE DALLY THE BARRIER
The header makes the HEAD CATCH, dallies his rope to the saddle horn and leads the stock to the left.
The barrier is the starting line, it starts the clock and also allows the stock a head start. If the Header breaks the barrier before the stock, a five second penalty is added to the time.
FASTEST TIME WINS The Heeler then attempts to catch both hind feet. Not doing so will result in a five second penalty, a miss of the heels would result in a no time. Once both the head and the heels are caught and the horses are facing one another, the Official drops the flag and the time is stopped. The fastest time wins!
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THE MARK OUT It all starts with the Mark Out. The athlete must have the heels of his boots in contact with the horse’s neck, when the horse’s front feet hit the ground on the first jump. Not doing so will result in a score deduction of five points per side.
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TECHNIQUE The athlete uses a specialized saddle and holds on to a bronc rein with one hand. He uses his free arm for balance. Touching himself or the stock with the free hand results in disqualification.
SCORING THE RIDE Saddle Bronc Riding is a judged event in which 50 points come from the horse and 50 points come from the athlete. The perfect score is 100. Horses are scored on how hard they buck, how high they jump, how hard they kick, and the strength of the drop and roll. The greater degree of difficulty, the higher the score. Highest score wins.
SPUR MOTION The athlete is scored by the officials on how well he can control the ride and the spur stroke. From high in the neck all the way to the back of the saddle. That’s called the spur stroke. Timing is everything. The athlete wants his feet set above the shoulders, before the horse’s front feet hit the ground.
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THE BARRIER The barrier serves as a starting line which starts the time and gives the livestock a head start. If the athlete crosses the barrier before the stock gets the head start, a penalty of five seconds will be added to the time.
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THE HEAD CATCH As soon as the stock is caught, the horse stops and the rope breaks-away from the saddle horn. Anything other than a clean catch – results in a disqualification.
FASTEST TIME WINS The Athlete’s rope is secured to the saddle horn with only a soft piece of string. When the rope breaks-away from the saddle and the Official drops the flag, the time is stopped. The athlete who catches the stock the fastest is the winner!
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A Million Reasons to Love the Triple Crown of Rodeo BY: KENDRA SANTOS There aren’t many cowboys or cowgirls who’ve won $1 million or more in their entire careers. Considering the stats on how rare that really is, the World Champions Rodeo Alliance’s $1 million Triple Crown of Rodeo presented by the Lazy E Ranch and Arena is borderline mind boggling. The $1 Triple Crown of Rodeo is an annual bonus that’s up for grabs to any rodeo athlete, or group of athletes, who manages to win three straight WCRA majors. To date, two contestants—tie-down roper Riley Webb and breakaway roper Tacy Kay Webb, no relation—have taken their shot at the lucrative, ground-breaking pot of gold. Both won two consecutive events, and were on the brink of breaking the bank to their benefit. At 17, Riley was the first to take his shot at becoming the youngest cowboy millionaire in rodeo history, and he went for it right here at the Utah State Fairpark. The 2020 National High School Rodeo Association tiedown roping titlist put himself into Triple Crown contention by
winning back-to-back WCRA majors in Guthrie, Oklahoma and Corpus Christi, Texas leading up to last summer’s Days of ’47. The stage was set. “For anybody to get to rope for a million dollars is amazing—to have that opportunity at my age is unbelievable,” Webb said. “To even be included in the talk of being the youngest millionaire in rodeo is just incredible.” He took his shot at the million, and came up short when he missed his calf. It happens, and a lot of hearts sank when his loop hit the dirt. But all the headlines and hype that led up to that moment were amazing for the Texas teen and sport itself. Progress is not only possible—it has arrived. “The WCRA has allowed me to compete at the highest level at an early age,” said Webb, who lives in Denton, Texas. “For me to be able to nominate open jackpots and rodeos to earn points to get into the WCRA majors, and rope against the top guys in the world for life-changing money is outstanding.”
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What does he mean by nominating events, you ask? Contestants qualify to compete at WCRA majors, like this week’s $562,500 Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo, by nominating events they’re already competing in. In other words, they earn points at events, and those points in turn punch their ticket into WCRA majors. It’s kind of like legal, legit double-dipping. And the $1 million Triple Crown of Rodeo bonus is the biggest cherry on top imaginable, especially to a teenager without a long track record. . Riley has roped his whole life. He also enjoyed other sports as a young boy, but opted out of baseball at 11 to go all-in on his roping and rodeo dreams. “Doing anything else but roping started to feel like a waste of time,” he remembers. “When I was 12 or 13, I started to have success and realize I was kind of good. I was at ropings and rodeos with my mom and dad all the time, and had a rope in my hand 24-7. “I’ve had a lot of people in my corner who’ve helped me get here. It takes lots of hard work
and a good attitude—no matter what happens, good or bad—to make it in this world. My mom and grandma have helped me a lot with that. When you mess up, it’s over and you have to just move on to the next one.” Riley did all the right things to get ready for his $1 million shot here last summer. “I practiced hard, so my horses and me showed up in good shape and prepared,” he said. “I had to look at Days of ’47 and that $1 million calf as just another run at just anoth-
er rodeo. All I could do was my job and my best. I showed up with a good attitude, and took my shot. Everything had been clicking for me. I was ready.”
compete at any big event, we just have to have confidence in all the hard work and practice we’ve put in. All any of us can do is our best.
He may have been too young to have the perspective of a seasoned veteran. But the kid kept his cool.
“I don’t like losing, and that pushes me harder to try and be faster. I’m always trying to get better at my roping. Bottom line, if you want to win, you have to figure out how to be faster than everyone else.”
“I was excited, but I didn’t feel nervous,” Riley said. “A lot of people never win a million dollars in their whole career, so I knew it was amazing to even be talking about a chance like that. When we
Tacy Kay Webb was just the second rodeo athlete—and the first woman—to take a shot at the $1 million Triple Crown
3X WCRA CHAMPION, RILEY WEBB
of Rodeo when she went for all the marbles in May at the $550,000 Rodeo Corpus Christi. Webb first struck WCRA gold right here in Salt Lake City, when she last July won the Days of ’47 breakaway roping gold medal. She made it two in a row with the W at the $360,000 Cowtown Christmas Championship Rodeo in Fort Worth last December. Webb was one major away from becoming the first female overnight millionaire in rodeo history.
Webb was overwhelmed by the opportunity. “I knew that even if I didn’t win the million, the chance to get to try was amazing,” Tacy Kay said. “I thank the WCRA for letting the breakaway ropers come be a part of this and for highlighting women rodeo athletes. All the good words in the world are still not enough for the chance I was given by the WCRA.” Webb came up one-hundredth of a second short of
advancing to the Triple Crown of Rodeo Round in Corpus Christi. It was a heart breaker for her, but Webb’s seen enough heartache as an ICU nurse to know that a nearmiss at a rodeo is nothing to hang your head about in the grand scheme of life. Though she never complains, Webb has had her own adversity to overcome. In October of 2020, a rope broke in the practice pen and popped back hard, hitting Webb in the face, neck and arm.
Tacy Kay said. “It’s been a running joke that I might rope better with one eye.” Like Riley, Tacy Kay chose not to focus on the money, drama or pressure that mounts with $1 million on the line. Instead, she showed up ready to rope and grateful for the chance to ring the $1 million bell. “The Triple Crown is an amazing opportunity,” Webb said. “I went into it trying to look at it with an open mind and an open heart. The opportunity to rope for that much money was something we all dream about. It’s amazing, and I owe the WCRA all the credit for building that stage. All I could do from there was enjoy it, and if it worked out, it worked out.” She might not have won the million—yet. But she’s still as bullish as ever on the WCRA and all it stands for.
“It tore up my arm, but what was terrifying is that I couldn’t see out of my left eye,” Tacy Kay remembers well. “I could only see dark and light. They had to wait awhile to do anything about it, because there was so much blood. I had surgery on my birthday in November, and got about 30 percent of my vision back.”
that left eye. She then had a second surgery immediately following her win at Cowtown Christmas last December to “get a prosthetic iris and change out the lens in my eye.” Less than 200 people in the United States have a prosthetic iris. Tacy Kay’s still super light-sensitive, so often wears sunglasses.
Webb took victory laps in Salt Lake and Fort Worth with only 30 percent of the vision in
“My left eye is much better now, and we’re hoping to get it back to being really good,”
“The WCRA fits me, because I can pick and choose where I want to rope,” Tacy Kay said. “I don’t have to go to 75-100 rodeos a year, like a lot of girls do, to get the chance to rope for big money. The WCRA helps people in the working class who rodeo. The WCRA has changed the game for people like me.” Who will take the next swing at superstardom and the $1 million Triple Crown of Rodeo? We’ll find out right here at rodeo’s end!
COMMUNICATION For a barrel racer, communication with the horse is paramount. Using their hands and feet, the rider will cue the horse to turn in the desired direction. At speeds nearing 30 mph it’s important to maintain control to make tight turns for a safe and successful run.
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FASTEST TIME WINS
SPEED & PRECISION Horse and Rider maneuver through a fixed pa tern of three barrels, with the goal to be the fastest to the finish line - timed to the thousandth of a second. If they happen to knock over a barrel during the run, it results in a five second penalty per barrel.
THE BULL ROPE The athlete uses a leather glove and holds on to a braided rope. The athlete holds on with one hand and may not touch the animal or himself with the free hand. Doing so, would result in disqualification.
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SCORING THE RIDE Bull Riding is a judged event in which 50 points come from the bull and 50 points come from the athlete. The perfect score is 100. Bulls are scored on how hard they buck, how high they jump, how much they spin. The greater degree of difficulty, the higher the score. Highest score wins.
BODY POSITION The athlete’s body should be parallel with the bull’s. Working in sync to reduce the G-force produced by the massive animal. A bull rider’s ultimate display of control is when he uses the spur stroke and is often rewarded with a higher score.
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