Coleman Proctor and Jake Long pocketed a quick $10,000 winning the NTR Open to the World at The Big Nevada.

A NTR win came in the right place at the right time for two cowboys heading out on the summer rodeo trail.

With rain flooding the state of Texas much of May and June, Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifiers Coleman Proctor and Jake Long hadn’t gotten to rope on their good horses, Carmine and Colonel, very much leading up to the summer run. So when they pulled in to Fernley, Nev., for the NTR’s The Big Nevada Open to the World, they pulled their big guns off the trailer.

“I thought it was great to have a roping like that the day before the BFI,” Long said.

“It gave us a chance to spar a little bit. It has been raining for months it seems like in Texas, and I hadn’t gotten a chance to ride my good horse, Colonel.”

“I had plenty of horses out here with me, and with $10,000 guaranteed to the winners, we couldn’t miss it,” Proctor added.

The duo went at all five steers, finishing at 29.56 seconds on five head to split the $10,000 paycheck. They bested Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira by .37 seconds to win the roping.

“They had us by three tenths-of-asecond, and first paid just enough more than second (at $4,200 for the team) that we could pressure them and put some heat on a little bit,” Long said. “Not that those two are easy to put heat on.”

“I had plenty of horses out here with me, and with $10,000 guaranteed to the winners, we couldn’t miss it,”

- Coleman Proctor

“Anytime you can edge out Kaleb Driggers when he’s got a head rope in his hand, it’s a tough roping,” Proctor said.

Chad Masters and Travis Graves split $1,000 for third, and Eddie Hawley and Ty Romo took home another $250 each for fast time overall. “Tommy Lee’s cattle were awesome,”

Proctor said. “It was a great venue, and I can’t say enough about it. I don’t know anybody who was disappointed.” This marked the second-consecutive Big Nevada Open win for Long, who won side. Last year, the roping was a four header and Tryan and Long were 24.02 seconds on four head to split the $10,000.

“The steers were good, honest steers, and it made for a good team roping,” Long said of the 2015 edition. “The set up was user-friendly and it just let you rope and not worry about the situation.”

Proctor and Long hope the win will propel them into the Fourth of July run, despite them not having much luck at the Reno Rodeo or the Bob Feist Invitational.

“It’s been up and down,” Proctor said. “We had a slow winter but a good spring.

We are in the exact same spot as Reno as we were last year. The Reno Rodeo and the BFI didn’t go as we planned, but our horses are working great and we’re roping good.”

At press time, Proctor sat at 10th in the PRCA’s world standings with $26,144 won, while Long sat at ninth on the heel side with the same amount.

The biggest winners in Fernley were Hawaiian team ropers Jerry Stutts and Gilbert Smith, who flew over to the mainland just a week earlier to enjoy one of the greatest times of year to rope in Nevada.

The duo split $12,880 for their five-head average time of 48.60 seconds in the #11 Big Gamble. They also took another $5,460 back to Kailua Kona, Hawaii, for second place in the #10 Big Gamble for a time of 52.10 seconds on five head.

Stutts, a self-described “roping junkie,” makes it to the mainland U.S. six to eight times a year, and he keeps his good horses with friends in Arizona to keep them legged up. Smith, on the other hand, hasn’t been across the Pacific to rope in almost 10 years.

“We came early and we roped three days at Linden Valley Arena in Linden, Ariz., and with Dylan Frost,” Stutts said.

“That made a big, big difference.”

Stutts provided the mounts for the team from the supply of good ones he keeps on the continent. He rode Rex, his 15-yearold head horse, while Smith rode Stutts’ 12-year-old gelding, Willy, who came from Kaleb Driggers.

Smith used to work at his partner’s construction and woodworking company, Stutts’ Construction Co., but now he works for the Department of Education at the Kahakai School, where he gets off at 2:30 p.m. each day.

“That lets me rope as much as I can,” Smith admitted. “I also build motorcycles at my business, Chopper Express.”

Smith has gotten to know ropers from the mainland who come to Hawaii for some of the islands’ bigger ropings, so he saw some familiar faces when he went to Nevada.

“It was just a great, blessed week,” Smith said. “We got to have dinner with Brandon Webb, Kaleb Driggers and Kollin VonAhn, and what a great time we had in Reno.”

Stutts, originally from Albuquerque, N.M., splits his time between work in Hawaii and play on the mainland.

“I couldn’t do this without such good friends,” Stutts said. “I’ve always been such a roping junkie, and it takes good friends to haul my horses, keep my horse and even keep them legged up.”