PHOTOS BY OLIE’S IMAGES
LEGENDS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Monte Sandvick & Kirk Hornbuckle
The Western Frontier Finale spans three days in mid-September and serves as the wrap-up to the National Team Roping’s summer tour stops.
This year’s Finale paid out $157,600 in cash and prizes over nine divisions. The Western Frontier Invitational was the highest paying roping of the weekend with $10,260 going to Cody Stahly and Tyler Thorton.
SUPER REGIONAL NATIONAL NINE
Thad Baker & Brad Schieck
Sometimes, the luck of the draw is in your favor, especially in team roping. Such was the case for Brad Schieck when he drew header Thad Baker in the Super Regional National Nine in Rapid City, South Dakota.
“Our first three runs were really solid, practice runs,” Schieck said. “We were mid-seven on all of them. We had good steers.
The short round, Thad had to pick his horse up a little and get him hopping for me. I took my shot and it all worked out.”
Though they’d never roped together before, Schieck, a Casper, Wyo. native, had seen Baker, a North Dakota header, around and knew he’d be a good run.
The pair plans to go to Rancho Rio in Wickenburg, Ariz., to make good on their National Nine qualification.
“My stepmom has a place in Queen Creek, and I have a step sister who has a place down there with her four kids,” Schieck explained. “I can go down and take my horses and rope once a year. Now with Ty’s finals being so good, that’s my one week a year I go to Arizona.”
#9 CHAMPIONSHIPS
Roger Kraus & Roger Merritt
SUPER REGIONAL NATIONAL EIGHT
Bruce Berry & Bob Rose
Bruce Berry, a header from Interior, South Dakota, spends his days ranching but decided to make the weekend trek to Rapid City for the National Team Roping’s Western Frontier Finale. The 75-mile trip paid off in dividends when Berry and partner Bob Rose won $2,150 a man and spots in the National Eight Finale in Rancho Rio this March.
Berry and Rose, from Pierre, S.D., both aren’t sure yet if their ranching duties in March will allow them to compete at the National Finals, but both are hoping to sneak away for a few days before calving season.
“There’s no way I can take my horse, Blue, down there, but I’ve got friends with horses in Arizona so I’m hoping to make it,” Berry said.
“Blue’s 15, and I trained him and ranched on him. Now, unless I’m roping on him he’s mostly the grandkids’. Anybody can ride him.”
“If I go to Arizona this year, I’ll plan on going to the Finale,” Rose added. “It’s getting towards calving time. We usually start calving in the middle of March, so we can probably get by that all right.”
Rose rode his 20-year-old Bandit, a bald-faced bay that’s been his number-one mount for the last eight years.
ALL GIRL
Catie Lohse & Chris Lien
