Kevin Tibbs, of Mitchell, South Dakota, won the Truck Roping at the NTR’s Cowboy Christmas in Rapid City, South Dakota, last July.

I just sold my place in Mitchell, and I’m planning to move to Arizona. There’s a lot of roping in the wintertime down there—and this is the year I’m making this dream come true.

I’m a 5+ heeler and a 6 header. I was heeling when I won the truck. I always roped both ends, but I went to heeling because my Paint head horse cut his deep flexor tendon. And because my main traveling partner, Deone Hart, he heads all the time. He’s 74, but he acts like he’s 35. He wants me to go all the time and he keeps the fire built under me.

I grew up riding colts and moving cows. When I got home at night, the best one of my colts I rode all day I took to the practice pen. I grew up in the middle of the Cheyenne River Reservation in Western South Dakota, but I started working on the wirelines and had to travel all over the country.

I work for the IBEW—the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers. I’m a supervisor for several contractors around the country. I travel a lot. I’ve worked in Los Angeles and I’ve worked in Long Island, if that tells you anything.

I didn’t rope for 15 years. My grandpa told me not to quit team roping a long time ago, and it was on my mind all those years. I’ve only been back to roping for three years now. I decided one day life was too short. I still work, and I’m not retiring, but now I just try to rope as much as I can.

It was mostly my stepdad, Mike Tibbs, who got me into team roping. We were ranching mostly. You could win enough to keep going to the jackpots back then, diesel didn’t cost so much.

It was a long day at that truck roping. I hadn’t roped in quite a while, and if it weren’t for my girlfriend, Lisa, I wouldn’t have gone. I came straight from work and my horse was fresh. Deone had hauled him there for me. It was enter three times: pick one, draw two. I had to draw every one of my partners, though, because the guys I usually enter with had pluses on their numbers. I entered twice, and I didn’t have a clue who I was roping with. I absolutely didn’t know one of them.

It was the only roping I got in that weekend. One of my partners broke out once, but that was about it. I had to try to make up that time, and I kind of knew I was in it somewhere, but I still thought there were quite a few ahead of me.

Yeah, I’ll for sure keep the truck. It’s a Ford four-door dually with a diesel motor. I have Dodges, but I’m really happy with the way this truck drives. I’ve always wanted to win one.

I was riding Bomber, he’s the best horse I’ve ever owned. I chased him for two or three years and I finally traded the guy out of him. He works so good, I guess a lot of people couldn’t get along with him. He’s a little snorty. He jumps sideways before you get on him, but he never bucks. He doesn’t like his feet messed with and it takes you two days to shoe him and maybe just trim him sometimes. His name is Bomber because he’s the bomb. He came from Henry Harrison out of Fort Hicks, N.D. He’s 9, and I’m going to keep him.

I have a little boy, William. He’s 11 years old. He likes to play football right now, and I’m not going to encourage him either way. If he wants to rope he will, if he doesn’t, he doesn’t. He’s a hunter, too. He likes to hunt just about anything. I taught him a lot about hunting, but he’s just talented in his own right.

The team roping scene in South Dakota is good, especially when the caliber of producer like Ty Yost comes to town—it brings the money. A big roping like that they’ll come out of a five-state area. These truck ropings are real great—I’ve always wanted to win one, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

I was using a Gary Sutton medium Lightening. He ties them really good for me and he treats me good.

I’m planning on being in Arizona after the first of the year. Deone will have two head horses, and I’ll take my buckskin horse. I want to move to the Cave Creek area, or right in Wickenburg, so I won’t be far from Ty’s ropings in Rancho Rio. That’s my favorite place in Arizona. Ty runs everything so smooth; you can plan to be home in time to have a beer or two. He’s got good steers, and he’s fair. They’re the best ones you get to throw at down there.

My team roping hero is Clay O’Brien Cooper. He doesn’t miss. He doesn’t! He’s very consistent, and he inspires a guy. He started when he was really young, but there are guys like Jade Corkill, and he can rope right along side him.

The best advice I’ve ever received about team roping was from Matt Zancanella. He always tells me, “You can’t catch what you can’t see.”