In The Arena

In The Arena

Bob Feist

The end of another year and many team ropers and rodeo fans will be caught up in the frenzies of Las Vegas either at the South Point Hotel Spa and Casino for the World Series of Team Roping Finale or at the Thomas & Mack Arena for the exciting Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. If it’s team roping and rodeo that suits your fancy, you want to be in Vegas the first two weeks of December.

This last month we were saddened by the passing of my long-time friend and old roping partner Rickey Green. I have known Rickey most of his life and will never forget when I took him on a road trip to several states when he had just graduated from high school. His dad brought him out to the freeway and dropped him off to load up with me in my living quarters trailer. Rickey had chosen his famed horse Cowboy to make the trip with us. Cowboy was very young at the time and probably didn’t weigh 900 pounds. We loaded up and headed north to Oregon, Idaho, Colorado and other states and ropings in between. We hadn’t been on the road long before Rickey got quite homesick as he had never been away from his family more than a day or two.

Here it is the end of the year for many rodeo and roping organizations and many have made their Finals and some are yet to qualify. Of course the biggest question this time of year always seems to be who will be going to Las Vegas to the Wrangler National Finals.

School is back in session and summer is coming to a close along with many roping and rodeo finals winding up the year. Entries at some of the ropings have declined due to the back-to-school issue, but still seem to be strong in most ropings.