A lot of Spring ropings are being covered in this issue of RSN. Always one of my favorites is the Broc Cresta Memorial Roping held at the Four Star Ranch in Cottonwood, Calif. This year the weather was great right up to the last steer run. A short time afterwards, the sky opened up with a thunderstorm, which is unlikely weather in those parts. It was as if Broc was looking out for everyone until the last steer was roped and the winners were crowned.
A new team came out from Oklahoma and Texas to prove their skills by roping five steers in 34.91. It was the team of Zac Small of Welch, Oklahoma and heeler Tyler Worley who roped an impressive roping and won first over the team of Clay Smith and Paul Eaves who roped their five in 35.67. Clay also won third with Jade Corkill with a time of 35.99.
The Cresta Roping is always an awesome event and a big thanks to the Davis family for sharing their beautiful ranch for this event. Broc was like a second son to this family and it is nice that they honor his memory each year prior to the Red Bluff Round-Up.
Brandon Beers supplied a great herd of cattle for the event and interestingly enough, the first two goes were all heifers that proved to be a little wild and then he switched them up and finished with all steers. Great herd from the state of Oregon.
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Red Bluff and Oakdale start off the Spring run here and sometimes can be a little wet with the Spring rains. It was pretty hard to convince all of the contestants from out of state that California was going through a drought with arenas of mud. It made for some good watching for the fans and the cowboys didn’t weaken and made some great runs and rides. The ladies held their own in the barrel racing too.
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Clay Smith continues his run for a title in the Heading with a lead over Kolton Schmidt of Barrhead, Alberta, Canada. These two new young headers have a ton of talent and have been fun to watch at the spring rodeos and ropings.
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Many of the young ropers of today need to be commended on their horsemanship which I think has improved over the past couple of years. Many of them ride their horses in a helping manner getting the utmost in performance. Watching Clay Smith at the Timed Event Championship has always been a treat as he helps his horses the entire run. He continues to impress me at the jackpots too displaying good horsemanship.
It is hard in today’s competition to keep horses scoring well but many seem to be doing a better job than others. It seems that some basics in the box are overlooked and I was somewhat shocked to see some of the better ropers scoring so bad.
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Clay Smith had won second at the Broc Cresta Memorial roping just a week prior to the Clovis Rodeo and the James Pickens, Jr. Foundation Roping. He wasn’t going to settle for second as he and Dugan Kelly rode in the box at the Pickens roping. They were the high team and had just seen Riley Minor and Paul Eaves make a 5.30 run on their fifth steer to be a total of 31.88 on five. Clay had won second with Eaves at the Cresta roping but went for first and turned a great steer and after Dugan roped two feet they stopped the clock in 5.08 for a total of 31.29 on five and the victory.
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It has been nice to see many of the ERA team ropers out and entering the Spring ropings and putting on schools. They have been picking up some checks along the way and the best part is to see Jake Barnes entered up and making some awesome runs. He has been placing in the goes as well as the averages and wears his new custom Resistol helmet. We have seen some outstanding runs posted by Jake and his partners. He was third call back at the Pickens with Paul Eaves who roped a leg.
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Speaking of Paul Eaves, he is leading the Heeling standings in the PRCA over Russell Cardoza. Paul has had a very accomplished year and continues to show his roping skills. He and Jake Barnes won the first round at the Pickens Roping with a time of 5.34.
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The ERA heads to New Mexico this weekend and should have a better fan market to deal with down in the Southwest. Best of luck to them there and I still wish they and the PRCA could come up with a happy ending to benefit both parties. Rodeo is not that big of sport that we shouldn’t do all we can to display the athletes. I have been enjoying the ERA telecast on FoxS2 channel every Wednesday evening.
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