SCORE BULLETIN – CHALLENGE DAY 12
First Game of Final Day of Regular Season Division B Competition Produces Second Tie of PBR Monster Energy Team Challenge
Team Lucas Oil: 0 points
Team Cat: 0 points

Six new classes, designed to enhance the member experience, are now available and will be offered at upcoming AQHA-approved shows.

The American Quarter Horse Association launches six new classes, which were member-driven initiatives voted on at past AQHA conventions and on hold pending computer programming. Each class was designed to enhance the showing experience by providing more opportunities for skill development and to build on other classes already offered at shows.

SCORE BULLETIN – CHALLENGE DAY 11
Team Boot Barn Challenges Team Ariat, Resulting in First Tie of PBR Monster Energy Team Challenge
Team Ariat: 86.75 points
Team Boot Barn: 86.75 points

SCORE BULLETIN – CHALLENGE DAY 10
Lucas Divino and Newcomer Boudreaux Campbell Go 2-for-2 for Team Pendleton Whisky in Five-Ride Win
Team Pendleton Whisky: 411.75 points
Team Cat: 88.25 points

At the Charlie 1 Horse All-Girl Challenge Team Roping on June 24, Whitney DeSalvo of Springfield, Arkansas, left no doubt about her status as the world’s best female heeler.
DeSalvo, just 25, took the top three placings with three different partners to haul a staggering $28,875 in cash back to Arkansas plus a truckload of prizes. The three-time WPRA world champion won the roping with Hope Thompson of Abilene, Texas, who raked in $20,750 total.

After careful evaluation of the current situation, the ERCHA Board met and voted on the following changes made in the best interest of our members:
• The ERCHA/NRCHA FUTURITY and the ERCHA/NRCHA AUTUMN SHOW, will take place in Travagliato on September 24-27.
• The added money will remain the
$ 20.000-added ERCHA/NRCHA Futurity
$ 3.300-added ERCHA/NRCHA Autumn Show
$ 1.750-added ERCHA Championship
• ERCHA/NRCHA DERBY & ERCHA/NRCHA FUTURITY FINALS will also be held for the Limited Open and Intermediate Non Pro divisions
• We are pleased to announce that the ERCHA/NRCHA Non Pro Hackamore has been added to the ERCHA Championship classes starting from the upcoming Derby.

Good friends Mark Collins and Max Vincent were moved to tears and long hugs after their $61,500 win in the first-ever 10.5 roping during Wrangler BFI Week presented by Yeti, held at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
“To be able to drive two hours from the house and win life-changing money is incredible,” said Collins, who owns a lumber yard and hardware store in tiny Leedey.

AUSTIN, TEXAS- World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA) today announced that in light of COVID-19 restrictions in the state of Washington, the Puget Sound Showdown will be replaced with a one-day $300,000 rodeo in Guthrie, OK at the Lazy E Arena on August 15. The “Stampede At The E” will be coupled with the renowned Bullnanza on May 14, creating a weekend of premier western sports action.
 
The Stampede At The E will be preceded by timed event and rough stock qualifier August 11-14 which will raise the week’s total payout upwards of $600,000. The top eight athletes in each discipline from the qualifier will earn a spot in the Saturday night Stampede At The E main event.

Coming from the fourth callback position in Guthrie, Oklahoma, on June 22, team roping couple Hannah and Mike White of Dekalb, Texas, notched the biggest tandem win of their 21-year marriage.
The duo roped four steers in 34.09 seconds to split the $100,000 first-place paycheck in the #12.5 Showdown of Wrangler BFI Week, presented by Yeti. Last year’s champion heeler, Clay Elkington, placed third this time to earn $25,000, bringing his individual two-year haul in the #12.5 to $61,000. And placing fourth in the roping was 22-year-old Wyatt Hershberger, for $20,500. His win barely surpassed the $18,875 his two little brothers hauled in during the Hooey Jr. BFI two days earlier.

Anchored by the 43rd Annual Bob Feist Invitational for professionals on June 21, the five-day event includes eight affiliated amateur ropings and was held for the first time in the Lazy E Arena due to a pandemic-forced closure of its usual venue in Reno, Nevada.“We’ve never won anything big together,” said Mike White, who was wearing his 1999 PRCA gold buckle. “We struggle at it.”
Mike, 43, earned nearly $2 million riding bulls – plus the gold buckle and a 2012 PBR Ring of Honor induction – prior to his 2010 retirement.

Hannah and Mike White | Olie’s Images, LLC.

“We rope so much at home, it’s exciting for a plan to come together,” said Hannah, who rode a roan gelding that Mike had acquired to train and later bought. “Our only fights have come in the roping pen. We work so hard at it, and we’re both very competitive. I don’t care if we’re going to the concession stand, Mike will say ‘I’ll beat you over there.’”
Their final steer ran down the right fence, but White, a 7.5 heeler, had him roped on the second hop. When the top three teams had trouble, the Whites clinched the win.
“I’ve got a mindset I used riding bulls,” he said. “I knew I could ride anything they ran under me. I didn’t! But it works the same here. No matter what steer I draw, I know I can catch it by two feet. It works in any sport to be confident in what you can do.”
A Louisiana native, Mike trains roping horses and runs cattle when he’s not working as a ringman at regional auctions. In Guthrie, with his good horse hurt, Mike rode a 5-year-old gelding he’d trained and sold to his friend Bryan Caldwell.
“We wouldn’t be here without Bryan,” said Mike. “He talked us into entering.”
The Whites’s two sons, Logan, 16, and Morgan, 8, watched the big win, and the family was scheduled to be back in Dekalb the next day for Morgan’s baseball game. The couple’s annual Mike White’s Annual Pasture Roping, which benefits an organization supporting children with serious illnesses or injuries, was postponed this year to October 2-3.
All events during Wrangler BFI Week are streamed on www.WranglerNetwork.com.

Complete Results from the #12 Showdown on June 22:
First Round: 1. Wade Woodbury and Logan Wengert, 6.68 seconds, $3,500; 2. Danny Miller and Chris Pomeroy, 6.88, $3,000; 3. Chance Reppond and Chad Martin, 6.97, $2,500. Second Round: 1. Derek Luster and Troy Kitchener, 5.84 seconds, $3,500; 2. Derek Luster and Blake Larmon, 5.93, $3,000; 3. Mike Carrell and Scooter Wilson, 5.99, $2,500; Short Round (that didn’t place in the average): 1. Danny Miller and Shawn Vargas, 6.93 seconds, $3,500; 2. Coby LittleSoldier and Samuel Luchsinger, 7.16, $3,000; 3. Clay Johnson and Slick Robison, 7.24 $2,500.  Average: 1. Hannah White and Mike White, 34.09 seconds on four, $100,000; 2. Kade Elkins and Logan Wengert, 35.29, $70,000; 3. Shawnee Sherwood and Clay Elkington, 35.52, $50,000; 4. Kycen Winn and Wyatt Hershberger, 35.54, $41,000; 5. Thomas Braman and Tracy Estep, 36.60, $33,500; 6. Abby Medlin and Murt Stewart, 37.78, $25,000; 7. Craig Moore and Luke Growth, 38.02, $22,750; 8. Clay Saffell and Steve Mauldin, 38.61, $18,000; 9. Ken Matheson and Tony Graham, 38.64, $15,000; 10. Lee Hammonds and Gary Hughes, 38.74, $10,000.

Barry Berg, and Dustin Noblitt 11.5 Wrangler National Patriot Champions | Olie’s Images, LLC

Cactus Kingpins Win 11.5 for $100,000 In Guthrie
He finally did it. Barry Berg – who has overseen for nearly 30 years the production of millions of Cactus Ropes – has had callbacks three different times to win the coveted six-figure prize in Reno’s original Invitational #11 roping. On June 22, he and Dustin Noblitt, the president of Cactus’ parent company, personally roped their way to the $100,000 win on the 25th anniversary of the Wrangler National Patriot 11.5.
“This is the fairest, friendliest place to rope four steers that you can imagine,” said Berg of Pleasanton, Texas. He and Noblitt had a three-second lead on the rest of the pack as high callback. They finished strong and clean anyway, to take the win by six seconds over Colorado rodeo veterans and best friends Dwight Arnold and Chris Glover, who earned $50,000.
Noblitt rode his good mare that he shares with his daughter, a breakaway roper at Cal Poly. His previous biggest cash win had been a $35,000 payday with Shannon Jones in Las Vegas one year. Meanwhile, Berg, whose horse is 20, declared he’d give the money to his wife for staying supportive of him for nearly 20 years.
“I’m just thankful the organizers of the BFI decided to make this happen; for them to remake this event here in Oklahoma and for the Lazy E to open their doors and let us participate,” said Noblitt of Solvang, California. “The stands here were full yesterday.”
Pro Equine Group and its sister company, Hatco, support the Western industry through brands like Heel-O-Matic, Cactus Saddlery, and Resistol, each a longtime sponsor not only of the Bob Feist Invitational for the pros (held June 21), but also of the Wrangler National Patriot. Founded as the Reno Rodeo Invitational in 1996 by Nevada real estate developer Perry Di Loreto, the roping was designed to give equally matched amateur ropers across the country a chance at six-figure payouts using handicaps similar to golf. It was held for the first time this year in the Lazy E Arena after the pandemic-forced closure of its usual venue in Reno, Nevada.
The coronavirus also halted manufacturing within Pro Equine Group, as Cactus went from making a thousand ropes per day to a hundred.
“We have 560 employees, but we’re still a family,” said Noblitt. “So we kept paying all our people and did what we had to do. Luckily, our production is in Texas, one of the first states to get fired back up. And luckily for us, our people love what they do and were willing to decline assistance and come back to work.”
Ironically, Berg said the forced corporate shutdown due to COVID19 the past couple of months allowed more personal testing of Cactus’ latest rope, The Future, and his big win is a result of the fine-tuning of that rope. Plus, Noblitt said he was able to practice more in the past two months than he had in two years. BFI producers showered the partners with champagne as they stepped on stage to accept awards, many of which were donated by Pro Equine Group.
“The industry has been good to us and we want to give back as much as anybody,” said Berg. “Thank God we’re in the cowboy industry.”
Both ropers also thanked Pro Equine Group founder Dennis Carroll, with whom Berg roped at the very first edition of the Reno roping in ’96.
“He’s been nothing but generous to the whole industry,” said Noblitt. “He’s changed my life and Barry’s life. He doesn’t get enough credit. But he never wanted any.”
For Arnold and Glover, high-school rodeo partners in the 1970s, the big reserve championship capped off a fun recent reunion. Arnold, 62, had placed at the BFI one year with Mark Kersting, back when he was going to more than a dozen Mountain States Circuit Finals Rodeos. But he had quit roping for around 15 years to “try to get ahead.” Glover of Brighton, a three-time NFR qualifier in steer roping, said they’ve been just like kids again since Arnold moved back to neighboring Hudson.
“Dwight ropes so good and scores so good and rides such a good horse,” said Glover, who turned 60 this year and started tying on. “He makes it so easy that I’ve really enjoyed heeling – I’ve had more fun than I ever had going to the NFR.”
Glover heeled on Crisco, one of his steer-roping horses. Glover can head, heel, rope calves and bust steers on all his horses, including his 2018 AQHA/PRCA Steer Roping Horse of the Year.
Wrangler BFI Week continues through June 24. All events are live-streamed on www.WranglerNetwork.com.

Complete Results from the Wrangler National Patriot #11.5 on June 22:
First Round: 1. Heath Crofford and Andy Baker, 7.30 seconds, $5,000; 2. Justin Lankford and Brandon Taylor, 7.35, $3,500; 3. Lee Newman and Keith Coleman, 7.43, $1,500.  Second Round: 1. Colter LaRue and David Walker, 6.92 seconds, $5,000; 2. Tyler Thompson and Chad Davis, 7.18, $3,500; 3. Belo Wiley and Lywayne Bedford, 7.41, $1,500.  Third Round: 1. Coby LittleSoldier and Steve Harrison, 5.95 seconds, $5,000; 2. Wade Woodbury and Kade Elkins, 6.45, $3,500; 3. TJ Good and Alan Chappell, 6.47, $1,500. Short Round (that didn’t place in the average): 1. Jimmy Longino and Danny Watson, 10.29, $3,500; 2. Scot Wheatley and Jeremy Mallette, 14.16, $1,500.  Consolation Aggregate:  1. Raymond Kerr and Spencer Love, 23.15 seconds on three, $7,500; 2. Dennis Engelmann and Scube Waggoner, 23.62, $5,000; 3. Teddy Kreger and Skip Stansbury, 23.97, $3,000.  Aggregate: 1. Barry Berg and Dustin Noblitt, 32.54 seconds on four, $100,000; 2. Dwight Arnold and Chris Glover, 38.70, $50,000; 3. Hannah White and Bryan Caldwell, 38.77, $30,000; 4. Gary Kiehne and Shawn Palmer, 38.86, $18,000; 5. Dylan White and Roberto Torres Jr, 41.40, $14,000; 6. Justin Lankford and Brandon Taylor, 43.35, $12,000; 7. Griffin Scarlett and Ken Matheson, 45.89, $10,600; 8. Clint Threadgill and Louie Molina Jr, 46.74, $9,500; 9. Travis Regensberg and Joaquin Huntington, 47.25, $8,500; 10. Matt Klingeman and Travis Klingeman, 47.76, $8,000.


By Julie Mankin | BFI Press Release

By just seven hundredths of a second over six steers, professional team ropers Kal Fuller of Bozeman, Montana, and Reagan Ward of Purcell, Oklahoma, won the richest event of their sport and split a first-place paycheck worth a record $150,000 at the 43rd Annual Bob Feist Invitational. The event is part of Wrangler BFI Week presented by Yeti, held for the first time inside the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma, since its usual venue in Reno, Nevada, was shut down due to the pandemic.
“Words can’t describe this,” said Ward, who won in virtually his hometown, riding a horse he bought from world champion Kollin Von Ahn. “My header is pretty phenomenal. I’ve never met a 20-year-old that can do the stuff he can do. Most people can’t even do what he can do.”