We only know of one man who won a year-end circuit heading title (with Wyatt Kanan) and came back the very next year and won a year-end circuit heeling title (with Dalton Turner) in 2023-24.
Now, Missouri rope-horse trainer Cooper Bruce, 36, is once again leading the Great Lakes heeling standings.
This time, his partner is Kansas native Tyler Hobert, 30, who lives six hours away. Bruce, a native of Ardmore, Okla., and Hobert won the first rodeo they ever entered, in Park City, Kan., this winter, and have each cashed paychecks worth more than $32,000 this season to lead their circuit standings.
“That guy catches a lot of steers and is an extremely aggressive header,” said Bruce. “He makes it pretty easy for me – all I’ve got to do is catch.”
Hobert cut his teeth spinning steers for Oklahoma heeling guru Shannon Frascht, who roped at the 2016 NFR and qualified for more than 20 Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeos, having also coached at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.
“I owe him 99 percent of my success,” said Hobert. “He took a chance on me three years ago. He pretty much told me, ‘You rope good and ride your horse bad, and we’re going to fix it.’ He’s helped me a ton. We still talk two or three times a week. He’s a great guy to have in your corner.”
Hobert and Bruce each have wives with day jobs, but they sometimes have their families along – which is a full-time job. Hobert’s twins are 10 months old and Bruce’s daughter is 3 months old.
They rodeo in a circuit in which it could help if diesel was less expensive – the Great Lakes include rodeos in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The circuit’s Finals have been held annually for almost 50 years in Louisville, Ken., and are scheduled this year for Nov. 12-15.
“There are a lot of good rodeos up here,” said Bruce. “The committees are doing a good job getting good money added.”
Despite being capable at both ends, Bruce said he’s roping the end he likes the most, at the moment. He’d actually gotten bored with heeling, he said, and was lacking a good heel horse a handful of years ago. Since he had decent head horses and started doing that at amateur rodeos, it also worked in the circuit for a few years.
“But that heading got too stressful for me,” Bruce joked. “I don’t like stress. I’m pretty low-key; I like to let headers do all the thinking and I can just ease around there and catch ’em. Heading is way too involved for me!”
Bruce’s home in Franklin, Mo., is at the southern end of the circuit, making most rodeos an 8-10-hour drive, so he camped up in Wisconsin this summer. That’s the new home this year of Hobert, formerly a Prairie Circuit header who married a Wisconsin girl.
“It’s nice in the summer, but I don’t know if I’m ready for winter there,” admitted Hobert, who said his new digs are right in the middle of a community of good bulldoggers and team ropers. New to the Great Lakes, he said the biggest difference he sees are the huge crowds at the rodeos.
“There are people everywhere, all the time,” he said. “It’s not like out West, but there are a lot of good rodeos here for a circuit guy.”
These two want to hold on and win their circuit. Colorado Springs’ NFR Open hasn’t been great to Bruce in the past, so he’s ready to capitalize. As for Hobert, if he can get the win, it will be his first trip.
“Cooper’s just handy, and he’s a winner,” said Hobert. “That’s one thing I’ve really enjoyed about roping with him. The mentality is that we’re going to win, every time. That’s how we think. He’s a winner. Whatever it takes for us to win is what we do.”
Bruce’s ace in the hole is 10-year-old Bigs, a horse he bought in April from Bronc Evans of southern Missouri.
“He’s sure been a game changer for us,” said Bruce. “He’s honest. There’s no cheat about him, none whatsoever. He’s a pretty cool horse.”
And spinning most of the steers has been Hobert’s grey horse that he trained, sold, then bought back about five years ago. Gomer is about 15.
“He’s a winner, too,” said Hobert. “He knows when it’s time to win first and knows when it’s time to just run to the cow. He’s been key to a lot of my success.” Hobert has also ridden a younger horse he started as a 3-year-old, that he said is “watchy and snorty and might kick you, but he’s been good, too and been a lot of help this summer.”