Dear Roper,

Our magazine is entering its eighth year—a milestone that feels hard to believe considering most team ropers still have me in their phones as “Chelsea: Spin To Win” from our magazine of yesteryear. 

Crazy how far things have come since we combined Spin To Win Rodeo and Super Looper to create The Team Roping Journal in 2017. We had a vision to tell the stories that inspire the sport, and I don’t think we could have imagined where that would lead. 

This is our Breeding Season and Futurity Preview Issue (not to be confused with our full Breeder’s Guide you get in January). The stallion ads in these pages represent the largest opportunity for growth in the team roping business since the creation of the handicap system. Stallion stations have seen ropers flocking to breed mares, and the Riata stallion incentive continues to see increases in nominations on horses of all ages. There’s record money in the futurities, and millions and millions of dollars paid out at the Riata. 

To be clear—the rope horse industry is fueled by two vitally intertwined but very different forces. On the futurity and judged side of things, trainers ride for the public, like Joseph Harrison, who you see on this cover. They are an entire subculture of competitors, with their own challenges and opportunities.

On the Riata side, recreational ropers are getting access to new added money, fueled by some of the same stallion owners whose horses excel with the pros in the futurity world, but also by small breeders, large ranches and everyone in between. Those recreational ropers number in the tens or hundreds of thousands, cracking open a brand-new market for the breeding business.

These two worlds are interconnected, both growing on a sharp upward trajectory, crisscrossing one another’s paths, never in opposition. All ships rise with a high tide, and that is what we’re seeing in the team roping industry today.

Stop me and say hello at the ARHFA World Championship!

Chelsea