Texas’ Tyler Wade and Colorado’s Trey Yates roped briefly in 2018 and have teamed up again to take the 2021 season by the horns by winning the Sandhills Stock Show and Rodeo’s 29th Annual Sandhills Invitational Super Tuesday Open Team Roping jackpot in Odessa, Texas, on Jan. 12, 2021 from second callback.
Wade and Yates roped their short-round steer in 6.35 seconds to move them into the lead with a time of 31.13 seconds on five head, worth $21,000 for the team.
“That was probably the toughest setup—horse-wise, score-wise,” said Wade, a three-time NFR qualifier. “The steers were pretty strong. The barrier was decently long and there wasn’t much arena. There’s not much room for error, so you kind of have to be on point all day and be aggressive.”
“If you compare our first two runs to the rest of the day, [T-Wade] really reached at the first two steers,” Yates added. “He got great starts and threw it a long way. His horse was going forward, and everything was set up perfect.”
Wade and Yates followed their steer out of the arena and waited for the high-call team of reigning World Champions Colby Lovell and Paul Eaves, who needed to be 8.11 seconds, to secure the lead in the average. But as fate would have it, they drew a steer that wouldn’t settle in the chute and added an additional 10 seconds to their 6.53-second run, giving Wade and Yates the No. 1 position.
“It wasn’t really his fault,” said Wade, who also placed fifth with Patrick Smith. “The steer would never look straight. He kept laying down in the chute. It was just kind of a dead go for him. I think he barely broke the barrier. The same thing happened at the Capitalist. I was a second ahead of third and a second behind Colby and Paul. When those guys go up against you, you just take the lead and just assume that you’re going to win second when a good team like that goes.”
Wade rode his 13-year-old bay gelding, Spur, who allowed him to handle five head for Yates.
“I just have two right now,” Wade said of his string of horses. “I think that the bay is good everywhere and the mare is pretty good at the jackpots.”
Yates heeled on his 11-year-old sorrel gelding, Duke, who gave Yates consistent looks throughout the entire jackpot.
“He [was] amazing because the heel barrier was long,” said Yates, who also placed third with Cody Snow. “I was thoroughly impressed. I’m a chicken when it comes to heel barriers, so I made sure to stay off of it and he would catch up and get around the corner every time. He would stop and pull the steers back. Until the other day, I didn’t know what kind of horse I had. For a horse, in those kinds of conditions, to give 10 solid throws to me is pretty incredible.”
Finding Power in Team Roping Heeling Position with Trey Yates
Wade and Yates hope to keep the momentum going into the 2021 ProRodeo season with their new partnership.
“I think we both rope better than we did two years ago,” Wade said. “Each year I’ve went out there, I feel like I’m better each time. I think that our styles are going to fit really good together and it’s paying off so far.”
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Full Results:
- Tyler Wade and Trey Yates, 31.13 seconds on five head, worth $21,000
- Charly Crawford and Billie Jack Saebens, 31.35 seconds on five head, worth $17,000
- Cody Snow and Trey Yates, 31.73 seconds on five head, worth $13,500
- Dustin Egusquiza and Travis Graves, 32.25 seconds on five head, worth $10,000
- Tyler Wade and Patrick Smith, 33.30 seconds on five head, worth $6,500
- Wyatt Bray and Mason Pitts, 33.41 seconds on five head, worth $3,500
- Riley Minor and Travis Graves, 35.13 seconds on five head, worth $2,400
- Grady Quam and Jake Edwards, 35.41 seconds on five head, worth $2,400
Short-Go Fast Time
- Andrew Ward and Buddy Hawkins II, 9.96 seconds, worth $1,000