In life outside rodeo, Ben Jordan is a businessman, but in the Cowtown Coliseum, there was nothing “businessman-like” about the 4.5-second bomb he and Scott Lauaki dropped to stun the field and win the Resistol Rookie Roundup’s 2024 team roping title.
After surviving two steers that went left in the tiny building—forcing Jordan to face into the panels with a thud in the round of 15 and round of 8—Jordan and Lauaki finally got the one they wanted in the final four.
Jordan, 32, of Spanish Fork, Utah, and Lauaki, 22, of Payson, Utah, won $2,500 for their efforts April 27 in Northside’s gunslinging setup, out-dueling the pack of the rest of the top 15 Resistol Rookie of the Year contenders for the title in Fort Worth. They also picked up $636 each in Round 1 April 26, bringing their haul for the event to $3,136 a man, unofficially.
“I knew we had a good steer, you know, and I knew he ducked off low, to the right,” Jordan, who runs the multi-state Action Plumbing, Heating, Air and Electric Company, said. “And like, I told those guys, I’ve been in the wall (on the first two steers), and I can’t get tight, just making it hell for Scotty. I was going towards him. I thought I was too close, but it worked out.”
At second out in the round, their run put the pressure on the last two teams. They ended the rodeo as the only team to have captured all three steers.
“I just knew it was really going to help us out if he went right and it could help my guy stay out of the wall, and I didn’t let off at all,” Lauaki added.
They certainly roped like veterans for a couple guys who haven’t been roping very long.
“I started four years ago this April,” Jordan said. “Then I started getting into it, and I started getting better horses. I met Quinn Kesler, and I met a lot of the guys that had good horses, and I was like, you know what? My goal is to win the rookie. That’s going to be my goal. And I talked to Scott, I said, ‘Hey, let’s win it together.”
Lauaki grew up on an Utah ranch, and he hadn’t given much thought to team roping in his early life. But the bug bit him, and the sport came natural to him.
“I never really got into team roping until we started knowing we could make our horses do something else besides just ranching,” Lauaki laughed. “And so, that’s what kind of took a while, and we did the right steps and now we’re here. Me and Ben, we’re at the Tuesday night Jackpot there in Spanish Fork, and he shows up with him and his brothers, and my first impression was like, ‘Who’s this guy trying to rope cows?'”
Lauaki started working for Jordan, though, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The duo picked up a go-round check at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver after getting in through the qualifier, and they snagged a check at the High Desert Stampede in Redmond, Oregon, too.
Jordan and Lauaki had an 8 a.m. flight to California to make it to the short round at the Clovis Rodeo, and then they plan to stay hooked to hit that Resistol Rookie of the Year goal.
Horsepower
Jordan was sticking on MR JB 168, a 2016 gelding by the Braman family’s Dallas Fuel, out of the Tari Hankins mare Taris Lily. The horse came from Nevada’s Hendrix family, via Dylin Ahlstrom. When Ahlstrom went back to heeling, Jordan kept the horse to head on.
“He’s pretty good,” Jordan said. “And he’s, you know, he’s been in my top string the whole time. I really learned how to really rope on this horse, you know, so he holds a special place in my heart. You know, every time I have something big come up, I get on him. He’s really true, really honest, you know, so it makes it easy for a guy like me to rope on.”
Lauaki rode a 14-year-old gelding he got from friend and NFR heeler Chase Tryan. He’s a son of $542,101-earner and NCHA Futurity Champ High Brow CD.
“We get along real great,” Lauaki said. “He just makes it real easy to throw fast. We’ve already done good on him at a few jackpots.”
—TRJ—
Look for a featured story on Ben Jordan coming in your May 2024 issue of The Team Roping Journal.
