It wasn’t the buzz of an alarm clock that kicked off Monday—it was the crack of a clean heel shot and the roar of a $46,250 payday for Blaine Turner and Whitney DeSalvo.
Turner and DeSalvo made short work of the Cowboy Tack #14.5 Shootout at the Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team Roping in Fort Worth, Texas, piecing together four gritty runs—6.61, 8.31, 5.62, and a slick 6.47 in the short round—to take home the average win and a big check to match.
“This felt great,” DeSalvo, the reigning Women’s Rodeo World Champion, said. “I’m glad to get by those and help Blaine finish the week out. He was ending, I was starting—so this is good.”
DeSalvo’s no stranger to high-stakes moments or big-money paydays. The Arkansas heeler is the reigning Women’s Rodeo World Champion, a four-time WPRA World Champion Heeler, and a six-time BFI All Girl Champion.
Coming in at fourth callback, the Arkansas duo edged out a field stacked with talent by simply staying clean and tough.
For Turner, the victory came with a dose of relief—and a pinch of desperation.
“I needed the money,” Turner said with a laugh. “I just bought a horse and was like, man, I really need to win something.”
After a tough go the day before, when Turner hit the brakes in the short round and watched his chance to win slip by, he came in Monday with one last bullet in the chamber. He lit up the short round with a reach he didn’t even plan.
“I wanted to go all the way to him and just try to be seven flat,” Turner said. “We ended up being 6.4. When we rode out, I said, ‘Well, we’ll win no worse than fourth.’ Then luckily, the last three teams made mistakes—and we won first.”
On the back end, DeSalvo played her part cool and collected.
“I knew he was going to be aggressive,” DeSalvo said. “I just needed to get a swing over him and catch. When we rode out, I thought, ‘We won fourth. Perfect.’ But everything fell our way.”
The two rope together often back home in Arkansas, and that chemistry showed in their smooth, savvy runs. Turner was riding a horse he hadn’t swung a leg over in months—one he bought from Tyler Wade and had just tuned up two days prior at a local #12 slide.
“He got sick back in November along with a couple of my other horses,” Turner said. “He took the longest to come back. He didn’t work the best on our first steer here, but once he got locked back in, we had four good runs.”
DeSalvo backed in the box on Rango, her 6-year-old gelding who made his jackpot debut at the BFI last year. After second-guessing her choice between him and her seasoned mare, she made the call.
“I was dead set—I wasn’t bringing him,” DeSalvo laughed. “But he worked so well all week. I sent a Snapchat this morning like, ‘Y’all win. I brought him.’ He’s such a good little horse.”
With the paycheck in hand, Turner’s heading straight to the bill stack.
“I just bought a horse I need to pay for,” Turner said.
As for DeSalvo? She’s entered up this week.
“I plan on taking the rest of the week steer by steer,” DeSalvo said. “That’s all I can do. I just need to keep doing my job and see what happens.”
