Salinas is the one rodeo anyone can think of that actually features team roping. The things that make it one of a kind are old school cowboy cool and rooted in rich tradition at the place with the tall eucalyptus trees and brisk coastal breezes, where rodeo is pronounced ro-day-o as a time-honored throwback to the old California vaqueros that started it all. 

California Rodeo Salinas is the only place team ropers still run one every day—two on Sunday, if you make the short round. They run the only five-header in rodeo over the longest scoreline in the sport with both partners starting from the left side of the steer. We call this cherished annual rodeo reunion Big Week, and this year crowned Daniel Green and Cody Cowden the 2024 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Gold Card Team Roping champs. 

“Salinas is absolutely my favorite regular-season rodeo of all time,” said Green, who just turned 52 on July 13 and calls the original Cowboy Capital of the World in Oakdale, California home. “It’s always been my favorite during the year. Salinas has the most unique setup you’ll ever compete at, and the weather is a breath of fresh air for all of us this time of year. It’s just so hard to beat this rodeo.

READ: He's Back

“Salinas is the place you can bring your family, spend four days in the cool weather and relax. It was like that back when we were rodeoing hard, too. It’s just a great place to hang out with family and friends for a nice little break.”

The cowboy committee in Salinas has deep ranching and rodeo roots, and it shows. The respect of including the gold card roping for our cowboy elders speaks for itself. The gold card buckles are sponsored by the family of late Salinas cowboy Jim Martins, including his son, Kearney, and his wife, Leslie, and daughter, Marguerite, and her husband, Cliff Happy. 

Like the rodeo roping, the gold card is a five-head cowboy contest. Green and Cowden won it with 51.4 on five. Both also were entered in the regular rodeo. Daniel headed for his 18-year-old son, Eli, and Cody heeled for Preston Burgess. Pretty fun fact that Burgess and Cowden, and Green and Green went 1-2 in Round 2 against the big boys. And Cody’s 24-year-old son, Will, finished fourth in that same round behind local cowboy Doyle Hoskins. 

“My family has so much history right here at this rodeo,” said Cody, who’s 53 and lives a couple hours from Salinas in Atwater. “My dad (Olen Cowden) and my Uncle Sonny, they grew up roping here, too. My whole family goes all the way back with this rodeo. Uncle Sonny won the gold card roping here several times, and I’m pretty sure this is where my dad cut his thumb off one year, too.”

Ten-time NFR header Green and eight-time NFR heeler Cowden have been friends all their lives, and have made a lot of roping magic over the years. 

“Cody and I grew up together, and he’s been a good friend of mine for as long as I can remember,” Daniel said. “We’ve roped together a lot, and have had a lot of success. Cody helped me win two (of Green’s three) Timed Event Championships (at the Lazy E), and helped me win World’s Greatest Roper twice, too. 

“For me, there’s a familiarity roping with Cody like Jake (Barnes) and Clay (Cooper) or Speed (Williams) and Rich (Skelton) had. We’ve been in so many big moments together that it’s just comfortable.”

This was Daniel’s second Salinas buckle. 

“Salinas has been good to me over the years,” Green said. “I won it in 1999 with Allen Bach, won second here a few times and usually placed. Kory Koontz and I had 17 seconds to rope our last steer in 2002, and let that one get away. I did a lot of good here with my brother several times in the rounds and the average also. Salinas has just been good to me.”

Brother Chris, Bach and Koontz are the three guys Daniel roped with at his 10 straight NFRs from 1994 to 2003. At Salinas, Daniel headed on daughter Kyndall’s 7-year-old bay, Sven, that she bought off of the internet. Cowden rode his buckskin Pinche (in case you’re curious, the Spanish-to-English translation is “lousy”).

This was Cody’s first Salinas buckle. 

“Roping here is a marathon, but roping in great weather is what I think of first when I think of Salinas,” Cowden said; the average high in Salinas is 71 degrees in July. “It’s 110 over there in Atwater right now, so I hate to leave Salinas. 

“I’ve been high call here, won second and placed in the average several times here before in the regular rodeo. It’s pretty special to win my first Salinas buckle with Daniel. We go back to high school. It was the Locketts, the Greens and the Cowdens in our district, so there were no days off. Daniel and I have been great friends forever.”

There are generations of family traditions in that Salinas dirt, and the sentiment of all team ropers to this committee is, “Please don’t ever change.” 

“If your name’s Green and you rope, you’ve roped in this arena,” Daniel said. “Salinas is almost a rite of passage if your last name is Green.”

“Salinas will always be my favorite rodeo forever,” Cowden added. “In the old days when I was rodeoing, it was two hours from my house, and it was so great to get to come home for four or five days. This is the place we get to rope and relax every summer. There’s nothing else like Salinas. It’s a second home to team ropers.”