Missouri’s Jack Foster and Jason O’Brien banked $47,000 after roping four head in 29.68 seconds in the #10 Shoot-Out at USTRC’s Cinch NFTR.
They roped three head in 21.16 seconds to put them in the number-one spot going into the short round. While the short round began Foster and O’Brien hung back before walking through the Gateway of Champions until there were about four teams left to rope.
“When we got ready for short-go, I went and got my horse, but I wasn’t ready to go down and watch all the teams go,” O’Brien said. “We didn’t ride down until about three or four teams before we went. Of course it’s a lot of fun down there when that music is going boom, boom, boom, and you hear Ben Clements and those other boys talking and telling all the stories.”
When it was time to back into the box and run their short round steer, Foster scored a little more than he may have wanted, but that was no problem for their run.
“When that steer broke in the short round he was running pretty good and Jack was a tick late,” O’Brien said about the start of their short round run. “I thought he’ll get him, he’s got him, it ain’t no big deal. When he roped him it was like a big relief to me. I was like, ‘Oh yeah! Come on Buck, get the corner turned.’”
As you may have seen on RidePass, Foster and O’Brien roped their short round steer in 8.52 seconds to win the average. But that wasn’t the most exciting part of their run. Both header and heeler got off their horses to do celebratory dirt angels.
“Well, Jack, my header won the NRS Truck and Trailer about a year and a half ago,” O’Brien started with a chuckle as he remembered the story. “He was really nervous so I stayed in the box with him when he rode in to rope his steer. He said, ‘If I win this thing I’m going to do a dirt angel.’ I said okay because no one really figured he’d really do it. Sure enough, him and his nephew made a good run and of course we new that would win it and he just falls off his horse and does a dirt angel.
“After we became high callback on Thursday we were sitting in the stands just having fun and he said, ‘Well, if we win it are you going to do a dirt angel with me?’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, most definitely.’ That’s why we both did that. We both did dirt angels and it was pretty funny.”
O’Brien’s buckskin gelding isn’t normally his horse of choice, but when it came time to head out to Oklahoma City he loaded Ol’ Buck up.
“Buck’s not one that I normally ride,” O’Brien noted. “I have myself and my girlfriend and four kids that rope. He’s one that we’ve had a couple of years. He came from Canada and he’s a really nice horse but I just hadn’t rode him very much–everyone else kind of does. Right before we came over I decided that I’d take kind of an old veteran and rope on him instead of my good horse. I’m glad I brought Ol’ Buck, he did really good.”
