Texas’ Jeffery Parsley and Billy Tosh won the #8 Shoot-Out after roping four head in 36.44 seconds, worth $34,000 at USTRC’s Cinch National Finals of Team Roping.
“I just told Billy that we just need to try to be clean and don’t break the barrier,” Parsley said. “My horse kind of jumped in the short round right before I nodded. I made him relax and said I was going to see the cow out a little bit. We just tried to knock four cows down. We just wanted to go to our spot and not do anything stupid. Just try and make a good, decent run.”
Before they ever ran their short round steer, Parsley didn’t ride up to the arena until the fifth callback was backed into the box, which made Tosh a little nervous.
“Yeah you’re nervous,” Parsley said. “You just don’t want to make any big mistakes. He (Billy) was nervous looking for me. I didn’t come down through the tunnel until they were on like the ninth call. I just stayed by my stall and just stayed back away from everything. When I rode down the tunnel they were on fifth callback and he was looking for me like I wasn’t going to show up.”
Parsley made it in time to rope as he backed in the box on a tall sorrel 15-year-old gelding they call Catfish, who can be a little watch-y.
“I’ve had him for a little over a year,” Parsley said laughing. “He’s always kind of like a catfish I guess you could say—big eyes and freakish. I thought it was funny because all week I’ve been there and when you come out of the back of the arena, there’s a stop sign with white sandbags on top of it. I think I’ve walked by that sign about seven times that week and every single time he would jump. You would think after a week there he would be used to it.”
