This is our fourth year producing The Team Roping Journal’s Arizona Guide and, over these last few years, we’ve gotten to know the region better and better. Our Digital Editor Kaitlin Gustave now calls Arizona home in the winter, like any good 27-year-old snowbird, and the rest of us have ducked off there just as often as we could.

In creating this issue, we rely on the exceptional photography of Jamie Arviso—an Arizona native who lives and breathes team roping as the eldest sister of Derrick Begay and mom of young-gun hotshot James Arviso. The fact that Arizona team roping culture runs through her blood is obvious in her work, which again graces the cover of this special issue.

Kari deCastro has long worked for Ty Yost’s Yost Events, creating the aesthetic of Rancho Rio and Dynamite Arena. Her photos have their own unique touch, and her love for the snowbirds and the fun they find in Arizona is clear on pages 8–15.

Long-time editor Kendra Santos finds an Arizona home-away-from-home in Wittman on the aptly-named Leisure Lane and Restin Road, in this issue, she takes us on a stroll through the tight-knit community of roping royalty.

On pages 46–48, you can find a full schedule of the biggest ropings in Arizona from the NTR, USTRC and World Series of Team Roping. You can bet you’ll see Kaitlin and Kari at most of them, and that means you’ll find lots of coverage on teamropingjournal.com of each event, even if you can’t be there with us.

Thank you again for reading our fourth edition of the Arizona Guide. Hope to see you at a jackpot in Wickenburg or Buckeye or Cave Creek or…

—Chelsea