Oklahoma’s Justin Turner and Nelson Taylor won the #9 RAM Exclusive roping after roping four head in 38.13 seconds, worth $29,000, Bob’s Custom Trophy saddles, $10,000 RAM Truck vouchers, and more. 

“We roped in the #10 and didn’t do any good,” Turner said. “We had a couple of tough steers in the #9, but we just went out there and caught three.”

Turner and Taylor came into the short round fifth callback and made a smooth run to move them to first in the average. But Turner didn’t stay up by the arena to watch the rest of the short round.

“My partner stayed up there by the chute but I stayed in the back by myself,” Turner explained. “It might sound weird but I really wasn’t thinking of anything. I found out a long time ago that the more you think about it the worse it gets sometimes. I changed my roping with the way I look at it and the way I approach it. You have to rope the cow for what he is—you never know what you’re going to draw. We were blessed, and got lucky and probably drew the best cow I drew up there all week—drew the one we needed—and we utilized it.”

Taylor stopped each run on a black streak-faced horse, while Turner turned him steers on a 11-year-old sorrel gelding named Ranger.

“I bought that horse around the first of August,” Turner said. “I bought him and a week later my good horse went down. I struggled a little bit getting with this horse. He’s got a lot of run and I got lucky and got with him at the finals and we had a pretty good week.”

Turner and Taylor know each other almost like the back of their hand which seemed to help them in the roping arena. 

“We’ve known each other for eight to 10 years,” Turner explained about their long-term friendship. “A friend of mine introduced us. We just started roping and there’s no nonsense between us. He doesn’t drink and I don’t either. We travel good together and have a lot of the same beliefs. He takes this seriously and it’s no game to him. Our paths got crossed and we got lucky. We’ve been roping ever since.”