Kentucky Ropers Association President Bob Knudsen and Vice President Mike Edmiston were among the team ropers who welcomed Tyler Magnus to Kentucky for a weekend in September for the Tyler Magnus Roping Weekend 2009, presented by LubriSyn.

For three days, Rock Fork Horse Arena in Shelbyville was transformed from a top-notch cutting horse facility into a team roping arena-bringing world-class instruction and competition to a part of the country that rarely sees the best in the business, yet is producing a young generation of very competitive ropers. Chad Masters, Luke Brown, Kelsey Parchman, Keven Daniel and Kaleb Driggers are all from the Southeast and on their way to the Wrangler NFR this year.

On Friday and Saturday, Tyler Magnus conducted two days of roping clinics for five lucky headers and heelers each day. Clinic participants came from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee.

On Sunday, Hall of Fame Jockey Pat Day opened the ceremonies with an invocation, and spent the day with the team ropers as they competed. The day boasted a fourteen-team match roping and a 28-team 11-point roping. The turnout was lower than expected due to the flooding rains throughout the area that forced local road closures-but the roping competition was stiff.

The weekend really belonged to the boys north and south of the Bluegrass State. Tennessee native Slade Collins and Indiana roper Nat Stewart ousted Tyler Magnus and Harold Lane to win the Match Roping. The 11-point roping belonged to Hoosiers Kevin Holz and Ryan Shaw-beating 27 other teams in the competition.

“This was an exciting event-and I am sure it will grow, year after year,” said Tyler Magnus on Sunday. LubriSyn plans to bring Magnus back to Kentucky in 2010.