For the past six months, Johnny Johnson has been working at the Equine Network and has recently accepted the position of USTRC President. Johnson is the founder of JX2 Productions and has been the largest roping producer east of the Mississippi for nearly two decades. Johnson brings his personal brand of charisma, dedication to his customers and game-day production experience to the USTRC. Ty Yost will remain as WSTR President.

Smarty

The United States Team Roping Championships welcomes Smarty as the official training machine of the 2023 season. Smarty is headquartered in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, with a satellite office in Stephenville.

Smarty has grown to be one of the top training tools used by many of the best team ropers in the industry. Ropers like Clay Tryan, Kaleb Driggers, Junior Nogueira, Luke Brown and Ryan Motes not only use Smarty roping dummies in their daily training but also constantly offer guidance and expertise to the development team at Smarty to make sure the end-users are getting the best training tools on the market and know how to use them for maximum gain in each practice session.

“There is nothing more rewarding than to see our customers, oftentimes our friends, succeed and reach their goals in our sport,” said Amanda Shaffer, VP of Business Development at Smarty. “If our training products are even just a small part of a ropers practice regime and that helps them gain more consistency and confidence and ultimately reach the pay window, that is when the whole team at Smarty knows we have done our job!”

Smarty is a brand that is synonymous with team roping, training, and practice but in recent months the company has branched out into other rodeo disciplines. To read the whole article visit: ustrc.com.

Ladies and Breakaway Ropers: PLEASE READ

The USTRC Cinch National Finals of Team Roping Breakaway and Cinch Ladies Championships are full steam ahead. The Cinch Ladies’ Open with a 9.5 Incentive is scheduled on Wednesday, April 26. Entry Fees will be $500/roper, enter twice, pick one, draw one, or draw 2, and will be a four-steer progressive roping. The incentive will pay after three rounds.

Breakaway ropers, please look at the schedule update in the USTRC Cinch NFTR regarding new dates and entry rules for the breakaway roping in Fort Worth. The breakaway now starts on Tuesday and runs all week, and the last division is open to girls and boys. Please refer to the entry forms and schedule for all information.