Dear Roper,
I’m writing this letter from my home office the day after the close of the $19.7 million Ariat World Series of Team Roping, and two days after Tyler Wade and Wesley Thorp won their second straight world titles, Thorp’s third overall.
What the Western industry pulled off in the three weeks following Thanksgiving 2024 should go down as a watershed moment in our sport’s history, quite honestly. And it’s been the privilege of my career to watch as our team told these stories.
First, our team at breakawayropingjournal.com trekked to Scottsdale, Arizona, to cover the Kimes Ranch Million Dollar Breakaway. Casey Allen and Lillian Kent championed our content there, delivering behind-the-scenes angles and stories that helped add character and flavor to this epic event.
While they were there, the other half of our team was setting up in Las Vegas for the Ariat World Series of Team Roping Finale and covering the top 15’s prep for the Thomas & Mack. If you had the privilege of walking through the South Point, you saw the way the crew at the WSTR upped their game with the production there. From morning shows to pre-shows before each short round to the famous Priefert Sports Desk, Lacee Gentry, Dru Stewart and Mariah Hammerschmidt’s production teams threw down when it came to the experience ropers of all levels got. The rollout of EQN Sports—the newest video venture for our team—was a whole lot of fun.
By the time the NFR kicked off, our engine was rolling at full steam. Taylor Vollin and Hannah Wheeler tagged in alongside Allen and Kent to create more comprehensive content than has ever been produced on team roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping and calf roping. The industry’s major broadcast channels relied on their words and their insights night after night, and our team’s websites were hotbeds of information for fans and competitors. We documented steers, calves, ground—you name it, we wrote about it. Meanwhile, our team at home, Lauren Feldman, Abby McDougall and Eva Young, kept all the trains on the track while we went in all the directions.
And we couldn’t do any of that without our partners who support these endeavors. Because fostering the growth of the Western industry takes a team effort, and we are all in this together.
Until next time,
Chelsea
