Number and end: I’m a heeler, and they just raised me back to a seven again.

Rope of choice: I use a Fastback Natural, medium soft.

Biggest win: I won $8,500 in Cheyenne at the World Series Roping this last year. I was roping with Erin Simon.

Favorite roping: I would say either the World Series Finale or the World Series Qualifier in Cheyenne.

Why you rope? I grew up roping. I can’t golf worth a crap, so I have to keep roping.

Real job: I sell horse trailers, plus my dad is a national sponsor of the World Series ropings so I fly out to help him a lot.

Best horse you’ve ever owned: I’ve had a couple different ones. The one I have right now, I ended up buying in Cheyenne. He was an old calf horse this guy was trying to sell, and I won $8,500 on him. The mount money I was going to have to pay was about half of what he wanted for him, so I just bought him. I won about $21,000 on him so far. He wasn’t a bad investment for $5,500. He’s 15, and I call him M2 for “Mount Money.”

What’s the South Dakota roping scene like? It’s kind of slow, there’s not a lot of bigger ropings around here. I have just been going to the World Series ropings. They’ve got Lance Allen’s ropings in Torrington, Wyo., and Eaton, Colo., and JX2 has the roping in Cheyenne.

Family: I’ve got one child, Carson, and he’s 13 years old. He’s a football, wrestling kind of kid. He thinks maybe someday he’ll want to bulldog, but right now he’s not into roping. Dennis Schwalbe is my dad, and my mom’s name is Bev Inhofer, they both got me into roping when I was a little kid. I could either rodeo or run the chute, so I had to learn how to rope. There was no football or wrestling, just rodeo.

Competition philosophy: I just try not to beat myself. You go to enough ropings you figure out you can either beat yourself or make everybody else beat you, and it’s a lot easier to have them trying to beat
you.