In The Arena

In The Arena

Bob Feist

It is always with sadness when I have to write an obit for someone in our industry that has passed on. This past month was not a good one for us here at Ropers Sports News as we lost Arlene MacKerracher and Broc Cresta.
Arlene started with Ropers Sports News in 1968, the year I started the paper. The first issue was just four pages – and it was never that small again. Each month I would make the trip from the Santa Rosa area to Arlene and Buzz’s (Arlene’s husband) house on Kennefick Rd. in Galt, Calif. We would lay out the paper on their kitchen table and decide what was going to be on what page. Buzz would always try to take part with his two cents worth until Arlene would send him back out to his blacksmith shop to leave us alone to get the paper laid out. Arlene was always helpful in doing the right thing by advertisers and special stories. She knew what the reader wanted to read because she had been around a roping every week in either the production stage or going to watch Buzz compete.

Ropings in general seem to be alive and well in most of the country but have dropped in team counts. I think some of this is due to the economy as well as the cost of roping has gone up and up in the past 20 years to where it is a very expensive hobby unless you are placing on a regular basis. Here on the west coast we are seeing the comeback of the smaller style ropings or practice sessions for a whole lot less money and less travel.

This year has been plagued with the news of the virus, EHV-1 hitting the horse industry during the month of May. I am not going to go into great detail about this for it changes daily. Hopefully by the time you are reading this, hopefully things are somewhat back to normal in the horse industry. With all of the social networking going on these days, many false rumors were spread that had no facts to back them up. I strongly urge people to go to the source and find out the facts rather than get on the social media bandwagon and spread more gossip that tends to be false. It is very easy to get to the source of information by the same means that the gossip is spread.

The year is quickly coming to an end in regards to qualifying for many of the finals, both in rodeo and team roping associations. It has been a great push for ropers and barrel racers as they try to qualify for their respective events.
The biggest news on the PRCA team roping front is the strong finish of the team of Derrick Begay and Cesar de la Cruz who won both Pendleton and Omaha this past month. The money earned was enough to push them into the number one position in the PRCA standings. These were big wins for this team, they almost doubled their earnings in one month.