In its inaugural event, the Riata Buckle stallion incentive, held Nov. 3-6, 2022, in Guthrie, Oklahoma’s Lazy E Arena, paid out a massive $2 million and rocked the all-time earnings charts of the rope horse industry.
Early in November, Equine Network announced that team ropings operating on the GEMS software will have paid $90 million in payoffs by the end of the year. As more and more ropers invest in high-quality horses to give them an advantage, the founders of the Pink and Ruby Buckle paired with Denny Gentry to create the Riata Buckle Stallion Incentive. The Riata group put up the $2 million—challenging ropers everywhere to find themselves a horse sired by a Riata stud, upping the ante on the rope horse game as we know it.
To be eligible for Riata Buckle money, horses must be sired by a stallion enrolled in the Riata Buckle program. If your horse is sired by a Riata Buckle stallion, you must pay a $200 nomination fee annually. In essence, the nomination fee is a membership fee for horses—buying a chance at more money than ropers have ever competed for in the futurity or horse show game. And it buys ropers a quantifiable method of tracking their horses earnings through the program alongside AQHA’s QData and Equine Network’s Global Handicaps, raising the tide of the rope horse business and the Western industry as a whole.
Unlike other stallion incentives or futurities geared to professional ropers and trainers, the Riata Buckle operates like a jackpot, enters as a team and caters to all ropers with the use of slide ropings. One of the unique features of the event is that it allows teams, if necessary, to utilize unnominated horses within a team. Therefore, potentially half the money was available to ropers that did not have a Riata horse in this program.
If there was any question that combining jackpot roping with a stallion incentive would work, that most certainly no longer exists. The roping was a success and did in fact produce the fifth richest roping in the world, and it appears the third richest Open Roping, on their first try.
THE STALLIONS
Prior to the first steer running at the Lazy E, ropers were hunting Riata Buckle horses. Oldtimers can’t recall any instance in the cowboy world where anticipation of an event changed the marketplace before the first event ever took place. In the aftermath, the impact of the event was immediate. On AQHA’s QData (statistical tracking of earnings) of Ropings Top Sires, Riata is clearly going to make a seismic impact. Hickory Holly Time moved from the 13th all-time leading sire to 3rd all-time in a few short days. Metallic Cat, with offspring earning more than a half dozen big checks, unseated Shining Spark from his long-held top spot. The actual Riata stallion performance summaries are posted on their website, Riatabuckle.com .
THE ROPINGS
Very clearly, Riata demonstrated the power of recreation ropers and their willingness to participate in futurities and incentives. The top money earner of the event was a #5 lady header, Brooke Wilson, Canyon, Texas, winning $54,600. Two of the five ropings were won by ladies. Recreational ropers immediately made a statement about their role concerning rope horses in the larger scheme of the horse market and in the global sports scene.
From a roper’s perspective, there were a little over 600 teams that split up $2 million in purses, which included the stallion and breeders’ share. The Open Futurity paid 800% over entry fees. The #12.5 All-Ages paid about 200% and the rest were 400%. The starting advertisements for the 2023 year will once again be guaranteeing a minimum of $2 million. However, organizers hope to be able to announce by the end of next summer, that the guaranteed minimum might approach $3 million.
Concerning the slides— the roping world has been curious, did they work? As it turned out human nature stepped in and there was a very small percentage of #11.5 teams in the #12.5 slides, and the number of #10.5 teams was nearly 4-to-1 over the #9.5 teams and five #8.5 teams. Clearly if heelers could get higher-numbered headers, they took their chances in the upper end of each slide. Even with low #11.5 team counts in the #12.5 Futurity, two #11.5 teams placed and a team moved from 17th to 9th. The #12.5 All Age it looked like it was going to be super tough with only a 5-second split in the short round, but just as quickly half of all #12.5 teams took no-times in the short round. The last call back at 25th ended up grabbing the last aggregate check. Two #4 headers placed, and three ladies got a check.
The #10.5 Futurity was extremely soft with 42 as the short round cut. This roping ended up paying the 10th check on three head. Plenty of teams with 40- and 50-second times all got large checks. Riata Buckle will change the horse age on #10.5 futurity horses to 6-years-old and younger for 2023. That will be the low slide only, and that should give ropers who don’t have a futurity horse a real opportunity to survey the 5-year-olds in the #12.5 Futurity.
The roping that surprised everyone was the $400,000 Open Futurity. Top ropers in the country on some outstanding young horses made for some interesting twists. In the short round, five teams roped legs, there were five broken barriers and four misses. And YES, it is true that Colby Lovell and Dakota Kirchenschlager won $102,000 with a leg on steer number four. Look for more teams in this roping next year.
There was a fair turnout in the first Riata breakaway, and it appears that the guaranteed $100,000 was the right dollar amount as the ropings paid roughly 300% of entry fees back to the ladies, which was comparative to the record-breaking payback percentages in the team roping. The organizers have vowed to revamp their breakaway format for 2023 for growth and to leverage their payoffs as much as possible. All good news for breakaway ropers.
The motivation to ride the best horses possible is a given for all ropers, but with the Riata Buckle promising qualifiers in all states, it might be time to take a good look at the large stallion list at RiataBuckle.com and consider a new back up mount.
Results are per team:
Pro Futurity
Short go FT: Keven Daniel and Shay Carroll, 5.85, $1,500.
Average: 1. Coby Lovell and Dakota Kirchenschlager, 39.55, $102,650. 2. Jake Smith and Douglas Rich, 39.57, $71,550. 3. Chris Francis and Cade Passig, 40.82, $52,850. 4. Billy Bob Brown and Kirby Blankenship, 41.08, $37,350. 5. Byce Jenkins and Colton Brittain, 41.99, $28,000. 6. Cody Snow and Wesley Thorp, 42.08, $18,600.
#12.5 Slide All Age
#13.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. James Watson and Rhyder Nelson, 25.89, $4,000. 2. Lance Horner and Britt Williams, 25.96, $3,000.
#12.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. Tripp Townsend and Jesse Valdez, 40.92, $4,000. 2. Shawn Gray and Kade E. Smith, 25.52, $3,000.
#11.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. Rylie Smith and Cutter Duckett, 31.28, $4,000. 2. Jim Brinkman and Jon Pudwill, 32.17, $3,000.
Average: 1. Kirby Blankenship and JD McGuire, 31.25, $69,000. 2. Hagen Thomas and Andy Holcomb, 31.38, $49,500. 3. Kylie McLean and Chad L. Smith, 31.8, $34,500. 4. Lacey Felton and Zane Bruce, 32.05, $27,000. 5. Reed Boos and Tavis Walters 33.62, $23,400. 6. Ben Walker and Jared Hall, 33.82, $20,000. 7. Tavis Walters and Clay D. Hurst, 34.33, $17,000. 8. Brady Kyle and TJ Good, 34.35, $14,000. 9. Clay D. Hurst and Luke Miller, 34.36, $11,250. 10. Slick Robison and JohnRyon Foster, 34.87, $11,250.
#12.5 Slide Futurity
#13.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. Tarrant Stewart and CR Bradley, 38.76, $4,000. 2. Lance Horner and Britt Williams, 42.51, $3,000.
#12.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. Clay Reynolds and Dillon Hoffman, 38.27, $4,000. 2. Bubba Garcia and Tripp Townsend, 39.52, $3,000.
#11.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. Barry Berg and Rylie Smith, 41.64, $4,000. 2. Jessica Koppitz and Connor Stephens, 30.26, $3,000.
Average: 1. Bo Crutchfield and Chris Littlefield, 33.34, $70,000. 2. Rodey Wilson and Cayce Lewis, 33.44, $52,000. 3. Kyle Brewer and Bubba Garcia, 35.07, $38,000. 4. Cole Davis and Brock Grashuis, 35.24, $32,500. 5. James Watson and Brady Kyle, 35.51, $26,500. 6. Roger Jones and Troy Stoll, 36.25, $20,000. 7. Roger Hutcheon and Jesse Nash, 36.43, $17,500. 8. Bryce Briggs and Culley Morgan, 36.44, $14,500. 9. Clay Armstrong and Troy Kitchener, 38.17, $11,500. 10. Shank Edwards and Ned Kiehne, 38.25, $9,000.
#10.5 Futurity
#10.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. Mark Moreland and Flint Mask, 28.85, $4,000. 2. James Watson and Culley Morgan, 30.32, $3,000.
#9.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. Greg Kesler and Travis Brereton, 28.35, $4,000. 2. Rick Plummer and Dale Bennett 31.9, $3,000.
Average: 1. Brooke Wilson and Tripp Townsend, 35.76, $71,000. 2. Darin Williams and Darren Johnson, 39.94, $53,250. 3. Seth Schafer and Kaleb Asay, 41.18, $38,800. 4. Josh Graff and Kaleb Asay, 42.61, $33,500. 5. Dillon Mundorf and Rob Swaim, 42.93, $27,000. 6. Jessie Nelson and Jim Bob Fritz, 43.15, $20,500. 7. Kelton McMillen and Tripp Townsend, 45.99, $18,000. 8. Jeff Tebow and Brock Grashuis, 51.72, $14,750. 9. Brent Reichmuth and Jim Brinkman 51.84, $12,000. 10. Brent Reichmuth and Travis Stevens, 26.69, $9,700.
#10.5 All Age
#10.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. James Watson and Michael Angell, 43.27, $4,000. 2. Nathan Golay and Jeff Schieber, 27.84, $3,000.
#9.5 team not placing in Slide: 1. Pete Kyle and Dale Bennett, 50.8, $4,000. 2. Danielle Wray and Rod Doggett, 24.39, $3,000.
Average: 1. Ivy J. Hurst and Clay D. Hurst, 34.07, $71,000. 2. James Watson and Culley Morgan, 37.04, $53,250. 3. Brooke Wilson and Cayce Lewis, 37.87, $38,800. 4. Ryan Reeves and Colton Robins, 39.19, $33,500. 5. Landon Lugar and Nolan Grint, 41.06, $27,000. 6. Chad Wiswell and Travis Stevens, 42.01, $20,500. 7. Mitchell Thomson and Dustin W. Noblitt, 42.08, $18,000. 8. Kelton McMillen and Riley Smith, 42.38, $14,750. 9. Brent Reichmuth and Travis Stevens, 42.62, $12,000. 10. Tarrant Stewart and Luke Jones, 43.09, $9.700.
Riata Breakaway
1D: 1. Cassidy Boggs, 6.24, $5,880. 2. Taylor Hanchey, 6.57, $4,200. 3. Cheyanne Guillory, 6.73, $3,192. 4. Abigayle Williams, 6.78, $2,352. 5. Kimberlyn Fitch, 7.08, $1,176.
2D: 1. Shelby Boisjoli, 7.37, $8,400. 2. Shelby Boisjoli, 7.71, $5,040. 3. Bryana Lehrmann 7.79, $3,360.
3D: 1. Beau Peterson, 8.32, $5,880. 2. LaRaye Stipes, 8.34, $3,696. 3. Kimberlyn Fitch, 8.34, $3,696. 4. Cheyanne Guillory, 8.72, $2,352. 5. Cheyanne Guillory, 8.76, $1,176.
Riata Breakaway Futurity
1D: 1. Cassidy Boggs, 6.24, $3,280. 2. Cheyanne Guillory, 6.57, $2,460. 3. Sarah Angelone, 6.99, $1,640. 4. Taylor Hanchey, 7.28, $820.
3D: 1. Kimberly Fitch, 8.34, $3,280. 2. Cheyanne Guillory, 8.72, $2,460. 3. Shyanne Allen, 9.56, $1,640. 4. Taryn Sippel, 9.24, $820.
Brooke Wilson and Tripp Townsend won the #10.5 Futurity and split $71,000. Brooke is from Canyon, Texas. She placed in several ropings and was the high dollar winner of the event with $54,000 in earnings. Tripp Townsend, from Earth, Texas was riding the Riata horse, TTR Lucky Hometown.