2015 ROPING DIVISION WOMEN’S PROFESSIONAL RODEO ASSOCIATION 431 S. Cascade Colorado Springs, CO 80903 Phone (719) 447-4726 • Fax (719) 447-4631 www.wpra.com ROPING DIVISION The Roping Division features the best approved and co-approved events, are kept just female ropers in the WPRA competing in team like they are in the barrel racing division. At roping (header and heeler), tie-down roping the end of the year, the WPRA hosts a World and breakaway roping. World titles are award- Finals featuring top competitors from each of ed in each division as well as in the all-around the roping events that gives each competitor category in which a competitor competes in one last chance to win enough money to cap- more than one event winning more money than ture a world title. the rest of the field. This section features the 2014 World Sporting a small but loyal membership Champions as well as listings of past cham- (that is currently growing in numbers and pions not only in the roping events but in the events), the women of the Roping Division roughstock events of bareback riding and bull have the opportunity to compete at events all riding, when that was offered through the over the United States in search of a world title. WPRA. Standings, based on money won at the Crawford Collects Three Roping World Titles in 2014 - Breakaway, Tie- down and Team Roping Heading By Jolee Lautaret-Jordan t looks like the honeymoon will just stay on hold for now. I That’s what happens when two of the world’s top ropers get married. Jackie Hobbs tied the knot with Charly Crawford Jackie Crawford roped her way into the record book last December, about six weeks removed winning three roping world titles in 2014 – Breakaway from earning nearly $8,000 at the WPRA roping, tie-down roping and team roping header. WPRA World Finals and collecting her ninth and photo by James Phifer/rodeobum.com tenth WPRA World Championships. Meanwhile, Crawford had just con- The cowgirl has good reason to doubt cluded his seventh trip to Las Vegas for the any vacation is in the offing. While Charly Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, winning travels hard down the Professional Rodeo better than $51,000 including two go round Cowboys Association (PRCA) trail, Craw- wins. ford herself stays busy with a full competi- Because rodeo has no off-season, the tion schedule and with teaching others the couple celebrated a small ceremony during fundamentals of roping. the Christmas holidays and then set right And she constantly sets – and achieves – back to doing what they both do best: rope. new goals for herself. “Maybe someday we’ll go on our honey- As the 2014 season dawned, one of those moon,” laughs Crawford, “but I won’t hold goals was a WPRA World title in the break- my breath.” away roping. With five All Arounds, four ROPING DIVISION tie down roping and one heading title, the Crawford cashed checks at Joe’s Boot breakaway roping was feeling a bit like the Shop Roping in Clovis, New Mexico along one that got away. with the Ultimate Calf Roping/Rafter L “I set it out as a goal, and wrote it down,” event in Glen Rose, Texas, to push her lead says the ever-driven Crawford. She had out to $400 ahead of Wyoming cowgirl come oh-so-close in the past, losing to Donene Taylor as the WPRA World Finals Hope Thompson a year ago by just $93. began. She was the reserve champion in 2012 as At the Finals, Crawford picked up a well as 2009, when the difference was just pair of round wins, placed in the other under $500. two rounds, and finished second to Krista “I tried to concentrate on the breakaway Johnson by four tenths of a second in the and go to as many events as possible,” says average. Picking up $1,694 at the Finals, Crawford who hit events such as the Kari Crawford held off Johnson by just $457 to Burns Memorial in Billings, Mont., Wyo- clinch her fifth WPRA World title in the tie ming’s Richest All Girl Roping in Buffalo down roping. She won $2,780. and co-approved Texas Cowboys Rodeo For both events, Crawford called upon Association (TCRA) events. She came into T-boy, the nine-year old gelding who is the 2014 WPRA World Finals in Waco, registered DS Sassy Shiner. The gelding Texas ranked first, holding a lead of just is one of many that Crawford has trained about $3,000 over Kelsie Chace. Ironi- over the years. cally, Chace lives with the Crawfords and For the team roping, Crawford borrowed helps Jackie with her horses and clinics. her husband’s good horse, Bullseye, to Though she failed to cash a single check head for 2013 WPRA World Champion in Waco, Crawford’s lead proved insur- Heeler Ashley Mills and rode her tough mountable. With $13,087 in season earn- horse Steely to heel for Chace. ings, she held off Chace to claim her first “I was going back and forth between breakaway world title. head horses but we decided I should go “It was kind of a relief to finally win it,” with a veteran since I had a chance to win a Crawford admits. “The breakaway is prob- lot of money [at the World Finals],” Craw- ably my favorite event; it’s so competitive ford says. Along with Chace, the Craw- and you’re always roping against the best fords keep nearly two dozen horses in out there.” training at a time. “It was the most special one to win.” “There is no such thing,” she laughs Since joining the WPRA in 2006 and when asked what a typical day at their Ste- winning the Tie Down Roping Rookie of phenville home is like. “Ideally, we will get the Year, Crawford has never finished low- up, work out, and start riding. We’ll ride as er than second in the average at the WPRA many colts as we can and still try to make World Finals and has only been beaten sure we are getting plenty of practice. Then twice for the World Championship in that someone always seems to stop by and want event. a little help or a lesson, so we do that too.” Just as she did in the breakaway roping, Adding to the workload, the Crawfords Crawford took the lead in the tie down are busying building their place. Crawford roping for 2014 with a win at the WPRA hopes to use it for clinics in the future, re- World Finals Kick-off event for the new ducing the time spent on the road. season. She won both events in October “I have big plans for our place,” she 2013 to jump start the year. says, noting that the couple recently did a ROPING DIVISION clinic in Kentucky with one of their spon- Now a 13-time WPRA World Champ, sors, Lubrisyn. “Our clinics have been Crawford seems just as determined as she huge but I’m hoping to put on a lot of clin- was back before she’d won the first one. ics [at home].” She has her sights set on more wins at the During the team roping in Waco, Craw- big all-women’s ropings and maybe even ford won a round with Mills. She picked up another step. another heading check in a go and earned “Before we have kids, Charly would like a round check along with sixth in the av- me to rope at the big pro rodeos, like Sali- erage heeling for Chace as well. Her total nas and Cheyenne Frontier Days. He has earnings in the team roping were $1,569. kind of pushed me to get my [PRCA] per- Crawford had cinched her second title in mit filled so I can do that,” she says. Craw- the heading before ever turning a steer in ford has already proven she can compete Waco. She won $12,720 for her second win at the highest level: in 2014 she earned a at the prestigious Wildfire Ladies Open spot in the Semi-Finals for RFD-TV’s The Roping in Salado, Texas back in February. American in the team roping, the only As she did in 2011, she won with Annette woman to do so. Stahl who claimed the 2014 WPRA World “That was definitely one of my high- title in the heeling. lights for the year,” she says. “It was Crawford’s season total of $14,231 was my first open roping and we won fourth almost $5,000 ahead of 2013 WPRA World against over one hundred teams. It was Champion Header Lari Dee Guy. In the pretty cool.” heeling, she finished seventh. In the meantime, Crawford will split “I didn’t have a great Finals,” Crawford time this December between roping in the notes. She earned $3,263 while in Waco, a World Series of Team Roping Finals at fair finish but not what she’s accustomed the South Point in Las Vegas and watch- to accomplishing. She finished just $509 ing Charly compete at his eighth Wrangler behind Guy for the All Around Champion- NFR. ship, just the second time she’s been beaten “It’s going to be a disaster,” she jokes, for that title since 2008. “It wasn’t every- noting not only time spent in competition thing I had wanted.” but also numerous sponsors commitments “We’ve been so busy working on other during the 10 days.