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More than 1,300 talented roping teams descended on the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas, November 15–17 for the inaugural Cowtown ShootOut. Produced by the United States Team Roping Championships and sponsored by APHA, the all-breed event featured an extra-special incentive for ropers with a little bit of chrome: two Paint Horse incentive bonuses totaling $8,000.
Offered in addition to regular USTRC payouts and prizes, nearly 50 ropers riding registered American Paint Horses signed up to try their hands at APHA bonuses awarded in two categories.
Kelly Boswell of Bridgeport, Texas, was the top money-winner with a TRIAD classification number of 6 or greater—he was third in the #15 with Buddys Okie, a 2004 sorrel tobiano stallion, and earned an extra $4,000 from APHA and Corporate Partner Farnam along with an award buckle courtesy of Corporate Partner Gist Silversmiths.
Kelly Boswell and Buddys Okie, pictured with APHA Executive Director Billy Smith, won the $4,000 APHA bonus for TRIAD #6 or above ropers at the USTRC Cowtown ShootOut.
Riding the 2003 sorrel tobiano gelding Senor Snack, Rob Foster from Brock, Texas, was the high money-winner classified as a TRIAD Elite #5 or below. In addition to winning the #10 and #10 Gold Plus events aboard “Snackbox,” the $4,000 Paint Horse bonus pushed Rob’s earnings over $9,000. Foster also won a custom award buckle courtesy of APHA Corporate Partner Gist Silversmiths. An APHA world champion roper, Snackbox is owned by Rob’s son, John Ryon.
“He’s a phenomenal horse: scores great, runs to them great, gives my heelers a big opportunity to make a clean catch. He loves it,” Rob said about Snackbox. “People here are like, ‘Oh I need a Paint’ or ‘I should have gotten mine registered.’ For Paints to compete with some of the high-powered Quarter Horses is pretty good.”
Rob Foster—pictured with his wife, Pam, Farnam representative Dawn Cook and APHA Executive Director Billy Smith—won the $4,000 Paint Horse incentive for Elite #5 ropers or below at the Cowtown ShootOut.
More than 1,300 teams competed at the Cowtown ShootOut, which is the first of five qualifying events for RFD TV’s The American, history’s richest single-day rodeo that will pay out $2 million in March 2014. The top open qualifiers will compete against the sport’s top 10 contestants in each event.
“Thanks to the APHA and the USTRC for doing it; it was cool. It gives ropers an opportunity to win some extra money,” Kelly said. “Everybody here is talking about that $4,000—whether they were riding a Paint Horse or not. It’s huge.
“You don’t get added money in a team roping very often—you get what the pot is—so you jump at it when you can. I was just fortunate enough that I had a Paint Horse that would give me a chance to win.”