BFI Week


$200,000 in Reno School teacher Jody Higgins of Monroe, LA, and his horse-trading friend Mark Smith of Bro- ken Bow, OK, teamed up at the last minute to split $200,000 in the Wrangler National Patriot #11.5 roping in Reno, Nevada.


Higgins, 39, became tearful upon accepting prizes later on stage, both because of his relation- ship with Smith and because the win came after he fought to recover from cancer treatment that pre- vented him from swinging a rope for years. “I’m going to frame this money and put it on


the wall,” said Higgins, a No. 6 heeler and fifth- grade special-education teacher. He’d never been to the event before and said he’d always “wanted to ride out of that box once.” The Wrangler National Patriot for amateur


ropers was founded as the Reno Rodeo Invitation- al in 1996 and is designed to give equally matched amateur ropers across the country a chance at six-figure payouts, the event uses a handicapping system similar to golf. Higgins, a #6 heeler, was scheduled to rope


with Wayman Taylor but the latter was forced by heart trouble to draw out of the event last week. Higgins knew Smith would be in Reno all week to watch his three sons, including defending PRCA world champion header Clay Smith and two-time Hooey BFI Jr. Champion Britt Smith, so he talked his old friend into replacing Taylor. “I didn’t know how I was going to pay the


fee,” Smith said. “Now I can pay him back. And the clutch is going out of the pickup I drove out here, so now I can trade that truck in!”


Smith–on a palomino grandson of Stoli that he borrowed from Clay and using a rope with black coils that he borrowed from Britt – turned three steers with Higgins in 30.44 seconds to nail the second call-back position. After making a smooth run of 9.33 in the finals, they watched as the final team’s head loop missed. “We’re just cowboys,” said Higgins. “Our


goal was to catch. We didn’t try to be fast. I’m a school teacher; I don’t get to rope during the week.” Both ropers were tickled to have secured at least the $48,000 second-place paycheck when they rode out of the arena, since both had battled injuries. Smith, a diabetic, recently had injections in both shoulders to help with pain from being “old and worn out.” And Higgins was grateful to both his original and replacement partners for simply believing in him. “I haven’t roped much since I got tonsil cancer in 2012,” said Higgins. “I had a lot of radiation and


16 SouthWest Horse Trader August 2019


Mark Smith (left) & Jody Higgins


my shoulder really deteriorated. It took four years of therapy until I could swing a rope again and a lot of hard work to get where I could win again. It makes you take a second look at life and be glad you made it. I’m healthy now and very blessed. And this guy’s been like a dad to me.” As for 54-year-old Mark, the No. 5.5 head- er was getting plenty of critiquing from his own gold-buckle son Clay, who was driving to a rodeo in Greeley, Colorado, but watching live on the Wrangler Network.


“He would call and tell me, ‘Quit pulling on


my horse,’ or ‘Don’t spank him,’ or ‘Tighten up your bridle, Dad,’” recalled Mark. His other two sons were watching in person, and said it made them more nervous than their own competitions. “Now they know how I felt at all their rodeos,” said Mark.


Mark and his wife, a retired teacher, helped


set their sons up to join the family business of buy- ing and selling roping horses. The kids – who were all three named after elite professional team rop- ers – have a web site (JakeClayBritt.com) through which people bring them horses to sell. The horse ridden by Mark was purchased by


him as a 2-year-old, then trained by the entire Smith family, while Higgins was riding a heel horse that he’d leased from Smith two months earlier. Also, Idaho’s Steve Dugger earned the Head


Horse of the Wrangler National Patriot award from Montana Silversmiths for riding his wife’s horse, Chingo. The 8-year-old palomino gelding came from the ranch of former world champion Bobby Hurley, and placed Dugger one out of the money in Reno. The Heel Horse award went to a 12-year- old gelding ridden by New Mexico’s Danny Wat- son. Trained by Troy Howard of Texas, the horse is “gentle enough to fit an old man,” said Watson, who placed sixth. w


Amateur ropers win


Assistance Programs The Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society (BEHS) has created two new owner assistance programs designed to reduce the population of unwanted horses and to help owners of horses in need of humane euthanasia. Recently, the BEHS Board of Di- rectors allocated resources to fund two new programs: The Rainbow Bridge Program designed to assist owners of suffering horses with the expense of humane euthanasia, and the Cuter When Neutered program, designed to help horse owners have their stallions gelded.


There are an estimated 200,000


unwanted horses in the United States each year. Both of these new programs aim to reduce that number. Many of these unwanted horses are suffering and have a veterinarian-recommended euthanasia plan but are instead surren- dered to rescues, abandoned or sold to uncertain futures at an auction because their owners cannot afford to humanely euthanize them. The Rainbow Bridge Program works with licensed veteri- narians across Texas to identify those owners and horses in need and help with the costs of euthanasia. The Cuter When Neutered Pro-


gram has the goal of preventing un- planned and unwanted horse pregnan- cies thereby reducing the number of unwanted horses. Cuter When Neu- tered can help owners of stallions with the costs associated with having the horses gelded.


Both programs welcome appli-


cants until each year’s resources are depleted. The rescue also accepts do- nations directly to either program to provide assistance to more horses and their owners.


BEHS is a 501(c)(3) equine wel- fare and protection organization that operates throughout Texas. For more information, visit us www.bluebon- nethorseexpo.com or 888-542 5163. w


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Olie's Images, LLC


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