ProRodeo Sports News - October 19, 2018

TOP HORSES

STEER ROPING Horse: Cooperslittletoy (Cooper) Owner: Chris Glover Rider: Chris Glover, Jason Evans

Key 2017 wins: Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up, the RAM Mountain States Circuit Finals Rodeo (Loveland, Colo.), the Central Montana RAM Pro Rodeo (Lewiston, Mont.) and the Amarillo (Texas) Tri-State Fair and Rodeo Why the horse is great: It took a few years for Cooper to fine tune his steer roping skills, but the 10-year-old American Quarter Horse was worth the wait. What he lacks in size, he makes up for in ability. Standing at 14.3 hands tall, Glover thought Cooper would be too small for steer roping, but being built like a bulldog means Cooper brings plenty of power to the arena. Glover’s other horse, Champ, shared Horse of the Year honors in 2016. Hear it from Chris: “It takes a long time, three to four years, to make a good one. In steer roping, the horse is 90 percent of it. For a guy my age, I need something good, and he’s pretty good. I’m a very blessed man to have the good horses I’ve had in my life. You don’t win if you don’t have good ones. He (Cooper) has a mind of his own and is ornery, that’s what makes him so good. They have to have a special temperament for steer roping. He’s gotten a lot thicker over the years, and he has a temperament just to be a bonehead all the time, but in the box he’s serious. He scores better than any horse I’ve ever had, stands flat-footed, and he’s the fastest horse I’ve ridden. He will go as fast as he can when he hits the line, that’s what makes it so good to get on the cattle. It’s all or nothing, right now.”

Clay Guardipee photo

ProRodeo Sports News 10/19/2018

ProRodeo.com

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