April BFI at Lazy E Introduces Legends

On the 45th anniversary, former BFI contenders invited back Team roping fans with the Bob Feist Invitational on their must-watch bucket list have one more reason to catch the 2022 edition this spring. The day before the 45th anniversary of Bob Feist’s original Open roping – Wrangler BFI XLV presented by Yeti on April 2 – organizers are adding a new roping called BFI Legends. It’s an Open roping just like the BFI – this one’s a five-steer using a rope barrier – but all headers and heelers must be at least 40 years old and can’t have qualified for ...Read More

Supposed to Win…

On a particular Sunday night in June 2009, Caleb Mitchell was the only person in Reno, Nevada, who thought he could win the BFI. Because it’s not like anybody out there had heard of him. He was 26 and his mainstay was south-Texas amateur rodeos. He’d never entered “the Feist.” Truth is, he’d grown up in a trailer park roping the dummy and never had a horse until he was 16. The only reason Mitchell was even in Reno that weekend was Cactus Ropes had paid his BFI fees because Barry Berg had seen him rope, and because his two ...Read More

2022 Bob Feist Invitational Set for Lazy E Arena

Wrangler BFI Week Presented by Yeti Will Celebrate 45th BFI in Iconic Arena Organizers of the Bob Feist Invitational (BFI) – the world’s richest one-day roping for pros – will celebrate its 45th anniversary next spring in the 440-foot arena designed for long scores and hard-running steers. The event that was pushed to Guthrie, Oklahoma’s Lazy E Arena during the past two years of pandemic-protocol uncertainty in Nevada will now call the Lazy E home. Its scheduled date of April 2, 2022, means a Saturday BFI for the first time, three weeks after the Lazy E hosts its annual Timed-Event Championships ...Read More

A Renegade Remix

A dozen years ago, when Kory Koontz picked up the dun yearling that is now the defending Montana Silversmiths Heel Horse of the BFI, it took him three hours just get him loaded in the trailer. The colt was given to Koontz in hopes he’d be the second coming of Iceman, the dun that 30 years ago launched the career of the now-22-time NFR qualifier. Of course, Koontz had another dun named Jackyl, on whom Jade Corkill won two gold buckles. Plus, he once owned Switchblade, on whom Corkill won his other gold buckle, and LB, on whom Clay Cooper ...Read More

Wrangler BFI Week In Reno

The good news out of Nevada for professional team ropers is the state has announced it can host the 2021 Reno Rodeo. BFI owners plan to simply build on the momentum of their March event in Guthrie, Oklahoma, to return “the most anticipated Monday of the year” to Reno this June. “We wouldn’t even have entertained the idea of moving the BFI if the Reno Rodeo hadn’t been cancelled last year,” said BFI co-owner Daren Peterson, who was forced to relocate to Guthrie’s Lazy E Arena in order to have a 2020 BFI. “Last October when we met with Nevada ...Read More

The Scoop on Clay Tryan’s Horse and What He Did Differently This Year

On March 14 at the 2021 BFI, Clay Tryan and Jake Long roped a leg on their fourth steer. In the fifth round, they knew a smooth run would get them back to the short round, where all 15 teams earn at least $8,000. But Long went off in the switch to give them a 5-second run, go-round money, and put them squarely back in the hunt for big money. “I didn’t really know he was going to do that, but that was the best steer we had all day,” said Tryan. “Making the short go is the same as ...Read More

California team wins Jr. 10.5 for $20K

On March 18, mentored by a couple of roping superstars, Eli Green and Chase Helton of California bested 167 other teams to top the Jr. 10.5 and split a cool $20,000. “I was pretty nervous for that last one,” said 16-year-old Helton of Merced, who was in Guthrie with former BFI champion and family friend Cody Cowden. “I kept replaying a couple of runs we made in the practice pen to keep myself prepared.” It wasn’t their first pressure situation. Green, the 15-year-old son of 10-time NFR header Daniel Green, and Helton earlier this winter won a 10.5 truck roping ...Read More

Thompson and Profili top Hooey Junior BFI for $35K

The Hooey Jr. Championships during Wrangler BFI Week are designed to showcase today’s youth superstars, and the Jr. BFI did that perfectly on March 18 for 18-year-old Texans Kreece Thompson and Kaden Profili. As one of the richest team ropings in the world for kids 18 and under, the Hooey Jr. BFI is patterned after the richest Open roping in the world – the 44th Bob Feist Invitational – which kicked off Wrangler BFI Week on March 14 in Guthrie, Oklahoma’s Lazy E Arena. The Hooey Jr. BFI consists of the Jr. Open and the Jr. 10.5, which limits individual ...Read More

Complete Results From The 2021 BFI Week Hooey Jr Open Championship Roping

First Round: 1. Jett Stewart and Spud Denmark, 6.34 seconds, $2,400; 2. Brayden Schmidt and Logan Cullen, 6.62 seconds, $1,200. Second Round: 1. Brayden Schmidt and Michael Eugenio Calmelat, 5.37 seconds, $2,400; 2. Nicholas Lovins and Trigger Hargrove, 6.23 seconds, $1,200. Third Round: 1. Trey Begay and JR Gonzalez, 5.23 seconds, $2,400; 2. Rowdy K Jones and Chase McGuire, 5.60 seconds, $1,200. Fourth Round: 1. James Arviso and Cooper Freeman, 4.72 seconds, $2,400; 2. Brayden Schmidt and Logan Cullen, 5.24 seconds, $1,200. Short Round: 1. James Arviso and Cooper Freeman, 12.05 seconds, $2,400. Aggregate: 1. Kreece Thompson and Kaden Profili, ...Read More

Fuller wins $12K, Charlie 1 Horse All-Girl Breakaway

Former national collegiate breakaway champion Macy Fuller of Morristown, Arizona, drew the best calf in the finals and made it count on March 17 at the Charlie 1 Horse All-Girl Challenge Breakaway. “I was pulling at the line for all I was worth, because he was slicked-off and small like he would be fast,” said Fuller, 28, whose 3.5-second effort won the round and bested 150 other ropers on three. BFI Photo by Performance Horse Photography After the top two call-backs suffered no-times, Fuller clinched the three-head aggregate title with her 12.02-second total to earn $12,000 cash and a truckload ...Read More