The $225,000 check is headed to New Mexico.
Michael Ortiz of Bosque Farms and Adrian Martinez of Los Lunas, New Mexico, ran four steers in 29.94 seconds to win the Ariat World Series of Team Roping #12.5 Ariat Finale and a life-changing $225,000.
Their win was more than just four clean runs—it was years in the making.
"Since I was a little kid, he's just helped throughout everything since I moved away from home," 25-year-old Ortiz said of 35-year-old Martinez. "He's just a big supporter."
"He took me under his wing," Ortiz told Amy Wilson. "I lived at his house in my living quarters trailer for a couple months until I found my own house and we just stayed roping forever after that. We rope dang near every day."
"We buy horses together, we make roping moves together," Martinez said. "We've really just come a long way in not a lot of time. We just kind of started clicking together and it works out great."
For Martinez, the win was all in the family.
"I've roped with my dad and my brother forever," he said. "We push each other a lot. My dad and brother were outside and they congratulated me real quick, gave me a big hug, and then had to run outside to go rope."
Their 7.72, 7.28 and 7.33-second runs put them in the high-call spot for the short round.
"I've been having hell all week," Ortiz said. "But this morning, I pulled out my Rank Racks and went to work."
"Block and tackle," Martinez said of his strategy. "Just get to the inside, make sure to get two feet. Like he said too, I was having hell the last couple days%u2026 But I have a Hox dummy in the trailer and set it up this morning. He roped the dummy, I roped the Hox and we just turned it all around."
In the short round, their 7.61-second run sealed the deal.
"I was pretty nervous," Ortiz admitted. "I mean, I've never backed in the box for that much money before and it's just life changing."
"We had the pack by six-tenths of a second," Martinez added. "But I said, you know what, we've been seven on all three steers, don't be afraid, go try to win the roping. Who wants to win fifth?"
Ortiz's 10-year-old gelding Montoya Gage "Dagger" and Martinez's 9-year-old W Bar Jag "Jag" helped get the job done.
"I pretty much rope because of Roy Montoya," Ortiz said of Dagger's original owner. "I've had this horse for about two years, and he's changed everything."
"He's helped me out with my heeling a bunch," Martinez said of Sid Cervantes, who owns Jag. "He's got a few that are young age, I've got a few horses that are young age. We've talked about it a little bit, and after this win, we're going to go into the horse show deals to get this year started and see how it goes."
