Utah’s Randy Brooks (opens in a new tab) has been coming to the World Series of Team Roping Finale since its inaugural year in 2006. Any contestant who roped in the first Finale is considered a Legacy Roper and is atomically qualified each year. Brooks has roped in all 12 WSTR (opens in a new tab) Finales despite a major injury in 2014 while roping with Quinn Kesler (opens in a new tab) in the #15 Finale.
“My grey horse Bubba (17-year-old) breaks really hard but he also has a really long stride,” Brooks said. “He broke a certain way and I just wasn’t ready for it. It snapped me back and then forward. It broke my pelvis and pulled my left abductor off the pelvis with a chunk of bone about the size of a dime. I had to draw out the whole week.”
Brooks was still riding nearly two weeks after the incident when he discovered the injury was more serious than he originally thought.
“I waited too long and they couldn’t operate on it,” Brooks explained.
With surgery out of the question Brooks’ only option was to begin physical therapy.
“I went to therapy three times a week for almost a year,” Brooks said. “I just did exactly what I was supposed to do. I built a little place on our barn—had some exercise equipment. I couldn’t take the time to go to a gym. A year later I tore the tendon in my right foot. I had the Justin Sports Medicine guys wire me together here every day. This is the first year that I’ve been healthy in three years—it sucks.”
Brooks is back at the World Series of Team Roping Finale XII roping in the #13 Yeti Finale down to the #8.
“We did good in the #13 Yeti Finale,” Brooks said. “I didn’t make it in the short round in the #12 Ariat Finale yesterday—I split the horns and fished it on. We were about half a second out.”
Brooks is roping on his 9-year-old sorrel gelding he calls Cattle Guard.
“When he was 2 years old he got in the cattle guard and we had to fish him out,” Brooks said.
In 1974, Brooks and his wife purchased a bullet manufacturing company then sold it in 2010. He now focuses on his ranch and roping.
“We still worked there for another five years,” Brooks said. “I moved my desk out about a year and a half ago. When we sold our company we went heavily into expanding our ranching operation—that’s what we do. I have a lot of help there. I just fixated on roping and so that’s mostly what I do,” Brooks said.
Nothing can keep Brooks from maintaining his Legacy Roper status at the Finale.
“We have seven horses—I rope twice a week,” Brooks said. “We keep about 45 steers. I usually rope in the #15 but I’m just not ready for that level yet—maybe next year.”
