Two world renowned team roping heelers, Miles Baker and Joseph Harrison, won big checks this last weekend at the American Rope Horse Futurity Association (ARHFA) Cowtown Classic in Fort Worth.
Baker is a well known rope horse trainer in the equine industry. This past weekend, Baker and his heel horse Lil Bit O Cash finished first at the Pre-Futurity Heeling, earning $8779 in total.
Baker describes Lil Bit O Cash as a “super neat colt.” He got the horse from Tom McCutcheon when the horse was 2-years-old. Baker used the horse on the head and heel side at first, but quickly realized that Lil Bit O Cash belonged on the back end.
“He’s just always had a real fun, short stride. I always say some people are left handed and some people are right handed, and that horse has always wanted to hold his head to the left a little bit and holds his shoulders right for a heel horse,” Baker said.
Joseph Harrison is a six-time NFR team roping heeler qualifier and is now putting his abilities to work in the rope horse world. While the two competitions are similar, roping in the ARHFA is less about roping the steer fast, and more about making a uniform run each time.
“It (ARHFA) is more of a setup. Trying to get your horse set up to where you can get through several runs and it look the same, like it’s easy for them,” Harrison said. He went on to say “everytime I set it down, I would like for it to look the same.”
Winning as much as Harrison does, one might wonder what the secret is, but to Harrison it is simple.
“We are just like everybody else. Get up earlier, stay later and try harder while we are there and hopefully the results will show up,” he said.
The results definitely showed up this past weekend for Harrison and his lineup of rope horses.
He took the top three spots in the Futurity Heeling and took home $25,758. He won first with his horse CR Better Be Tuff. second with Copperton, and third with Bet Hesa Smooth Cat.
