It was a true pleasure meeting Junior, a team roper from Brazil. He is here on a sports visa and loves being in the United States. Junior is from Santa Barbara d’Oeste, São Paula, Brazil, and he’s 29 years old.
He and his partner, Adam Schlechty, competed in the Team Roping event at the Darke County Spring Stampede Rodeo held at The Great Darke County Fairgrounds in Greenville, Ohio, where they won their event with a time of 6.4 seconds.
For those who need help understanding how team roping works. The header catches the steer’s head and spins the steer while the Heeler catches both feet and then dallies (which means they take their rope around the horn of their saddle), and the horse backs up to take out the slack, and the flagger, who is on another horse watching for a clean run and roping, drops his flag for a finished time. The fastest time, with a clean run, wins. Junior’s joy of connecting with horses and his love for the rodeo made that win really sweet to watch. 
You will hear us all cheering for them when you watch the video. His partner, Adam, whom they call “The Half a Million Dollar Man” with his earnings, is also my nephew, making this event even more exciting! Adam has been roping since he was a boy, and growing up, you always had to be careful, or he would rope your feet, and you were caught before you knew what happened. In the following video, Junior shares a little about his story of roping and being here in the United States, and the second video shows their winning run.
