Posted by Quentin Jodie | Oct 30, 2014 | Rodeo |

Tuba City roper steps up to the plate and earns 1st qualification

WINDOW ROCK

Is it the horse that makes the rider?

Or is it the rider that makes the horse?

That paradox is rodeo’s variation in the chicken and egg debate.

For professional team roper Aaron Tsinigine he supports the former – but not by much.

“I think the main deal is horsepower,” Tsinigine said. “The guys with the best horses are going to win.”

As one of the top 15 headers in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, Tsinigine said if he were to ride another horse other than his bay horse – Smudge – he would not have accomplished his life goal of making the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

The season-ending championship event is scheduled for Dec. 4-13 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev.

“The horsepower is the main thing,” Tsinigine said. “If I were to ride another horse I would have struggled.”

Still, Tsinigine says he would not have made the NFR if it weren’t for his skills. So to help put this debate to rest this reporter asked him to quantify those percentages.

“I think it’s 50-50,” he said.

Not long after he realized his reply, Tsingine corrected himself and said, “I put the slight edge with the horse.”

In addition to Smudge, the Tuba City, Ariz., cowboy also lauded Texas cowboy Ryan Motes for getting him to his first NFR.

“I give all the credit to him because he was the one that got me there,” Tsinigine said of Motes. “He heeled about 85 percent of the steers that I turned. I never had a partner that has done that for me.”

Unfortunately, the two ropers will not be teaming up at this year’s finals as Motes finished No. 17 in the world, missing the cut by a mere $1,913.

“It hasn’t hit me yet but I felt so terrible that I couldn’t get my partner in there,” Tsinigine said. “It was kind of my fault because I roped terrible the last three weeks of the season to where I couldn’t get him in.”