Keeping Stories Alive
Tori and Robbie Murdock are a North Carolina calf roping power couple whose dedication to quality competition, advocacy, and community education is well known along the East Coast.
Respectively from Villanow, Georgia, and Statesville, North Carolina, they make their home together in Statesville but spend plenty of time burning up the rodeo road as competitors in the Southern Rodeo Association (SRA) and the International Pro Rodeo Association (IPRA).
Maelee Wade is one determined lady. A cowgirl from Georgia, she made headlines by winning the 2023 World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA) Rodeo Carolina. Not only did she take home $25,000, but she reminded folks roping talent goes far beyond the western states with a smoking 2.45 second run.
It’s that time of the year–for NFR and holiday cheer. Custom saddle maker and PRCA steer wrestler Pat Hooper of Pat Hooper Leatherwrks will be …
On Saturday, November 11, horse trailers lined the roads of Athens, Texas as the top steer wrestlers from across the country descended upon Pat Hooper Leatherwrks Annual Veterans Day Jackpot.
Hooper, a PRCA steer wrestler, saddle maker, and veteran, proudly hosts this jackpot every year with the intention of providing quality competition and top notch prizes.
With the support of multiple sponsors, Hooper delivered on both, and winner Chase Crane took home $7,000, plus a saddle and other assorted prizes.
This week Athens, TX saddlemaker and PRCA steer wrestler Pat Hooper was on site at the State Fair of Texas delivering 14 beautiful trophy saddles for the event champions to be awarded during the upcoming United Pro Rodeo Association (UPRA) finals.
If you started this journey with us and read A Saddle is Born: Part 1, you know we’ve joined Pat Hooper for an inside glimpse of the custom saddle making process. So far, the Texas saddlemaker and PRCA steer wrestler has set the ground seats and is now focusing on the horn, swells and riggings as he moves towards the back housing parts and skirt moldings around the tree.
Have you ever wondered how a custom saddle is built? In partnership with Texas saddle maker and PRCA steer wrestler Pat Hooper of Pat Hooper Leatherwrks, I’m proud to walk you through the process from start to finish.
Pat Hooper may have grown up in east Texas, but he has been a part of rodeo culture all across America. His father James Hooper owned and operated Rawhide Productions and was one of the leading producers in the black rodeo movement of the early 1970s. The rodeos ranged from Memphis to D.C. and attracted greats such as the Bobby Blue Bland and B.B. King to add melody to the magic. These adventures continued at RFK Stadium and even led to a Saudi Arabian sheik calling the elder Hooper and asking him to come produce a rodeo. Pat traveled across the U.S. with his father and followed in his footsteps as a calf roper.
A native of Sulphur, Oklahoma, Treptow didn’t start out walking the cowboy way. He spent his earlier years with a distinctive skater punk style, enjoying the adrenaline of four wheels over four legs. A time of transition started during junior high when he purchased a film camera at a local pawn shop and quickly became the kid carrying it around and taking pictures of everything in sight. Repetitive practice, paired with YouTube videos and internet tutorials, slowly took him beyond the point and click phase and gave him an interest in furthering his knowledge. His determination and dedication served him well, and his talents began to grow.
When I first met Mike Kemp, he was by the front entrance to the arena of the Stormont Vail Events Center in Topeka, Kansas with a black felt cowboy hat and a presence that seemed to indicate he was an integral part of the passion that keeps rodeo alive.
His dedicated offering of time and talent helps several different rodeo associations and his love for the sport has now led him back into the bucking chutes after a multi-year hiatus.
As a child growing up in Iowa, Mike had an attraction to horses from an early age. He was able to explore this interest and gain exposure to the rodeo world while spending summers with his grandparents and their horses. Rodeo was a family-wide hobby for the Kemps, with his mom’s uncle a competitive roper and his brother David a bareback rider in high school rodeo.
