The WRANGLER Horse and Rodeo News is an equine and rodeo publication with circulation in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, Utah and Idaho.
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4 The WRANGLER, Horse and Rodeo News • February 5-19, 2021 Wri en by Hope Raley The 2020 rodeo season for the PRCA Montana Circuit recently concluded and yearend champions along with average champions were crowned in each event. In the team roping it was brothers-in- law Radley Day and Taylor Williams who finished out the three round finals on top in the average. Day, who is married to Williams older sister Ashley, and Williams were also sure to keep the horsepower in the family, riding full sisters by the family's late stallion Frenchmans Bullet, to the win! As many breeders know, raising and training great horses is not an over-night process, nor a year or even 5-year process. Great programs and great horses take me. For two full siblings to win a year end tle in any event is feather in any breeder's hat. Day rode the older sister of the two (by only A Family Affair at Montana Circuit Finals A Family Affair at Montana Circuit Finals a year), "J-Lo", while Williams rode 9-year-old "Baby". Both mares are by Frenchmans Bullet and out of Beanie Baybe Chic, who is a granddaughter of Cassidy Cassanova. "It is pre y neat to win on horses that we have raised and trained," explained Day. "J-Lo is owned and trained by my father-in-law Bud Williams. We all think it is such an accomplishment and a testament to his (Bud's) program that two-full sisters won the year end in an event. It takes years of me and work to raise and make good horses, so when it works out it is special and makes winning on them that much sweeter! I feel fortunate to get to ride horses out of Buds program." Both Day and Williams would agree that J-Lo and Baby are very business-minded horses and consistent- which is a deadly combina on when it comes to rodeo. "Both mares are pre y similar in how they score and the leave the box," said Williams. "It is fun to see the similari es between the two sisters. Another thing that makes them such great horses is that they are super diversified." Not only did Williams win the average in the team roping at the Montana Circuit Finals on "Baby", his wife, Joey, also won the year end in the breakaway roping on her- which proves just how diversified the talented mare is! Williams, who grew up watching his dad Bud build their horse program has learned a pile of life lessons from paying a en on over the years. "I think a couple important things about a family driven program is that it can be a good example of you get out what you put in. It can help teach work ethic if our kids decide that they want to get involved in it." Both Day and Williams would like to extend a big thank you to Majes c Valley Arena in Kalispell for stepping up and hos ng the circuit finals a er a very uncertain 2020. Rad ley and Taylor - MT Circuit Finals Team Roping Champions Rad ley and Taylor - MT Circuit Finals Team Roping Champions Photo by JackieJensenPhotography.com Photo by JackieJensenPhotography.com