Give Tom Crouse a horse, a rope and a calf on the run and watch his natural cowboy instincts take over.
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Crouse, a junior at Gallatin R-5 High School, was on the top of his “game” last weekend, winning the RFD TV Jr. American Calf Roping competition during the Jr. American Rodeo. The event ran from Feb. 27 to March 1 at the Will Rogers Coliseum in Forth Worth, TX.
The Jr. American is open to young men and women, age 19 or younger, who qualified earlier at one of 33 events held across the country from July 2018 to Feb. 27, 2019.
Calf roping derives from the duties of actual working cowboys, who often must catch and restrain calves for branding or medical treatment. Ranch hands took pride in the speed in which they could rope and tie a calf, which led to informal contests.
In calf roping competition, a rider will put his horse into a gallop from a standstill shortly after the calf is released. The rider must lasso the calf from horseback by throwing a lariat around the calf’s neck. Once the calf is roped, the rider signals his horse to stop quickly while he does a flying dismount and runs to the calf. The calf must be stopped by the rope but may not be thrown to the ground by the rope. When the roper reaches the calf, he picks it up and flips it onto its side.
Once the calf is on the ground the roper ties three of the calf’s legs together with a short rope known as a tie-down rope or “piggin string.” The piggin string is often carried between the roper’s teeth until he uses it. The horse is trained to assist the roper by slowly backing away from the calf in order to maintain steady tension on the rope. When the tie is complete, the roper throws his hands into the air to signal time and stop the clock. The roper mounts his horse and moves the horse to relax tension on the rope. The timer waits for six seconds during which time the calf must remain tied in order for an official time to be recorded.
Top professional calf ropers will rope and tie a calf in 7 seconds. The world record is 6 seconds. Tom’s winning time on Sunday in the Jr. American was 7.62, .48 of a second better than the second place finisher.
Tom qualified for the Jr. American at the Rising Stars calf roping and the Patriot calf roping. In the first round of the Jr. American roping the field was narrowed down to 50. Those who made the cut then roped another calf and the 15 fastest roped in the “short go” of the Jr. American. The top 2 from the short go roped another calf at the AT&T Stadium on Sunday to decide the Jr. American Champion.
By finishing first in the Jr. American calf roping competition, Crouse earned the opportunity to compete against the “big boys” of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in RFD-TV’s The American, which was held Friday night through Sunday at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Arlington, TX.
Tom is the son of Gene and Carrie (Froman) Crouse of Gallatin. All of the Crouses, including Tom’s sister, Kirbie, have grown up competing on the rodeo circuit. Gene and Carrie both rodeoed in high school and college, then went on to Pro Rodeos (Gene made the Great Lakes Circuit finals 7 times), the Missouri