Breakaway Roping

Ryder Ladner wins two trophies at his first-ever Ford Youth World.

by Allison Armstrong
The American Quarter Horse Journal

On August 11, the last day of the 2012 Built Ford Tough AQHYA World Championship Show, 14-year-old Ryder Ladner, of Kiln, Mississippi, won the youth world championship in breakaway roping.

The breakaway roping finals were fraught with missed calves and broken barriers, but Ryder completed a clean, fast run on his first horse in the class, Starbuck San Lena. With a finish time of 2.314, Ryder walked away from the class with two trophies: the coveted gold world championship trophy and a first place intermediate award.

Not bad for his first time at the Ford Youth World – not bad at all.

“That was the game plan when we went in – to come out with two trophies in the breakaway roping,” Ryder explained in his Journal winning run interview. “So it’s all going good right now.”

Ryder also placed eighth in the class with his second horse, Red Hot Fritzy Joe, a red roan gelding.

“I really didn’t plan on winning it with (Starbuck San Lena),” Ryder said. “I planned on winning it with (Red Hot Fritzy Joe), and it all fell apart. But I won it on him and the good Lord was with me, I guess.”

Bred by Tom and Mary Austin of MT Ranch in Bowie, Texas, Starbuck San Lena is a 2000 buckskin gelding by Skippers Grand Slam and out of Stars San Lena by Poco San Lena.

“When I was going in (to the arena), I was trying not to look at the calf,” Ryder said about his run on Starbuck San Lena. “Then when I got in the box, (the horse) started fighting with me. Then I got him squared. He never did get in the corner right, so I just stuck him where he was, and it all worked.”

Thanks to the influence of several uncles and family members, Ryder began roping at a very early age. He roped his first steer from the ground at the age of two, and “it just went on from there.”

For Ryder, the excitement of roping comes from the unexpected: “(You) never know what’s about to happen, never know who’s gonna win, who’s not, who’s gonna come in the best and leave the worst, who’s gonna come in the worst and leave the best.”