Chad Cherry is what you might expect of an amateur team roper from Guthrie, Oklahoma. He’s quiet and modest and thinks his horse is pretty special. You’d never guess he’d just won a world championship.

“I had a good header in front of me, and he just hopped that steer off in front of me,” Cherry said. “My horse was really good. I was thankful I could come tight on one. There wasn’t anything special about it; I was just fortunate to get him caught. He was a good steer and a good handle.”

As a boy, Cherry grew up watching his cowboy idols in the rodeo arena. 

“I’ve been roping since I was 10 years old,” he said. “I watched Roy Cooper on TV several times at the NFR and liked it, and I don’t know, I just started roping and have loved it ever since.”

His wife, Molly has competed on American Quarter Horses her entire life, and convinced Cherry to try it.

Chad Cherry and Tuff Movin Marv win the amateur heeling with a score of 225.5. This was the first world title for Chad and "Marvin".

“She talked me into it this year,” Cherry said. “I’ve always been just a jackpotter and a rodeo guy, and this is the first year (I’ve shown in AQHA events). I’ve really enjoyed it.”

The transition from the rodeo arena to the show arena hasn’t been without its challenges for Cherry.

“To take the jackpot out of my style and to really show your horse instead of handling the steers is difficult for me,” he said. “Rick Chayer and Steve Orth have helped me a little bit, really critiquing my style of roping and the way that you handle cows and ride the horse.

I enjoy making the horse work over just making the steer handle. It’s very difficult, that’s the joy of it, if you can just put on run together when you want to.”

And his favorite memory with his horse, Tuff Movin Marv, nicknamed “Marvin”?

“Probably the heeling run that I just got finished with there.”