Bob Lines and his team roping gelding, Photons All Round, win the first ever world championship in amateur performance halter geldings. Bob also won the mares class with Photons Classic CD.

“It’s hard to believe that lightning could strike twice in the same spot,” said Bob Lines of Indiantown, Florida.

He said that immediately after winning the first ever amateur performance halter geldings world championship with his team roping gelding, Photons All Round, on November 9.

But the “twice” refers to his win in the amateur performance halter mares with his team roping mare, Photons Classic CD, on November 8.

“It’s hard to believe, but I know they’re good horses,” he said.

Bob actually showed in the first performance halter classes offered in the country on January 1 at the Florida Quarter Horse Association Gulf Coast Circuit in Tampa. When Bob saw the new class listed, he thought he’d try the mare in it because she was so pretty. But it was his daughter, Sandra, who said he ought to show the gelding, too.

“We knew the mare was pretty good, and my daughter, Sandra, said, ‘Dad, you ought to really consider taking that gelding over there,’” Bob said. “So, I ponied them both over there and tied one up to the rail while we showed one. We didn’t have much help at the Gold Coast.”

And now that good suggestion has resulted in a world championship for the gelding the family calls “Brother.”

Bob is president of the Florida Quarter Horse Association and he and his wife, Jan, are well-known at roping events across the state. Their children grew up showing AQHYA and still compete: Son, Bobby, is a roper, and daughter, Sandra, shows over fences.

Brother is Bobby’s rodeo horse and also works on the Lines’ ranch. By the late stallion Photon and out of Paloma Ina by Skippa Crew, Brother was bred by the Triple J Ranch and Jim Miller of Sarasota, Florida.

The horse is a multiple World Show qualifier in heading and heeling and has open Superiors in both. He was also the 2007 Region 10 Experience champion in open heading and the 2006 Region 10 Experience champion in open heading and reserve in open heeling.

Bob couldn’t be more proud of his horses, both the gelding and the mare.

“They’re such nice horses,” he said. “It’s nice to let them be seen in their ability and how they’re made. So everybody can appreciate how they’re made, doing the job they do.

“It’s a good class,” he added. “I think it’s a great class for us to get out the different types of horses out there, and prove how these horses are physically able to do the jobs they do.”