BREAKAWAY ROPING

TOUGH TO BEAT.

BY MEGHAN MACKEY, INTERNET MANAGER 

Matthew Love rode Docs Dextrose to win the breakaway roping Tuesday night.

Matthew Love gives a lot of credit for his win in the breakaway roping to his veteran partner, Docs Dextrose.

“I kind of got a late start (out of the box), but I ride a pretty good horse,” he said. “He caught me up there quick, and I roped him in a 3.6.”

Matthew and “Scooter” clocked a 2.2-second catch in the preliminaries Monday to send them on to Tuesday night’s finals.

“I would have liked to have had a better start, but it all worked out,” the Huntsville, Texas, roper said.

At 16, Scooter has been to his share of rodeos.

“He’s been around a while,” Matthew said. “A lot of the bigger guys rode him back when he was younger. He’s pretty unique. He’s kind of old, but he’s got some character about him. You can tell riding him around he’s pretty goofy.”

Matthew and Scooter have teamed up for two years.

“The man I bought him from couldn’t ride him any more and wanted to see me rope on him,” Matthew said. “So I bought him and put him to good use. I’ve won a lot of money on him.”

Matthew says he likes Scooter’s “go get it” attitude and how he’s “always on go, ready to fire.” But he realizes that Scooter can’t last forever, so he says he babies him a little bit.

“I’ve ridden him at a lot of the bigger youth rodeos. He’s kind of my better horse, so I don’t ride him just everywhere.

“I hope he lasts forever, but he won’t,” Matthew said. “I’ve got young horses coming up behind him.”

Among those is a 4-year-old mare he showed at last year’s Ford Youth World. An injury kept her out of the arena this season, but she’ll be back next year.

“I don’t know if they’ll be as good. He’s pretty tough to beat.”