With a solid 222.5, 16-year-old Ryan Schroeder of Gainesville, Texas, and his 1998 bay gelding, Cant Skippa Blaze, took home the heading youth world championship at the 2007 Ford AQHYA World Championship Show.
The win is another in a long list for Ryan. He has multiple high-point and Superior awards in roping events, in addition to three previous youth world championships in tie-down, heading and heeling, and a reserve in heading. And that’s not counting his success in rodeo and roping futurities.
He and Cant Skippa Blaze also won the world championship in senior heading at the 2006 AQHA World Championship Show in Oklahoma City.
“I’ve got good horses,” Ryan said, and he gives credit to his dad for what he’s learned, AQHA Professional Horseman Robbie Schroeder.
“My dad’s my trainer,” Ryan said. “And he’s one of the best, ever, I think. I don’t have to worry about not having a good horse.
“He (always) says, ‘Try hard, you don’t always have to be first as long as you put out a good effort. If your horse is good, you win sometimes, and sometimes you won’t.”
Ryan said he wouldn’t be where he is if his dad and mom, Joanie, weren’t there to support him and to haul him, showing and rodeoing.
“A bunch of people help me,” Ryan said. “(Trainer) Shawn Darnell, he’s helped me every year. I can’t thank him enough.”
Ryan’s young horse also made a good showing in the evening’s finals, a 2002 buckskin mare named Roosters Rosie. They finished ninth in the tie-down and the heading, and eighth in the heeling. The mare is a granddaughter of AQHA Superhorse Diamonds Sparkle.
But the hero of the evening was his longtime partner, Cant Skippa Blaze.
“He’s easy, anybody can ride him,” Ryan said. “He’ll give me the same spot every time; he never tries to cheat me. He’ll give his 110 percent every time you ask him to.”
To up and coming young ropers, Ryan had this advice: “You’ve got to practice; a lot. I spend my whole year practicing, getting better. Tavis Walters, he stayed with me all summer, and he’s one of my best friends.
“At nights when we’d get done roping, we’ll stay up and rope the dummy.”
Ryan must be right about practice paying off: earlier in the evening, his buddy Tavis won the youth world championship in the tie-down.
