Stubblefield enjoys life in the saddle
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If his professional rodeo winnings are any indication, whatever his dad, Jeff Stubblefield, was hoping for when he sat his son on the back of a horse as a newborn fresh from the hospital has rubbed off a little bit, to say the least.
At 26, Stubblefield is emerging as one of the leading team ropers in the international rodeo circuit, which includes rodeos in several states and other countries.
Called the International Professional Rodeo Association (IPRA), he is currently noted in the rodeo magazine Pro Rodeo World and won the IPRA’s coveted Rookie of the Year designation last year, when he finished the season third in the world.
He won the IPRA’s Southeastern region for team roping last year as well and was among one of the top 600 teams to attend the George Straight Classic team roping competition in San Antonio, Texas just two months ago, which culminated in meeting the country music star.
“I was raised in it,” he said. “My dad always did it when I was a little kid and I always wanted to be good with it.”
This year, he is placing first so far in the IPRA and the Professional Cowboy Association, of which ultimate success will depend upon how much money he takes in acting as a header, or the one who ropes the head of the steer. A teammate, called a heeler, ties the feet. Last year, he roped with the best heeler in the world, Steven Britnell.
“He’s a cowboy all the way,” Stubblefield’s mother, Sandra, said of Chris, noting he and his brother Brandon, 23, live and breathe horses. “They wouldn’t be happy doing anything else.”
Success for Chris lies not in his roping skills, but with the horse, and that’s where all that practice comes in. When he’s not on the road, for example, being trapped in Canada after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Stubblefield practices at his father’s house in rural Warren County.
Practice involves not so much roping skills, but preparing the horse for competition. He has some secrets he’s not willing to reveal, but points out the horse is what it’s all about.
“We rope, but it’s more for the horse than it is for me,” he said. “You have to be quick and your horse starts to try to shut you out and I try to free him up so I can do it the next weekend.”
That entails practicing enough without wearing the horse down so that when competition time comes, the horse will work with him more easily.
He has been riding Zippy, an 8-year-old gelding, for about three years, but credits Snoopy for his successes.
“Snoopy’s the one who has gotten me where I’m at. I hauled him up until three years ago. I don’t haul him as much as I used to,” he said, noting Snoopy is now 18 years old.
Whatever his current and future successes with Zippy, Stubblefield is happy doing what he’s doing.
“It is something I enjoy and I can make money at it too, and I get to travel and see the country,” he said. Last week, he traveled through Tennessee, Alabama and Virginia in three days. Last year, Stubblefield’s winnings with the IPRA were officially about $18,000, but he won about double that in all.
Deep down, he knows he has been given a gift. And in true cowboy fashion, he credits his family for their support and his horses for their nature. He wants to continue to practice to remain competitive with the other professionals.
“The level I’m at, that’s what they do for a living. When you get that far, you’ve got to practice and know what you’re doing. It’s like a job to be good at it because you’ve got to work at it all the time.”
And, of course, he wants to win.
“God gave me a talent and I want to use it,” he added.