If you kept up to date with the team roping results and highlights from the CPRA rodeos at all this summer, you would've seen Sid Sporer's name pop up pretty frequently amongst the top. The 38 year-old from Cody Wyoming strung together a pile of good runs behind Saskatchewan's Tee McLeod to enter CFR 50 as the #4 Heeler with $25,198 in CPRA season earnings. He also racked up $73,960 in PRCA earnings to currently sit 28th in the world on the heel side. While it is not Sporer's 1st CFR, it is his first since 2007 and it was great to talk to him about the changes he has seen with team roping in Canada since then, his season, his horses and everything else going on as he gears up for Edmonton over the next 2 weeks.
Question: How was your season and what was it like roping with Tee?
Answer: It was good, I couldn't have asked for a better partner. Roping with him was great, we never had any arguments, we were both on the same page. We both wanted to do whatever it was going to take to win, we both knew what the main goal was and there was no egos getting in our way. We fell short of our main goal of trying to make the NFR and I kind of blame myself being the veteran of the team. He's ventured out some but for his 1st year of really going down there, he handled it as good as you possibly could. But we did accomplish our second goals of making damn sure he got into Houston and San Antonio and all the good building rodeos to set us up for next year. That was the main thing, to get one year under our belts and get our run put together and give ourselves the best chance we possibly could for next year to start from the very beginning to the very end.
Question: How'd you end up roping with Tee?
Answer: I didn't really know Tee when I asked him to rope last year. I had obviously seen that he had a lot of success in Canada and I knew that he had a good horse. At the end of the day, Kolton Schmidt is the one that told me that Tee was the guy I needed to ask and that he was the real deal and it kind of went from there. After the winter I had some guys ask me to rope but I kept going back to Tee cause he's young, he's hungry, he wants to win and he's got good horses and those are the things you look for in a partner. The sky is the limit for that guy honestly, he can take his roping as far as he wants with his talent and the horses he's got, I've been fortunate to get to rope with him.
Question: Where do you rope/stay when you're up here?
Answer: We've been roping at Bobbi's (Henderson) house in Alix. That's where we stayed the whole time I was up there. They've got a nice indoor and outdoor arena and a handful of good steers for us to rope. That family has been so good to me, they've welcomed me with open arms and it's such a nice place/facility. They've been extremely good to me.
Question: What's your horsepower look like?
Answer: I rode my buckskin for most of the year in Canada. He's been huge for me, he's not one that's going to standout in a crowd or that people are going to 'OOO' & 'AHH' over but he just does his job. He's extremely tough, he can handle the miles and he gives me the same throw every time. He's just extremely easy. I have a sorrel heel horse that I used at all the building rodeos and Caldwell, he's got a little bit more speed and he likes to keep a little bit more separation to the cow. I'm going to start the Canadian Finals on my sorrel horse and go from there.
Question: What's your favorite rodeo up here in Canada?
Answer: Ponoka is obviously a phenomenal rodeo, it's such a unique rodeo in itself with the different start. Lyle Kurtz has done so much for the sport of team roping up there. I made the CFR in 2007 and I've watched team roping evolve up there since to what it is today and all these young guys having the opportunity to rope for that kind of money is huge. Especially with when I started up there, team roping wasn't even a major event and a lot of places didn't even have it and for it to grow into what it is now, that's crazy. Lyle Kurtz is 99% of the reason that team roping has evolved like it has up there and his added money has put Ponoka on the map as the biggest 4th of July weekend rodeo there is in the world. It makes it pretty hard to say anything but Ponoka.
Sundre is also a great rodeo, it's a cool perf. Armstrong was dang sure a cool rodeo. Actually outside of Ponoka, Falkland was a pretty cool rodeo, it was packed. The fans in Bruce should receive an award for the greatest rodeo fans of all time, the ones that stayed from the beginning to the end were probably there for at least 11 hours.
Question: What's your rope of choice?
Answer: That's not a good question to ask me right now haha. I'm a firm believer that everyone's safety blanket is the Powerline Lite but this summer I used the Radar some and lately I've been using XR4 Lites. You can guarantee that I'll probably have a couple XR4s but there will be more Powerlines in my rope bag when I show up. I use a Powerline Lite Medium. I actually believe that you could pull a guy out of the beer stand that's never touched a rope before and if you gave him a Powerline Lite heel rope, he'll be a 9+, that's how good those ropes are.
Question: Who's had the biggest influence on your roping career?
Answer: My dad, he's the one that gave me all the knowledge, all the help, anything that I needed. He was that one that drove me and made sure I had good horses. When I was getting old enough to rope full time, he switched from being a heeler to a header to make sure I always had somebody to turn steers for me and help me get better. He took me to a ton of schools.
In my adult life, it's been the guys that I've been around. You watch those guys and you get help from them. Growing up around Brady (Tryan),I was always around the Tryans, and just being around those guys and watching them rope, helped a lot. Jeremy Buhler has helped me a lot with my roping, we're close friends and we bounced ideas off of each other and there's a lot of times I ask him for advice when things aren't going good. And to see what he's done, from the guy with one buckskin horse who was trying to figure it out to who he is today...He has taught me that hard work and perseverance can accomplish anything.
Question: What else do you want to accomplish in your career?
Answer: You know, the reason that I started rodeoing again after taking 4 or 5 years off to work and make money is that I didn't want to lay in bed at night and wonder had I got up and tried a little harder, could've I made a better career for myself rodeoing. I didn't want to leave myself with any of the "What Ifs". I've worked hard the last couple years to accomplish what I have and I still feel like I have a lot left on the table, I'd love to qualify for the NFR. That's my ultimate goal, to check that off my list, but at the end of the day I know that doesn't define me as a person. Yes it would be a big check mark on my career but it doesn't define my life. I just want to make sure I don't leave anything on the table. I don't want to look back and say if I had tried a little bit harder or got up a little bit earlier or if I had done anything different that I maybe could've made something better for myself. That's why I came back, I had something to prove to myself at 38 years-old.
Question: What other CPRA Heel Horse would you like to swing a leg over?
Answer: There's some horses that really stand out to me that I have got the chance to swing a leg over. Denim Ross's sorrel horse is one of the nicest horses that I've rode, that horse was really fun to ride, he's the real deal. Obviously Jeremy Buhler has a handful of really cool horses that I would love to ride at some point. Braden Brost's roan horse really stood out at Lethbridge when Landen Glenn rodeo him, that horse looked really easy. Kasper Roy has some damn nice horses. I'm going to leave somebody out and I don't mean to. With the futurities and everything stepping up their game in Canada, it's brought to light that horse flesh. There's just so many guys that have so many nice horses.
Question: Who are you most excited to watch in Edmonton?
Answer: I know everybody else has answered this question but I'm excited, I think this is the best group of guys going to the Finals that I have ever seen. It going to be crazy, there's a lot of guys that I'm excited to watch. There's some guys who are unreal when their backs are against the wall and the spotlight gets big. The Dustin Birds and the Brady Tryans, the bigger the stage the bigger the performance, whether it's Bird and Buhler in Ponoka or Brady at the CFR last year. Throw in Levi Simpson and Kolton Schmidt, those guys have been there so many times and are unreal. Or a young guy like Landen Glenn who has no fear and doesn't know anything different. I'm excited to be apart of it. I can't think of one team that isn't capable of just blowing everybody's doors off this year.
Don't forget to get entered up in the 2024 CFR Pool! Last year the NFR Pool of the same format paid out $9,700 between round winnings, average winnings and the main payout! Check out the details on how to get in below
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