Riata’s first year of tracking has pushed $2.87 million in team roping earnings onto AQHA papers. Through mid-July, the National Rope Horse Rewards Program has recorded $2,869,179 in team roping earnings against the papers of 269 registered horses. Those checks were won at WSTR, USTRC and Global-run jackpots that have been paying ropers for years. What is new is that the money now travels with the horse.
That is the whole premise of the program Riata launched in January with AQHA and Equine Network. For $300 a season, any aggregate check a horse-and-rider combination wins at a Global Handicaps roping counts toward a monthly cash drawing and lands in a database built to follow the horse for the rest of its career. Ropers have logged 1,045 qualifying checks so far, an average of just under $2,750 apiece.
Riata-nominated horses are carrying a heavy share of it. Eighty-eight of the 269 horses on the list are by a Riata stallion, and those horses account for $908,020, or 32% of everything recorded. Sixty stallions are represented, led by Hickory Holly Time, whose three head have combined for $72,985 across 35 checks.
