When Steve Friskup dropped the gavel on 8-year-old gelding Sportin Roscoe March 11 at The Horse Sale at Rancho Rio for $200,000, Texans Brooke and Rodey Wilson celebrated the largest horse sale of their cowboying careers. And Colorado businessman Shayne O’Hotto took the reins of probably the greatest head horses he is ever swung a leg over.
Sportin Roscoe—identified and promoted now as South Point—was bred by Jim Rounsaville’s top-notch ranch horse program in Olney, Texas, by Rounsaville’s High Brow Hickory stud Sportin High Brow and out of a ranch horse mare Rounsaville rode named Ellie Mae Sandino.
“He’s a big deal from where we’re from,” Brooke stated. “They might not be known worldwide, but in our part of the world those are the kind of horses you want to have. I’d rather have ranch bred horses than the cutting or cow horse or reining bred horses. Jim was one of the first guys at the Fort Worth Stock Show to sell one for $35,000 20 years ago. He told me a story that when 9/11 happened, he sold one in Fort Worth for $41,000 in the midst of that nightmare.”
The Wilsons had lengthy been associates with CNFR heeler Casey McCleskey, who’s relative Tulia, Texas roper Clint Lewis began and owned the horse as a 4-year-old.
“Casey called me and said, ‘Brooke I’ve got a horse that you’ll love,'” Brooke stated. “We’d just bought a few horses, and we weren’t really doing this as much as we are now. I told him we didn’t need a horse right now, and we’d just bought our place in Amarillo. He said, ‘No I’m bringing him to you. You’ll love him.’ Casey he brings him all the way to our house, and I loved him instantly. Rodey knew Clint, so he asked if we could take him to a jackpot to town. We wanted to see if he’d mind the announcers and the banners and everything. He didn’t—and we were high call at that first roping. Casey gets a lot of credit in this story, but he did rope a leg at high back at that first roping.”
McCleskey, who’d ridden horses for the Wilsons since he was 18, knew Brooke favored a giant, ratey, easy horse who can actually transfer his toes, and straight away the gelding they’d come to name South Point match the invoice.
“He was my horse from the start,” Brooke stated. “Rodey never swung a leg on him in the three years we owned him.”
Wilson and Sportin Roscoe introduced down the home within the white tent at The Horse Sale at Rancho Rio.
Jamie Arviso Courtesy Yost Events
Brooke, who spends her days as an environmental advisor the oilfield, rode him to physician wheat-pasture cattle, and she or he roped on him at World Series ropings large and small. Two-time World Champion Clay Smith even took him to the NFR in Arlington, Texas, in December 2020.
“When he leaves, you know he’s running and has a lot of power,” Brooke stated. “You never feel like he’s rough or will hurt. It doesn’t matter how you want to handle the cattle, it’s always very consistent. I always felt like he was the best horse to ride in the lower-number stuff because he set it up for the heelers. They always wanted him to ride South Point. Everybody loved to heel behind that horse. He’s 1,500 lbs. He looked like one of the saddle bronc horses, but didn’t move like one.”
The Wilsons hold 80 head of geldings at any given time, and so they go to 14 gross sales annually throughout the U.S. But they hold the horses they promote for years at a time between shopping for and promoting to allow them to actually get to know and use them. And, to allow them to get them fed nicely on Zesterra lick tubs and free-choice alfalfa.
“We know exactly what horses we’re putting in Rancho Rio a year ahead of that sale,” Rodey stated. “I bet 90% of people who will put a horse in a sale next year don’t even own the horse yet. We put a lot of work into the ones we’ve got, and when it’s their turn, it’s their turn, whether it’s time to go doctor wheat pasture cattle or brand or go to a team roping.”
Sportin Roscoe stood out on the March 10 preview for The Horse Sale at Rancho Rio.
Jamie Arviso Courtesy Yost Events
Though South Point stood out the place ever he went, not many individuals had ridden him within the three years Brooke owned him.
“My friend Tauna Alcorn rode him because I wanted to see how he’d work with someone else, thinking we’d have a lot of people come and try him before the sale,” Brooke stated. “Kelton Hill who works for us, he’s roped on him a few times too. Clay Smith and True Lacina heeled on him for the videos. So when Shayne came and roped on him, I was a nervous wreck. I just wanted it to be good and didn’t want anyone disappointed.”
Turns out, the horse—who’s by no means worn any boots as a result of the Wilsons’ horses know learn how to use their toes from all the surface using they get—was an ideal match for O’Hotto.
“Truth be known, the horse probably worked better for Shayne than he does with Brooke,” Rodey stated. “He run five head on him and scored them out so far and that horse was getting it. That horse deserved the credit he gets.”
O’Hotto regarded up Brooke after seeing her on the horse earlier within the week on the NTR National Finals VIII offered by Ariat. He tried to cease Brooke to speak to her about her horse, however she was up within the coming quick spherical and lower him off. She did not know him, and she or he did not assume a lot of it.
“My girlfriend Brittany and my friend Larry Ness were looking through the sale catalog last month, and they were talking about the horses but I wasn’t paying any attention to them,” O’Hotto, who’s received a spot in Cave Creek for the winters, stated. “But I saw Brooke riding him at the NTR Finals and I tried to take a video of him to send to Brittany. She couldn’t tell anything from my video, but I came home and saw a post on Facebook about the horse so I showed it to Brittany, and she said that’s the horse she’d picked out from the catalog.”
O’Hotto known as Brooke to arrange a time to come back and experience the horse, however first he provided $30,000 money and stated he would not even strive South Point first in the event that they’d take that. Brooke politely declined, and O’Hotto got here to experience the horse anyway.
“He’s really broke, and he runs to the cow strong and can super face,” O’Hotto stated. “He scores amazing, and he’s a freak.”
O’Hotto’s favourite place to remain and cord in Las Vegas is the South Point, including to the attract of the acquisition.
They needed to have him. O’Hotto had his good friend Larry Ness bid for him, and so they jumped in on the stay bid on the $160,000 mark and received him purchased for $200,000.
“I ran a few practice steers on him Sunday,” O’Hotto stated Monday morning. “I’m on my way to a jackpot now. He’s rock solid.”
For the Wilsons, parting with once-in-a-lifetime horses is all in a day’s work.
“We’ve had so many people in the last 10 days or two weeks ask why we’re selling him,” Brooke stated. “But it’s what we like to do. I’ve got horses at home I’m excited about. If you see what I have coming up, it helps ease the pain. I’m ready to get started on the next one today.” TRJ
