It’s not every day The Team Roping Journal’s videos break the internet, but when we catch J.D. Yates stacking coils over his saddle horn heeling to save a placing at the 2024 AQHA World Show, we sort of can’t help ourselves.

But–more importantly—Yates won the AQHA Junior Heading World Title on Tearney Ranch’s Sue C Royalty. The 2020 mare by One Time Royalty out of Sue C Lena marked a 229.0, worth $25,298.85 for the win against 76 other 5-and-under horses in the Level 3 Championships

In this episode of The Score, we catch up with Yates the day after his win from the practice pen to get his hot take on the state of the rope horse training industry and where we go from here.