Down to Earth

A rancher by trade, Tripp Townsend also has a strong knack for winning in team roping, ranch rodeo and, most recently, cracking into the elite ranks of the National Reined Cow Horse Association. Townsend and his wife, Hope, have built their Sandhill Cattle Co. in tiny Earth, Texas, on the backs of the good horses it takes to perform daily ranch tasks—horses that also transition quite nicely to the competition arena.

RANCHING ROOTS

I n the mid-80s, the Townsend family lived in Colorado on the Butler Ranch near Fowler, which gave Tripp early exposure to good roping partners—a couple of legends, in fact.

“There was an older gentleman there by the name of Gus Webb who had an arena and liked to rope,” Townsend said. “So I was fortunate enough that me and Randy Knight would get to go over there to rope. J.D. and Dick Yates would come over there sometimes, too. J.D. actually gave me my first heel horse, an old horse that he just let me keep till the horse died. That was in about 1984; we