Mason Saunders and Jaxson Tucker won $26,500 in a team-roping rodeo competition last December in Wickenburg, Arizona.
Saunders learned bull-roping when he was 15 or 16, and he's been doing it for roughly half his life. "It's just part of who you are". (He and Tucker grew up 30 minutes from each other in North Carolina.) Team roping involves two people, one rider roping the head of the steer while the other ropes its back legs.
Although Saunders has been involved in the rodeo community for years, he's also well-known to many people whose knowledge of rodeos is either non-existent or limited to Baskets the Clown.