DOMINATING YEAR Angelone Adds Name to History Books with 2022 WPRA World Champion Breakaway Roping Title By Ted Harbin A round Thanksgiving this year, Martha Angelone (pronounced Ang-a-lone-e) loaded
up her truck and trailer and left Stephenville, Texas, for the Nevada desert. She was missing something, though. She was packed and on her way, but the most cherished piece of her championship puzzle was staying behind. Spots Lil Legend, a 13-year-old sorrel gelding she calls Legend, couldn’t make the trip. He was still rehabilitating after colic surgery in September.
“It broke my heart that I had to leave for the finals and couldn’t take him with me,” said Angelone, originally from Cross Junction, Virginia, but now living in Stephenville, Texas. “He’s doing perfectly fine now, but I was only going to have a week to get him ready for the finals instead of giving him more time and getting him ready for the big winter rodeos next year. “He’s old enough, too. These horses deserve the time off that they need, and I knew I was going to need him for next year. Going out there, I realized I needed to win one check, and I’d win the world.” That’s because Angelone was pretty dominant, especially toward the
Martha Angelone roped her first WPRA World Title in 2022 dominating the breakaway roping finishing with record earnings of $130,304. She became the first cowgirl, who started her career in the State of Virginia, to win a world title in breakaway roping. WPRA photo by Dan Levosky
end of the regular season. She won San Antonio; Reno, Nevada; the NFR Open in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and shared titles in Red Lodge, Montana, and Goliad, Texas. She entered the National Finals Breakaway Roping at the South Point in Las Vegas No. 1 in the world standings with $109,000, then earned $21,000 over two days to earn her first Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. “It is my first WPRA world title and I’m going to try to make it repeat as many times as I possibly can,” she said. “My goal is to make the NFR and be in the top 15 and set myself up for each year. I feel like how I looked at it this year, I set myself up for a lot better. All of our goals are to win the world. I didn’t set that as a goal when I got there. “I told myself, ‘Go place on every calf.’ I didn’t really have the horsepower I had this (regular season), but I had a different mindset. How it played out this year had a lot to do with my mindset.” It was a bit of an up-and-down campaign to get her to the breakaway roping finals. She had one big win in the Texas buildings, and that came in San Antonio. That was worth more than $11,000 and kept her in the game. Once the summer run hit, so did Angelone. While riding Legend, she gathered big checks in a hurry. At three rodeos spread over a month, from mid-June to mid-July, she collected nearly $35,000, with almost $26,000 coming at the NFR Open. “For me, standing on the stage at the Thomas & Mack after Round 10 was the highlight for my year; that was such a cool moment,” Angelone said. “From the wins, the one in Colorado Springs was pretty special to me.
Martha Angelone had a bit of a roller coaster Finals but she managed to turn in the fastest time of the event during the eighth round stopping the clock in 1.8 seconds and then tied for the win in the ninth round (shown here) in a time of 2.1 seconds. WPRA photo by Jackie Jensen
18 WPRA NEWS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023
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