Ranching Heritage important to team roper

Local rancher and roper Julie Taylor says she was born to rope and ride. Taylor is a nationally acclaimed roping champion who specializes in heading. Team roping is a two-person equestrian event where one rider throws a rope under a steer’s hind legs, and the other rider throws a rope over the head, thus her title as header.
According to Taylor, her cowboy ways go back to before the turn of the century when her family made the decision to follow a dream.

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  Taylor has won everything from cash to championship buckles and saddles. She won the 2007 Women’s Pro Rodeo Association (WPRA) Championship buckle. She also won a roping saddle at one of the USTRC events that she displays in her home. “I won $4,500 when I won the saddle just a couple of weeks ago in Laughlin,” Taylor said. View photo »

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  Taylor’s dad, George Allen Ewing began actively managing the ranch now known as the Cross 7 (or Cline Ranch) at the age of 14, and continued after he married his wife Linda in 1963. He later turned it over to Taylor and her husband. She is the sixth generation of Clines to continue ranching on the land. The ranch is on the east side of Tonto Creek and even back in the 1880s, the creek was prone to annual flooding. View photo »

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  Taylor paid $6,500 for her bay horse Tom, who she uses frequently in amateur and professional events. Her great-grandfather George began the roping tradition in the family, she said. “He was a world champion roper and the first cowboy to rope in Madison Square Garden,” Taylor said. View photo »

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  “We’re not using our resources the best way we can,” she said. “Working ranches need to be allowed to come back, it would be better for us all.” She said they only butcher about one cow a year, the rest they keep to maintain grazing permits. But for Taylor and her family, the issue isn’t just making a living off of cattle ranching, it is also about preserving a way of life stretching back 122 years. View photo »

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  Taylor’s family began raising cattle soon after arriving in Tonto Basin. The land was better suited for creating a rock garden than cattle ranching. They struggled to keep their ranching way of life alive in the face of government regulations, which limit their ability to continue, all the while raising a family and helping build a cowboy church as a part of a worldview unique to the West and its way of life. View photo »

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  “I would say my biggest accomplishment is helping Destry and Terry Haught get the cowboy church going,” said Taylor. She said the non-denominational church has helped keep numerous kids out of trouble and away from drugs. She said the church is just one example of the Western way of life she loves, but fears is being ignored and forgotten. “We’ve forgotten what made this country great, but as far as I’m concerned, there is always a place for it,” Taylor said. View photo »