Rodeo champion Art Hop talks about his horse Sparky, who helped him win the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association’s tie down championships in the 68-plus age division in both the United States and Canada this season.
Marcus Larson/News-Register

Art Hop poses with his 2009 Champion Calf Roping saddle in his Dayton home.
Marcus Larson/News-Register

Dayton’s Art Hop jumps from his horse, Sparky, during a competition earlier this year in Fallon, Nevada.
Photo by
Susan Sylvester

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DAYTON — Just outside Dayton, on the edge of a 125-acre dairy farm, sits Art and Ann Hop’s house. But it’s not the dark green farmhouse where the two spend most of their time. It’s the large RV parked in the gravel driveway in which the couple spend nine months out of the year, traveling to rodeos all across the west.

And this year, their months of travel, hard work and dedication really paid off.

The 71-year-old Art was the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association’s tie down national champ in the 68-plus age division in both the United States and Canada. The NSPRA’s Canadian finals took place mid-October, while the U.S. finals were at the end of the same month.

“He kicked booty in the finals,” Art’s wife Ann says with a big smile.

This year marked the first time Hop has won the national tie-down titles. And he is quick to credit his hard work ethic to his success.

“All my kids are competitive, I’m competitive,” says Art, whose son, Ron, is the boys basketball coach at Dayton High School. “I work at it. I practice with my rope every day, keep myself in shape. I try to ride every day when it’s not pouring rain.”

On top of that, Art and Ann get in a two-mile walk in every morning and watch what they eat.

Since retiring in 2006, the couple has put Art’s rodeo career into high gear. In the last couple of years, the two have averaged between 45 and 50 rodeos a season, their travels taking them to Canada, Wyoming, Arizona, Texas, Montana, Nevada and Nebraska.

The Hops — parents of three boys and grandparents of four girls — put 25,000 miles on their motor home last year. The distance would make a complete circle of the globe with miles to spare. But, despite long days of driving day after day, the Hops find life on the road relaxing.

“Now we’re retired, so I can go,” Art says. “We don’t know if the world’s getting nuked or what. We’re in our own little world.”

Growing up around horses on a dairy farm for most his life, it wasn’t a surprise when Art picked up roping when he was 23. He roped for about 15 years, but then quit the sport for more than 20 years.

Then, after visiting friends in Oklahoma and Texas who were still roping, Art got an itch. He picked up his rope again when he was 58.

“He got the bug,” Ann says.

Art purchased a good horse and competed on him for over 10 years, but that horse died in August of 2008 and, Art thought, so did his competitive calf roping.

“When I lost my good horse, I thought I was done for,” Art says.

But friends offered up their horse, Sparky, and Art started competing with her.

“It gave me another outlook on life, like, ‘I can do this! It rejuvenated me.”

Sparky had a few issues with the crowd noise at indoor arenas when the Hops first took her to rodeos. But Art works his horse every single day, and this year was a different story.

“This year, she did really well,” Ann says. “It’s a partnership, a horse and a guy. She’s just grown up a lot, matured. She got over it pretty good. She’s bred to run and she can run. She’s really little, powerful ... She’s really come a long ways.”

The friendships and camaraderie the Hops experience through the rodeo life have been the most important things, and they are what pushes them to continue.

“If we just went and didn’t have that, it wouldn’t be any fun,” Ann says. “It’s a social thing. All these people travel and go to these things. We’re like gypsies.”

The Hops have found a home on the road. And despite twinges of home sickness here and there, are happiest when they are exploring the country.

“We’re home a week and we say, ‘What are we going to do?’” Ann jokes. “We just feel really blessed.”

The Hops’ time at home is coming quickly to an end, and the couple will be back on the road soon. First stop — Lake Havasu, Ariz., the last weekend of January, when the two will celebrate their 51st wedding anniversary at their first rodeo of another season.

And how long will the two continue to put countless miles on the road, hitting up dozens of rodeos and shooting for more national titles?

With his infectious grin spreading across his face, Art is quick to answer.

“As long as the Lord lets me.”