Rodeo Life

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  • Tristan Mahoney

    Tristan Mahoney has been rodeoing with the GCPRA since he was 16. In 2013, the 23-year-old had his first big win with the association, coming home the GCPRA Calf Roping Champion. The tradition of rodeo in Tristan’s family runs back to his grandfather, Hollis Fuchs, a cowboy with one leg and a heart for team roping. Both Tristan’s parents, Kent and Becky Mahoney, have competed extensively in rodeo and seen great success in the sport.  “They’re the ones that got me into it (rodeo) and taught me everything,” says Tristan. Another influential person in Tristan’s life is Gordy Alderson, a bit and spur maker from Tucson. “He’s helped me along the way and given me a lot of advice,” Tristan says. In addition to calf roping, he also competes in team roping as a heeler in the incentive. He also competed in steer wrestling during college rodeo, but gave the event up when he injured his knee.

    Tristan was born and raised in Arizona and currently makes his home in Florence. He works in his family’s real estate business with his dad and grandpa. He is showing houses and building up a clientele of his own, and in the last four or five months, he has spent a large portion of his time remodeling a house that he bought in Florence. “It was a total remodel,” Tristan explains. “I figured it out as I went, and a lot of people helped me and showed me how to different things. I’m going to sell it before too long and try to get a place with my own arena.”

    In the meantime, Tristan keeps his horses on his family’s ten acres and uses their arena. His calf roping horse is Ollie, an American Quarter Horse who started out a reiner but found his niche in rodeo. Tristan trained him for roping and seasoned the gelding that has now been his mount for five years. Tristan has always trained his own horses, and the ones that don’t fit him for rodeo are sold. Currently Tristan is starting a new bunch of colts, having recently sold several that he finished.

    Prior to his work in real estate, Tristan attended Central Arizona College (CAC) where he graduated with an Associate of Arts degree. What he especially had his eye on, however, was college rodeo, which he competed in during his two years at CAC. “I didn’t have a lot of luck,” says Tristan. “I just missed the college finals and I hurt my knee bull dogging my sophomore year.” While success in college rodeo was hard to pin down, Tristan has had better achievements in circuit rodeo. During the summer, he rodeos in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington on the Columbia River Circuit. “You try to hold your money together, and when it runs out, you come home!” Tristan explains. Other activities that he enjoys include spending a hot summer day at the river or the lake, but roping is what his lifestyle revolves around. One his favorite rodeos in the GCPRA is the Wilcox Rodeo, and he often competes at his best at the Cave Creek Rodeo, which is on the Turquoise Circuit.

    Feeling optimistic, Tristan describes his goals for the near future. “I’d like to repeat and win the Grand Canyon (calf roping) again, and I’d also like to win the circuit finals and make it to the Dodge Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo. I’m going to get these horses finished, put a little money together in the next few years, and make a run at the Wrangler National Finals.”

  • Anna Holland

    Anna Holland

    Anna Holland is a barrel racer and director in the Cajun Rodeo Association. The Walker, La. cowgirl was a member of the CRA when it existed years ago, and is a member again.

    She grew up in rodeo with a mom who ran barrels and team roped and a dad who team roped. She was on her first horse at six weeks of age, and by two years old, was competing in barrel races. She was a member of the Mississippi High School Rodeo Association (the farthest Mississippi rodeo was closer than the closest Louisiana rodeo), and she also competed in local and state-wide rodeo queen pageants, serving as the Livingston Parish Queen, the Tri-State Rodeo Association queen, and in 1999, as Miss Rodeo Louisiana.

    After graduating from Walker High School in 1999, she earned academic and rodeo scholarships to college, and will graduate this summer from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond with a Bachelors of Science in occupational environmental safety and health. She works for MAPP Construction, a regional company based in the southeastern U.S. Her job as corporate safety director entails ensuring project compliance with OSHA regulations and protecting worker safety.

    Anna met her husband, Lane, when he came to shoe her horses. They had grown up three miles from each other, and knew each other, but it wasn’t till 2008 when they began dating. When Lane proposed on Valentine’s Day of 2009, she accepted. The couple got out their calendars and looked at prospective wedding dates. At that time, Lane was a professional steer wrestler and she was running barrels, so it was either get married that month or wait till August. They decided to marry two weeks later, and Anna had the wedding planned within a week. Now the couple have two children, a son, Emmett, age four, and a daughter, Sarah, age two.

    In addition to her barrel racing, Anna is co-founder and president of a non-profit organization called the Christian Cowgirl Relief Fund. She and fellow co-founder Berkeleigh Cotten saw a need for an organized support system when a rodeo family or fellow barrel racer needed financial, emotional and spiritual help. “It seems like the more people we are able to help, the more readily we recognize other opportunities to provide assistance throughout the rodeo community.” The group’s motto, “Love one another,” is based on John 15:12-13. This May, a women’s conference is planned with LeAnn Hart, the wife of retired PBR bull rider J.W. Hart, as keynote speaker.

    Anna rides a seven year old gelding named Utah. Utah was a new purchase in June of 2013, and on his way to a barrel race, was involved in a minor trailer wreck. Because of his injuries, it was thirteen weeks before he could be ridden again. For the second half of last year, Anna borrowed several horses to qualify for the finals. Anna also serves on the board for the Baton Rouge Barrel Racing Association. Her husband Lane is vice-president of the CRA.

  • Tyler Jackson

    Tyler Jackson

    Tyler Jackson burns the candle at both ends. While the twenty year old cowboy, a resident of Salem, Ark., is up and in town by 6 am each day, he’s not home, with chores completed, till after dark, and with a to-do list that isn’t crossed off. He’s a competitor in the Arkansas Cowboys Association, and his main emphasis this year is heading. He’s heeled for several years, and used to bulldog and rope calves, but the team roping is the focus this year.

    He has two good heading horses. Nugget, who is twenty, has been his horse since he was a kid. Tyler can rope calves, head and heel on Nugget. “He’s pretty well my all-around horse,” Tyler says. His other horse is a ten year old gelding named Jiggy, who he has owned for a year. In his senior year of high school at Salem High, he bought a sale barn and ran it for a year. He sold it, made a little profit on it, and now works for the man who bought it from him.

    Tyler and friend Hadley Deshazo are supplying timed event cattle this summer. They have team roping and bulldogging steers, breakaway and roping calves, and goats. This summer, they’ll have livestock at one to two rodeos each weekend, all over Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee.

    And if he still didn’t have enough to do, he works two days a week at another sale barn, riding horses. Tyler has gone to ACA rodeos since he was 12, and has been an ACA member for seven years. He was the 2010 breakaway champion, the 2012 steer wrestling rookie, and he qualified in the team roping from 2010 through 2013.

    When he gets home at night, he has 30 mama cows to do chores for. They’ll calve in April. In twenty years, Tyler envisions himself with a much larger cattle herd and no debt. He plans on making his living in the cattle industry, whether it’s in sale barns, auctioneering, or with timed event cattle. He is the son of Sherry Jackson and Ronnie Jackson.

  • Casey Dupre

    Casey Dupre

    Casey Dupre is a tie-down roper in the Louisiana High School Rodeo Association. The 17 year old Lake Charles, La. resident has been roping calves for four years. He rides a ten year old mare named C.G., a sorrel with a white blaze, who is good, he says. “She does her job in the arena.” The family has owned C.G. for five years.

    As a senior at Grand Lake High School in Grand Lake, Casey loves the people, because they’re “down to earth, and nice.” His favorite subject is math. Last fall, he took a college course in math, and is now taking advanced math class. His least favorite class is English, mostly because reading and writing aren’t on his list of most enjoyable things to do. His favorite teacher is Mr. Scotty Poole, his ag teacher for his first three years of high school. Mr. Scotty loves to have fun with the kids, and is very helpful to them.

    Casey played basketball for Grand Lake as a forward. He’s a big basketball fan, and enjoys the Kentucky Wildcats and the Golden State Warriors. This fall, he will attend McNeese State University in Lake Charles, where he will work on a degree in mechanical engineering. He isn’t planning on rodeoing collegiately but instead will focus on his studies. After college, he’d like to work at a refinery.

    In his spare time, Casey helps his dad with chores and hangs out with friends at their houses or at the movies. He and his friends like to have bonfires and play video games. Casey’s favorite video game is Batman, and his favorite movie is Eight Seconds. The movie reminds him of his uncle, who was the 1970 Louisiana State High School Bull Riding champ. Casey considered riding bulls when he was young, but he prefers roping calves.

    He has qualified for state high school finals twice. When he was younger, he competed in the High Hope Riders Club, the Jeff Davis Club, and the Silver Spurs Club.

    His favorite meal is his mother’s rice with chicken and okra covered in gravy, and his favorite sweet treat is Reese’s peanut butter cups.He has two older sisters, LeAnne and Lauren, who competed in high school rodeo and who he loves to pick on. Casey is the son of Darryl and Leah Dupre.

  • Abigale Barks

    Abigale Barks

    Abigale Barks is proud to be a rodeo cowgirl, but she’s just as proud of being a Lady Panther for Starks (La.) High School. The fourteen year old cowgirl who lives in Starks, a small town close to Lake Charles where “everybody here is family,” competes in the Louisiana Junior High Rodeo Association in the barrel racing and pole bending, with poles being her favorite event.

    And in school, as an eighth grade student, she competes in junior high basketball, high school softball and track. Because of her school’s small size, she is allowed to compete with the high schoolers in two of her sports. Abigale would love to play volleyball, too, but again, because the school is small, there is no program. In track, she does the pole vault, long jump, mile relay, and 400m dash.

    The best part of school, she says, is her friends. The worst part is all the work, including science, which is not her favorite. “It’s not my thing,” she says. “I don’t get into that type of thing.” However, she loves math class and has always been a math whiz.

    Abigale is involved in more than sports at school. She’s a member of Junior Beta, 4-H, the Fellowship of Christian Students, LYFE, and the youth group at the First Baptist Church of Starks. She’s been on the honor roll pretty consistently, too.

    When Abigale’s not on the court, on the track, or in the arena, she likes to mud ride, chill while she rides her horse, hunt, fish, and hang out with friends. She loves to catch bass or catfish, but thank heavens for Paw-paw, R.T. Barnes, who cleans her catch, because she does not clean her own fish. “It grosses me out.”

    She and her friends also like to go to the movie theater, but because Starks is so small, they drive thirty miles to Orange, Texas, to the Orange Cinema. Her favorite movie is Ride Along, her favorite movie star is Kevin Costner, and her favorite comedian is Kevin Hart.

    When Abigale is out of high school, she plans on going to college, becoming a veterinarian, and continuing rodeo. After her junior high years are over, she won’t high school rodeo, so she can concentrate on her other sports. She competed at state junior high finals her sixth and seventh grade years in both events.

    Abigale has a younger brother, Cutter, who is ten and “a pest,” she says. He’s always bugging her, but she claims she does nothing to bother him! She looks up to her her parents, Patrick and Georgann Barks, because “they’re both hard working and I admire the way they encourage me and support me in my activities.”

  • Morgan Robson

    Morgan Robson

    Morgan Robson has a positive attitude, no matter what she does. The Hugoton, Kansas cowgirl knows that being cheery makes things better, and if she’s in a situation that isn’t the greatest, she works at being positive. Both of her parents have taught her, “make the best of it,” she says. “All along, have a great attitude about everything and it will end up good.”

    Morgan, who is 14, is a member of the Kansas Junior High Rodeo Association. She competes in the breakaway roping, team roping (she heads for Hunter Brunson), ribbon roping (she runs for Hunter), and the goat tying. Of all her events, goats are her favorite. “I get to fly off a horse, have fun getting off and tying fast.” Tying goats appeals to the daredevil side of her, which causes her to do “stupid things” – like mudding when she’s not supposed to, riding four-wheelers with her little brother, and “doing crazy things as much as I can.”

    For the roping, she rides a twenty year old paint named Robin. He’s “got quite the attitude,” she says. “If you make him mad, he’s going to bite you on the shoulder or anywhere he wants to. When you’re picking out his front feet, he’ll bite you on the butt.”

    For the goat tying, she trades off between Robin and an equally ornery horse, a mare named Annie. Annie is her brother’s calf roping horse, and she’s a prima donna, Morgan says. “You’ve got to have everything perfect or she won’t do it. She has to have her feed in the same spot. She’s the same way (as Robin). She’ll bite you, paw the trailer, all that fun stuff.”

    She loves being an eighth grader at Moscow School in Moscow, Kan. “School is fun for me. You can make school boring, or you can make it fun. I choose to have fun. You’ve got to have a good attitude about it.” Her favorite class is pre-algebra, because it’s easy, but life science is not on her good list. It’s too complicated: “It’s crazy how you have to have everything perfect (in science) or it won’t turn out.”

    Morgan loves basketball almost as much as she loves rodeo. Even though she’s the tallest girl in junior high, she plays guard and forward, because she has good ball handling skills. She also plays volleyball and is on the school’s Principal’s Honor Roll.

    When she goes to college, she’d like to play basketball for the Oklahoma Sooners. She loves the coach, Sherri Coale, and would like to be involved in her program. After college, she’d like to play for the WNBA or be a nurse. Her favorite WNBA team is the Atlanta Dream, and her favorite player is Elena Delle Donne, who plays for the Chicago Sky.

    Morgan has a pet mini Australian shepherd, Wrangler, who loves to cuddle with her. He’ll sleep right next to her, his head on the pillow and under the covers.

    She also competes in the Kansas Pro Rodeo Association and the Little Britches Rodeo Association. She’s qualified for state junior high finals both of the last two years, and finished seventh grade in the top fifteen in the team roping and in second place in the breakaway, going on to compete at the National Junior High Finals in Gallup, N.M.

    She has an older sister, Jackie, who is deceased, a younger brother, J.D., who is eleven, and a younger sister, Megan, who is eight. She is the daughter of Dave and Brandy Robson.

  • Craig Allen

    If you’re a spectator at the Allen family arena, you’ll get to see a cowboys and Indians battle. Craig Allen, age five and a Northeast Junior Rodeo Association member, usually plays as one of the cowboys, and his younger brother Clancy, age two, is usually an Indian.

    The boys occupy themselves by the hour with the game, says their mom, Christen Allen. (And sometimes the parents join in.) After Craig is done practicing his events, he’ll get on a little pony, and fall off when his parents or brother shoot him. And usually, somebody ends up getting tomahawked.

    When he’s not getting shot or scalped, Craig enjoys doing the pole bending, flag race, barrel racing, goat ribbons, breakaway roping, junior ranch bronc riding, and mutton bustin’. He rides Yella for his events, but the boys also have Buck, Squirrel, Gunny, Roanie, and Coldbear as other mounts.

    Craig is a kindergarten student at Sperry (Okla.) Public School, where he loves to play outside at recess time on the monkey bars and do the fun stairs. He loves to get “smileys” at school for his good behavior, and he loves math and reading.

    He has competed in rodeo since he was two, and is in his second year of NJRA competition. He is the 2013 Pole Bending Year End champ for the six and under division. Prior to the NJRA, he was a member of the Checotah Roundup Club and the Okay Roundup Club. He won four buckles in those associations.

    Christen and Cody love what rodeo does for the kids. “It’s something we all do together. We’re at rodeos to support our kids and help them, and rodeo teaches them to take care of their animals and to train them. It teaches them patience and sportsmanship with the other kids. The kids get quite a bit out of it.”

    Christen and Cody and their boys work together on the family business, Pay Window Performance Horses, so rodeo is an extension of their family time. “We spend time together in the arena and the barns. We feed together, ride together, train together, and when we’re at the rodeos, it’s the same way.” When he grows up, he’d like to be a cowboy and a roper. The family lives in Sperry, Oklahoma.

  • Kelsey Garrison

    Kelsey Garrison

    It’s April, and Kelsey Garrison is on vacation. The Channing, Texas cowboy doesn’t get away often from his business, but when he does, it usually involves rodeo. He’s spending much of the month of April in California, tie-down roping at several pro rodeos and enjoying the warm sunshine. When he returns to his home in Channing, Texas, it’ll be back to the day-to-day operations for the Texas Cowboys Rodeo Association man.

    Kelsey began his rodeo career as a youngster in Oklahoma and Texas, and in high school, competed in the Tri-State Rodeo Association in Texas. After graduating from Channing High in 2003, he went to South Plains College in Levelland, representing them at the College National Finals in 2006. After that, he attended West Texas A&M in Canyon, and graduated with his bachelor’s in general studies in 2008.

    His dream was to be a full time rodeo cowboy, but after eight months, he realized something had to change. “I planned to rope (full time professionally) but reality set in,” he said. “I want to have a successful business and be able to take care of my family real well.”

    So he began his own business. He sold a tie-down roping horse and bought a semi-truck. After driving for a while, he earned enough money to buy a second truck. Then he bought some manure spreaders, and got into the manure spreading business. The dairies he worked for asked him to cut silage for them, so he bought silage cutters, then more semis, and his business was growing.

    Now, his business has morphed into highway transport and silage cutting. He owns four trucks that make a round trip to California each week, hauling meat from the Texas panhandle to Salinas, and bringing produce back to San Antonio, Houston or Amarillo. In May and September, he’s busy in the wheat fields and corn fields, cutting wheatlage and silage. Kelsey’s business, KGMS, Inc., employs seven people, with his dad helping and his mom doing the books.

    In his spare time, Kelsey competes at TCRA rodeos, and this year, hopes to go to a few PRCA rodeos as well. He’s qualified for the TCRA Finals four times, finishing last year in third place.

    Being a successful entrepreneur can be a double-edged sword, he says. Now that he has more money, he has less time to rodeo. “I try to do more rodeoing, but it doesn’t work,” he said. “You have to be home every day, making sure your business is going right. Either you’re going to be a rodeo cowboy, or an entrepreneur. Whatever you do, you have to do it every day.”

    Kelsey enjoys playing basketball. He cheers for the Dallas Mavericks and loves to attend Texas Tech games. He has a younger sister, Haley, who is 24 and is training barrel horses. He is the son of Jed and Kelly Garrison.

  • Fort Western Whitaker Award

    Fort Western Whitaker Award

    The Nebraska High School Rodeo Association is pleased to announce the inaugural “Fort Western Whitaker Award,” sponsored by Fort Western Stores with locations in Lincoln, Nebraska City, and Columbus, Neb., and given in honor of Kyle and Chip Whitaker.

    Fort Western Stores will provide a custom trophy saddle to the cowboy excelling in at least three events, encompassing both rough stock (bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding) and timed events (steer wrestling, tie-down roping, and team roping), in coordination with the Nebraska High School Rodeo Association, and a $500 scholarship payable to the continuing education facility of the winning high school student. The award will be similar, in nature to the “Linderman Award” of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

    Kyle, 37, has won the Linderman Award six times, more than any other cowboy. He credits his dad with getting him started in his three events: tie-down roping, steer wrestling, and saddle bronc riding. “I started out doing all the events in high school rodeo, because dad was teaching me, and I wanted to try them.”

    Kyle’s dad, Chip, who won the Linderman Award four times, did the same three events as Vern Whitaker – his dad – and Kyle. “In those days,” Kyle said, referring to his grandfather’s time, “it was common for guys to work both ends of the arena. Things hadn’t been specialized. Now if you want to be good enough to make the National Finals Rodeo, you have to devote all your time to honing your skills in one event. It’s a lot tougher to be competitive in more than one event.”

    “It’s a tremendous accomplishment, what Chip and Kyle have done in the sport of rodeo, and we’re grateful to Fort Western Stores for working with us to recognize similar achievement at the high school level in Nebraska,” said Jim Wakefield, President of the NHSRA.

    Tricia Schaeffer, Nebraska’s National Director for High School Rodeo, says it’s an honor for the association to have the Fort Western Whitaker Award. “It’s great that The Fort Western has come on board. I think it’s a good way to encourage kids to give (the riding events) a try.” And the high school association can provide help. “We’re fortunate that we have people who can give kids instruction, and that’s what it takes, too.”

    “Recognizing high school students for achieving what’s considered one of the most prestigious honors at the professional level, shot from an idea to ‘we’re doing this’ in a matter of hours.” said Reed Tuttle, Fort Western Stores Special Events Coordinator.  “The Nebraska High School Rodeo Association welcomed the idea with so much enthusiasm that we knew this was something special – the students benefit from the honor and all the hard work and diligence it takes to achieve it.”

    About The Fort Western Stores:
    Fort Western Stores is a national leader in Western lifestyle apparel and merchandise. The family owned business, founded in 1972 by Carl and Shirley Wohlfarth, has grown from a 1600 square foot retail store into a multi-channel marketer with three retail store locations, extending its reach worldwide through a catalog and the web; visit www.FortWestern.com.

  • Denise Nelson

    Denise Nelson

    Denise Nelson has been a Northwest Ranch Cowboys Association member for much of her life. The Midland, S.D. cowgirl grew up around horses on her family’s ranch near Wall, S.D. She ran barrels in junior high, high school and 4-H rodeos, but it wasn’t till she married into the Nelson family that she began to rope. After graduation from Wall High School in 1983, she attended Chadron (Neb.) State College and earned a degree in ag business. She graduated from college in 1987 and married Tim Nelson in 1988.

    It was at the age of 26 that she picked up a rope. It’s a standing joke with her, that the only reason she learned to rope was so she didn’t have to be chute help. “I always make this joke,” she said. “I got tired of pushing steers for everybody else.” In 1991, she joined the NRCA and spent much of her time breakaway roping. After her children, Kaylee, age 25, and Jade, 21, were born, she added team roping to her resume.

    Rodeo was on the back burner as she and Tim attended the kids’ activities, but when Jade got old enough to compete in the NRCA, she was back in the arena. Jade often ropes with his dad, and then with Denise in the mixed team roping. Roping with her son is great, she said. “It’s a wonderful family sport. You can’t beat it. You spend your weekends together. It’s just amazing.”

    The four Nelsons are often at the same rodeos, Tim and Jade in the team roping, Denise and Jade in the mixed team roping, and Kaylee in the breakaway roping. The whole family also competes in the South Dakota Rodeo Association; Tim, Jade and Kaylee also compete in the North Dakota Rodeo Association, but Denise does not, as they do not have mixed team roping. Jade is a Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association member and has qualified for the Badlands Circuit Finals the last four years.

    The Nelsons raise most of their own horses and train them. For a while, they rode outside horses, but the demands of their own horses keeps them busy. “Trying to keep horses for your kids takes a lot of time,” she said. Roping and rodeo is her and Tim’s fun, and their hobby. “We used to go to basketball and football games when the kids were  younger. That was our fun. Now we enjoy the horses, roping and rodeo. That’s what we do on the weekends.”

    Denise was NRCA Rookie of the Year in the breakaway roping in 1991. Since then, she’s competed at the NRCA Finals and SDRA Finals about twelve times each. She considers winning the USTRC National Finals Number 8 Shoot-Out with Brian Meredith a highlight in her roping career. Last year’s NRCA Finals were extra-special, as she, Jade and Kaylee all won the year-end saddles in their respective events. The family raises black Angus cattle; calving begins this month.

  • Randy Bernard

    Randy Bernard

    Randy Bernard has paid out over 100 million dollars in the rodeo world throughout his career as a sports executive. Bernard grew up wearing a cowboy hat while working on his family’s ranch and farm in central California. Born in Paso Robles, Calif., he attended Kindergarten to eighth grade in a small town named San Ardo where there was never more than 18 classmates. Bernard studied at Cal Poly and in 1988 interned with the Calgary Stampede gaining valuable experience that set the course of his future career path.
    Bernard came back from the Calgary Stampede to work for the California Mid-State Fair, where one of his responsibilities was making the rodeo profitable. “I believed that we could help it significantly with guaranteeing the best in the world. I created a match with Ty Murray and Cody Lambert who were sitting number one and two in the PRCA all around world standings,” stated Bernard, “The rodeo attendance increased from 3,400 to a sellout crowd of 7,500 the first year. I knew then that our sport was no different than any other sport. People want to see the best in the world.”
    Bernard, had no idea that years later Murray, Lambert and Tuf Hedeman three of the Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) founders, would ask him to run the PBR. “In the early board meetings of the PBR it was about who yelled the loudest and fought the hardest for their vision,” stated Bernard.
    “We were all cowboys when we hired him. Randy’s ideas and work ethic took a group of the best bull riders in the world and built the PBR. Rodeo people weren’t ready for Randy. He is a cowboy and his ideas were coming from his background working on his family’s ranch,” stated Cody Lambert, PBR co-founder, 3x PBR World Finals qualifier and 6x NFR qualifier.
    Ty Murray, 9x World Champion Cowboy and PBR co-founder said, “Randy Bernard is a natural born promoter. He was a good honest person, really smart and had big ideas. That is the premise that we hired him to come run the PBR. We worked together for 15 years at the PBR. We’ve still remained really good friends and talk on a regular basis.”
    Under Bernard’s leadership, the PBR became one of the fastest growing sports properties in North America, providing opportunities to bull riders that only existed in the imaginations of the founding members. In April 2007, Bernard successfully executed a merger between PBR and Spire Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm. The merger allowed the founding members and other bull riding shareholders to capitalize on their vision, dedication and commitment, while maintaining a significant equity stake in the organization.. (Time magazine listed Bernard as one of the top sport executives in 2008. The PBR was named a finalist for the 2010 Sports Business Awards presented by Sports Business Journal and Sports Business Day in the Professional Sports League of the Year category with the MLB, NBA and NFL.)
    Bernard decided to leave PBR and emabark on a new venture, as CEO position of INDYCAR. He was instrumental in creating the new DW12 car introduced in 2012, which critics have said brought the best open wheel racing in over two and half decades. Add to that, changing the name from INDY Racing League to INDYCAR, creating a successful ladder series, implementing double file starts, and the first to develop double header races in a weekend. Under his leadership turbo charged engines returned along with manufactures Chevrolet and Lotus.
    “He helped come up with the most competitive car we’ve had in 20 years. He reintroduced double headers and the triple crown (three 500 mile races at Indianapolis, Pocono and Fontana ) and tried to light a spark under a series that had pretty much fallen off the map,” stated Robin Miller, racing writer and television analyst for Racer Magazine and NBC Sports Network.
    Miller recalled his first meeting with Bernard being six hours long. “The best thing about Randy is he’s a great people person. He is smart, knows marketing and leadership. I asked him if he hit his head in rodeo to take this job,” Miller mentioned, “Bernard was the best thing in INDYCAR management in three decades. He has friends in all these different fields of entertainment. He is a genuine guy and doesn’t have a phony bone in his body.”
    “When I left the PBR I wanted to see if I could capture lightning in a bottle twice. My life changed and I had to become a racing fan to understand their lifestyle. I ate, breathed and slept INDYCAR. I moved out of the western lifestyle for three years to wear suits and work on a different sport, but soon realized that my true passion is the western lifestyle,” stated Bernard.
    Randy came back to his western roots in 2012 when he joined Rural Media Group (RMG) as the President & CEO. On Sunday, March 2 2014, he produced the richest one-day rodeo in western sports history with RFD-TV’s THE AMERICAN paying out $2 million dollars. “I had the concept in the back of my mind, Patrick (Gottsch, Founder of RMG) asked for some big ideas and Jerry (Jones) always wanted me to do it. I’ve never had the opportunity to produce the event due to my commitments with PBR and INDYCAR,” he said.
    “I presented THE AMERICAN model to Patrick due to the tremendous potential for growing RFD-TV, western sports and rodeo in a very positive way. RFD-TV is the perfect vehicle to develop this concept and grow the sport” stated Bernard.
    Bernard feels he is sitting in the perfect position to continue to advance the viewership and monetary opportunities for rodeo athletes. “RFD-TV has a management team in place that loves western sports and understands it and wants to see it grow,” commented Bernard.
    THE AMERICAN focuses on developing stars and showcasing the elite athletes in rodeo while rewarding the best on a given day. “Professional rodeo is unfortunately one of the most faceless sports in America. It needs more media coverage that can help develop stars. If we can help build superstars it helps everyone in the sport. It is my personal belief that all you have is a club if you aren’t always building and showcasing the best in the world,” he explained. Bernard’s goal is to build THE AMERICAN into a $5 million purse.
    “I’d like to say I’ll have this done in five years, and to do that, a lot of good things have to happen,” Bernard admitted, “We aren’t a bunch of television executives who sit in an ivory tower in New York or Los Angeles that only appreciate stick and ball sports. Not one national network gave any news coverage to THE AMERICAN, which proves my point if they truly loved the sport they would give credence and provide coverage to showcase these great athletes.”
    “Our goal was to create the Super Bowl of the western industry and I have some other strong goals. I want to reinvigorate the rodeo fan from the 1980’s into today. I felt that we needed major events in this sport to engage our youth as we see youth rodeo participation declinging. When I was a kid, I roped the dummy countless times dreaming of winning the tenth round of the NFR and the Bob Feist Invitational. There is not enough of those events in my opinion. We want to help our grass roots by building awareness of our sport. We have the best athletes and personalities in the world, but there’s never been a way to showcase them. Even the rural world – if you don’t read the magazines, there’s no way to become familiar with the stars. That’s what we’ve done with Western Sports Roundup on RURAL RADIO and during the Rural Evening News segment.” Rural Media Group commands an audience of 26 million listeners on RURAL RADIO Sirius XM channel 80 and 60 million on RFD-TV and FamilyNet.As for the future of THE AMERICAN, “I want to continue to make cowboys wealthy just like we did Richmond Champion. I’m more passionate now than I ever was.”

  • Sterling Gehrke

    Sterling Gehrke

    Sterling Gehrke does not believe in doing anything by halves, especially rodeo. “I’m a really competitive person, and I don’t like to lose,” explained the 18-year-old. “I like to do well at everything I do. When I start something, I try to do the best I can at it.” Sterling first started competing in rodeo when he was 10. After watching a friend rodeo, he wanted to give the sport a try. His parents, Lyle and Dawn Gehrke, have never competed in rodeo, but they wholeheartedly support Sterling’s pursuits and try to be at every one of his rodeos.

    This is Sterling’s final year competing in the SDHSRA, having competed with the association since he was a freshman. His events are tie-down roping and team roping as a header, and he finds equal enjoyment in both. Sterling looks to his dad as his role model, not only for rodeo but for many other things in life. “He helps me when I’m practicing and he always helps me with what I did wrong,” said Sterling.

    The Gehrke family lives about six miles outside of Castlewood, S.D. They enjoy horseback riding together, and the Gehrke’s have eight horses, two of which are Sterling’s rodeo horses. He heads off of his gelding, Ray, and does his tie-down roping on his mare, Josie. Sterling and his dad finished training Ray for rodeo, but bought Josie when she was new to tie-down roping and trained her themselves. It was a long process, but she has proven to be a steady roping horse. In the summer, the Gehrke’s keep roping calves and steers and Sterling is able to practice in his family’s arena.

    While Sterling may take the winter off of riding, he stays busy with plenty of other activities. He is a senior at Watertown High School where he wrestles on his school’s team, the Watertown Arrows. He has been wrestling varsity since eighth grade, and last summer he wrestled for Team South Dakota at the Disney Duals in Orlando, Fla. In addition to wrestling, Sterling also enjoys his welding class. He finished his required classes for high school when he was a junior, leaving him more time to spend on wrestling and welding this year. Sterling has made a sign to hang above his family’s driveway, as well as benches for their shop, and he takes care of any projects around his house that need a welder’s know-how.

    During the school year, Sterling has wrestling practice every weeknight, with up to two competitions a week, but he still finds time to rope the dummy, or go hunting or fishing with his dog Remy. Sterling also competes in 4-H rodeo which helps fill in the gaps between SDHSRA rodeos. In 2013, he won second in tie-down roping at the South Dakota 4-H Finals Rodeo.

    After passing the milestone of high school graduation this spring, Sterling plans to attend South Dakota State University. He will be rodeoing with the college, as well as studying for his major in Ag. Business with a minor in Agronomy. As for his goals in rodeo, in addition to college rodeo, Sterling hopes to conclude his high school rodeoing by competing at the NHSFR this summer. He has competed in the South Dakota state finals rodeo for the past four years, but he is working extra hard to qualify for nationals. His pursuits wouldn’t be possible without the support of his parents, and Sterling concluded, “I’d like to thank my parents for keeping me with good horses and getting me up and down the road.”