Rodeo Life

Author: Lily Landreth

  • 5 Star Champion: Jessica Routier

    5 Star Champion: Jessica Routier

    Jessica Routier hit a momentous $1 million in career earnings in the summer of 2023. But the barrel racer from Buffalo, South Dakota, was paying much closer attention to the career earnings of her gritty palomino mare, Missy, who has carried Jessica to many of her pro rodeo checks. “My goal the last couple of summers has been to get Missy to a million dollars because I feel like there’s a lot of people who have hit a million, but not a lot of horses.” Missy secured her $1 million halfway through the 2023 WNFR. She and Jessica placed in six rounds and sixth in the average. The duo’s 2023 season highlights also included winning the NFR Open and the year-end title in the Badlands Circuit.


    Additionally, Missy was voted 2023 WPRA Horse With the Most Heart and took third in Purina’s Horse of the Year barrel racing category. “She’s really gritty,” Jessica says of the 13-year-old mare, owned by Gary Westergren of Lincoln, Nebraska. “She’s always been one that, the more impossible the situation may seem, the harder she’ll try. She’s really good in all different types of ground and patterns and really adaptable no matter the situation. She’s lived at my house since she was two, and I futuritied her as a five-year-old. She started her rodeo career as a six-year-old and won the Badlands Circuit that year, which propelled us into our first NFR in 2018. She’s taken me back there ever since.”

    All of Missy’s barrel runs are made with a 5 Star Equine saddle pad on her back, which has been a longtime staple in Jessica’s tack room. “I used 5 Star pads for a long time before I became a sponsored rider in 2018. I love how they fit, and they keep my horses’ backs feeling really good. And I love that they last forever.” Jessica also uses 5 Star’s cinches and sport boots. “A lot of boots, to me, are too cumbersome and bulky on the horse’s leg, but I like that these conform to the horse’s leg and protect really well without that bulk.”

    Jessica, her husband, Riley, and their five children run 300 head of cattle on their ranch, along with rodeoing and school sports. The two oldest, Braden (18) and Payton (15), compete in high school rodeo, while twins Rayna and Rose (8) and Charlie (7) compete in local youth rodeos. “There’s a lot of days where we’re all out in the barn practicing,” says Jessica, who’s had temperatures of 60 below zero to contend with this winter. “I bet we ride 20 horses a day. Five or six of them are young ones that don’t have a job yet, and the rest are ones that I or the kids compete on.” Jessica continues to ride several young horses for Gary Westergren, whom she started working for in 2011. She also has a full sister to Missy, who is excelling in breakaway roping with Jessica’s daughter Payton and several sons and daughters of Missy.
     

    Jessica and Missy’s 2024 season kicked off with Denver, with Fort Worth to follow. “I don’t go to a lot of rodeos in the winter, but I try to hit the big ones and still be home if I can. These winter rodeos, not everybody gets to go to them, so if I get the opportunity to go to them, I go. You don’t know if you’ll get the opportunity again.” Her three youngest daughters travel with her most of the season, taking their school on the road. “They have awesome teachers who are really good about sending work with them. My oldest two don’t get to go as much, but at the NFR, they were all there most of the time. We’re definitely not a traditional family in that we do as much as we can together, but most of what we do is going in different directions. We have lots of extended family and friends and the community on the rodeo trail that help make it all work.

    “I don’t really set a lot of goals, as crazy as that is. Every year, the goal is to make our circuit finals and the NFR, even though that’s not a do-or-die situation for us. I take things one rodeo and one week at a time. If we’re doing good, we keep going. One of my life goals is to get my kids mounted on good horses,” Jessica adds. “I’ve had so many opportunities in my life because of good horses, and that’s my goal. It’s for each one of my kids to have those same opportunities if they want them. I believe good horses can create great opportunities.”

  • 5 Star Champion: Randy Britton

    5 Star Champion: Randy Britton

    Pickup man Randy Britton has 154 performances under his belt and thousands of miles on his odometer from the 2023 rodeo season alone. Working for Cervi Championship Rodeo since 2012 has kept the Kiowa, Colorado cowboy involved in the sport that hooked him from boyhood.
    “I started rodeoing when I was 12 or so. Me and a group of friends thought it was a good idea and we rode bulls for a while. Then I rode broncs until 2005 when I broke my neck, so I had to quit. I’d started picking up a little bit in 2002 when a friend of mine started an amateur rodeo company, and I did high school and Little Britches rodeos. Come 2005, I was trying to decide what route to take, because it would be hard to do them both [compete and pickup] but breaking my neck helped me decide. They said I could never ride bucking horses again, and I never asked if I could ride a horse again,” Randy says with a laugh.
    He landed a few rodeos with Cervi Championship Rodeo in 2012 and was brought on full time in 2014. Randy has eight geldings he can work off of right now, the youngest of them a 6-year-old blue roan named Levi. He’s particularly excited for Levi’s future since he and his wife, Kathryn, purchased the gelding as a weanling and spent the last five years working with him. “I just started picking up on him this year. He’s matured a lot this year and I think he’s going to be really good. Miss Rodeo America rode him in Colorado Springs this summer. She got seven or eight calls from people trying to buy him. He’s a true blue roan and a pretty flashy little horse.”
    Randy and Kathryn recently sold their broodmares and decided to go back to buying yearlings or the occasional ranch-broke horses, who transition into picking up nicely. They also have a weanling and 2, 3, and 4-year-olds coming along from their breeding program. “Kathryn is in charge of the young horses, and when we had the mares, she figured out what studs to breed them to. She’s very good at that. We had cow horse bred mares and bred them to barrel-type studs who could run but weren’t super hot, so it was trying to find that balance.” Some of the bloodlines they sought out included Sun Frost, Peppy San Badger, and Driftwood.
    Taking care of his horses is paramount to the success of Randy’s work. One of the ways he does this is choosing quality sport boots and saddle pads, which led him to 5 Star Equine’s products this year. “I’ve always heard good things about their pads and I needed some new ones this summer. I talked to them about getting sponsored, and luckily enough they thought it was a good idea to pick me,” says Randy. “I’ve had a few horses that are hard to keep saddles tight on, especially when they’re getting jerked on pretty hard from roping. I put a 5 Star pad on my yellow horse who’s been that way for years, and I had to keep backing my cinch off. It was not nearly as tight as it used to be. They form to the horses and when you pull the pads off they have perfect sweat marks.” Randy also appreciates the safety 5 Star’s sport boots offer his horses’ legs while they work next to broncs and bulls in the rodeo arena. “With two straps on the bottom instead of one it feels like you can get them snug. And a lot of boots I’ve had heck with filling up with dirt and these ones don’t do that. They’re taller than a lot of boots, so they cover more surface area, which is important for me.”
    Randy is enjoying being home more this time of year with his wife and their four-year-old daughter, Tessa. His rodeo schedule picks right up starting with Denver in January, followed by San Antonio and Houston, where he stays for about two months straight. Kathryn and Tessa often fly out to visit him for several weeks during that time, and they hope to travel with him more as Tessa gets older. Randy has been chosen to work the Mountain States Circuit Finals three times, and the 2022 NFR Open. “I’d like to pick up the NFR ones of these days,” he finishes. “That’s really the only thing left on that list to get.”

  • Back When They Bucked with J.C. Trujillo

    Back When They Bucked with J.C. Trujillo

    [ “Never did I think I would be that caliber of cowboy to be inducted into the hall of fame.” ]

    “I think I was just cut out to be a bareback rider. I love that event and the attitude it took to be a bareback rider. And a bunch of my lifetime heroes ended up being bareback riders. It was what turned me on,” says J.C. Trujillo. When the Arizona-born cowboy nodded his head and burst into the sport of rodeo as a child, it swiftly became a way of life, presenting him with opportunities, lifelong friendships, and numerous accomplishments, which he rode to the buzzer and continues to enjoy today. One of these accolades includes his induction in November to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, an honor that J.C. says comes from the many people who stood behind him all his life.
    Born May 10, 1948, in Prescott, Arizona, J.C. started rodeoing at age 6. He and his older brother and sister, Frank and Irene, were launched into the sport by their parents, Albert and Stella Trujillo. “My mom and dad were so instrumental through my whole rodeo career that I just wish they were here to see this also,” says J.C. of his recent induction. “They drug us around to rodeos, paid entry fees, bought horses and horse trailers. They were by no means wealthy people, but we pinched our pennies and got to all our rodeos. Every honor I receive is because of my mom and dad.”
    J.C. and his siblings and cousin, Joe Vecere, who grew up with them, competed in all the events of the Arizona Junior Rodeo Association. J.C. moved into high school rodeo and won state his senior year in the bareback riding, traveling with his dad to the NHSFR held in Watonga, Oklahoma in 1966. On the way, they stopped at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and walked through the hall of fame. “Never did I think I would be that caliber of cowboy to be inducted into the hall of fame.”
    J.C. took third in the nation at the NHSFR, and despite his rodeo successes, thought he wanted to be a football player. He joined the Eastern Arizona Junior College team in 1967. “Those were big guys. I was too little and too slow, and it was a good thing, because they were the ones who convinced me I wanted to be a bareback rider. I was only there for a semester and then I went to Mesa Community College and rodeoed on their team.” From there, J.C. competed on the Arizona State University rodeo team, winning the college finals in 1968. He had already obtained his PRCA card in 1967 and pro rodeoed while finishing his degree in elementary education, graduating from ASU in 1972. “But I went to rodeoing and never used it. But teaching runs in my blood, because I used what I gained there to do rodeo schools all over the country.” J.C. taught with his good friend and a fellow rodeo champion, saddle bronc rider Shawn Davis, along with champion bull rider John Davis, and later, Gary Leffew. “We did three or four a year while we were going down the road, sometimes more. I really enjoyed those schools. It was fun to get to know the kids and I could see myself in a lot of them, trying to learn how to win.”
    Winning came to J.C. with hard work and the sacrifice of thousands of miles on the road. He crisscrossed the country, sometimes flying but more often driving. J.C. clinched more than 30 PRCA wins alongside his 12 qualifications to the NFR, including the Turquoise Circuit title in 1975, Mountain States Circuit title in 1985, four wins at California Rodeo Salinas, two at the Pendleton Round-Up, four at his hometown World’s Oldest Rodeo Prescott Frontier Days, and many more. One of his most unique achievements was splitting the bareback riding title with T.J. Walter at the Command Performance Rodeo in 1983, a White House invitation-only event. President Ronald Reagan awarded them their buckles.
    J.C. won the world title at the NFR in 1981, a newlywed to his wife Margo, the backbone of their rodeo life, whom he married in 1980. They met through mutual rodeo friends, and Margo was no stranger to the rodeo world, having grown up with her brothers, John and Mike, who eventually founded Growney Brother Rodeo Company in 1979. Margo and J.C. welcomed their two daughters, Annie and Sammie, into the world, and the family traveled to as many of J.C.’s rodeos as possible, sometimes sleeping overnight in a van. There were not luxurious living quarters trailers at the time. They made Steamboat Springs, Colorado their home in the early 1980s. J.C. purchased a 50-acre ranch outside of town with his $50,000 winnings from the Calgary Stampede, won in 1982. “I had a friend that owned it, and when he was changing things around, I bought it. I’d seen so many people in the rodeo business that did well, but when they retired they ended up with nothing to show for it. But we were fortunate enough that we have a little to show for it, other than great memories.”
    A year later, J.C.’s rodeo career took a hit when he got hung up on a bronc during the 1983 NFR in Oklahoma City. He was aboard Jim Sutton’s bronc Big Bud when he got hung up, dislocating his knee, breaking several ribs, and puncturing a lung. J.C. sat out much of the 1984 season as he recovered, competing in enough rodeos to land him in the top 20 that year. He contemplated retirement, but wanted to experience the finals one last time, which moved to Las Vegas in 1985. “I made the finals that year, but I was missing a pretty important part of raising kids and it was time for me to bow out. That year at the finals I was 36, the oldest guy in the bareback riding there. I won third in the average and about $28,000 and thought it was time to quit. It was pretty important for me to quit a winner.”
    J.C. traded his bronc rein for ski poles after that, taking a job in the race department at the Steamboat Ski Area. Margo also worked there, teaching in the ski school. A few years earlier in 1982, J.C. had attended the second Cowboy Downhill after hearing what fun it was from all his friends who attended the year before. “I’d never been on skis, but I went to the Cowboy Downhill and started skiing, and it became a great love of mine.” Larry Mahan, who was one of the founders of the Cowboy Downhill, introduced J.C. to Billy Kidd, an Olympic skier who lives in Steamboat, and the two champions of their sports hit it off. As part of the race crew, J.C. set up courses and prepared the ski mountain for everything from world cup competitions to amateur races. “I got to hang out with guys who really skied well, like Billy Kidd, Hank Kashiwa, Dick Haller, and Jim “Moose” Barrows, who were pro ski racers. One of the reasons I liked it so well was that ski racing and rodeo had a lot of things in common. Both are a single sport, not a team sport. It was me and a bareback horse or me and the ski mountain, and I liked that challenge,” says J.C. who was even invited to a celebrity ski race in Vale, Colorado by President Gerald Ford.
    Never one to let the grass grow beneath his cowboy boots, J.C. ran an outfitting business from his and Margo’s ranch for more than 20 years. He guided elk hunts, along with three or four other guides he hired, and Margo hosted and cooked for the visiting hunters, even packing a few elk out herself. “We had six mules and about ten saddle horses, and when they started getting old and I started getting old, we decided it was time to bow out. Our last year was in about 2017.”
    While running the outfitting business, J.C. also divided his time between Colorado and Arizona, working as the general manager of Prescott Frontier Days from 2004 until 2020. He and Margo had moved back to Prescott, where J.C.’s parents were still living at the time. “I enjoyed it. It was being part of the rodeo business, and it was a whole different experience on the other side of the fence. We were there for 16 years and then we decided we needed to spend more time in our Colorado place. Now we spend most of our time up here.”
    J.C. and Margo know the road between Colorado and Arizona well, however. They spend their winters in Aguila, Arizona, heading south in their RV before too much snow accumulates at their ranch, which sits at about 8,000 feet with the National Forest out their back gate. They load up their horses and stay at Silver Bit Ranch, owned by their friend Scott Whitworth. “We stay until the snow is about gone, which is late April or early May. Margo and I both team rope. She’s a really good header and a really good heeler, so I just do whatever other end. We jackpot a little bit but not much. We’re practicers, and we enjoy the camaraderie and being horseback.”
    Their two daughters and their families also live in Arizona. J.C. and Margo’s seven grandchildren all rodeo, from the Arizona Junior Rodeo Association all the way up to the professional level. Their grandson JC Mortensen finished 21st in the PRCA bull riding this season, and his brother Jaxton Mortensen, competes in the PBR.
    All of their children and grandchildren attended J.C.’s induction into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, along with his brother and sister, cousin, and members of Margo’s family. “I was thrilled in 1994 when they inducted me into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, and to be in the same halls as all my rodeo heroes I had in my lifetime is just unbelievable for me. It’s very surreal. Probably the biggest honor I have received is that my family can be part of it.”

  • 5 Star Champion: Kim Thomas

    5 Star Champion: Kim Thomas

    Kim Thomas has been a horse trainer most of her life. Her business savvy and horsemanship skills have carried her to compete in the Barrel Futurities of America World Championship, the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, serve on the WPRA board, and teach clinics in the United States and abroad.
    While she now calls Noble, Oklahoma her home, Kim, 65, grew up in the rural Florida town of Wauchula. “There were a lot of day-working cowboys there that rodeoed. My parents were not horse people, but they got me and my sister a horse and we went to gymkhanas when we were little. Then we high school rodeoed. Nobody college rodeoed back then,” says Kim. “I trained my own horses.”
    Kim purchased her WPRA card in 1980 and went to her first Southeastern Circuit Finals that year. She rodeoed hard through the 1980s and ‘90s, qualifying for the Southeastern Circuit Finals a total of 10 times, along with three Prairie Circuit Finals and two trips to what was the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo at the time. “I’m kind of glad I rodeoed back when I did,” says Kim. “Everybody had one horse, and they trained their own horses.”
    The training skills Kim developed turned into a career. While rodeoing, Kim also competed in barrel futurities on her horses and sold them. At the BFA World Championships, where many of Kim’s horses won, she met renowned horse breeder Jud Little, who invited Kim to come train his horses at his ranch in Oklahoma.
    Not long after joining the WPRA, Kim also began serving on the board of directors and was instrumental in forming the Florida Chapter of the WPRA in the mid-1980s. They produced futurities including the Florida Sunshine Classic, and put on the Wauchula Rodeo in 1987. In all, Kim served around 10 years on the board in many different capacities, most recently as the Prairie Circuit Director.
    During her rodeo and futurity days, Kim was also raising her son and daughter, Matt and Marsee Ferguson. Matt preferred playing other sports to rodeo, but Marsee followed in her mom’s bootprints. Despite being born with a heart defect and having her first open heart surgery when she was eight days old, with four more surgeries to follow, Marsee excelled in the arena. “When she was about 10 years old, Marsee won the NBHA state championship in both the youth and the open on two different horses, and she won the Speed Horse derby when she was 11, which is a very professional event,” says Kim. “She’s very competitive and won a lot. She high school rodeoed and went to the national high school finals.” Marsee got married and she and her husband Hunter McCown have a 10-year-old son, Kellen. Unfortunately, she suffered a massive stroke due to birth control several years ago, but she recently started riding her horse again. “It’s brought her a lot of joy to have this horse,” says Kim, who lives just 30 minutes from Marsee and sees her often.
    Kim continues to be very involved in the horse world, though in new and unique ways. She went back to training horses on her own in 2003, and that eventually morphed into teaching barrel racing clinics. She’s been all over the Southeast with her two-day clinics and even taught in Brazil and Bolivia. “I teach all ages, and I’m a big foundation and horsemanship person. We usually spend the first half of the day working on getting control of the horse and learning where the rider’s body needs to be, and then we do slow work. The second day I usually work with the riders one on one. I truly enjoy it.”
    Kim’s clinics are sponsored by 5 Star Equine, who provide her shirts and hats, which she awards to the most improved horse and most improved rider at each clinic. She teamed up with 5 Star when she began riding horses for owner Terry Moore in the early 2000s, and coached his daughter Rachel Moore-Lowrey, who high school rodeoed at the time. “I bought their pads and helped them market along the way,” says Kim. “I’ve always believed that the best thing for a horse’s back is 100 percent wool, and theirs are, so those have always been my pad of choice.” Kim used all of their products, though the pads and mohair cinches are her favorites. “The horses never get any kind of girth itch or rash with them, they’re easy to clean, and the horses don’t seem to sweat as much in them. All of their products are very high quality, and they are good family people.” 5 Star even sent a new saddle pad to Marsee for her birthday.
    Kim is recently engaged to Chip Bennett, a former PRCA steer wrestler. “I’ve known him for 40 years and we’re best friends,” says Kim. Along with teaching 8-10 clinics a year, she travels for her work as a sales rep for SUCCEED equine products. Her work will take her to the upcoming WNFR for 12 days, where they are running the hospitality tent for two days and cheering on their sponsored riders in the Finals.

  • 5 Star Champions: Mike and Hannah White

    5 Star Champions: Mike and Hannah White

    Mike and Hannah White have known each other since freshman year of college. And through their 24 years of marriage thus far, whether it’s raising their two sons, training horses, starting a business, or coming out of the roping box after a steer at the Bob Feist Invitational, the couple from DeKalb, Texas, knows how to work as a team.
    Both Mike and Hannah come from rodeo families, and feel very fortunate that they had to train their own horses to compete on. “We were extremely blessed that we got to rodeo and our parents worked hard so we could rodeo. But on the other hand, our family didn’t have money to throw away,” says Mike, who is one of five children. He bought and trained colts, and even took a horse that wouldn’t buck out of his brother Pat’s bucking string and trained it to rope.
    Likewise, Hannah has four siblings, and their parents couldn’t afford to buy them all finished rodeo horses. Their grandfather, Jack, who had been a stock contractor on the East Coast and raised quarter horses, along with helping found the Southern Rodeo Association, gave them all the opportunity to train some of his colts. “If we truly made something out of them, he’d sign the papers over to us,” says Hannah. “At the time I hated it because I didn’t understand why my mom and dad couldn’t buy me a finished horse, but now I realize how great that was.”
    Mike and Hannah both went on to college rodeo, though neither one considered team roping more than a fun pastime initially. Hannah competed primarily in breakaway and goat tying while pursuing her nursing degree, and Mike rode bulls and went pro. He won PRCA Rookie of the Year in 1997 and competed in the NFR 1997-1999, winning the average and world title in ’99. Mike also competed in his first PBR Finals in 1999, and qualified for 10 more Finals before deciding he’d had enough serious injuries, and retiring in 2010. He was inducted into the PBR Ring of Honor in 2012.
    Mike’s career change brought the opportunity for the husband and wife to team rope together more than as a hobby. With Hannah heading and Mike heeling, they began entering World Series ropings and the Bob Feist Invitational. They won the #12.5 Oil Field Showdown at the Wrangler BFI, held in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in both 2020 and 2021, taking home over $100,000 both years.
    Team roping also gave them an avenue to give back to their community. They hosted Mike White’s Annual Pasture Roping and Benefit for 13 years, donating the proceeds to Ropin Dreams, an organization that benefits children with serious illnesses or injuries. They’ve been unable to host the benefit since 2021 when the land they used for the pasture roping was sold, but hope to bring the event back. “We’ve helped a lot of people through rough times.”
    Mike’s main heel horse went to college with their oldest son, Logan (19), who is rodeoing at Howard College, but Mike has a 4-year-old that he’s excited to put more miles on. Hannah won both years at the BFI on her gelding Theodore, and rides another gelding named Charlie, who is also becoming a solid head horse. Their youngest son, Morgan (12), won’t be taking over any horses since he is a football and baseball athlete. “We’re great with that and we support him. But I told him if he’s ever interested in roping to let me know, and I’ll have the horses saddled,” says Mike.
    Additionally, there will be three foals on the ground next spring out of Mike and Hannah’s mares. They are starting over after downsizing their breeding program around 2010, when the horse market in Texas hit rock bottom. Their focus these days is the AQHA Riata Buckle stallion incentive program. “I don’t have specific bloodlines, because if a horse rides good, I keep it. And if I don’t like it, I don’t keep it—you can’t ride the papers,” says Mike. He takes in a few outside horses to ride, but is primarily focused on training his own horses, which Hannah rides as well once they are started.
    Whichever horses the couple saddle each day, they have a 5 Star Equine pad on their back. Mike and Hannah joined the 5 Star sponsor team this year, and are excited to be part of a line of products they’ve used for years. The company also sponsored their pasture roping. “What I really like about their pads is that they sit square underneath my saddle and contour to the back, so the saddle isn’t rolling all over the place or cutting my horse in two,” says Hannah. Mike adds that his horses aren’t sore when using 5 Star pads, even when they take some impact when he’s heeling.
    The roping duo’s plans are to continue caring for their family, roping in the World Series and jackpots, and further developing their horse training program, MW Performance Horses. Mike, who is also an auctioneer, is building his customer base in the spray foam industry. “I know if I can get that going, I can free up time to ride those young horses more.”

  • NLBRA World Champion Little Wrangler: Braylin Barratt

    NLBRA World Champion Little Wrangler: Braylin Barratt

    Nine-year-old Braylin Barratt is the proud owner of two world champion saddles, buckles, and numerous awards including her new favorite purple felt hat after her hard work paid off at the 2023 NLBRA Finals. “I was really surprised and I was excited!” says the cowgirl from Cheraw, Colorado. She went into the Finals leading the world all-around in the Little Wranglers and held onto the lead, while also winning the goat tail untying. “Going in, the goat untying was probably her worst event, but she had three great runs there,” says Braylin’s mom, Amber Barratt. “Braylin had practiced a ton on her get off and wraparound, and she did a good job getting it done at the Finals. I’ve had my two other kids going into the Finals number one in the World and then have a bad round and lose the title, so it was nice to see that finally pay off.”
    The 2023 Finals marked Braylin’s third time competing in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where she competed in all of the Little Wrangler events. Her 14-year-old brother, Maverick, and 13-year-old sister, Bristyl, each competed in five events. The siblings are the second generation in their family to compete in the NLBRA. Their mom rodeoed in Little Britches and encouraged them to rodeo when they were old enough. It continues to be a family affair, with their mom and dad, Josh Barratt, helping them practice. Their horses and arena are on their grandparents’ ranch, where they rope and ride daily, and where Josh starts colts and trains cutting horses. Braylin’s Nana and Papa, Dayla and Richard Elliott, have run the ranch for more than 50 years, and support the grandkids in all their rodeo pursuits.
    “Little Britches is family oriented. We can all be there together competing towards the same goals, especially with boys and girls where sports are usually split, like the boys do football and the girls do volleyball,” says Amber. “Everyone is there as a family, and are good, honest people. It’s nice to go where people believe in the Lord and pray before every performance. And most rodeos we go to do church services on Sundays, so that is nice too.”
    Braylin just moved up to the junior girl division and now competes in pole bending, barrel racing, goat tying, breakaway roping, and trail course, which is her new favorite event. She competes on three ponies, Grey Pony, Goose, and Gus Gus. “I help my Nana get eggs, and I drive the feed cart for my dad, grain horses, and I clean pens for my dad and turn back for him for his cutting,” says Braylin. She and her family also help care for their practice goats, calves, and steers.
    Along with rodeo, Braylin stays busy attending Cheraw School. A fourth grader, she especially likes math, where they are studying rounding up numbers currently. She and her brother and sister have a very short walk to school, and Braylin likes to spend her free time with her friends or playing volleyball. Their mom owns and runs a t-shirt screen printing and embroidery business just across the street from their school.
    Braylin is working hard to qualify for the NLBRA Finals again in all her events. “I want to get better at roping and faster at tying like my sister—and beat my sister this year. And I want to thank my mom, dad, sister, brother, Nana, Papa, and the Lord.”

  • I’m just taking it week by week right now. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

    I’m just taking it week by week right now. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

    Pro barrel racer Shelley Morgan is no stranger to the ebbs and flows of life on the rodeo trail. The 50-year-old from Eustace, Texas, who’s won more than a million in career earnings, has experienced the exhilaration of winning The American in 2022, and knows the sting of losing her beloved horse Short Go in 2010. The 2023 season lands somewhere in the middle of those valleys and peaks, and Shelley and her sorrel mare Kiss are doggedly working their way through it.

    At the time of writing, they are sitting 21st in the world standings with $61,709.87. “We’re having a good season. Maybe not great, but good,” says Shelley. “Kiss always tries hard. Our goals are always the NFR, but as long as she’s healthy and sound at the end of the season, I’ll be happy.” Shelley planned to compete on both Kiss and another mare, Phoebe, this year, but with Phoebe working through a lameness issue, the bulk of the competition has landed on Kiss. Shelley and Kiss have been competing together for more than five years, beginning with futurities when Kiss was three. The mare, who won WPRA Horse With The Most Heart in 2020, excels in big outdoor arenas and is clocking steadily faster in indoor arenas now too.

    With such a demanding season for the duo, Shelley is grateful for good tools that protect Kiss and keep her sound. She rides in a 5 Star barrel racer saddle pad, and boots up in their sport boots. “I consider them pretty versatile. I use just about the same kind of pad on all my barrel horses. I have a swaybacked horse, then there’s Kiss who has high withers, and I have a young horse with no withers, and it doesn’t matter what horse I put them on,” says Shelley, who has been on the 5 Star team for three years. “I never feel like I have to girth my horse in two trying to get it tight enough. They fill in the imperfections in a horse’s back and they’re not nearly as sweaty under those pads. They never have sore backs when we go to the vet or chiropractor. The boots keep the dirt out well and have really good Velcro, plus they are so bright and pretty. All of those are positives when we’re asking our horses to give their best. Anything I can do for them to keep them feeling good is a positive.”

    Shelley travels with her husband of 31 years, Rex, along with their German Shepherd and two Yorkies. They also have two grown sons, Zach and Tanner. She’s entered more than 40 rodeos this season, a highlight among them competing in the Calgary Stampede for the first time in her career. “This was my fourth invite, but the first time I actually got to attend. The first time, I lost my horse, Short Go, right before Calgary and I didn’t have another horse to take. The last two years there were COVID limitations, so this year it was pretty cool to actually get to go.”

    As the 2023 season draws to a close, Shelley is anxious to return home to Texas and pick up working with several young horses she has started. “I think I do better if I ride my own horses that I’ve trained.” Much of her focus will be on the full brother to Kiss, a three-year-old named Smooch. “He’s become very sentimental to me. Not only because he’s Kiss’s brother, but we lost my dad (Bobby Bridwell) in May, and I had half interest in him with my dad. He’s the last horse I owned with my dad.” Shelley also has a four-year-old by Streak of Fling and out of Fames Fiery Kiss (Kiss’s dam). “I’ve been really slow with him to let him develop, and I’m excited to add the speed and get him to where he can help Kiss next year.

    “My next goal if I don’t make the NFR is to stay in the top 20 or 30 to enter the big winter rodeos. As long as Kiss stays feeling good, I’d like to make it to Sioux Falls (Cinch Playoffs) and continue making it to those final rodeos. I’m just taking it week by week right now.  Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!”

  • 6 Over 60: Martha Josey

    6 Over 60: Martha Josey

    World champion barrel racer Martha Josey’s small beginnings cultivated a strong work ethic and determination in the Texas cowgirl. So strong, that her trailblazing not only propelled her through four highly successful decades in the arena, but also building a rodeo school, marketing the Josey Ranch brand, and sustaining the business for 56 years and counting. And the ripple effect continues to influence each generation of barrel racers that follow.

    “I started teaching with my husband,” says Martha, who married tie-down roper R.E. Josey in 1966. The couple was invited to teach a barrel racing clinic that same year in Connecticut—one of the first in the area—and three girls that attended later went on to qualify for the NFR, including Lee Natale of New Jersey. Martha and R.E. had moved to West Texas after they married, but after the success of their clinic, a homesick Martha talked R.E. into moving back to her mother’s home in Marshall, Texas, and opening a rodeo school on the property. Thus Josey Ranch was founded in 1967 with 33 students in the first class. Today it is the longest-running rodeo school in the country.

    When she wasn’t teaching, Martha rodeoed hard. The young woman who previously had to rent a horse trailer and tow it with her mother’s worn Buick went on a winning streak. Before joining the WPRA in 1968, she won 52 consecutive barrel races and 7 horse trailers aboard CeBe. She qualified for her first NFR that same year.

    Her success and R.E.’s—who won three AQHA world calf roping titles in the early 1970s—caught the attention of companies such as Purina, Hesston, Wrangler, Priefert, and many more, who approached the couple with sponsorships for Josey Ranch. “When you’re winning, students want to ride what you ride, eat what you eat, and feed what you feed,” Martha explains. “There are many, many banners at our ranch.”
    She invested the money from the first rodeo school into promoting Josey Ranch. “I didn’t go to college since I started rodeoing, but I always had marketing on my mind. Out of sight is out of mind, so you always have to put things before people.” Martha attributes some of her business savvy to her grandmother, Mattie Castleberry, who after working in a cigar store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, decided to start her own business purchasing small buildings and turning them into night clubs. “She didn’t drink or cuss, but she was a businesswoman. She started in Kilgore, Texas and put in Mattie’s Ballroom.  When the Reo Palm Isle was the largest night club in Texas, the owner went off to war and he asked Mattie to run it. When the war was over, she bought it from him. So many country singers started right there at Reo Palm. I live on her property, and the top of the barn she built is my trophy room,” says Martha.

    Another area of her business savvy began in the 1970s with her need for a saddle she could stay in. Her main barrel horse at the time was Cebe Reed. “He was such a turner and could be quick, and I couldn’t find a saddle I could stay on. I kept looking, and every saddle I’d win I couldn’t ride.” Martha, who calls herself a perfectionist when it comes to designing her saddles and bits. She designed a saddle for herself through Circle Y Saddles that not only helped the rider, but also the horse. “One thing that’s really different is that the saddle tree is in close contact with the horse. And the stirrup is on a swivel so you can put your feet in front of you or behind but not get thrown backward. Circle Y has been phenomenal to work with, and we have many champions riding it now.”

    Although her rodeo career was peppered at times with serious riding injuries, Martha qualified for the NFR four consecutive decades—one of the only women to do so—and represented the U.S.A in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. In 1980 after winning the AQHA World Championship aboard her horse Sonny Bit O’Both, she won the WPRA world title just ahead of one of her past students, Lynn McKenzie. Sonny still holds the record as the only horse to carry a rider to both titles in the same year. Recently, Martha was the recipient of the prestigious Tad Lucas Award, and at 85, she continues to ride and teach at Josey Ranch, as did R.E. until his passing in February of 2022.

    Josey Ranch has welcomed more than 300,000 students and given out more than $350,000 in college scholarships. “This year is the first time ever we’re holding the Josey Gold Cup Senior Barrel Race, and we just had a meeting about the Junior World Cup and how to be bigger and better,” says Martha. “Gary Arthur, my nephew, is helping me run this place. Without him I’d be in a heap of trouble. Team Josey goes to the out of state clinics—that’s Ty and his wife Lisa—and Mark Burke is our video man at all of the clinics.”

    Martha continues to impart to her students the values that carried her through her titanic career. “They need that passion and they need to stay positive and be motivated, because sometimes you have to be your own best cheerleader. After finishing a rodeo you didn’t do good at, you have to learn how to put that behind you and let it help you be better for the next one. And enjoy the moment. How enjoyable it is to do something we love so much, and have the family involved.”

  • Team Cavender’s Benny Proffitt

    Team Cavender’s Benny Proffitt

    “Ever since I was a kid I’ve ridden horses and worked on a ranch, and I wanted to do the sport of rodeo because it involves horses and cowboying,” says Benny Proffitt. “I got into rodeoing when I was a little kid and I just loved it, and I’ve stayed after it and made it something I love to do. I always have goals and dreams and try to pursue them.”
    The 18-year-old from Canadian, Texas is an all around cowboy, from bursting out of the chutes in the saddle bronc riding to racing the clock in the tie-down roping, team roping, and steer wrestling. “The bronc riding is definitely my favorite—it gives me the biggest adrenaline rush and is kind of the wildest event I do, but I really like them all. Anything with a horse I enjoy.”
    Benny’s rodeo resumé grows with each season, from winning national all-around cowboy at the NJHFR in 2019, to qualifying for the Texas High School Rodeo Finals four times with several titles, winning the 2021 Junior NFR in saddle bronc, and winning reserve in the saddle bronc at the 2022 Junior Patriot. “I just really enjoy it—it’s the sport I love the most. I try to accomplish my goals and do the best I can, and have fun while I’m doing it.” He’s qualified for the NHSFR twice in saddle bronc riding, and winning the national title remains his chief goal as he finishes his high school rodeo career. “It’s always good competition when you’re competing against the whole nation and some more. The older you get, everybody just keeps getting better and better, so it’s always tough no matter what age you are in the sport of rodeo.
    “I look up to my parents (Jarrett and Shyla Proffitt) a lot. I couldn’t do anything without them,” Benny adds. “And there have been tons of people who have helped me along the way, so many I couldn’t name them all, but I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. Everybody is always willing to help you.” Benny’s parents and 13-year-old brother, Rankin, come to all of Benny’s rodeos that they can, while Rankin competes in ranch rodeos.
    One supporter of Benny’s high school rodeo career in particular is Cavender’s, who invited Benny to join their youth rodeo team his freshman year. “It’s been really good to be on that team. They take all these young rodeo athletes and promote them and sponsor them, and teach them how to work with a team. They come to rodeos and support us, and every year they have a team summit in Tyler, Texas where we all meet up. They’ve taught us how to prepare ourselves for the next steps of our lives as we pursue the rodeo world.”
    When he’s not on the road, Benny divides his time between working on his family’s cattle ranch, practicing his events, and training horses. “I ride a bunch of outside horses and start colts, but mainly I ride our family horses. I start them as colts and then ranch on them for a while, then take them to the arena and rope on them. Anything you do with a horse can help you with your events in rodeo. Just being around horses and trying to be a horseman all my life has helped me.”
    Benny rides a variety of horses in his roping events, but depends on his mare Sandy for steer wrestling. “A few other guys borrow her and steer wrestle on her too. As soon as I started bulldogging I started riding her. We’ve always had her and she has a motor. She took to it and loves it.”
    A recent graduate of Canadian High School, Benny is attending Clarendon College on a rodeo scholarship this fall. He plans to get a two-year certification in welding while competing on the rodeo team. “I’ll do all of my events, and I might pick up another event or two. I’ve always done it all,” says Benny. “I’m working on going to state finals and doing the best I can, and hopefully going to the National High School Finals and doing the best I can there. And I’ll rodeo all summer and do amateur rodeos. After a few years in college hopefully I’ll be ready to move on to the pros and get after them.”

  • 6 Over 60: Judy Wagner

    6 Over 60: Judy Wagner

    “A woman who knows the ropes isn’t likely to get tied up,” says Mae West. It’s a concept that Judy Wagner takes seriously, whose background in ranching and owning Gator Ropes for ten years gave her an affinity for the lithe and useful tool. Just as she relies on its strength to catch a steer or a loose calf, Judy relies on certain strands of the Western lifestyle to put her best boot forward in her family, in her work as the Chief Marketing Officer for Montana Silversmiths, and in the rodeo community at large.
    Born in 1953 in Avon, Montana, Judy was the oldest of eight children and a handy cowgirl as soon as she could walk. By the time she finished high school, she had 14 years of 4-H under her belt and an entrepreneurial outlook. “The cows don’t know it’s Christmas, and it’s that simple and that complicated. But if you take care of your responsibilities, and work from those values and what you learn as a kid growing up on a ranch—or in sports or other teamwork—that eventually sets the foundation for you as you go into your work life.”
    A marketing degree wasn’t common in college at that time, so Judy studied home economics and child development, then took a job as a county extension agent for Teton County. Her husband, Alvin Wagner, whom she met in college, was a sales representative in the western industry, and he helped Judy as she entered into a partnership with another family to create Gator Ropes in 1988.
    “I went to a business class two years after starting Gator Ropes, and I remember thinking I’d be scared to death now if I had known all of that just starting out. I just jumped in because it was my passion and I didn’t know you couldn’t succeed,” says Judy. “I’m thankful for the people at that time like Jake Barnes, Clay O’Brien Cooper, and Speed Williams who gave endorsements, and the people who helped me with advertising or questions with the business. With the other rope companies back then, we were friends more than competitors, and we sharpened each other like steel on steel. I think I earned the respect of the industry because they saw the blood, sweat, and tears it takes to own a business. Because for me, business is personal and I want to create something of value. I used what I call WIT, whatever it takes, to get the jobs done.
    “I love to speak and tell stories, and one goes back to the creation of the rope and the threads that bind us. And that’s how I look at marketing or the world, because in this industry or this country, we are stronger when we are together.” One of Judy’s strands, which comes from the term she coined, Ranch Grown Logic, is keeping your eyes on the goal. “I was helping my brother at his ranch gather heifers and steers, and I was riding a younger horse. We had to cross a ditch, but it practically turned into a ravine because he just didn’t want to cross it. Thankfully my brother saw I was struggling and came back, and he said, ‘Judy, look up.’ And for me, that was exactly it. You must look where you want to go, and when you do that, you release everything. If I get stuck now, I look up and see where I need to go.”
    Another strand in Judy’s rope of life is what she calls “getting your cowgirl on.” She met a woman near her age one year at the PBR Finals in Las Vegas and was impressed with her spiritedness, especially after learning the woman had recovered from a stroke, coma, and six months recovery on her couch. “In her own way, she was telling me, ‘Get your cowgirl on.’ It gave me so much strength and courage, and for me, wearing a cowboy hat helps me get to peak performance. It brings me pride in and out of the arena and gives me strength.”
    Judy is also passionate about passing that encouragement and strength along to others, inspired by another one of what she calls divine appointments. “I was fortunate enough to be a side walker for a handicapped lady. I was walking beside her and she was riding a big bay horse. She kept talking to it, and when she got done, she reached down and put her arms around his neck and said, ‘Good job, cowboy.’ Her voice rings still in my ears today. I try to pass that on now, like in my social media posts. I want to encourage people to keep going, keep riding, and keep making a difference. We need help and relationships, and in this sport, we know we can ask for help. That gives us the strength to be courageous no matter what lies ahead of us.”
    Judy feels another important strand in life is to continue dreaming, always. “It doesn’t matter how old you are—never stop dreaming. We each have a season, and whatever that is, we can break the trail for our time. For the women in this group of 6 Over 60, this is our time to break ground in our season. We can celebrate each other in and out of the arena and create those strong ties. We are stronger together, and as we tie these strands together, what we give comes back tenfold. We couldn’t do it without each other.”
    In 1998, Judy sold Gator Ropes back to her original partners and tried her hand at freelance marketing, while she also helped establish an all-girl rodeo team in Helena, Montana, and several other rodeo teams in her area. In 1990, she won the John Justin Boots Standard of the West award for the Rocky Mountain All Girl Team, a pre rodeo event for the Last Chance Stampede in Helena. In 2000, she had her second job interview ever and started working for Montana Silversmiths. Judy is now marking 20 years with the company, and was promoted to Chief Marketing Officer in January of 2022.
    She and her husband Alvin continue to make their home in Park City, Montana. Their two children, Tiffany and Ross, both carry on the family love of the West. Tiffany trains horses, and Ross and his wife Casey own Big Time Barrel Racing Championships and Wagner Performance Horses. Judy loves to team rope and won WPRA Heading Rookie of the Year in 2014 at the age of 60. She also competes in the Wrangler Team Roping Championships and National Team Roping. “A year and a half ago, I became a grandmother to Westee Rein, and she and my family are the light of my life,” says Judy. “Life now is about quality time with them, work-life balance, and appreciating the moments with faith, family, and friends.”

  • National Little Britches World Champion: Connor Griffith

    National Little Britches World Champion: Connor Griffith

    Connor Griffith’s goal going into the 2022 NLBFR was to win three saddles, including the bareback riding title that had eluded him two years in a row. The 18-year-old, who is originally from Skullbone, Tennessee, accomplished that goal and then some, winning the Finals all-around, ribbon roping, tie-down roping, bareback riding, and all-around world titles in the senior boy division.
    Connor practiced persistently leading up to the Finals, but says his success after that came from his hectic schedule, competing in every event but bull riding. “I couldn’t think about anything because I was running back and forth nonstop. It helped me to my advantage because all I had to do was one event at a time, and if I messed up a bit at one, I couldn’t get upset about it because I had another event and they were waiting on me in the next arena. I was extremely exhausted but I just kept pushing through. My last event was steer wrestling, and I ran fast to get to it. My buddy was throwing on my back number while I ran. I was so winded when I got on my horse that all I could think about was getting off. I was a 4.5 on the steer. It was definitely the best year I’ve had at the Little Britches Finals, and I really got my mind right when I saw I could accomplish that. I’ve started setting bigger goals every year and now that’s all I’m thinking about.”
    Now a freshman at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Connor is attending on a rodeo scholarship and studying Ag. business. He toured the school following the NLBFR and lives with horse trainer and tie-down roper Bob Abernathy. “I love the coach (Justin Browning) and I love my school,” says Connor, who is competing in bareback and saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, and team roping. Along with practicing with the team, he ropes daily with Bob Abernathy, who competed in The American. “There’s so much opportunity down here to be the best you can possibly be. Every rodeo you go to now, there’s going to be at least five guys that made the NFR in our region, and that makes you want to step it up. There are kids in the school that are pro rodeoing and placing in the top 25—30 in the world, and being surrounded by them every day and rodeoing with them will eventually make you better.”
    Connor attributes his work ethic to the example his mom, Christina Griffith, has set for him. “My mom is a very hard-working woman and has taught me throughout life how to get through things. Even if you don’t have as much as somebody else, you train that horse and work with what you have. She motivates me to be better and she has taught me that hard work can pay off. It might take a while or be a rough time, but it will pay off.” Connor also looks up to his friend Sam Smith, whom he lived with in Alabama for several summers while competing in amateur rodeos and Little Britches. “He’s the man who helped me be where I am today, and he’s pretty much the dad figure. One of the greatest things is that I met him through Little Britches, and ever since then, he took me in and helped me a lot with my roping and being a better guy.”
    Competing in Little Britches since 2014 has also impacted Connor, both in life lessons and in rodeo. “The main thing is that no matter who you’re around, be the same person, and be humble about it. If it’s a little kid, you were once in their shoes, and everyone has to start somewhere,” says Connor, who served on the NLBRA National Youth Board for three years. He plans to rodeo in Little Britches another season and qualify for the NLBFR. “There’s so much opportunity now with scholarships, and that is an extremely big help when you get to college.”
    With 40 saddles to his name, including his 2022 IFYR Bareback Riding Champion saddle, Connor continues to set higher goals. “In our region, my goal is to win the all-around and make the college finals. That’s a very different level of goal, but if you set them little and not too hard, it’s not a goal. I know it will take a lot of work and struggle, but I’m going to fight through it. And my goal after this year is to get on my (PRCA) permit. I want to stay around here and work on myself. There are so many opportunities to be great around here and get prepared. Then I can go to a pro rodeo and feel confident about it.”

  • 6 Over 60: Vicki Christensen O’Shieles

    6 Over 60: Vicki Christensen O’Shieles

    Since day one, Vicki Christensen O’Shieles’s life has been immersed in rodeo, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. From growing up helping her family’s famous Christensen Brothers Rodeo produce professional rodeos around the West, to trick riding, rodeo queening, hosting radio and television shows, and founding the trophy buckle company Tres Rios Silver, Vicki’s life continues to honor and support the heritage she holds so dear.
    “I had a horse before I ever had a bicycle. Bicycles weren’t very fun to ride on gravel roads,” says Vicki, who was born in 1954 and grew up on the Christensen Brothers Ranch located between Eugene and Roseburg, Oregon. “I can’t imagine my life without rodeo in it. I’ve been very blessed, and every generation will tell you this, but when I grew up in rodeo, we spent more time at the rodeo grounds and got together with the crew and people who came to rodeo. The rodeo family is truly remarkable.”
    Vicki’s earliest memories are of riding her pony on her family’s ranch, home to CB Rodeo, which was founded in 1936 by Bob and Henry Christensen and their sister Babe. Eventually Vicki, her brother Bobby Jr., and Henry’s children became the third generation to work the family business. “My first job in rodeo was riding my pony Lucky and clearing the arena during the calf roping and bulldogging events. Whatever the task at hand was, be it feeding roughstock, running calves through, saddling parade and pickup horses, or carrying flags in the grand entry,” recalls Vicki, who also timed rodeos. “To be ranch raised is very special to me. Ranch life and rodeo life were different, and whether you were fixing fence or helping in the field to put up hay, you just did what you did. Growing up, I used to think every day was ordinary, but looking back on it now, those days were truly extraordinary.”
    She went on to run for Miss Rodeo Oregon in 1973 and won the title. Vicki represented The Beaver State at the Miss Rodeo America pageant and was honored to win the prestigious horsemanship award during the competition. Her close friend Pam Minick won Miss Rodeo America. The following year, Vicki planned to start traveling the skies as a flight attendant for Hughes Air West until a phone call changed everything. California Rodeo Salinas, one of CB Rodeo’s longtime contracts, was short a trick rider for the upcoming rodeo. Vicki, who had watched trick riders at the rodeos for years and tinkered with it herself at home, told her dad she could do it. “I chose one of the pickup horses out of the string because they know how to brace and hold the weight from picking up cowboys after an eight second ride.” Vicki’s successful performance in Salinas opened the next gate in her life, and she and her cousin Sherri Christensen, also a trick rider, formed a trick riding group with Lyndy Erwin. “One trick rider that absolutely inspired me was Nancy Sheppard. She used to work a lot of rodeos in the Northwest and was a good friend of my mom’s. I looked forward to Ellensburg, where Karen and Harry Vold were always at, and Karen helped us girls and gave us pointers. But it was J.W. Stoker who taught me so much about showmanship and how to project from horseback. We were blessed to work many of the bigger rodeos throughout the Northwest, California, and even traveled to Texas for the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.”
    Vicki put up her trick riding saddle and returned to working on her family’s ranch when her son Brett Tatum was born in 1978. When rodeo crews rolled in to make a stop at the ranch, Vicki cared for the horses and cooked. Unfortunately, her family lost their entire business in 1984 during the farm crisis. “It was a really sad time, but through sad endings come new beginnings.” Her sustaining comfort was that her faith and family endured, even as CB Rodeo came to a close. The opportunity arose for Vicki to move to New Mexico after the family ranches were sold, and she started working with KXTC Radio. “We did one of the very first rodeo radio reports and went live every day covering rodeo events through the Four Corners area and Navajo nation. That kept me tied into the life I loved of rodeo.”
    Inspired by the enchanting geography of the Southwest and craftsmanship of the Navajo people, Vicki entered into the trophy buckle business, learning from Jim Custer in Wickenburg, Arizona, and Ralph Maynard in Thoreau, New Mexico. “I started making trophy buckles in 1994 and sold that business and went on to create Tres Rios Silver in 1997. That’s going on 22 years now, and it’s second-generation owned by my son Brett Tatum and his wife Keylie.” Vicki’s grandson, Pecos Tatum, is a tie-down roper, while Brett is a former PRCA bull rider and Keylie is a WPRA world champion heeler. “I’m married to a wonderful man, Bud O’Shieles, these last eight years, and he’s a lifetime vice president of Rodeo Houston,” says Vicki, who now makes her home in Weatherford, Texas.
    She is as involved as ever in rodeo, both preserving her family’s history with the sport and the history of others. She was inducted into the Idaho Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2019, and works with the World of Rodeo Reunion and Gold Card Gathering in Las Vegas each December during the WNFR. “It’s a chance to connect with people who are the foundation of the sport, and it’s loads of fun,” says Vicki, who worked side by side with her niece Becky Christensen Mapston to produce the show CB Cowgirls live on stage during the WNFR from 2013—2019. Currently, they host the YouTube show Come to the Table, where faith, food, and fellowship are still served up the cowboy way. Vicki is also working with Patricia Dawson from the Pendleton Round-Up Hall of Fame, and renowned sculptor Edd Hayes, on a project highlighting CB Rodeo’s famous bronc War Paint. The current Ms. International Ambassador FoRe the American Cowboy, Vicki is compiling her memories of early trophy buckle business days. “Back when I was in the business, there were very few women heavily involved in it at that time. I had an excellent crew and some of the finest Navajo silversmiths in the world. It’s their story as much as mine—the people, and the girls I worked with in the office.
    “A good friend of mine, Judy Wagner, said it’s called W.I.T. for ‘whatever it takes.’ I’ve pulled on that through whatever comes in my life. Whatever it takes, as a cowgirl, a mother, or a wife, we do what we do. It’s inspiring to see so many young women embracing the western lifestyle. It really makes my heart smile to see their enthusiasm and what they bring to the table. You never want someone to follow in your footsteps, but if you will leave a path and allow them, they will choose their own steps because of yours. I have learned from the remarkable cowgirls that have given so much that I might be blessed by their journey. I hope the tracks I leave behind might welcome another group of young women who love the western lifestyle.”