Rodeo Life

Author: Ruth Nicolaus

  • Rodeo in Her Blood

    Rodeo in Her Blood

    Red Bluff woman has family history at the Round-Up, volunteers her time.

    Red Bluff, Calif. (March 18, 2019) – The Red Bluff Round-Up runs through the blood of Vicki Stroud.

    It’s a part of her family heritage, actually.

    Stroud, who was raised in Red Bluff, is the daughter of Jim Davis, long-time volunteer with the Round-Up, and the great-niece of Guy Davis, one of the original shareholders.

    Vicki has either attended or volunteered at the rodeo –or both – for at least sixty years, she estimates.

    Her dad, Jim, was a California Highway Patrolman for 27 years, taking a week off every April to volunteer his time at the Round-Up. He ran the timed event chute for fifty years, opening the chute for the calf or steer to run out of.

    And he took his family to the rodeo. Stroud remembers, as a young girl, her dad backing his old gray pickup into the arena to watch the rodeo. “That’s where our love of the sport started,” she said. As she and her friends got older, they sat on the fence near the bucking chutes, to watch. And at the end of the rodeo, when the wild horse race began, “we’d run across the arena to get closer to the action,” she remembered. “The fence along the track would fold over with the weight of the people on it.”

    Stroud’s great-uncle, Guy Davis, has roots even deeper in the Round-Up. Born in 1887, Davis owned the Ford-Plymouth-DeSoto dealership on Main Street, and was president of the Red Bluff Chamber of Commerce in 1932. Guy promoted the Round-Up, realizing the economic impact rodeo goers had on Red Bluff businesses. He and other men went from town to town, in the 1930s, promoting the Round-Up. Guy passed his share on to his nephew Jim, who passed it on to Stroud.

    Even though she didn’t live on a farm, Stroud loved to ride horses. She and friends would pack a lunch and spend the day riding through the countryside. She was (and continues to be) good friends with Margo Growney Trujillo, and she would go to the Growney Ranch to help brand and work cattle. She never competed in rodeo, but she loved to go to the youth rodeos and watch Margo and other friends compete.

    She has many memories surrounding the Round-Up, like the time she and her friend Debbie Slattery Stone took her Volkswagon to the rodeo. A cooler of pop was situated over the battery, and when the ice melted, it ran all over the battery. “There we were, at the rodeo, looking for a jump,” she laughed.

    Stroud remembers sneaking into the rodeo, too. “If we didn’t have a ticket to the rodeo, we’d say, we’re taking lunch to George Growney, or John Growney, and we’d sneak our way right in.”

    She remembers hearing stories of her dad, Jack Craig and Jim Owens saying they could never watch the parade because they always had to be at the rodeo. One year, they decided they would watch the parade. But instead of watching it, they borrowed someone’s old checker motor car and snuck into the parade line, becoming an entry in it!

    Jim was awarded the Top Hand Award, given to a volunteer who has dedicated their time in assisting with the rodeo. He was selected for the honor in the 1980s and at the time of his death in July of 2018, was the oldest living Top Hand Award winner.

    In Stroud’s younger years, she volunteered with some of the ancillary events surrounding the Round-Up, like the cowboy golf tournament. As a Red Bluff Rotarian, she helps man the beer booth, where proceeds go towards the Rotary’s scholarships. She also co-chairs the Think Pink luncheon, held on the Tuesday before the Round-Up (this year, April 16.) Proceeds from the Jolene Kemen Think Pink luncheon go to the Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign, for cancer treatment at Dignity Health St. Elizabeth Community Hospital. Last year, the luncheon, along with its auction, raised $11,500, along with tips from the beer stands.

    The cancer fundraiser holds an important part in Stroud’s heart because she is a breast cancer survivor. She knows she was fortunate enough to have good insurance. “There are a lot of people in our community that aren’t lucky enough to have that. By having this luncheon, we are making it possible for those people to receive the treatment they need.”

    Vicki and her husband Doyle’s children Wes and Matt are the third generation of Round-Up fans. Wes and Matt “have been going to the rodeo since they were in my belly,” she laughed. “They’d sit at the rodeo through the wind and the cold. Not too many times did we miss the rodeo.” And the fourth generation is starting. Wes and Lauren’s children, daughter Hayden and son Boden, go to the rodeo with their family. Vicki’s brother Jimmy Davis has entered the wild horse race at the Round-Up, and Doyle is a volunteer at the Round-Up Mercantile in downtown Red Bluff.

    The rodeo is important to Stroud, her family and the community. “To me, it means income to our community, it means bonding with community members and cowboys. It brings together people in our community. It’s a fun week to be involved.”

    The 98th annual Red Bluff Round-Up takes place April 19-21 at the Tehama District Fairgrounds in Red Bluff. Performances start at 7 pm on April 19, at 2:30 pm on April 20, and at 1:30 pm on April 21. Tickets range in price from $14 to $35 and can be purchased online at www.RedBluffRoundup.com. Call the Round-Up office at 530.527.1000 for more information.

  • Back When They Bucked with John Harris

    Back When They Bucked with John Harris

    From the time he was a baby, all John Farris ever wanted to do was be a cowboy. And he spent his life doing it. The Addington, Oklahoma man was born in 1928 in Iowa Park, Texas, the son of B.A. and Eva Farris. When the neighbor’s cows got out and onto Farris property, John and his brother would ride them. At the age of sixteen, he hitchhiked to the rodeo in Jacksboro, Texas, to ride a bull. He got hit in the mouth, and when his parents found out where he’d been, “they threw a fit,” John remembers.
    But it didn’t discourage him. He graduated high school in 1944 and went to work, plowing for neighbors and working in the oilfield. He rodeoed, too, riding bareback horses, saddle bronc horses, bulls, roping, and even doing a little steer wrestling. Of his events, he won the most money at the saddle bronc riding and bull riding. In 1951, he won the wild horse race and placed in the amateur bronc riding at Cheyenne Frontier Days.
    It was at a rodeo in Stanford, Texas, in 1954 when he met a striking dark-haired barrel racer. John and Mildred Cotten met on July 4 and were married the next year. She was an accomplished barrel racer, winning the Texas Barrel Racers Association championship in 1955-57. When she joined the Girls Rodeo Association (the predecessor to the Women’s Pro Rodeo Association) in 1958, she began going to pro rodeos, and in 1957, John got his RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association, the forerunner to the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association) card, and the two traveled together.
    They spent the next fifty-plus years together, rodeoing and traveling across the nation.

    In 1962, they began working for stock contractor Tommy Steiner. Mildred took entries (those were the days before Procom and the computerized entry system, when contestants called the rodeo secretary to enter) and secretaried the rodeo. John was chute boss, for either the timed event end or the roughstock end, or both. Steiner was the first producer they worked for, but throughout their lives, they worked for others: Harper Morgan Rodeo Co., Neal Gay, Don Gay, Stace Smith, Mack Altizer, the Auger Rodeo Co., Mike Cervi, and more.
    When the Farris’s worked a rodeo, things went smoothly; the pay-out was right, the arena was clean, and the stock was loaded correctly.
    While they worked for stock contractors, both continued to compete. John rode bulls till the age of 44, and Mildred qualified for the National Finals Rodeo thirteen times.
    In 1967, one of the years Mildred made the NFR, John began a career of working the NFR that would last till 2012. Throughout those forty-six years, John did everything from security work to caring for grand entry saddle horses to working as chute boss. He was timed event chute boss for years, sorting cattle, setting the barrier, and making sure the animals were in the right sequence. He’s best known by rodeo fans as they saw him on TV: flagging in the next barrel racer during each night of the NFR. He set the barrel pattern at the NFR every year, from 1967 to 2012.
    The couple rodeoed nearly year-round. They would be gone all summer and most of the fall. After the NFR, they would be home till the Texas Circuit Finals on New Year’s, then home again until Ft. Worth started. The couple moved to Addington, to be near John’s parents. Their sons: Billy Tom and Johnny, stayed with B.A. and Eva Farris during the school year. As soon as school got out, the boys were with them. And during the school year, if the rodeo was close, John might run up to Addington to pick them up for a weekend, or a contestant traveling south might bring them. A few times, Tommy Steiner flew his airplane to get them.
    They worked thirty-five or forty rodeos a year, and as soon as their boys were old enough, they were on the labor list. They pushed calves and took saddles off, among other chores. “We’d rather do that than run around,” Johnny remembered.
    John and Mildred would call and check in on their kids but if the boys needed to get ahold of their parents, they called Procom. It was before the invention of the cell phone, and Procom would give the boys the number for the rodeo their parents were at. Then the boys would wait till entries opened for the rodeo, and Mildred would answer their call.

    John was working for Tommy Steiner when Tommy was the first producer to use the electric eye for the barrel race. He was with Tommy when it was purchased. He also considers improvements to the judging system as another forward step in pro rodeo. Before the professional judging system, a cowboy might get scored poorly if he wasn’t a friend of the judge. When the pro system started, it leveled the playing field.
    John and Mildred were reserved, but they took care of business, said Vickie Shireman, a PRCA secretary who knows the Farris family and worked with the couple. “They were very well respected. They were quiet, but if somebody needed help, John and Mildred would be the first to help.” They helped numerous cowboys and cowgirls get started, nurturing young people on the rodeo road. Buddy Lytle, a tie-down roper, steer wrestler, and later, a judge, lived with the family for years. Announcer Mike Mathis was a friend of the family. “John was an amazing cowboy,” he said. “He was a hell of a competitor, and he and Mildred were a team.” Rodeo producers knew that when John and Mildred worked for them, things would go smoothly. “No matter where,” Mike said, the work “was going to be taken care of, and properly.”
    One of John’s favorite parts of rodeo was the people. As contract labor, he and Mildred would be in town for the entire week of rodeo, and made countless friends among contestants, contract personnel, and committee members. They watched children of friends grow up, often seeing multiple generations compete. John worked through hundreds of hours of slack, sometimes six or seven hours a day, but it never got old for him. Once, after three days of slack at a rodeo, world champion tie-down roper Fred Whitfield asked John if he was tired of it. No, he answered, “because I get to see everybody.”
    Mildred passed away in 2013; before she died, she and John were recognized numerous times. They are the only couple to be inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame (2006); the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame (2004) and the Rodeo Hall of Fame in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City (2010).
    John was chute boss for the Texas Circuit Finals for twenty years and received the WPRA’s Outstanding Individual Award in 1999. He was Texas Circuit Man of the Year in 1997. Mildred was PRCA Secretary of the Year eight times and served as a director, vice-president and president of the Girls Rodeo Association and Women’s Pro Rodeo Association.
    His family: Bill and wife Sally, and Johnny and wife Jan, threw a ninetieth birthday party for him last year. More than 140 people came to visit with John and celebrate his life. John has four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

  • ProFile: Jessica Routier

    ProFile: Jessica Routier

    In her first year at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, Jessica Routier set her rodeo career on fire. And she had some help in doing it, aboard an exceptional horse.
    Routier, of Buffalo, South Dakota, rode Fiery Miss West, “Missy”, won over $250,000 for the year, and finished the rodeo season as reserve champion, second only to the 2018 world champ Hailey Kinsel.
    Missy, an eight-year-old palomino, was Jessica’s futurity horse just two years ago. Owned by Gary Westergren of Westergren Quarter Horses in Lincoln, Neb., she is an exceptional horse who is unusual for her self-awareness, Jessica said. “You see quite a few young horses running these days, but to have one that makes runs like she does, with no mistakes, is pretty rare.”
    Jessica’s exceptional year began with her RAM Badlands Circuit championship in 2017, which qualified her to compete at the RAM National Circuit Finals in Kissimmee, Fla., in March. There, she finished in second place, which put her at her highest rodeo rankings ever: the top twenty in the world. A trip to the WNFR was within reach. So at the Guymon, Okla. rodeo, she sat in her trailer with an atlas and a rodeo schedule, mapping out her rodeo year, knowing that she might have a chance to make the Finals.
    Jessica competed at 58 rodeos, traveling all over the nation, but never being gone from home more than two weeks at a time. Missy, her untried mount, handled them all. “There’s not a lot of different things I have to watch out for” with Missy, Jessica said. “That helped us last year, where we didn’t know where we were going (the arena conditions and set ups). She’s really adjustable to all the different situations.” Missy never ran like an amateur. “There wasn’t once where I felt she had a novice horse moment that screwed something up for us.”
    Jessica has been rodeoing since she was a little girl, growing up in Montfort, Wisconsin. The daughter of Jon and Shelly Mueller, her mom trained horses and both parents rodeoed a bit during their college and young adult days. Jessica was always interested in horses, competing at Little Britches Rodeos and the Wisconsin High School Rodeo Association where she did every girls event, winning the Wisconsin high school cutting title four years, the goat tying three years, and the poles and breakaway twice. She is a three-time Wisconsin all-around champion as well.
    With a rodeo scholarship to National American University in Rapid City, she competed under the tutelage of Glen Lammers. He was the main reason she chose NAU, and she appreciated his help. “He was a really involved coach who wanted to help anyone who worked hard. He was just a really great rodeo coach,” she said.
    She qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo four times, winning the national barrel racing title in 2003. She graduated in 2006 with a master’s degree in business.
    During her time in college, she met the man she would marry. Jessica was friends with Jessica Painter Holmes, Riley Routier’s cousin. At the time, Jessica Painter was dating Casey Holmes, a good friend of Routier’s from Wisconsin. Painter and Casey “set up” Jessica and Riley on a date; the four of them were going spotlighting for rabbits. Not being a hunter, it wasn’t an activity she enjoyed. She didn’t like the date, but she still liked the guy. “I don’t really know why I liked him after that,” she joked. Jessica Painter ended up marrying Casey Holmes; they live close to the Routiers.
    The Routiers married in 2007, making their home on the ranch ten miles from Buffalo. The ranch has come down through Riley’s mom’s family, the Painters, and Riley and Jessica’s kids are the sixth generation to live there. Riley’s dad Harold died twenty-eight years ago; Laurie, Riley’s mom, married Terry Goehring. Laurie and Terry, Riley and Jessica, and Riley’s brother Ryan all live on the ranch, working together but with their own herds.
    Like her mom, Jessica rode outside horses, up to a dozen horses a day. She met Westergren through mutual friends and business acquaintances, John and Liz Holman from Hot Springs. He was looking for someone to start his horses, with the ultimate goal of getting one of them to the WNFR. Jessica gets Westergren’s horses as two-year-olds. Someone else puts thirty to sixty days on them, breaking them. Then she gets them back, putting lots of ranch miles on them and slowly starting them on barrels. At that point, she and Gary decide if the horse is a good fit or not. If it is, it stays. If not, Gary sells it or if it’s a mare, takes it back and breeds it. She and Gary have worked together the last seven years, and she’s ridden a lot of really nice Westergren horses, but Missy was special. She reminded Jessica of Smoothy, the horse she won the College National Finals Rodeo on. Missy “had a lot of good qualities that I knew I liked.” Missy is a natural fit for Jessica’s riding style, too. “She’s one that I never had to really think about how I need to ride her correctly when I go into the arena. It’s natural. The way I want to ride is the way she wants to be ridden.” That’s a rare occurrence, Jessica said. “I’ve always said there are a lot of good horses and a lot of good jockeys out there, but finding two that fit together is important.”
    Missy does have a quirk, however. She doesn’t like to face cows, head on. Jessica discovered the trait while working the alleyway during AI season. “I think that’s one of the things that made her tough at a young age,” Jessica said. “We made her work through her fear. She was right in there with the cows, and she had to work through it. She’s as tough as nails. I think it’s good for a young horse to have to face their fears and learn to trust you.”
    She and Riley have five kids. Their son Braden is thirteen years old, a seventh grader and a math whiz. All year long, Braden kept track of his mom’s winnings. Daughter Payton is ten and a fifth grader who fell in love with trick riding after seeing trick rider Roz Beaton at the Badlands Circuit Finals in Minot, N.D. six years ago. Now she trick rides at regional rodeos and is working on getting her PRCA card so she can work as a specialty act.
    Twin daughters Rayna and Rose are three years old, and daughter Charlie, age two, makes up the family.
    Life in Buffalo is wonderful, especially with a family. “I love it here,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a better place in the world to raise kids.” Being gone for much of the summer was a prime example. The whole community stepped in to help babysit and take care of kids while she was gone and if Riley was out on the ranch and unable to take the kids with him. “The whole community will do whatever they need to, to help you. It’s a small town. You know everybody and everyone feels like family.”
    Her experience at her first WNFR was wonderful, and Jessica hated for it to end. There wasn’t time to sightsee and play tourist, but they made time to shop. The stomach flu hit the kids; almost every night at the rodeo, one child wasn’t able to be there, but Jessica never got sick. Both sets of grandparents were in Las Vegas and able to babysit when needed.
    She doesn’t have big plans for 2019; she’s waiting to see what Missy has in mind. Finishing second in the world will allow her to enter the big winter rodeos, which will hopefully help her move up into the top fifteen in the world standings earlier. She would like to give Missy the month of April off, to pull embryos from her. “We’ll see what we get done in the winter and that will determine how much we need to go in the summer.”
    This year, Jessica will know what rodeos are a good fit for her and Missy. “I have a better idea of what places are good for us to go to. Last year was a great big learning year, and it went well despite the fact that I hadn’t been to most of the places we went to. This year we have more experience under our belts.”
    She’s going to let it play out, “like we did last year. It’s hard to say you’re going to push hard (to qualify for the WNFR) when you only have one horse because you don’t know if they’ll get tired or need a break.” Making the WNFR is important, but she realizes that there are other important things, too. “It’s a goal again but it’s not a do or die goal.”

  • Katie Pascoe & JR Streakin Espuela

    Katie Pascoe & JR Streakin Espuela

    When Katie Pascoe picks out a horse, she loves to go with A Streak of Fling.
    The Morro Bay, California cowgirl has raised and ridden five different babies all by Streak of Fling.
    Her latest protégé is a five-year-old bay roan gelding, JR Streakin Espuela, sired by A Streak of Fling by Espuela Pleasure (Blue Light Ike.) “Beretta,” as he’s known in the barn, is owned by Katie’s mother, Sherrie Jones and was intended as a rope horse for Katie’s dad, John W. Jones, Junior, a three-time world champion steer wrestler.
    But when Beretta showed a liking for the barrel racing, that’s the discipline that was chosen for him.
    He was started as a two year old and ridden on the family ranch, roped on, and Katie did a bit of barrel racing training in the practice pen with him, while sending him out to others to train and finish.
    In 2018, his first year of competition, Beretta carried Katie to the West Coast Barrel Racing Association’s Finals in King City, Calif. over Labor Day weekend, where the two of them earned $3,470 by winning fourth in the 1D first round, seventh in the 1D average, and twelfth in the finals.
    Beretta is young but has quite a personality. “He is just a clown,” Katie said. “He wants to be your buddy all the time, and he’s in your pocket.” Beretta has some antics that keep the family laughing. “He likes to find zippers if you’re wearing a jacket, and get a hold of them. He does some funny things out in the pasture. He’ll spin perfect circles, both ways, when he’s playing, and he’ll go from that into loping perfect circles in both directions. He does that when he’s playing and he’s happy.”
    He knows how to behave, as well. “He has good manners and is easy to be around,” Katie said.
    In the arena, Beretta is a focused competitor. “He seems to be really gritty and has a lot of try. External things don’t bother him.” Because of that, Katie thinks he’ll do well if she and her mom decide to transition him to rodeo. “We’ll play with him as he matures, and see if he can handle that kind of situation.”
    Katie is married to former NFL football player Bear Pascoe, who is in his rookie year of competition in the PRCA as a steer wrestler.
    She and her parents have a long history with Lisa Fulton and Fulton Family Performance Horses, owners of the stallion A Streak of Fling. John, Jr. qualified for the National Finals Rodeo ten times in the steer wrestling and twice in the tie-down roping, winning the world title three times (1984, 1988-89), so he and Lisa’s husband Brian, who passed away in 2015, crossed paths as Brian also competed in the tie-down roping and steer wrestling.
    Katie spent two summers with the Fultons on their ranch in South Dakota, just across the state line from Valentine, Neb., helping get colts ready for the annual sale. While there, she became close to Brian and Lisa and their three sons. “It was a pretty neat experience,” she said, “to get to see what all goes into a sale. It is an amazingly run production.”
    Katie loves the traits that A Streak of Fling babies have. “All of our A Streak of Flings have been very personable, fun to be around, with cute personalities. They have a ton of try and athleticism, and they’re quick. They’re really smart and willing, and they have a style that I really seem to get along with. It’s been fun having multiple A Streak of Flings.”
    She likes the understanding that grows between her and the A Streak of Fling offspring. “The ones we’ve raised have been fun to bond with. From my point of view, I feel like when you have a strong bond with a horse, they try harder for you. And it makes your success more satisfying when you have that personal bond.
    “They are really personable and do funny things that make them individuals. Those things really make me fall in love with a horse even more.”
    Sherrie plans on entering Beretta at more derbies and jackpots in 2019.

  • Success In The Stock Market

    Success In The Stock Market

    Bucking horses, bulls selected for awards in the Badlands Circuit

    Minot, N.D. (October 23, 2018) – In rodeo, it’s not just the cowboys who get the glory. It’s the animals, too.

    In the Badlands Circuit, four bucking horses and two bulls have been honored with accolades.

    For the Badlands Circuit Year Awards, Yankee Rose and South Point, both bucking horses owned by Sutton Rodeo Co. won the events of bareback horse and saddle bronc horse, respectively. The bull Cougar, owned by Bailey Pro Rodeo, won bull of the year.

    For the Badlands Circuit Finals Awards, bareback horse Onion Ring and saddle bronc horse Bad Onion, both owned by Korkow Rodeos, won their events, and the bull of the finals was won by Ace High, of Bailey Pro Rodeo.

    Yankee Rose is a horse that Steve Sutton, along with his dad Jim and the family, based out of Oneida, S.D., raised. The seven-year-old buckskin  was started in the saddle bronc riding but when she didn’t show an interest in it, the Suttons switched her to the bareback riding, and “she’s been one of the cowboys’ favorites ever since,” Steve Sutton said. “She’s cowboy friendly. She’s not an arm jerker, she’s not hard on their bodies, but she’s still marked nineteen or twenty points all the time.”

    The saddle bronc of the year, South Point, is owned by the Suttons and waits for no one. The twelve-year-old bay gelding doesn’t delay in the chutes; some cowboys don’t get a measurement on their rein because the gelding doesn’t wait around, Sutton said. At nearly every Sutton rodeo this year, the saddle bronc riding was won on him. This is the second year South Point has won the Badlands award.

    Ty Manke wins the third round of the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo aboard South Point, the Sutton Rodeo horse that won the 2018 Badlands Bareback Horse of the Year. – Peggy Gander/Cowboy Images

    The bull of the year, Cougar, is a five-year-old black flat-horned animal who is “pretty rider friendly,” said Shane Gunderson, co-owner of Bailey Pro Rodeo, Baldwin, N.D. “They ride him about sixty percent of the time, but they win on him every time. He’s just good to ride.”

    Cougar, a five-year-old bull owned by Bailey Pro Rodeo, is the 2018 Badlands Bull of the Year. – Peggy Gander/Cowboy Images

    For the finals awards, two Korkow horses were recognized.

    Onion Ring, an eight-year-old solid sorrel gelding, won the bareback horse of the finals. He’s docile, said TJ Korkow, who is the third generation of the family on the ranch near Pierre, S.D. “You can go up to him and pet him. He’s just dog gentle, but he loves what he does.”

    Bareback Horse of the Year Onion Ring – Peggy Gander/Cowboy Images

     

    The cowboys love him, too. “He gets stronger as the ride goes on,” Korkow said. “He leaves the chute good, and as the ride progresses, he’s jumping higher and dropping harder.” Onion Ring was selected as the number two bareback horse in the PRCA for 2018.

    His half-brother, Bad Onion, won saddle bronc of the finals. Also an eight-year-old, Bad Onion is not like his sibling. “You cannot walk up to him without maybe him pawing you in the head,” Korkow joked. “He is not friendly.” The sorrel with socks on his back feet and a strip face leaves the chute and often kicks over the top rail of the chutes. “He’s a bucker,” Korkow said.

    Saddle Bronc of the Finals Bad Onion – Peggy Gander/Cowboy Images

    In the bull riding, the bull Ace High is the one the cowboys love to ride. The six-year-old yellow bull, however, has other plans; in the last two years, only two cowboys have made a qualified ride on him. Outside the arena, he is “pretty easy to handle,” said Gunderson. “He’s just a nice bull.”

    Bull of the Finals Aces High – Peggy Gander/Cowboy Images

    Voting on the animals is done at the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo by the contestants in their respective events. The Badlands Circuit Finals, hosted by the Minot Y’s Men’s Rodeo was held in Minot October 5-7. Next year’s circuit finals will be October 11-13, 2019. For more information, visit www.MinotYsMensRodeo.com or www.ProRodeo.com.

    Bad Onion bucks off saddle bronc rider Jeremy Meeks at the Badlands Circuit Finals in October. The horse, owned by Korkow Rodeos, is the 2018 Saddle Bronc of the Finals. Photo by Peggy Gander/Cowboy Images.

    The 2018 Bareback Horse of the Finals went to Onion Ring, who bucked off Nick Schwedhelm at the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo in Minot in October. The horse is owned by Korkow Rodeos. Photo by Peggy Gander/Cowboy Images.

    Jeff Bertus attempts to ride Bailey Pro Rodeo’s Ace High at the Badlands Circuit Finals earlier this month. The bull, who is the Badlands Bull of the Finals, has bucked off every cowboy but two in the past two years.

  • MONEY IN MINOT

    MONEY IN MINOT

    Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo determines champions in North, South Dakota

    MINOT, N.D. (October 9, 2016) – It came down to the wire for cowboys and cowgirls in Minot at this weekend’s RAM Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo.

    After four performances of the Minot Y’s Men’s Rodeo, which hosts the circuit finals, year end (based on the amount of money won throughout the season) and average (based on combined points or times at the circuit finals rodeo) champions were determined in each of seven events.

    Those two champions per event will go on to qualify for the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo (RNCFR) in Kissimmee, Florida, in March of next year, where $1 million is up for grabs.

    Monies won at this year’s circuit finals and the RNCFR counts towards the world standings, for those contestants who choose to rodeo full time and try to qualify for the world championships, determined at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR).

    The only race that was determined before the circuit finals started was in the bareback riding.

    Ty Breuer, Mandan, N.D., had the year-end title sewn up before he got to town, because of his large lead.

    And when the four performances were over, he also had won the average title, the most points on four rides (321). He won first place in two rounds and second and fourth place in the other two rounds. “I was lucky to place in every round and get on good horses,” he said. “It was fun.” Breuer is ranked the number twelve bareback rider in the world standings and will compete at his fourth WNFR in December.

    It came down to the last run in the steer wrestling.

    Cameron Morman, Glen Ullin, N.D., held off the other eleven steer wrestlers to finish as the 2018 Badlands year end and average champion.

    He won money in three of the four rounds to have a total of 17.2 seconds on four head. In his final run on Sunday, he had the best steer in the herd. “I missed the barrier a little bit, and Billy (Boldon, the hazer) did a good job of putting him in my office. I almost screwed up (the run) but it worked out and it was fast enough to stay in the average.”

    The circuit finals might be over, but Morman, a 2016 Dickinson (N.D.) State University graduate, isn’t slowing down. “I have to keep it rolling going into 2019. Tomorrow we leave for the All-American Finals (Rodeo) in Waco, Texas, and we’ll stay pretty busy from here on out.” In the world standings, he finished 2018 in eighteenth place. “I finished too close in 2018 to not go (rodeo) in 2019.”

    Morman won the average title last year and the year-end title in 2015.

    In the last dozen years, no one has won more Badlands Circuit saddle bronc riding titles than J.J. Elshere.

    Elshere, of Hereford, S.D., kept the streak going by winning the year-end title again this year.

    He chased a WNFR qualification nation-wide this year and came into the circuit finals in second place behind Ty Manke. He won the first, second and fourth rounds but got bucked off in the third round, allowing Jade Blackwell to win the average with 302.5 points on four head.

    The 39 year old cowboy is one of the veterans in the circuit and thought the judges might have known that as well. “A couple of those rides, it felt like they gave me some old-man-points, maybe. ‘Thanks for coming, here’s a couple extra (points.)’” This year’s year-end title was his fifth; he’s won the average three times. “I’m pretty fortunate just to get to come here and get on good horses. I’m actually pretty blessed.”

    Blackwell’s circuit finals didn’t start as well as he’d have liked. For the first two rounds, he made qualified rides but they weren’t good enough to earn him checks. In the third round on Saturday night, when Blackwell won second place, eight of the twelve cowboys did not make qualified rides. Blackwell, along with Dickinson, N.D.’s Dusty Hausauer, were the only two cowboys who made qualified rides on all four horses.  Hausauer finished with 298 points on four head.

    There was a new face in the barrel racing, and it wasn’t a human.

    For the first time in a dozen years, Lisa Lockhart was aboard a different horse at the Badlands Circuit Finals.

    The Oelrichs, S.D. cowgirl won both the year-end and average titles aboard her eight-year-old mare, Rosa.

    Lockhart has ridden her buckskin Louie for years, and fans are familiar with the gelding.

    But Louie stayed home this weekend and Rosa made the trip to Minot.

    Lockhart was unsure of how her mare would perform. “I hadn’t run her a whole lot inside, and I’d not run her in multiple runs. It was all to gain, nothing to lose by bringing her here. Sometimes you have to do those things to adapt.”

    Lockhart won first place in the first and third rounds and second place in the second and fourth rounds to finish with a time of 55.09 seconds on four runs.

    “We just climbed Mt. Everest, as far as I’m concerned,” Lockhart said, regarding her wins with Rosa. She chose to take a chance on Rosa at the circuit finals. “I really thought about bringing Louie, but it’s always the bigger picture. I need to advance Rosa.”

    Lockhart rides Rosa differently than she rides Louie. Rosa “really likes to turn, and so does Louie, but the difference is everything she does is more theatrical. She’s wired pretty tight, and therefore she’s more difficult to ride.”

    She is ranked fourth in the world standings and will compete at her twelfth WNFR this December. In the last dozen years, she has won the Badlands Circuit year-end or average title ten times.

    Tie-down roper Clint Kindred is headed back for his second RNCFR.

    The Oral, S.D. cowboy won both the year-end and average titles in Minot.

    He came into the circuit finals in third place, behind Dane Kissack and Joe Schmidt, and won money in every round but the fourth one, finishing with an average time of 38.6 seconds on four runs.

    “I got off to a good start and drew good calves,” he said. “It all fell together for me, really.”

    His fourth round run nearly ended in catastrophe. He stumbled after dismounting from his horse, but was able to make a 9.9 second run. It didn’t earn him money, but was fast enough to win the average.

    It was adrenaline that got him through the stumble. “After I fell down, it was straight panic mode.”

    Kindred won the 2016 RNCFR and plans on rodeoing full time next year.

    The team roping year end winners were Tyrell Moody, Letcher, S.D. (header) and Levi Lord, Sturgis, S.D. (heeler). Average winners were Turner Harris, Killdeer, N.D. (header) and Ross Carson, Grassy Butte, N.D. (heeler.)

    For the second consecutive year, both bull riding titles went to Jeff Bertus, Avon, S.D.

    The Rookie of the Year was awarded to Chance Rosencrans, Jamestown, N.D., and the all-around went to Riley Wakefield, O’Neill, Neb.

    Awards were also given to the Badlands bareback horse, saddle bronc, and bull of the year. Yankee Rose of the Sutton Rodeo Co. won Bareback Horse of the Year; South Point of Suttons won the Saddle Bronc of the Year. The bull Cougar, owned by Bailey Pro Rodeos, won Bull of the Year.

    For the finals awards, the Bareback Horse of the Badlands Circuit Finals went to Onion Ring, Korkow Rodeos. The Saddle Bronc Horse of the Finals was won by Bad Onion, Korkow Rodeos, and the Bull of the Circuit Finals went to Ace High, Bailey Pro Rodeo.

    During the Sunday rodeo, the 2019 Miss Rodeo North Dakota was crowned, and Kara Berntson, Kulm, N.D., won the title. She is a recent graduate of North Dakota State University where she earned a bachelor degree in animal science with a minor in equine science. She served as the 2017 Miss North Dakota Winter Show Rodeo Queen. She is the daughter of Neal and Marla Berntson.

    The Minot Y’s Men’s Rodeo is a not-for-profit venture by the YMCA Men of Minot, N.D. Proceeds from each year’s rodeo benefit the Triangle Y Camp at Lake Sakakawea, near Garrison, N.D. Next year’s Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo will be October 4-6, 2019. Hess and 4- Bears Casino & Lodge are proud sponsors of the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo. National sponsors include the PRCA, WPRA, RAM, Cinch, Justin Boots, Pendleton, Montana Silversmith, American Quarter Horse Association, Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, Only Vegas and Experience Kissimmee.

    – ### –

    Ram Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo, Minot, ND

    4th performance October 7, 2018

    Year end and average winners for the Badlands Circuit

    All-around Champion: Riley Wakefield, O’Neill, Neb.

    All-around champion for the Finals: Levi Lord, Sturgis, S.D.

    Bareback riding

    Bareback Riding Year End Champion: Ty Breuer, Mandan, N.D.

    Bareback Riding Average Champion: Ty, Breuer, Mandan, N.D.

    4th go round results:

    1. Ty Breuer, Mandan, N.D. on Sutton’s Time Rental, 87 points; 2. Blake Smith, Zap, N.D. 82; 3. Nate S McFadden, Elsmere, Neb. 80.5; 4. Logan Glendy, Oconto, Neb. 78.5.

    Average results:

    1. Ty Breuer, Mandan, N.D. 321 points on 4 head; 2. Blake Smith, Zap, N.D. 312; 3. Logan Glendy, Oconto, Neb. 293.5;  4. Nick Schwedhelm, Fort Calhoun, Neb. 235 on 3 head.

    Steer Wrestling

    Steer Wrestling Year End Champion:  Cameron Mormon, Glen Ullin, N.D.

    Steer Wrestling Average Champion: Cameron Mormon, Glen Ullin, N.D.

    4th go round results:

    1. Chason Floyd, Buffalo, S.D, 4.0 seconds; 2. Cameron Mormon, Glen Ullin, N.D., 4.1; 3. Kody Woodward, Dupree, S.D., 4.2; 4. (tie) Eli Lord, Sturgis, S.D. and Tee Burress, Piedmont, S.D. 4.4.

    Average results:

    1. Cameron Morman, Glen Ullin, N.D. 17.2 seconds on 4 runs;  2. Reed Kraeger, Elwood, Neb. 18.6;  3. Kody Woodward, Dupree, S.D. 19.1; 4. Chason Floyd, Buffalo, S.D. 22.9.

    Team Roping

    Team Roping Year End Champion Header: Tyrell Moody, Letcher, S.D.

    Heeler: Levi Lord, Sturgis, S.D.

    Team Roping Average Champion Header: Turner Harris, Killdeer, N.D

    Heeler: Ross Carson, Grassy Butte, N.D

    4th go round results:

    1. Tyrell Moody, Letcher, S.D. and Rory Brown, Edgemont, S.D. 5.1 seconds; 2. Tim P Nelson, Midland, S.D. and Jake Nelson, Creighton, S.D. 5.3; 3. Cooper White, Hershey, Neb. and Tucker White, Hershey, Neb. 5.4; 4. Shaw Loiseau, Flandreau, S.D. and Jade Nelson, Midland, S.D. 6.2.

    Average results:

    1. Turner Harris, Killdeer, N.D. and Ross Carson, Grassy Butte, N.D. 46.4 seconds on 4 runs; 2. Eli Lord, Sturgis, S.D. and Levi Lord, Sturgis, S.D. 15.5 on 3 runs; 3. Tyrell Moody, Letcher, S.D. and Rory Brown, Edgemont, S.D. 17.1; 4. Wyatt Bice, Killdeer, N.D. with Tel Schaack, Edgemont, S.D 18.7.

    Saddle Bronc Riding

    Saddle Bronc Year End Champion: JJ Elshere, Hereford, S.D.

    Saddle Bronc Average Champion: Jade Blackwell, Rapid City, S.D

    4th go round results:

    1. (tie) JJ Elshere, Hereford, S.D. 84 points on Sutton’s Fancy and Chuck Schmidt, Keldron, S.D. 84 points on Bailey Pro Rodeo’s Dancing Bear; 3. Kaden Deal, Eagle Butte, S.D. 81.5; 4. Jesse Bail, Camp Crook, S.D. 77.5.

     

    Average results:

    1. Jade Blackwell, Rapid City, S.D. 302.5 points on 4 rides; 2. Dusty Hausauer, Dickinson, N.D. 298; 3. JJ Elshere, Hereford, S.D. 247 on 3 rides; 4. Ty Manke, Hermosa, S.D. 238.5.

    Barrel Racing

    Barrel Racing Year End Champion: Lisa Lockhart, Oelrichs, S.D.

    Barrel Racing Average Champion:  Lisa Lockhart, Oelrichs, S.D.

    4th go round results:

    1. Jessica Routier, Buffalo, S.D. 13.53 seconds; 2. Lisa Lockhart, Oelrichs, S.D. 13.59; 3. Hallie Hanssen, Hermosa, S.D. 13.62; 4. Bobbi Grann, Sheyenne, N.D. 13.71.

    Average results:

    1. Lisa Lockhart, Oelrichs, S.D. 55.09 seconds on 4 runs; 2. Jessica Routier, Buffalo, S.D. 55.57; 3. Bobbi Grann, Sheyenne, N.D. 55.65; 4. Nikki Hansen, Dickinson, N.D. 56.33.

    Tie-down Roping

    Tie Down Roping Year End Champion: Clint Kindred, Oral, S.D.

    Tie Down Roping Average Champion: Clint Kindred, Oral, S.D.

    4th go round results:

    1. Matt Peters, Oral, S.D. 8.7 seconds; 2. Dane Kissack, Spearfish, S.D. 8.8; 3. Riley Wakefield, O’Neill, Neb. 9.2; 4. (tie) Blake Eggl, Minot, N.D. and Trey Young, Dupree, S.D. 9.4 each.

    Average results:

    1. Clint Kindred, Oral, S.D. 38.4 seconds on 4 runs; 2. Trey Young, Dupree, S.D. 42.5;  3. Riley Wakefield, O’Neill, Neb. 43.7; 4. Mike Johnson, Henryetta, O.K. 47.2.

    Bull Riding

    Bull Riding Year End Champion: Jeff Bertus, Avon, S.D.

    Bull Riding Average Champion: Jeff Bertus, Avon, S.D.

    4th go round results:

    1. Jeff Bertus, Avon, S.D. on Sutton’s High Roller, 86 points; no other qualified rides.

    Average results:

    1. Jeff Bertus, Avon , S.D. 168.5 points on two rides; 2. Bart Miller, Pleasanton, Neb. 168; 3. Ryan Knutson, Toronto, S.D. 77 on 1 ride; 4. (tie) Corey Maier, Timber Lake, S.D and Ethan Lesiak, Clarks, Neb. 76 each.

    ** All results are unofficial.  For more information, visit www.MinotYsMensRodeo.com and www.ProRodeo.com.

     

     

     

  • Competitive Drive

    Competitive Drive

    Minot man satisfies desire for competition with team roping; will rope at Y’s Men’s Rodeo

    Minot, N.D. (September 17, 2018) – Blake Eggl  is competitive.

    In high school and college, football fed his competitive drive.

    When he graduated from Minot State University in 2012 and school sports were over, rodeo filled the void.

    And for the first time, the Minot native will compete at the pro rodeo in his hometown.

    Eggl is one of twelve tie-down ropers to qualify for the upcoming Y’s Men’s Rodeo, hosting the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo.

    To compete at the Badlands Circuit Finals, a cowboy has to be one of the top twelve in his or her event, after the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association season of rodeos in North Dakota and South Dakota is complete.

    Eggl began rodeo as soon as he was able to ride a horse, by the age of seven or eight. He traveled with his dad, Kelly Eggl, also a tie-down roper, and the duo went to rodeos sanctioned by the Rough Riders; those rodeos had events for both adults and kids.

    But rodeo was on the back burner during high school and college. “Growing up, I loved football, and still do,” he said. A college scholarship to play football was a priority.

    He played for Minot State as a running back and on special teams as an underclassman. His senior year, Eggl was a starter.

    After college graduation in 2012, Eggl was back to the rodeo arena. He continued competition in the Rough Riders, traveling with his dad again, and also at PRCA rodeos. His dad had roped at the Y’s Men’s Rodeo, before it hosted the Badlands Circuit Finals, and Blake remembered sitting in the stands, watching. He wanted to rope at the Y’s Men’s Rodeo, but it required being in the top twelve in the circuit.

    And each year, there was an obstacle. Two knee surgeries and a back surgery, all from football injuries, limited his rodeo.

    This year, he was ready. “This is the healthiest I’ve been since I was 22,” he said. Eggl roped at 35 pro rodeos and another 30-plus amateur rodeos this year.

    Juggling work and rodeo has been a challenge. Working for an agricultural company, he’s free to compete on the weekends. Sometimes he would get home on Monday morning in the wee hours and be ready for work by 8 am.

    He figures he’s rarely missed a year of the Y’s Men’s Rodeo. Even during college, he’d attend on the Thursday night; football practice and a game took precedence on the weekend.

    And this time, Eggl will be at the rodeo, but not in the stands. He’ll be roping. “I’ve always wanted to make the circuit finals, but when it’s in your hometown, man, I really want to make it,” he said. “I’m super excited.”

    Eggl, along with the other competitors, will compete four times: Friday, Oct. 5 at 7 pm, Sat., Oct. 6 at 1 pm and 7 pm, and Sun. Oct. 7 at 1:30 pm. The year-end champion and average champion (the contestant with the fastest times or highest scores after four runs) will be determined on Sunday, and qualify for the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Florida next April.

    Eggl is married to Ashley, also a Minot native.

    The 64th annual Minot Y’s Men’s Rodeo is October 5-7 at All Seasons Arena at the North Dakota State Fair Center. Note that there is no Thursday night show this year; it has been moved to a Saturday matinee. Tickets range in price from $13 to $33 and can be purchased online at www.MinotYsMensRodeo.com. For more information, visit the website or call 701.833.1761.

  • Rodeo Family Reunion

    Rodeo Family Reunion

    South Dakota, Minnesota families gather in Minot to watch competition, enjoy family

    Minot, N.D. (September 24, 2018) – When the Minot Y’s Men’s Rodeo kicks off next weekend, there will be a mini-family reunion taking place.

    Dane Kissack, a tie-down roper from Spearfish, S.D., his family, and his wife’s family have congregated in Minot the last several years to enjoy each other’s company and the rodeo.

    Kissack, his wife Kelli, his parents, Phil and Terri Kissack, his maternal grandmother, Marlene Griffith, Kelli’s mom, Kim Bones, her maternal grandmother, Kari Kannenberg and her aunt LuAnn Grossman, plus a few friends, will be on hand to watch him compete. (Kelli’s dad John will be helping harvest on the family farm in South Dakota.)

    The combined families use their time in Minot to hang out, visit, and watch the rodeo.

    It’s one of the few times of the year that Dane is at one rodeo for more than a few hours. Usually cowboys get to a rodeo, make their run or ride, then leave when it’s over, headed to the next one. But in Minot, because it’s the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo, the top twelve in each event compete in four performances October 5-6-7. That means that Dane is in one place for multiple days, and the families can get together.

    Kelli’s family comes from the Minneapolis area, and although Minot isn’t geographically centrally located between Spearfish and Minneapolis, the family can gather and spend several days together as Dane ropes.

    Spearfish, South Dakota’s Dane Kissack competes at the 2016 Minot Y’s Men’s Rodeo. His parents and grandmother, along with his wife Kelli’s mom, grandmother and aunt, along with friends, get together during the Y’s Men’s Rodeo for a mini family reunion. – Peggy Gander, Cowboy Images.

    They stay in several hotel suites, buy groceries in Minot, and enjoy burgers, steaks and plenty of good food at lunch and after the rodeo each night. It’s a great way to enjoy each other, relax, and enjoy the slower pace of the rodeo.

    Minot is also a good time for the women of the bunch to shop. They visit the mall, the special unique shops, and the trade show at the rodeo, then have fun dressing up for the rodeo each day. “It’s a fun time to get dressed up,” said Terri Kissack, Dane’s mom. “We’ll go shopping, we share what everybody got that is new. We have a blast doing that.”

    Terri loves coming to the Y’s Men’s Rodeo. Because it’s the best cowboys and cowgirls in the Badlands Circuit, the contestants get special treatment. The rodeo is “a big deal to Minot,” she said. Even as a mother of one of the contestants, “you feel special. We are treated very, very well. Minot is a great place.”

    Dane, along with the other contestants at the Y’s Men’s Rodeo, hosted by the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo, will compete October 5-7. Performances are at 7 pm on Fri., Oct. 5; 1 pm and 7 pm, on Sat., Oct. 6, and 1:30 pm on Sun., Oct. 7.

    Tickets are discounted for the Family Day performance at 1 pm on Sat., Oct. 6, and for the military appreciation performance at 1:30 pm on Sun., Oct. 7. Tickets range in price from $13 to $33 and can be purchased online at www.MinotYsMensRodeo.com. For more information, visit the website or call 701.833.1761.

     

  • Helping Hand

    Helping Hand

    Abilene rodeo helps Dickinson Co. cancer fund raise monies for people undergoing cancer treatment

    Abilene, Kan. (September 17, 2018) – The Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo in Abilene, Kansas is helping to make the world a little bit better place.

    During its annual Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign on Friday, August 3, voluntary donations were picked up in the amount of $2,678.93, to benefit Dickinson County people undergoing cancer treatment.

    The monies go to the Elsie Brooks Memorial Cancer Fund of Dickinson County, which provides financial help to Dickinson County residents with cancer.

    Since the Elsie Brooks fund began twenty years ago, it has given out over $750,000 to those in need.

    The money is useful for traveling expenses, with cancer patients often having to travel to Salina or Manhattan for treatment, said Chris Ostermann, president of the fund. “When you live in Abilene and have to travel to get treatment, it can be (financially) devastating. And if you’re on a fixed income, it’s scary.”

    The donations are a “game changer,” Ostermann said. Helping with people’s “personal battles with cancer makes it easier for them.”

    The fund’s partnership with the rodeo has been helpful, Ostermann said. “We’re very thankful for the rodeo. It brings recognition for us to the community, that we’re able to help.”

    Voluntary donations were picked up at the Abilene rodeo; the Abilene rodeo has partnered with the Elsie Brooks Fund since 2008 and since then, has helped raise $34,480.

    For more information on the Elsie Brooks Cancer Fund, contact Chris Ostermann at 785.479.3749. For more information on the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo, visit the rodeo’s website at WildBillHickokRodeo.com or call the Central Kansas Free Fair office at 785.263.4570.

  • Being ‘Pink’

    Being ‘Pink’

    Hastings rodeo raises funds for cancer patients at Morrison Cancer Center

    Hastings, Neb. – The Oregon Trail Rodeo in Hastings in August isn’t just  a place to have a good time.

    It’s also a way to help a neighbor.

    When “pink” night descended on the rodeo on Sat., August 25, it was time to help out.

    The rodeo has partnered with the Morrison Cancer Center to raise funds for the Center’s From the Heart program. From the Heart is a program the Morrison Center uses to give money to those going through cancer treatment at the Center. The campaign is called “Tough Enough to Wear Pink,” and the rodeo donated one dollar for every rodeo fan in pink during the August 25 rodeo, and passed a pink bucket, asking for voluntary donations, during the performance.

    That money can be used for fuel, or, in the form of Chamber bucks, for other necessities like medicine.

    For a Kearney woman, From the Heart funds have been very helpful.

    Kim Vos, who is 52 years old, was diagnosed with stage 4 invasive ductal carcinoma, an incurable cancer, on Valentine’s Day of this year.

    She is going through chemotherapy and chose to doctor in Hastings instead of Kearney, because of her mom’s experience at the Morrison Cancer Center. Her mom “doctored in Hastings,” she said, “and that’s why I chose Hastings. The Cancer Center is an incredible place.”

    Vos first had cancer several years ago, and a bilateral mastectomy to treat it. Doctors told her no other treatment was necessary, so it was shocking when cancer came back for a second time.

    Monies from the From the Heart have helped pay bills at the Vos household. She isn’t able to work full time at the restaurant she runs in Grand Island, so she’s gone from a salary to hourly income. “I’m having to cut my hours back,” she said. “I don’t have the energy.” As with most cancer patients, she’s working through emotional and physical pain as well as financial struggles. “As soon as you hear that you have stage 4 cancer, and that it’s incurable, you have all that on your brain. Then you’re thinking, how am I going to work? How will I pay my bills? I’m not one who doesn’t pay my bills.” The From the Heart gas cards and Chamber bucks helped. “Even that helped take the edge off” the worry.

    Vos is married, with two daughters and two grandbabies, ages six years and 21 months, and they are incentive to keep going. “It’s been terrifying,” she said of her cancer journey. “But I have a Creator who loves me more than anyone else.” Her grandchildren “are my motivation to stick around, with my husband, to watch them grow up. I have to fight the fight so I can stick around as long as the Lord is willing to let me.”

    Guillermo and Sasha Aguirre pose for their wedding photo. The couple was married on August 5; four days later, Sasha was told she would need to have chemotherapy. The couple benefitted from funds raised at the Oregon Trail Rodeo for Sasha’s fight against cancer – Complete Weddings and Events

    Another local cancer patient benefits from the From the Heart funds.

    Four days after her wedding on August 5, 2017, Sasha Aguirre was told she would need to have chemotherapy to fight a rare form of ovarian cancer.

    She had a cyst removed from her ovary in June, and the doctor had said she would probably not need chemo, so she and her husband, Guillermo, weren’t concerned.

    For Aguirre, receiving funds from Morrison Cancer Center’s From the Heart was needed. A student at Central Community College, she was also working part time. But during chemotherapy, her work hours (and her schooling) decreased. “My husband paid bills by himself,” she said. “We weren’t used to that.” From the Heart gave Aguirre chamber bucks to be used for fuel and other necessities.

    Neither Vos nor Aguirre have attended the Hastings rodeo, but there’s a good chance they’ll be in the stands this year on Tough Enough to Wear Pink night.

    The Oregon Trail Rodeo has raised more than $30,000 for the Morrison Cancer Center through its pink night.

    Tough Enough to Wear Pink night is August 25; the rodeo will also be held on August 24 and August 26. Performances on the 24th and 25th begin at 7 pm. The August 26 rodeo starts at 5 pm. Tickets range in price from $10 to $20 for adults and $5 to $20 for children, and can be purchased at the Adams County Fairgrounds or at the gate. For more information,  visit www.AdamsCountyFairgrounds.com  or call 402.462.3247.

  • Bull Riding in His Blood

    Bull Riding in His Blood

    Elk City Man Follows in Dad’s Footsteps as Bull Rider

    Elk City, Okla. (August 27, 2018) – With a world champion for a dad, it’s no surprise that Brett Custer is following in his father’s footsteps.

    Custer, the twenty-year-old son of 1992 World Champion Bull Rider Cody Custer, will ride a bull at the Elk City Rodeo of Champions this weekend.

    The younger Custer is in his rookie year of competition in the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). He and his family, including his mom, Stacey, moved from Arizona to Elk City ten years ago; Brett grew up riding sheep, then graduated to calves, steers, then bulls, as he progressed through Little Britches Rodeo, then junior high and high school competition.

    He was having a great rookie season till a bull at Cheyenne Frontier Days in July broke his jaw and sidelined him.  He planned that his first ride back would be at his hometown rodeo, the Rodeo of Champions, but his buddies had other plans for him. They “entered me in (a rodeo) in California,” he said, so he’ll be headed to the west coast prior to riding in Elk City.

    The jaw is doing well, Custer said. The first two weeks after the break were miserable; his jaws were wired shut and he lived on protein and milkshakes. But it is good now, he said. “I don’t have full mobility of it yet but it’s healing up pretty well.”

    At the time of the injury, Brett was ranked in the top thirty of the world, within striking distance of the top fifteen, which qualify for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR), pro rodeo’s pinnacle. Sitting out of rodeo for a month set him back; he’s ranked fortieth in the world standings now. But he knows it’s how the sport goes. “That’s bull riding; it’s a part of it.”

    His dad, who in addition to being a world champion bull rider, was a 2017 Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame inductee, a PBR co-founder, and a seven-time WNFR qualifier, has helped him out “a bunch,” Brett said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it without him, honestly, because of how much he’s helped me. He taught me how to enter rodeos, setting up my schedule, being able to get from point A to point B, and he’s pretty much built the foundation for my riding. We talk every day, even if I’m not home, about my rides. It’s just a blessing to have him be my dad, honestly.”

    Brett is ranked twelfth in the Prairie Circuit standings, pro rodeo’s regional designation of rodeos in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. If he is in the top fifteen in the circuit as of Sept. 30, he will qualify to compete at the Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo in Duncan, Okla. October 19-21.

    Brett is the youngest of three children of Cody and Stacey: Aaron, who passed away in 2011, and Lacey, who is 23 and a student at Rose State College in Midwest City, Okla.

    Nearly 250 cowboys and cowgirls will compete at the Beutler Bros. Arena in Elk City, August 31-September 1-2. Performances begin at 8 pm nightly; tickets range in price from $9 to $18 and can be purchased at Circle A Western Wear, at Doug Gray Dodge in Elk City, and at the gate. For more information, visit the rodeo’s website at www.ElkCityRodeo.com or call Doug Gray Dodge at 580.225.3005.

  • Family Passion

    Family Passion

    Elk City, Okla. (August 13, 2018) – The Elk City rodeo is so important to the Johnson family that they had to reschedule a wedding because of it.

    Little did Emily Johnson realize, when she and Jeff set the date for their wedding on Labor Day weekend, 1976, that it was the same day as the Saturday night of the rodeo.

    Jeff and his dad, Russell Johnson, were part of the Rodeo of Champions committee, and his mom, Velma, volunteered at the rodeo, too. There was no way he and Emily could marry when the rodeo was going on.

    So they moved it, to the weekend after the rodeo. And Emily, a native of Amarillo, Texas, began her own rodeo tradition with the Johnsons.

    Russell Johnson was on the rodeo committee for more than ten years, serving as president for a term. He worked the contestant parking gate, on the northeast side of the rodeo grounds, with son Jeff joining him “when I was a snot-nosed kid,” he remembers. When Russell became a board director, Jeff, at age fifteen, took over working the gate, helping park specialty acts with trailers, rodeo cowboys and cowgirls, the Sanders longhorns, and more.

    When Jeff and Emily’s kids were old enough, they, too, came out to the rodeo grounds to help alongside their parents. Steven, the eldest, helped his dad at the parking gate. Jill served food to the chute seat ticket holders and Tommy, the youngest, pitched in wherever he was needed.

    Of the three, Steven still lives in Elk City and has worked the back gate since he was thirteen. Like his dad, he loves it. He makes friends with the people who return year after year, helping them out as he can. He helps saddle horses for the flag-carrying Kerosene Cowgirls. He’s met eleven-time world champion barrel racer Charmayne James when she competed in Elk City, and he’s shaken the hands of the gold-card carrying PRCA members.

    If cowboys are late getting to the rodeo, Steven’s been known to park their vehicles for them. “I have cowboys come in, running late, and ask, ‘where do I go?’ I say, grab your stuff, I’ll park your vehicle for you, and I’ll have your keys in my pocket when you’re done.”

    The back gate is a “combat zone,” Jeff says. The horses got out once, running several miles. Storms with hailstones have come up, and he’s been clipped by side mirrors as pickups with trailers have pulled in. He’s grabbed excited kids out of the way of eighteen-wheelers, and helped direct traffic. “People don’t pay attention. That’s part of it.” But he loves it. “We just hammer down and stay with it.”

    Emily has a role to play as well. After retiring as a registered nurse and supervisor at a hospital, she was asked to help serve the meal to the chute seat fans. She loves the people. “I like meeting everybody,” she said. “Some of the people you see only that time of year. It’s nice to catch up with the regulars.”

    Jeff and Steven have never missed a year of the rodeo since they were kids; since 1976, when Emily married Jeff, she hasn’t missed a year. They love what they do. “It’s something I’ve always been a part of, and something I truly look forward to,” Steven said. He hopes his son, 21-month-old Russell Thomas Johnson, is part of the rodeo, too. “It’s almost a heritage between my grandfather, dad and me, and hopefully my son follows in my footsteps.”

    The Elk City rodeo is August 31-September 1-2 at Beutler Bros. Arena at Ackley Park. Performances begin at 8 pm each night. Tickets range in price from $9-$18 and can be purchased at Circle A Western Wear, at Doug Gray Dodge in Elk City, and at the gate. For more information, visit the rodeo’s website at www.ElkCityRodeo.com or call Doug Gray Dodge at 580.225.3005.