Rodeo Life

Author: Ruth Nicolaus

  • Hastings Rodeo Wraps Up

    Hastings Rodeo Wraps Up

    Minnesota bareback rider one step closer to National Finals; Australian one of eight event winners

    HASTINGS, NEB. – (August 26, 2018) – Tanner Aus is trying to make up for lost time.

    The Granite Falls, Minn. man scored 84 points in the bareback riding during the Oregon Trail Rodeo in Hastings, Neb., this weekend to win the rodeo and inch a bit closer to the top fifteen bareback riders in the world.

    He was aboard a Korkow Rodeos’ horse named Ol’ One Eye, a horse that was ridden for the 2017 bareback riding title, and the ride was good. The bronc was “real snappy,” Aus said. “He stepped out pretty smooth, had a pretty snappy jump, then went right around to the right. It was a fight to stay ahead of him.”

    Much of Aus’ season has been a fight. The twenty-eight year old cowboy tore ligaments in his knee on June 2, which kept him out of competition for a month and a half, during part of the busy rodeo season. His world rankings slipped as he was home, rehabbing.

    But there was a silver lining to his injury. While at home recovering, he was able to spend time with he and his wife Lonissa’s newborn daughter, born in May.

    Aus has competed at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR), pro rodeo’s “super bowl” four times (2011-12, 2015-16) and hopes to make it a fifth time. The rodeo season ends on Sept. 30; by that date, cowboys must be in the top fifteen in their event, in the world standings, to make it to the WNFR. Aus will ride at five more rodeos this week, hoping to move from twenty-first place to the top fifteen. He knows it’ll be a fight. “It’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of luck.”

    There is a gap of more than $18,000 in earnings between Aus’ spot at 21 and the number fifteen man, and he is realistic that he may not win that much in the next five weeks. “After Labor Day weekend, I’ll have a little clearer picture,” he said. If he continues to win, he will chase another WNFR qualification. If not, he’ll rodeo closer to home and focus on next year.

    In the saddle bronc riding, an Australian took home the title of 2018 Oregon Trail Rodeo champion.

    Jake Finlay scored 83.5 points on Korkow Rodeos’ Anger Management, a horse he’d been wanting to ride for a while. “My buddy (Kash Deal) won some money on him at Dickinson (N.D.),” he said. “I called Kash and got the run down (on how the horse bucked) and it all worked out.”

    Finlay, a native of Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia, came to the U.S. four years ago after being recruited by Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Okla., for their rodeo team. His mother was happy he moved to the U.S., not because she wasn’t going to miss him, but because he was going to college. “I probably wouldn’t have gone to school if it wasn’t for rodeo.” He graduated this past May with a degree in animal science nutrition and production.

    Finlay was the 2018 National Intercollegiate Rodeo saddle bronc riding champion and helped his college rodeo team win the men’s title for the second consecutive year.

     

    This was Finlay’s fourth trip to the Hastings rodeo. He is rodeoing full time, with the goal of making the WNFR, beginning next year.

    Other champions at the 27th annual rodeo include tie-down roper Cody McCartney, Ottawa Lake, Mich. (9.9 seconds); steer wrestler Bridger Anderson, Carrington, N.D. (3.4 seconds); team ropers Dylan Gordon, Comanche, Okla. (header) and Gage Williams, Foster, Okla. (heeler) (5.3 seconds); barrel racer Tiany Schuster, Krum, Texas (15.82) and bull riders Laramie Mosley, Satanta, Kan. and Trey Kimzey, Strong City, Kan. (81 points each).

    The 2018 Miss Oregon Trail Rodeo queen was crowned during the Sunday performance.

    Halee Kometscher, Lawrence, Neb., won the title. She is the eighteen-year-old daughter of Duane and the late Laurie Kohmetscher, and is a freshman at Northeast Community College in Norfolk. Her older sister, Kristin Kohmetscher, was the 2010 Miss Oregon Trail Rodeo Queen and is the reigning Miss Rodeo Nebraska.

    Next year’s Oregon Trail Rodeo will take place August 23-25, 2019. For more information, visit the fairgrounds website at AdamsCountyFairgrounds.com.  For complete results, visit ProRodeo.com.

     

    Results, 2018 Oregon Trail Rodeo, Hastings, Nebraska

    Bareback riding

    1. Tanner Aus, Granite Falls, Minn. 84 points on Korkow Rodeo’s Ol One Eye; 2. Ty Breuer, Mandan, N.D. 80; 3. Garrett Shadbolt, Merriman, Neb. 79; 4. Jesse Pope, Marshall, Mo. 78; 5. (tie) Blake Smith, Zap, N.D. and Logan Patterson, Kim, Colo. 77.5 each.

     

    Tie-down roping

    1. Cody McCartney, Ottawa Lake, Mich. 9.9 seconds; 2. Bryson Sechrist, Apache, Okla. 10.0; 3. (tie) Kyle Dickens, Loveland, Colo. and Caddo Lewallen, Morrison, Okla. 10.1 each; 5. Cody Rieker, Lexington, Neb. 10.4; 6. Austin Hurlburt, Cheyenne, Wyo. 11.2.

     

    Saddle bronc riding

    1. Jake Finlay, Goondiwindi, Australia 83.5 points on Korkow Rodeo’s Anger Management; 2. Steven Dent, Mullen, Neb. 82; 3. Tyrel Larsen, Weatherford, Okla. 80; 4. Taygen Schuelke, Newell, S.D. 79.5; 5. Preston Kafka, Wagner, S.D. 78; 6. Roper Kiesner, Ripley, Okla. 76.5.

     

    Steer wrestling

    1. Bridger Anderson, Carrington, N.D. 3.4 seconds; 2. Jacob Edler, Dacoma, Okla. 3.7; 3. Kyle Whitaker, Chambers, Neb. 3.8; 4. (tie) Tom Littell, Elm Creek, Neb. and Jake Kraupie, Gering, Neb. 4.2 each; 6. Jace Melvin, Ft Pierre, S.D.4.4; 7. Chason Floyd, Buffalo, S.D. 4.5; 8. Cody Devers, Alva, Okla. 4.6.

     

    Team roping

    1. Dylan Gordon, Comanche, Okla./Gage Williams, Foster, Okla. 5.3 seconds; 2. Brett Christensen, Alva, Okla./Chase Boekhaus, Rolla, Kan. 5.5; 3. Adam Rose, Willard, Mo./JW Beck, Moville, Iowa 7.1; 4. Jeff Johnston, Thedford, Neb./Dustin Harris, O’Neill, Neb. 7.8; 5. Nick Becker, Garden City, Kan./Toby Mentzer, Ensign, Kan. 10.6; 6. Curry Kirchner, Ames, Okla./Daniel Reed, Guthrie, Okla. 11.7.

     

    Barrel racing

    1. Tiany Schuster, Krum, Texas 15.82 seconds; 2. Jacie Etbauer, Edmond, Okla. 15.97; 3. Callie Gray, Stillwater, Okla. 15.98; 4. Hollie Etbauer, Edmond, Okla. 16.13; 5. Jamie Molesworth, Burwell, Neb. 16.24; 6. Robin Beck, Moville, Iowa 16.26; 7. Fallon Taylor, Collinsville, Texas 16.28; 8. Sandi Brandli, Mauston, Wisc. 16.29; 9. Kara Posch, Holdingford, Minn. 16.30; 10. Deb Cox, Mullen, Neb.16.38.

     

    Bull riding

    1. (tie) Laramie Mosley, Satanta, Kan. 81 points on Korkow Rodeos’ Channel Cat, and Trey Kimzey, Strong City, Kan. 81 points on Korkow Rodeos’ The Iceman; 3. Ardie Maier, Timber Lake, S.D. 78.5; 4. (tie) Dillon Adolph, Manhattan, Kan. and Clayton Appelhans, Colby, Kan. 77 each; 6. Wyatt Edwards, Sulphur, Okla. 76.5.

     

    All-around champion:

    Steven Dent, Mullen, Neb. – bareback riding and saddle bronc riding

  • Back When They Bucked with Jane Douthitt

    Back When They Bucked with Jane Douthitt

    The wife of one of the biggest rodeo stars of his time led an interesting life of her own.
    Even though Jane Douthitt often lived in the shadow of her husband, Buff Douthitt, she managed to be involved in a variety of activities.
    Her life started on June 21, 1936, the daughter of R.C. and Ola Francis Kirkland, near Knox City, Texas. Her father was a rancher, and she and her brother were always on horseback. Living fifty miles from the nearest grocery store, horses and riding were their entertainment.
    She graduated from Guthrie High School in 1952 and went to college at Texas Tech in Lubbock, majoring in business. She did not compete in collegiate rodeo; she had other plans. “I had my mind made up,” Jane said. “I didn’t have time to do anything but get my education. I had my life to get on with, in my mind.”
    After college, she moved to Wichita Falls, where her dad’s kinfolk lived. She competed in barrel racing at amateur rodeos, riding borrowed horses. At the time, local ranchers would sponsor barrel racers, furnishing the horse and paying the cowgirl’s entry fees, and that’s how Jane rodeoed.
    She competed in several pageants, finishing as runner-up for Miss Wichita Falls Queen and winning the Miss Rodeo Archer City title in the mid-1950s.
    Her brother was in college in Wichita Falls when she met the man who would become her husband.
    Jane had admired the looks of Buff Douthitt, a tie-down roper, steer wrestler, and roper in the wild cow milking (at that time the wild cow milking was often included in pro rodeos) when a picture of him with a group of other cowboys at Madison Square Gardens in 1946 hung in the ranch office where her dad was general manager. At the age of ten, she had pointed to his face and declared to her mother, “here’s the man I’m going to marry.”
    She convinced her brother to take her to Vernon for a pro rodeo, and at the dance after the rodeo, Buff asked her to dance. She didn’t recognize him; he wasn’t dressed western but had on dress clothes and dress pants. “Gee, I thought he was cute, but I was determined that I was going to find me a pro cowboy,” she said. “So I turned him down. What a mistake that was.”

    The next day, on a date with another cowboy, she was introduced to Buff and she realized who he was. “I knew I had made a big mistake,” she said.
    She dated a couple of cowboys, seeing Buff occasionally, but he never paid any attention to her. In January of 1956, she was about to get his attention. She was at the Ft. Worth Rodeo, sitting with the contestants’ wives and girlfriends, looking down the stairs where the contestants were. “I was conniving,” she laughed. “I saw him start up the stairs, and I just happened to be going down the stairs.” This time, he stopped; they shook hands and talked a bit, and he asked her to the dance that night.
    By the time the dance was over, they knew they would marry. “I say it was God,” Jane said. “It was His design, from start to finish. It was wonderful. We were still just as in love to the day he passed away.”
    They married in September of 1957 and rented a house, no bigger than a studio, in Wichita Falls. He rodeoed and Jane traveled with him, as her job with the oil company allowed. Their first child, April, was born in 1959.
    In 1958, Jane quit work to travel with Buff. At that time, they lived in Throckmorton, where her parents had moved. Three years later, Buff helped train race horses at Hialeah Race Track in Miami, Florida, and Jane and April spent the time with him. Buff and Jane bought a used Air Stream Trailer to live in while in Florida.
    In 1962, the family moved to Ardmore, Okla., where they had some horses and cattle on fifteen acres. Buff continued to rodeo and that year, their son Jason was born.
    It was in the 1960s that Jane took another role with rodeo. She had timed rodeos for Beutler Bros. but decided if she was on the road with Buff, she could be earning some money, too. She learned to secretary rodeos and worked for Hoss Inman, Mel Potter of Rodeos, Inc., and others. This was before computers, when a secretary had to do all the work by hand, including typing day sheets. Often, Buff would drive while she balanced a typewriter on her knees and put together judges’ sheets. “I have always said that if you can (secretary rodeos) and not make a mistake, you can do anything in the world. Boy, what a responsibility,” Jane said. “I loved it.”
    While Buff rodeoed and his family and children traveled with him, they traveled in a car with a horse trailer, staying at hotels. But that year, the price of a room at the Holiday Inn went up $10 a night, “and that was bad news for every cowboy,” Jane remembered. That fall, Buff started planning and designed “horse house trailer”. He, along with a carpenter, in the Douthitt garage, started building a trailer that included a compartment to house horses. When spring came, the Douthitts left for the rodeo trail in their own custom designed horse house trailer, and everybody who saw it wanted one, Jane said. For several years, Buff tried to build one or two in the slow season to sell in the spring.
    In 1969, Buff quit rodeo competition and the family moved to the Ft. Worth area, where they bought a small manufacturing plant to make the horse house trailers. Two years later, they couldn’t keep up with the demand, expanding their manufacturing area and making not only horse house trailers but travel trailers, motor homes and hippie vans.

    Then the oil embargo hit in 1974 and fuel was in short supply. The general public cut back on driving and “cowboys quit pulling trailers,” Jane said. The heyday of their business was over.
    But they adapted to the times, and instead of building trailers, switched to contracts with the U.S. government. They built latrines for the troops in South Korea, relocatable housing, “skid towns” – portable housing for pipeline workers, and residential housing that ended up in Houston. Their products went to a variety of foreign countries, including Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran, countries in Africa, and to Hawaii. Their business, called MBM International Inc., was headquartered in Ft. Worth. At its height, it employed over 3,500 people in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
    In 1981, they decided to retire and sold the business to a foreign company. Jane stayed on with the company for another year, helping them get on their feet. The couple decided to move to Hawaii, but it wasn’t as much fun to be residents there as it was to be tourists.
    So they flipped a coin to determine where their retirement home would be. Buff had grown up in New Mexico, Jane in Texas, and the flip decided the state. New Mexico won out, and the couple moved to Santa Fe. They became involved in the state’s movie industry, providing livestock for movies. Buff served as a movie consultant and played some cameo roles.
    Jane took a position with the Edgar Foster Daniels private foundation in Santa Fe, a foundation that funds operas around the world. It was a job she loved. Buff team roped locally, and Jane usually went with him. She loved team roping and she loved watching him compete. Together, they competed in the ribbon roping at senior pro rodeos. Jane ran for other ropers, too. “I could really run at that stage of my life,” she said.
    In 2006, tragedy struck. At the age of 43, their son Jason died in a gun accident. It hurt Buff and Jane terribly. “That about killed us both,” Jane said. She retired from the foundation.
    In 2014, a horse was tangled in an arena panel when Buff went to release him. No one was around when the accident happened, but it appeared that the horse drug Buff before kicking him, breaking vertebrae C1 through C5, his shoulder and four fingers. Doctors put four metal rods and 22 screws in his neck, and he was hospitalized for several months. He died in September of 2016. Jane had lost her business partner and husband. It took over a year for her to move through her grief.
    Now she stays busy, with an office complex she purchased in downtown Santa Fe. She loves to read, travel, and spend time with April’s sons, who are 23 and 18 years old.
    She looks back on her beginning, a modest start on a ranch in Texas, and is sometimes amazed at what she and Buff did. “I still wonder how two kids raised on ranches could accomplish what we did.”
    It was a good life, she said, and rodeo was a big part of it. “I loved rodeo. I loved watching Buff” compete.
    Buff was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2001 and Jane was honored at the Ladies of Pro Rodeo Banquet in Las Vegas last December.

  • Back When They Bucked with Buddy Cockrell

    Back When They Bucked with Buddy Cockrell

    Buddy Cockrell got to do a wide variety of things throughout his life. The Texas-born cowboy competed in high school and college rodeo, played college and professional football, owned ranches in Australia and Brazil and a gold mine in Costa Rica. He was born in 1934 and raised by his mother, Alice Gray Cockrell, and maternal grandparents, O.H. and May Etta Ingrum east of Pampa, Texas, on a farm and ranch.
    His granddad started him cowboying and working when he was six years old, and Buddy learned to rope from Perry Franks, a hired hand on the OK Ranch where they lived, a well-known Texas roper and Turtles Cowboy Association member.
    Buddy learned to steer wrestle in an unusual way. His uncle had horned purebred Hereford cows, and there was a cattle trail on the place, not far from the house. On horseback, Buddy would run a Hereford down the fence line, diving off his horse and onto the cow. He wasn’t usually able to throw the cow, but it gave him the chance to learn how to plant his feet, slide and get an arm hold. One day, one of the cows’ horns broke, and his granddad asked how it happened. Buddy never said a word, and no one found out. And when he began steer wrestling the real way, with a hazer, “he said he never knew how easy it was,” his wife Geneva said.
    Each morning, he and his older brother Lee would milk before school, get on the bus and ride twelve miles. They attended a one room school till they got to junior high, where Buddy’s height and size gave him an advantage in sports. He was a natural athlete, lettering in the shot put, basketball, and football, and playing defensive end and offensive tackle in football.
    In 1953, the year he graduated, he played on the Pampa High School basketball team, which was state champs. He was the regional heavy weight Golden Glove boxing winner and was chosen to be on the National High School All American Football team. He was also competing in rodeos by then, match roping other cowboys and winning. Buddy sharpened his roping and steer tripping skills by gathering and branding calves and doctoring for screw worms.
    The summer after high school graduation, he competed in the Texas High School Finals Rodeo and won the boys’ all-around saddle by placing in the calf roping and winning the steer wrestling. He competed in pro rodeos that summer, winning some and losing some. “I won more than I lost, or I couldn’t have kept going,” he said. “Money was tight at home and I needed all I could bank for college.”

    Buddy was in the field when Pop Ivy, one of the Oklahoma Sooner football coaches, visited. “I was out on the tractor plowing late one evening when a man stopped by. He had come to recruit me and offered me a scholarship,” Cockrell said. “It was better than driving a tractor, so I agreed.”
    He played two years at Oklahoma University, under the tutelage of Bud Wilkerson and as part of the team’s 47 game winning streak. He didn’t rodeo, as Wilkerson didn’t want him to. Then Hardin Simmons University’s coach Sammy Baugh came calling. He offered Buddy a football and rodeo scholarship, so he transferred, doing both sports at Hardin Simmons and earning a business degree with a minor in economics. He competed once at the College National Finals Rodeo.
    After college, Buddy headed back to Pampa to work on the family farm. But football wasn’t over for him. Pop Ivy had moved on to coach with the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, and he called Buddy, asking him to play for them. Buddy drove to Canada and signed a one year contract. When he got home, he found out he had been selected by the Cleveland Browns in the twenty-eighth round of the draft. But he stuck with his word and spent a year playing ball in Canada.
    The next year, he went to Cleveland to play for the Browns. But during a scrimmage before the season started, he was blindsided by one of his own players, injuring his right knee. It required surgery, and Buddy never played for the Browns. He worked hard to rehabilitate the knee.
    By this time, Sammy Baugh, his college coach, was coaching the New York Titans. He called Buddy and wanted him to come to New York. Buddy spent three years with the Titans (they became the Jets in 1962). The Denver Broncos asked him to play, but by then his knees were bad and he quit football.
    Buddy returned home to rodeo and farm. He roped calves and steer wrestled, often traveling with his brother Lee, who was a calf roper. He competed close to home and added steer roping to his repertoire. His best season was in 1977, when he was the PRCA season champion steer roper. There were three years (1976-1978) when two champions were awarded in each event. World championships were determined by the highest amount of money won at the NSFR. Season champs were awarded based on total season earnings. Buddy earned $11,386 that year; Guy Allen, ninth during the regular season, won the world title with earnings of $2,585 from the NFSR.
    He and his brother never drank; they had seen the effects of alcohol on their father. But that didn’t stop Buddy from having a good time. Good friend and fellow steer roper Howard Haythorn remembers that Lee and Buddy would get one room with one bed while rodeoing. Lee would take care of horses, eat a good solid meal and go to bed. Buddy would be gone all night, having a good time and coming in when Lee was getting up. “Lee would get more sleep but I had more fun,” Buddy laughed.
    Wherever Buddy went, fun and good times followed. He wasn’t scared of anything. His wife Geneva relates a tale of when he, Larry Nolan, Tom Henry, and Tuffy Thompson were headed to a steer roping in Nebraska. Their pickup died and there was no way to start it. Buddy said, “If I can get that big horse out of the trailer, I promise you I can pull this pickup and you can jump it.” Nobody believed him, but Buddy hooked his horse to the pickup, got it to move, and the pickup started.
    That same trip, the four of them were at their destination, where they ate supper and checked into a hotel. Two women in the bar decided to follow them to the hotel. Buddy and Tuffy were upstairs in their hotel room, with Larry and Tom on the first floor. All of a sudden, they heard a bang and glass flying. The women had accidentally driven their car into the wall, at Larry and Tom’s room. Buddy said, “what’s going on?” and Tom’s reply was, “girls, if we’d have known you were coming, we’d have opened the door for you.”
    After his football career, Buddy had several businesses. In 1971, he built a 25,000 head cattle feed lot east of Pampa, selling it seventeen years later. He and two other men built a 10,000 head hog operation outside Lefors, Texas, selling their hogs to Jimmy Dean’s processing plant in Plainview, Texas.
    In 1980, one of Buddy’s biggest adventures began. He flew to Australia to buy carrier airplanes. While he was there, he looked up an old rodeo friend, Carey Crutcher. Crutcher convinced him to buy a ranch (called a station in Australia) and Buddy was in the cattle business Down Under. The Blina Station was 640,000 acres with approximately 12,000 head of cattle. It was 100 miles from the closest town, Derby, and Buddy stayed six months of the year, while his son, Dan worked at the ranch year round.

    While he was in Australia, he attended and competed in rodeos, introducing team roping to the Australians, supplying timed event cattle for them, and winning an all-around saddle at his last rodeo in the country.
    He loved working at the station. The cattle were wild, some of them never having seen humans, and they would catch the bulls by roping them, tying them to the massive trees in the outback, and winching the animal into trailers. Then they were hauled back and put with the herd in the corral. One of Buddy’s worst injuries came when roping a bull. The bulls had been mustered and hauled into the corral. When Buddy roped one, it took off over a feed trough, catching the rope around his leg and breaking it. The bone was sticking through the skin, when Dan, his son, put him in the back of the pickup and drove him to Derby. There, doctors wrapped it, readying it for a flight to Perth for surgery. Buddy insisted that it was wrapped too tightly, but the doctor didn’t listen. When he was in flight, he asked the attendant to loosen it, cutting off over half of it to relieve the pressure. “He’s had some wild wrecks,” his wife Geneva said.
    Buddy’s business ventures didn’t end in Australia. He, along with partners, briefly owned a gold mine in Costa Rica and a ranch in Brazil.
    He didn’t ever touch alcohol, but he loved his Coca-Cola. He kept a cooler of it in the back of his pickup, and often drank 42 oz. a day.
    He was an excellent horseman, Howard said, and his daughter Amy was too. “She was a good hand.” He knew good horseflesh, his wife Geneva said. “He has a super, super eye for a good horse,” although he hasn’t ridden for three years.
    Buddy and his first wife, Joyce Moyer, had three children: Mel, Dan and Amy. He met his second wife, Geneva, in 2000, and together they have five children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Amy and her husband Kyle Best ranch near Douglas, Ariz. Dan and his wife Drucy ranch at Higgins, Texas, and Mel lives at Amarillo. Geneva has two sons: Ty and his wife Kimberly Harris and Krece Harris, all of Decatur, Texas.
    At age 83, Buddy has Myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease that weakens the skeletal muscles, causing difficulty in swallowing, walking and talking, and double vision. He got bucked off a horse three years ago, and since then, his health has declined.
    But Buddy has always met life’s challenges with a smile, ready to tackle them. “He lives life to the fullest extent,” Geneva said. “He’s been very blessed, and he’s always thought he was bulletproof.” He doesn’t worry about things. “He’s led a very carefree life. I worry and get grayer and grayer, and he says, why worry about it? Things will work out if they’re supposed to.”
    Howard Haythorn loves his old friend. “He’s a giant of a man, and not only in stature but in personality. He’s larger than life but he’s soft-spoken. He’s a lot of fun to be around.”
    Buddy is a 2010 inductee into the Texas Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame and a 2014 Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame member.
    He’s had a life that he would never have guessed, said his wife Geneva. “I don’t think he could have even dreamt up what would happen. He’s always been the kind, when he saw an opportunity that he was going to rise to the challenge.”
    “I’ve been blessed,” Buddy said. Life “has been good to me.”

  • Back When They Bucked with Madonna Eskew Pumphrey

    Back When They Bucked with Madonna Eskew Pumphrey

    If anybody was born with the Wild West in their blood, it was Madonna Eskew Pumphrey. The Ardmore, Okla. cowgirl was the third generation of her family to entertain in the western style.
    She was born August 24, 1941, the granddaughter of Colonel Jim Eskew, a famous Wild West show producer. Col. Jim took his show, the JE Ranch Rodeo, all over the eastern seaboard with his headquarters in Waverly, New York, where four railroads came together, for easy transportation of his animals. He made a home there and set up a small town for his workers: cabins, bunkhouses, a cookhouse, an Indian village, tack shop, barns, showgrounds and grandstands. As a young man, the Colonel had worked on Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows and incorporated many of Bill’s ideas into his shows.
    Col. Jim and his wife Dolly, Madonna’s grandmother, had two sons: Jim, Jr. and Tom Mix Eskew. Jim, Jr. was Madonna’s father.
    Junior, as he was known, married Mary Louise Randolph, the step-daughter of internationally-known trick rider Florence Hughes Randolph and her husband Floyd, also a rodeo producer, from Ardmore.

    Florence Randolph had as an impressive background as the Eskews. She was a world champion cowgirl, trick rider, trick roper and bronc rider and friend of fellow world champ Tad Lucas, another woman bronc rider. She competed in about 500 rodeos, supporting her mother and two sisters for a time. She had her own short-lived wild west show, “Princess Mohawk’s Wild West Hippodrome, with about sixty performers and workers. And she was an accomplished Roman standing racer: straddling two running horses while racing, and winning the event at the 1919 Calgary Stampede, the first woman to do so.
    Jim performed in the Colonel’s wild west shows, beginning at age five. It was said he could tie eighty different knots and name them all. He challenged Chester Byers, another roping great, in a contest for a world title, but Byers forfeited. And when nine famous ropers from the U.S., Mexico and Australia came to challenge Junior, at the end of three days, Junior was determined the world champ. One of the contestants ruefully said, “Jim started where the rest of us left off.”

    Into this rich history, Madonna, an only child, was born. By the time she was two, she was on horseback. She was five years old when grandmother Florence taught her to trick ride on an old paint horse named Boy. By this point, her granddad the Colonel had switched to producing rodeos, and she performed in his rodeos, spending her summers in New York at the show’s home base.
    Each Fourth of July, the Colonel would put on a wild west show for the residents of Waverly. He had made a deal with the city of Waverly: in exchange for 300 acres four miles outside of town, he would put on an annual wild west show. Madonna was part of the show, dressed as a pioneer with her grandmother, in a covered wagon driven into the arena. Its cheesecloth covering was doused with kerosene, so when the Indian actors set it on fire as part of the act, Madonna would grab her dog and hide under the wagon.
    Native Americans, Sioux from North Dakota, were part of the show, and Madonna remembers playing cowboy and Indian with them between shows. At play, she was the Indian and they were the cowboys. And she remembers being her grandad’s “little secretary, with a pencil behind my ear,” as he paid his workers in cash. “He kept the cash in a trunk under the seat of a wagon,” she said. “He’d have all this money in little piles on his bed, and he’d call people in to get their pay.”
    When she was nine, her dad taught her to trick rope, and she added that to her part in her granddad’s rodeo. She was often part of his act, and the two were very close. “He was a good dad,” she remembers. “He wasn’t pushy, but he was there if you needed him. We were very close, like best friends.”
    Col. Eskew’s wild west shows, and later rodeos, entertained every week at big and small cities all over the east. They performed everywhere, from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., from Vermont to Georgia, and as far west as St. Louis. It was a wonderfully free life for a child, traveling with her family.
    When school time rolled around, she was sent back to Ardmore, Okla., to her mother’s parents, Floyd and Florence Randolph. She missed being on the road, but in November, after her parents were done working the Madison Square Gardens and the Boston Gardens shows, each a month long, they would join her in Ardmore and the family was together till school was out and they’d all go back on the road.
    The JE Ranch Rodeo operated until 1959, when the Colonel retired to Ardmore, where he died six years later. Madonna quit trick riding. Her horse was old, and she was traveling with her dad and his trick roping specialty act.
    Junior trick roped but was also an accomplished bulldogger, and sometimes his daughter was his hazer. His two biggest pieces of advice for her were “when the gate opens, whip and ride,” and “never pull up.” Those words came in handy when, at a rodeo in Estes Park, Colo., her dad volunteered her to haze for Buddy Heaton, a rodeo clown and steer wrestler. As Buddy slid down on the steer, the steer stumbled, throwing him and the steer directly under Madonna’s horse. She remembered her dad’s advice: she didn’t pull up but ran over the steer and Buddy. He wasn’t mad, she remembered. “Wrecks are part of it.”
    Madonna graduated from Ardmore High School in 1959 and spent a year in college. But her dad needed her in his act; she was part of the contract, so she came home and went back on the road.

    She traveled with him, trick roping across the nation for producers like Beutler Bros., Harry Knight, Mike Cervi and Harry Vold. She also worked as a timer, and in those days, the timers often carried flags in the grand entry. Harry and Emily Knight considered her as a family member. “I was kind of like their kid. They were family.” She often spent time at Knights’ ranch in Colorado between rodeos. For several years, she timed the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City.
    For a while, her dad Junior ran the Medora, N.D. Ranchorama, a show similar to a wild west show, and between rodeos, she would help her dad there. She also worked for the American Tobacco Co. for six months in 1968 promoting the Bull Durham cigarettes for ready roll instead of rolling your own. She trick roped for them, traveling across the nation. “That was a fun tour,” she remembers.
    Her dad quit performing in 1973. He had contracted lupus while serving in the Pacific in World War II. “He fought with that for many years,” Madonna remembered. When he retired, she quit as well. He passed away in 1977.
    When her rodeo career ended, she worked as a veterinarian’s assistant in the Ardmore area and as a dental assistant. Animals and kids are two things she loves.
    Her dad had told her she could not date cowboys till she had gone to college for a year. He didn’t think the rodeo scene was a proper place to date, as the only places for a couple to go were the dance hall or bar. She married in 1961, then divorced seven years later. Madonna married Jim Pumphrey in 1974, and they continued to live in Ardmore, until his passing in June of 2018. They celebrated 44 years of marriage together.
    Together, she and Jim raised quarter horses, boarded horses and taught a concealed carry school for fifteen years, instructing 15,000 students. She spent fifteen years volunteering with CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), speaking up for children’s best interests in court and mentoring them.
    She’s had the chance to be a buddy to lots of children, especially her granddaughter, Riley O’Linn. Jim had a daughter, Kaylynn, when they married, and Kaylynn came to live with Madonna and J.M. in her teenage years. Kaylynn is married to Tim O’Linn and they live in Georgia. Madonna doesn’t get to see her granddaughter as much as she would like, but they are close.
    She loved her days in rodeo and the friends she’s made, and loves to see them at reunions. They were good days. “I’ve had a pretty exciting life, I truly have. If I go tomorrow, I can’t say I haven’t tried a lot of stuff.”
    Madonna was awarded the Tad Lucas Award in 2003. Her grandfather the Colonel, her grandmother Florence Randolph, and her dad are members of the National Cowboy Museum’s Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

  • BREAKING A RECORD

    BREAKING A RECORD

    Young steer wrestler sets new record at St. Paul Rodeo; world champ moves into the average lead

    St. Paul, Ore. (July 5, 2018) – A reigning world champion has taken the lead in the steer wrestling after three performances of the St. Paul Rodeo.

    Tyler Pearson, Louisville, Miss., had a time of 4.0 seconds in the steer wrestling to be the fastest time in the second round on July 4.

    The 33-year old man capitalized on his opportunity during the July 4 matinee. “I knew I had a good steer, I just had to score sharp.” His new horse was also cause for the win. “I had Bobby, my horse, up here, and he gave me a good chance. It felt good.”

    Bobby, Pearson’s twelve-year-old bay gelding, is a second horse to his famous mount, Scooter. Scooter, whose registered name is Canted Plan, is the 2017 American Quarter Horse Association Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year and is owned by Pearson and fellow steer wrestler Kyle Irwin. Pearson bought Bobby earlier this year, to give Scooter a break, and Bobby has stepped into his new job well. “He’s sure fit the role real good,” he said. “We’ve won a lot of money on him, and I think he’s going to be real good.”

    Bobby also carried Rowdy Parrott to a new record in the steer wrestling on Wednesday night in St. Paul.

    Aboard Bobby, the 24-year-old cowboy turfed his steer in 3.4 seconds, breaking the old record of 3.5 seconds set by three different cowboys: Mike Fuller in 1986, Luke Branquinho in 2002, and Shawn Greenfield in 2016.

    In the steer wrestling, cowboys often share horses. Bobby is ridden by not only Pearson and Parrott, but by Pearson’s traveling partners Irwin, Ty Erickson, 2016 World Champion Tyler Waguespack, and Cole Edge. The five men are traveling together over the July Fourth holiday, and St. Paul is their last rodeo after a busy Cowboy Christmas season. Pearson is grateful their schedule will slow down for a bit. “We’re glad. It’s been a lot of driving all night.” They have two days off before they start back up. “We go to (the) Calgary (Stampede) now, and we’ll go up there and relax, get to bulldog, and chill out.”

    The Calgary Stampede starts on July 6, and the men plan on being in Calgary by noon on July 5. “We’ll be there by lunch, let our horses rest, and we can rest a little bit.”

    Pearson won second place at the Greeley (Colo.) Stampede on July 3, which was about the only place he’s won money over Cowboy Christmas. “It’s been a little slow,” he said, of his winnings. “I won second at Greeley last night, and that was good to save the Fourth.”

    After winning his first world title last year, Pearson has been able to relax. Winning a gold buckle “takes the pressure off me, because (being a world champion) is your ultimate goal, and when you have that done, you can just go relax and steer wrestle.”

    Other high scores and fast times from last night’s competition at the St. Paul Rodeo are bareback rider Tim O’Connell, the 2017 St. Paul Rodeo champion and the reigning world champion (85.5 points); bull rider Tyler Bingham, (86.5 points); tie-down roper Stetson Vest (9.7 seconds); saddle bronc rider Rusty Wright (85.5); team ropers Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira, (4.5 seconds); and barrel racer Tanya Jones (17.68 seconds).

    The rodeo continues July 5-7, with performances beginning nightly at 7:30 pm.  Tickets are available online at StPaulRodeo.com and at the ticket office at the rodeo grounds. For more information, visit the rodeo’s website or call the rodeo office at 800-237-5920.

    Results from the matinee and evening performance, St. Paul Rodeo, July 4, 2018

    Bareback Riding

    Tim O’Connell, Zwingle, Iowa 85.5 on Bridwell Pro Rodeos Ted; 2. Wyatt Denny, Minden, Nev. 85; 3. Shane O’Connell, Rapid City, S.D. 83.5; 4. Jamie Howlett, Weatherford, Texas 83.

    Steer wrestling

    1st round leaders:

    1. Tyler Pearson, Louisville, Miss. 4.0 seconds; 2. Ty Erickson, Helena, Mont. 5.0; 3. Kyle Irwin, Robertsdale, Ala. 5.5; 4. Tristan Martin, Sulphur, La. 5.6.

    2nd round leaders;

    1. Rowdy Parrott, Mamou, La. 3.4 seconds; 2. Tyler Pearson, Louisville, Miss. 4.1; 3. (tie) Ty Erickson, Helena, Mont. and Jake Trujillo, Los Alamos, N.M. 4.2 each.

    Average leaders (on two head)

    1. Tyler Pearson, 8.1 seconds on 2 head; 2. Ty Erickson, Helena, Mont. 9.2; 3. Blake Knowles, Heppner, Ore. 9.6; 4. Mike McGinn, Haines, Ore. 10.5.

    Bull riding

    1. Tyler Bingham, Honeyville, Utah 86.5 points on Bridwell Pro Rodeo’s Smokin Hummer; 2. Lex Oakley, Dekalb, Texas 83;  3. Levi Gray, Dairy, Ore. 78.5;  4.Aaron Williams, Pisno Beach, Calif. 77.

    Tie-down roping

    1st round

    1. Stetson Vest, Childress, Texas 9.7 seconds; 2. Trent Creager, Stillwater, Okla. 10.0; 3. Cade Swor, Winnie, Texas 11.6; 4. Tanner Green, Cotulla, Texas 12.6.

    2nd round

    1. Seth Hall, Albuquerque, N.M. 10.7 seconds; 2. Cade Swor, Winnie, Texas 11.1;  3. Stetson Vest, Childress, Texas 14.4; 4. Trent Creager, Stillwater, Okla. 16.2.

    Average leaders on two head

    1. Timber Moore, Aubrey, Texas 20.9 on 2 head; 2. Cade Swor, Winnie, Texas 22.7; 3. Stetson Vest, Childress, Texas 24.1; 4. Ricky Canton, Navasota, Fla. 24.4.

    Saddle bronc riding

    1. Rusty Wright, Milford, Utah 85.5 points on Bridwell Pro Rodeo’s Goliath; 2. (tie) Call Marr, Twin Butte, Alb. and Dawson Hay, Wildwood, Alb. 81 each; 4. Quincy Crum, McArthur, Calif. 80.

    Team roping

    1st round

    1. Erich Rogers, Round Rock, Ariz./Clint Summers, Lake City, Fla. 4.4 seconds; 2. Dustin Egusquiza, Mariana, Fla./Kory Koontz, Stephenville, Texas 4.8; 3. Charly Crawford, Prineville, Ore./Ty Arnold, Midway, Texas 5.3; 4. Tanner Green, Cotulla, Texas/Forrest Fisher, Navasota, Fla. 6.6.

     

    2nd round

    1. Kaleb Driggers, Hoboken, Ga./Junior Nogueira, Presidente Prude, Brazil 4.5 seconds; 2. Chad Masters, Cedar Hill, Tenn./Joseph Harrison, Overbrook, Okla. 4.7; 3. Tanner Green, Cotulla, Texas/Forrestt Fisher, Navasota, Texas 6.0; 4. Shay Carroll, Hico, Texas/Jason Duby, Klamath Falls, Ore. 9.6.

     

    Average leaders on two head

    1. Tanner Green, Cotulla, Texas/Forrest Fisher, Navasota, Fla. 12.6 seconds on 2 head; 2. Jordan Weaver, Powell Butte, Ore./Joe Beers,Ontario, Ore. 13.3; 3. Corey Fitze, Fortuna, Calif./Adam Fitze, Fortuna, Calif. 14.1; 4. Dillon Holyfield, Lewiston, Idaho/B.J. Roberts, Hermiston, Ore. 14.9.

    Barrel racing

    1.Tanya Jones, Culver, Ore. 17.68 seconds; 2. Amanda Lewis Waller, Elgin, Ore. 17.75; 3. Bailey Cline, Roseberg, Ore. 17.85 seconds; 4. Colleen Kingsbury, Powell Butte, Ore. 18.01.

     

    ** All results are unofficial.  For more information, visit www.StPaulRodeo.com.

  • POETRY IN (RODEO) MOTION

    POETRY IN (RODEO) MOTION

    Oregon cowboy poet writes poem for St. Paul Rodeo

    St. Paul, Ore. (June, 2018) – The St. Paul Rodeo has a lot of unique features.

    It’s the “Nation’s Greatest Fourth of July Rodeo”, it has trees (arborvitae) in the arena, and it has unique foods like homemade strawberry shortcake and barbecue chicken.

    And now it has its own poem.

    Cowboy poet Tom Swearingen has written a poem about the St. Paul Rodeo. Swearingen, Tualatin, Ore., has attended the rodeo since he was a kid. About ten years ago, his cowboy poetry hobby started.

    He wrote his first poem as a memorial piece for a good friend who had died, and it was well received by family and friends. That was his first inkling that he might have a talent for writing poetry. “It turned a light bulb on and gave me permission to think that maybe I could write.”

    Since then, he’s progressed and flourished in his trade, writing more poetry and performing at cowboy poetry gatherings and invitations to speaking.

    Five years ago, he was asked to recite at the Wild West Art Show, part of the St. Paul Rodeo. He’s recited his poetry there every year since then.

    A few months ago, several members of the St. Paul Rodeo Association asked him to write a poem about the rodeo. Swearingen had been inspired in part by the St. Paul Rodeo to write a few poems, but not one wholly about that rodeo. It was a challenge but one he enjoyed. “I’m pleased with the poem and happy they asked me.”

    Swearingen still attends the St. Paul Rodeo and will entertain in the Wild West Art Tent July 5-6 from 4 to 7 pm each night.

    The Wild West Art Show is open each day July 3-7 with live entertainment by the Bronco Billy Band on July 3 from 4-7 pm and Swearingen and cowboy singer Andy Bales on July 5-6.

    Swearingen’s poem will have its debut at the Hall of Fame Barbecue on July 2 at 5 pm. Tickets are available for sale online; they cannot be purchased at the door for the barbecue.

    The St. Paul Rodeo kicks off action July 3 and runs through the 7th. Performances are every evening at 7:30 pm with a 1:30 pm matinee on July 4. Tickets range in price from $16 to $26 and are available online at www.StPaulRodeo.com and at the gate. For more information, visit the website or call 800-237-5920.

  • FRESH START

    FRESH START

    Texas tie-down roper leads second round in his event at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte.

    North Platte, Neb. (June 14, 2018) – Tie-down roper Randall Carlisle made his first trip to the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte on Thursday, and he hopes he’s making a fresh start.

    The Athens, Louisiana cowboy made an 8.4 second run to take the lead in the second round.

    The two-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR) qualifier has had some bad luck lately, not drawing well and not winning any money. The calves tie down ropers compete on are drawn randomly by their ear tag number, and lately Carlisle’s haven’t been the best pick of the herd. “I’ve had too many kickers or something always happens,” he said. His run in North Platte “finally broke the ice. I am pretty happy. I’m thankful to have a good calf.”

    Carlisle and his traveling partner Cory Solomon, Prairie View, Texas, met in North Platte at the rodeo; they’ll travel together for the next several months, during the busy rodeo season. After competing in slack on Thursday morning, they headed to Reno, Nev. to compete at the rodeo there on Saturday morning. After that, they turn the rig north for rodeos in Wainwright and Sundre, Alberta. Then they will fly to Greeley, Colo. for the Greeley Stampede June 22 through July 4. Their rig and three of their horses will head towards rodeos in Prescott, Ariz. and Pecos, Texas, while they compete on another horse that was driven to Greeley from North Platte in a second rig. Then it’s up to Cody, Wyo. Carlisle estimated they will make nineteen competition runs in six days over the busy July Fourth holiday. Solomon has a driver who helps; Carlisle’s girlfriend helps drive as well. He loves the competition, but not the driving. “Other than that, it’s good,” he said. Rodeo is “better than having a day job. You get to see a lot of country.”

    Carlisle is ranked thirty-third in the PRCA world standings; his traveling partner Solomon is ranked eleventh.

    Other leaders from Thursday’s slack and performance are bareback rider Ty Breuer, Mandan, N.D. (80 points); steer wrestler Justice Johnson, Bismarck, N.D. (4.0 seconds), and team ropers Brian Dunning, McClave, Colo., and Tad Sheets, Goodland, Kan. (6.3 seconds). Saddle bronc rider Cort Scheer, Elsmere, Neb., had the high score for the night; his 80 points sits second overall. Barrel racer Taci Bettis, Round Top, Texas had a time of 17.50 seconds to be the fast time for the night. Brennon Eldred, Sulphur, Okla. scored 82 points to be the high score for the performance.

    Night number three of the Buffalo Bill Rodeo takes place on Friday, June 15 at the Wild West Arena in North Platte. Tickets are available online at www.NebraskaLandDays.com, at the NLD office or at the gate.

     

    High scores and fast times from the second performance, June 14, 2018

    North Platte, Nebraska – Buffalo Bill Rodeo

    Bareback riding

    1. Ty Breuer, Mandan, N.D. 80 points on Beutler and Son Rodeo Co.’s Sure Motion; 2. Blake Smith, Zap, N.D. 79; no other qualified rides.

    Steer wrestling

    2nd go-round

    1. Justice Johnson, Bismarck, N.D. 4.0 seconds; 2. Tom Lewis, Lehi, Utah 5.4; 3. Stetson Jorgensen, Blackfoot, Idaho 6.4; 4. Jason Thomas, Benton, Ark. 7.0.

     

    Tie-down roping

    2nd go-round

    1. Randall Carlisle, Athens, La. 8.4 seconds; 2. Joey Dickens, Loveland, Colo. 8.5; 3. Trent Creager, Stillwater, Okla. 8.6; 4. Lane Livingston, Seymour, Texas 12.0.

     

    Saddle bronc riding

    1. Cort Scheer, Elsmere, Neb. 80 points on Beutler and Son Rodeo Co.’s Jack Knife; 2. Preston Burr, Stratford, Texas 77; 3. Roper Kiesner, Ripley, Okla. 72; 4. Rhett Fanning, Martin, S.D. 66.

    Team roping

    1. Brian Dunning, McClave, Colo./Tad Sheets, Goodland, Kan. 6.3 seconds; no other qualified runs.

    Barrel racing

    1. Taci Bettis, Round Top, Texas 17.50 seconds; 2. (tie) Jennifer Hiler, Greeley, Colo. and Ali Armstrong, Lexington, Okla. 17.77 each; 4. Tammy Fischer, Ledbetter, Texas 17.84.

    Bull riding

    1. Brennon Eldred, Sulphur, Okla. 82 points on No. 124; 2. Colten Beaty, Seymour, Texas 65; no other qualified rides.

    ** All results are unofficial.

  • YOUTH TO COMPETE AT STATE HIGH SCHOOL FINALS RODEO

    YOUTH TO COMPETE AT STATE HIGH SCHOOL FINALS RODEO

    High school rodeo athletes from across Nebraska to head to Hastings

    Hastings, Neb.  (June 10, 2018) The entry list has been set for the Nebraska State High School Finals Rodeo, to be held in Hastings June 14-16 at the Adams County Fairgrounds.

    Nearly 150 high school rodeo athletes will compete in twelve events. The top four competitors in each event at the state level will earn a berth at the National High School Rodeo Finals in Rock Springs, Wyo., July 15-21, where national champions will be crowned in each event.

    Athletes from Harrison to Lincoln and from Creighton to McCook will be in Hastings for competition. Hastings has hosted the high school state finals, the pinnacle of the sport for the state, since 2005.

    The twelve events include bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, steer wrestling, team roping, breakaway roping, goat tying, pole bending, barrel racing, boys cutting, girls cutting, and bull riding.

    The Finals, the culmination of 28 regular season rodeos, will be held at 10 am and 6 pm on June 14-15, with the short round on June 16 at 1 pm. After Thursday and Friday’s performances, the top ten contestants in each event will advance to the short round on June 16. The cutting will be held at 7:30 am on June 14-15, with the short round at 8 am on June 16. The 2018-2019 Miss Nebraska High School Rodeo Queen will be crowned prior to the performance on June 16.  For more information, visit www.AdamsCountyFairgrounds.com or call 402.462.3247. For information on the Nebraska State High School Rodeo Association, visit www.hsrodeo-nebraska.com.

     

    Bareback Riding

    1. Trey Seevers, North Platte
    2. Gauge McBride, Kearney
    3. Jared Schultis, Tryon

     

    Barrel Racing

    1. Bailey Witt, Valentine
    2. Lexie Lowery, Burwell
    3. Sydney Adamson, Cody
    4. Reece Stanley, Sidney
    5. Mable McAbee, Ansley
    6. Madison Stracke, Stuart
    7. Madison Mills, Eddyville
    8. Jaylee Simonson, Dunning
    9. Shanna Bailey, Lakeside
    10. Brooke Becker, Hastings
    11. Brooke McCully, Mullen
    12. Adeline Hobbs, Mitchell
    13. Danielle Wray, Ord
    14. Hadley Teut, Lincoln
    15. Mataya Eklund, Valentine
    16. Sheyenne Hammond, Valentine
    17. Taya McMillen, Lodgepole
    18. Wacey Day, Fleming, Colo.
    19. Brooklyn Leach, Dunning
    20. Ashlyn Jensen, Burwell
    21. Riata Day, Fleming, Colo.
    22. Brieann Schipporeit, Ainsworth
    23. Elle Ravensroft, Nenzel
    24. Hanna Huffman, Burwell
    25. Taryn Underwood, Crawford
    26. Lauren Lehl, Alliance
    27. JoSee Saults, Big Springs
    28. Anna Esch, Spalding
    29. Jadyn Ross, Harrisburg
    30. Tallyn Simpson, Maxwell
    31. Payton Gorwill, Hyannis

    (there are 31 contestants because Tallyn and Payton are tied for 30th place)

     

    Boys Cutting

    1. Sage Konicek, Ord
    2. Ty Bass, Brewster
    3. Wacey Flack, Maywood
    4. Colten Storer, Sutherland
    5. Chase Miller, Broken Bow
    6. Kaine Stokey, Sutherland
    7. Hayden Jennings, Seneca
    8. Mason Ward, North Platte

     

    Breakaway Roping

    1. Emily Knust, Verdigre
    2. Danielle Wray, Ord
    3. Wacey Day, Fleming, Colo.
    4. Mable McAbee, Ansley
    5. Sydney Adamson, Cody
    6. Brooke McCully, Mullen
    7. Jentri Hurlburt, Arcadia
    8. Riata Day, Fleming, Colo.
    9. Elle Ravenscroft, Nenzel
    10. Bailey Witt, Valentine
    11. Maddie Stump, Elsmere
    12. Aluxyn Hollenbeck, Valentine
    13. Hadley Teut, Lincoln
    14. Brooke Becker, Hastings
    15. Ashley Odenbach, Taylor
    16. Andrea Meyer, Stapleton
    17. Mataya Eklund, Valentine
    18. Joscelyn Soncksen, Lexington
    19. Talli Pokorny, Bartlett
    20. Britney Brosius, Ashby
    21. Faith Storer, Sutherland
    22. Jaya Nelson, Bassett
    23. Raesha Warren, Thedford
    24. Tehya From, Crookston
    25. Shailey McAbee, Hyannis
    26. Clare Kohl, Surprise
    27. Maddie Meidell, Harrison
    28. Calli Bauer, Arcadia
    29. Lexie Lowery, Burwell
    30. Morgan Darnell, Gordon

     

    Bull Riding

    1. Mason Ward, North Platte
    2. Conner Halverson, Gordon
    3. BJ McAbee, Ansley
    4. Dodge Daniels, Scotia
    5. Ben Wood, Greeley
    6. Teran Sharman, Palmer
    7. Reid Helgoth, Burwell
    8. Jared Shaw, Bassett
    9. Kaine Stokey, Sutherland
    10. Clayton Miller, Ord

     

    Girls Cutting

    1. Bayli Bilby, Chadron
    2. Concey Bader, Palmer
    3. Brook Bushhousen, St. Libory
    4. Ashton Troyer, West Point
    5. Alexis Rutar, Springview
    6. Kesha DeGroff, Broken Bow
    7. Maddie Stump, Elsmere
    8. Faith Storer, Sutherland

     

    Goat Tying

    1. Wacey Day, Fleming, Colo.
    2. Riata Day, Fleming, Colo.
    3. Emily Knust, Verdigre
    4. Jessica Stevens, Creighton
    5. Britney Brosius, Ashby
    6. Bailey Witt, Valentine
    7. Jaylee Simonson, Dunning
    8. Mataya Eklund, Valentine
    9. Talli Pokorny, Bartlett
    10. Hadley Teut, Lincoln
    11. Joscelyn Soncksen, Lexington
    12. Raesha Warren, Thedford
    13. Andrea Meyer, Stapleton
    14. Gracie Pokorny, Bartlett
    15. Hanna Huffman, Burwell
    16. Aluxyn Hollenbeck, Valentine
    17. Katie Miles, Arthur
    18. Mable McAbee, Ansley
    19. Elle Ravenscroft, Nenzel
    20. Avery Hobbs, Mitchell
    21. Hope Brosius, Ashby
    22. Rylee Naprstek, Gothenburg
    23. Shanna Bailey, Lakeside
    24. Jordan Peterson, Arthur
    25. Ally Micheel, Sargent
    26. Brooklyn Leach, Dunning

     

    Pole Bending

    1. Jaylee Simonson, Dunning
    2. Madison Mills, Eddyville
    3. Halli Haskell, Ainsworth
    4. Riata Day, Fleming, Colo.
    5. Danielle Wray, Ord
    6. Ashlyn Jensen, Burwell
    7. Mataya Eklund, Valentine
    8. Lauren Lehl, Alliance
    9. Lexie Lowery, Burwell
    10. Adeline Hobbs, Mitchell
    11. Gracie Pokorny, Bartlett
    12. Jordan Peterson, Arthur
    13. Brooke McCully, Mullen
    14. Bailey Witt, Valentine
    15. Madison Stracke, Stuart
    16. Ashley Odenbach, Taylor
    17. Hanna Huffman, Burwell
    18. Ansley Wood, Wallace
    19. Shailey McAbee, Hyannis
    20. Reece Stanley, Sidney
    21. Shanna Bailey, Lakeside
    22. Samantha Schemper, Holdrege
    23. Andrea Meyer, Stapleton
    24. Elle Ravenscroft, Nenzel
    25. Britney Brosius, Ashby
    26. Brooklyn Leach, Dunning
    27. Taya McMillen, Lodgepole
    28. Anna Esch, Spalding
    29. Sheyenne Hammond, Valentine

     

    Saddle Bronc Riding

    1. Sage Miller, Springview
    2. Gus Franzen, Kearney
    3. Trey Seevers, North Platte
    4. Garrett Long, North Platte
    5. Brody McAbee, Ansley
    6. Jack Skavdahl, Marsland
    7. Nathan Burnett, Shelton
    8. Samuel Florell, Kearney
    9. Dalton Kunkee, Lexington
    10. Tyce Stoner, Kilgore

     

    Steer Wrestling

    1. Talon Mathis, Atkinson
    2. Marshall Still, Oconto
    3. Chase Miller, Broken Bow
    4. Tyler Ravenscroft, Nenzel
    5. Gus Franzen, Kearney
    6. Blake Henry, Rushville
    7. Cauy Pokorny, Stapleton
    8. Quade Potter, Cambridge
    9. Sage Miller, Springview
    10. Tanner Whetham, Morrill
    11. Evan Hewett, Dunning
    12. Zeb Heggem, Torrington, Wyo.
    13. Clayton Symons, Mitchell
    14. Colten Storer, Sutherland
    15. Dalton Kunkee, Lexington
    16. Jackson Davis, Bingham
    17. Clay Holz, Niobrara
    18. Weston Kunkee, Lexington
    19. Rhett Witt, Valentine
    20. Parker Johnston, Maywood
    21. Ty Chasek, Mitchell
    22. Trayton Travnicek, Minatare
    23. Colt Hesseltine, Halsey

     

    Team Roping

    1. Cauy Pokorny, Stapleton
    2. Clay Holz, Niobrara
    3. Grant Lindsley, Osceola
    4. Nathan Poss, Scotia
    5. Cameron Jensen, Bingham
    6. Tanner Whetham, Morrill
    7. Danielle Wray, Ord
    8. Ralph Saults, Big Springs
    9. Tomas Margritz, Lexington
    10. Gus Franzen, Kearney
    11. Ty Chasek, Mitchell
    12. Merit Van Horn, Page
    13. Ty Bass, Brewster
    14. Mitchell Tucker, North Platte
    15. Tee Whited, Lincoln
    16. Clayton Symons, Mitchell
    17. Colten Storer, Sutherland
    18. Kurtis Palmer, Madison
    19. Sage Konicek, Ord
    20. Blaine Flack, Crawford
    21. Lane Chasek, Mitchell
    22. Talon Mathis, Atkinson
    23. Calli Bauer, Arcadia
    24. Trey Garey, Broken Bow
    25. Sean Miller, Callaway
    26. Jentri Hurlburt, Arcadia
    27. Brody Davis, Cody
    28. Wyatt Colman, O’Neill
    29. Cole Dwyer, Burwell
    30. Chase Miller, Broken Bow
    31. Ashley Odenbach, Taylor
    32. Evan Hewett, Dunning
    33. Grant Turek, St. Paul
    34. Talon Petska, Ord
    35. Sage Miller, Springview
    36. Quade Potter, Cambridge
    37. Sheyenne Hammond, Valentine
    38. Jackson Davis, Bingham
    39. Hadley Teut, Lincoln
    40. Andrew Koenig, Ewing
    41. Cody Fosket, Mitchell
    42. Morgan Darnell, Gordon
    43. Brody McAbee, Ansley
    44. Cinch Heikel, Hazard
    45. Wacey Day, Fleming, Colo.
    46. Hunter Heath, Minden
    47. Bailey Witt, Valentine
    48. Rhett Witt, Valentine
    49. Jake Chasek, Mitchell
    50. Justin Chasek, Mitchell
    51. Nathan Lancaster, Beatrice
    52. Cameron Lancaster, Beatrice
    53. Dalton Kunkee, Lexington
    54. Mable McAbee, Ansley
    55. BJ McAbee, Ansley
    56. Cole Laible, Atkinson
    57. Trent Marshall, Burwell
    58. Maddie Stump, Elsmere
    59. Payton Gorwill, Hyannis
    60. Marshall Still, Oconto
    61. Weston Kunkee, Lexington
    62. Wacey Flack, Maywood

    (there are 62 contestants because of ties)

     

    Tie-Down Roping

    1. Grant Turek, St. Paul
    2. Mitchell Tucker, North Platte
    3. Clayton Symons, Mitchell
    4. Merit Van Horn, Page
    5. Chase Miller, Broken Bow
    6. Kurtis Palmer, Madison
    7. Tanner Whetham, Morrill
    8. Sean Miller, Callaway
    9. Colton Storer, Sutherland
    10. Talon Mathis, Atkinson
    11. Cameron Jensen, Bingham
    12. Gus Franzen, Kearney
    13. Jake Chasek, Mitchell
    14. Clay Holz, Niobrara
    15. Sage Miller, Springview
    16. Brody Davis, Cody
    17. Grant Lindsley, Osceola
    18. Cole Laible, Atkinson
    19. Blaine Flack, Crawford
    20. Justin Chasek, Mitchell
    21. Rhett Witt, Valentine
    22. Quade Potter, Cambridge
    23. Ty Chasek, Mitchell
    24. Kaden Wooters, Elwood
    25. Ty Bass, Brewster
    26. Ralph Saults, Big Springs
    27. Sage Konicek, Ord
    28. Jackson Davis, Bingham
    29. Wacey Flack, Maywood
    30. BJ McAbee, Ansley

    Qualifying high school rodeo contestants for the 2018 Nebraska State High School Finals Rodeo (list and ranking of student athlete subject to change; hometown is in Nebraska unless specified):

  • ProFile: Donna Keffeler

    ProFile: Donna Keffeler

    Donna Keffeler is surrounded by clowns, but she loves every minute of it.
    As the marketing arm for one of the PRCA’s national sponsors, she works closely with 45 PRCA barrelmen and with rodeos, providing the right tools to go to retail and increase sales. She administers the Man in the Can program and provides the barrelmen with the buff colored tape and decals for their barrels.
    It all started two days before the 1981 Miss Rodeo South Dakota pageant. Donna grew up rodeoing, breakaway roping, barrel racing and pole bending on a ranch in southwestern South Dakota. She had tried a rodeo queen pageant but was told she was “too cowgirly,” so she didn’t try again.
    But two days before the state pageant, someone asked her to run, and she decided to give it a whirl. She borrowed clothes, a reining horse, and won the pageant.
    No one had told her that as a state queen, she was obligated to run for Miss Rodeo America. She didn’t really want the title; with a semester left of college at Black Hills State University, she wasn’t interested.
    But she ran, with the intent of having fun “I had a blast, the whole pageant,” Donna remembers. “I didn’t want to win, so I was myself.” She ended up winning the 1982 Miss Rodeo America title, and “my whole world changed.”
    Donna spent the year traveling the country as Miss Rodeo America, having a ball. Two months before her reign was over, a national sponsor asked her to work for them. When she was done as queen, she began work for them in Denver.
    She worked for them for three years, then spent four years in California working in the racing industry, for indie cars, off-road, Trans Am and truck racing.
    Then her life took another turn. In 1990, the racing company she was working for declared bankruptcy and she would be out of a job soon. The national sponsor called: would Donna come back to Colorado and work for them again? “I said, I’m there,” she said. She had a job.
    Since then, she’s been the “one-woman” show, putting the right tools in place so that more product can be sold. And as product sells, it sells rodeo tickets, too. “It’s all about rodeo retail and selling rodeo tickets.”
    She works closely with the barrelmen and they are family to her. “They are probably the most loyal and dedicated men in our rodeo industry,” she said. “They live, breath and fight for us.”
    They are her extended family, including their wives and girlfriends. “They call me Mama Donna,” she said. “When they start calling me Grandma Donna, I’m retiring,” she laughed.
    John Harrison, a three-time winner of the Man in the Can award and a four-time PRCA Comedy Act of the Year winner, loves working with Donna. “She’s got our backs,” he said. “When it comes to going to bat for us, she takes care of her guys.”
    Donna takes care of business, too. At the barrelmen’s annual meeting in Las Vegas prior to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, she is in attendance, “telling us what goes on with the national sponsor’s program, what changes are coming our way, or why they’re not selling enough product at a rodeo,” John said. “And she’s not afraid to jump in the middle of you, either. She’ll let you know what you need to do to help her.”
    But when business is over, she’s willing to have fun. “When you walk out of the room, she has said her piece and she doesn’t hold a grudge,” John said. “She’s truly friends with us. She loves us.”
    Donna has two daughters, Monique, age 24, and Gianna, who is 21, and they are her pride and joy. The girls are excelling in their chosen fields. Monique is a microbiologist working for the Jewish National Hospital. Gianna is working on her bachelor’s degree in geology and will study lava in Italy this year. “They’re so successful, and they’re amazing, sweet, beautiful girls,” Donna said. “We don’t go a week without seeing each other. We’re so close.”
    When she started in the rodeo industry in the 1980s, she was the only female representative among the national sponsors. It wasn’t always easy. “I had to break down some doors to gain respect. I couldn’t make a wrong move or say anything wrong. I was very professional in everything I said and did.” She earned the high regard of others. “I did get the respect.” Her advice for other women in fields dominated by women: You have to be respectful.
    She is grateful to her South Dakota rodeo family for the support they gave her when she started out as Miss Rodeo South Dakota, then Miss Rodeo America. “If it wasn’t for the Korkows and the Suttons, I wouldn’t have gotten through Miss Rodeo South Dakota. Those two families wrapped their arms around me and guided me.” Jim Sutton still teases her about the time when, as Miss Rodeo America, she was bored and cleaned out his tack trailer. He said, “Donna, what are you doing? You’re Miss Rodeo America!” She replied, “I know, but I’m still Donna Keffeler.”
    She loves her job. “I’m living a career in the sport I grew up in and love. I get up every day and love what I do. And after 35-plus years, who can say that?”
    Donna was inducted into the Black Hills State University (Spearfish, S.D.) Rodeo Hall of Fame earlier this year.

  • Long Live Rodeo, Long Loves Rodeo

    Long Live Rodeo, Long Loves Rodeo

    North Platte man competed in rodeo, now serves as athletic trainer

    North Platte, Neb. – May 21, 2018 – Doug Long has a long affiliation with the Buffalo Bill Rodeo.

    He grew up in a rodeo family, the grandson of George Long and the son of Larry Long, both recipients of the rodeo’s Trail Boss Award. He and his mom, Mary Ann, accompanied his dad as he competed at local rodeos in the steer wrestling, tie-down and team roping. Larry competed at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte many times, with his wife and son in the stands.

    In high school, Doug followed in his dad’s footsteps, participating as a heeler in the team roping. He graduated from North Platte High School in 1980 and went on to Kearney State College, now the University of Nebraska at Kearney, competing occasionally but realizing competition wasn’t financially feasible. “When I went to college, I did the math on what it would take to keep a horse in Kearney and feed it. I quickly figured out my ROI wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.”

    After getting his bachelor’s degree in Kearney, then his master’s degree from Ft. Hays (Kan.) State University, he got his doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2008.

    Long moved back to his hometown and began work with Great Plains Health in North Platte. He is the lead athletic trainer, and, along with the other trainers from Great Plains Health, provides care at sports activities for high schools, Mid-Plains Community College, and other sporting events.

    Great Plains Health has a mobile sports medicine trailer and for the past two years, has provided sports medicine during the Buffalo Bill Rodeo. Long has been one of the trainers staffing the trailer, even though he doesn’t spend as much time at the rodeo as he he’d like. “Invariably, I have a softball tournament the same weekend,” he said. He tries to make it to at least one night of rodeo.

    Long enjoys working with the cowboy and cowgirl athletes. “They’re some of the toughest athletes going down the road,” he said. “Football players are 6’6” and weigh 300 pounds, and they’re colliding at the line. That’s a whole lot different than what it is with a 1,500 lb. bull and a 140 lb. cowboy. The impact forces are so much higher and they last longer.”

    Long’s understanding of the sport and the fact that he used to compete comes in handy as a sports trainer. Athletic trainers who understand rodeo are important to rodeo cowboys and cowgirls. “These guys are making a living, going down the road hard and fast and they don’t want somebody to say, ‘you sprained your finger, you need to be out for six weeks.’ They need somebody to say, ‘here’s how you treat that so you can continue.’”

    There’s continuity between what the sports trainers at Great Plains Health do and other sports trainers, especially Justin Sports Medicine, at other rodeos. “We’re hooked into the Justin (Sports Medicine) program and we pass on information so whoever saw those guys last can put it in a database so we can see it. There’s a lot of communication that way.”

    Long loves the sport and its players. “Rodeo’s kind of in my blood. I like all aspects of it. I appreciate the physical aspects of it. They’re tough people, they’re in shape.”

    He’s also made lots of friends on the rodeo trail.

    “You develop a relationship with those guys.”

    Athletic trainer Tyler Oberlander and Dr. Nathan Jacobson, sports orthopedic doctor, started the rodeo program.

    The Buffalo Bill Rodeo takes place June 13-16 in North Platte at the Wild West Arena. Performances start each night at 8 pm, and tickets range in price from $7 to $20. They can be purchased online at www.NebraskaLandDays.com, at the gate, or at the office at 2801 Charlie Evans Drive (at the Wild West Arena in North Platte.) For more information, visit the website or call 308.532.7939.

  • Frenchmen At The Rodeo

    Frenchmen At The Rodeo

    French firefighting students attend Shrine Rodeo, intern with fire departments.

    OVERLAND PARK, KAN. (May 21, 2018)  – When the Shrine Rodeo kicks off on Thursday, May 24, in Tonganoxie, there will be special guests in the crowd.

    The first night of the rodeo honors first responders (firefighters, police, and emergency medical service people) and military (active, veterans and reserved.) Admission for those people and for their immediate families is free on that night of rodeo.

    It’s a way to honor and show appreciation for those who put their lives on the line for the public, said Bennie Smith, 2018 Abdallah Shrine Potentate. “They do so much that goes unnoticed,” he said. “We want to give them some recognition” on that night of rodeo.

    Among the first responders in the crowd at the rodeo are some extra-special guests.

    Several French firefighters will be in attendance.

    They are interns at fire stations in the area, part of programs at fire departments in Overland Park, Shawnee, Leawood and Olathe.

    For the past 25 years, students from the IUT Bordeaux University in France have come to the United States, spending ten weeks in internships at various fire departments. Of the last 25 years, the Overland Park Fire Department has hosted interns 23 years, said Keith Murry, captain of the Overland Park F.D. Station No. 2 and coordinator for the interns.

    The French students learn about the U.S. fire service as they learn English, going on calls with firefighters.

    While they’re in the U.S., they take in the culture of the area. Murry tells the students to research the area and decide what they’d like to see and do. “The students that come to us say we want to see a rodeo,” he said. Murry, members of the Overland Park Fire Dept. and the students visit the Shrine Rodeo.

    They love it, he said. Last year, the French students took selfies with the rodeo queen. “They thought they were royalty,” Murry said.

    Murry appreciates the free admittance and recognition given to the first responders and military. “Sometimes this job can be depressing, with the calls we make. It’s comforting to find out that people really do care. It’s cool to see the outpouring of generosity people extend to us.”

    The Shrine Rodeo and Demo Derby is held in Tonganoxie at the Leavenworth County Fairgrounds on May 24-26, with rodeo action on May 24-25 and the demo derby on May 26.

    Tickets are $15 for adults for both events. Children’s tickets are good for the nights of rodeo only and are $5.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.ShrineRodeo.com, at Brothers Market in Tonganoxie, and at the gate. For more information, visit the website or call 913.352.6300.

  • Figuring It Out

    Figuring It Out

    Nebraska cowboy manages diabetes, takes it in stride.

    Atkinson, Neb.  (May 21, 2018) –  At a young age, Jade Buss has learned how to manage his health.

    It’s something the seventeen-year-old has been forced to learn, because he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes four years ago.

    When he was thirteen, the Atkinson youth, a high school rodeo athlete, lost half of his bodyweight and spent two weeks at the hospital in Omaha, as doctors figured out what was wrong.

    But the cowboy has taken it in stride. He doesn’t wear an insulin pump, as it would get in the way as he competes in high school wrestling. He gives himself insulin shots every time he eats and at bedtime, and monitors his glucose levels himself as he competes in rodeo and wrestling.

    Buss, who just finished his junior year at West Holt High School, is a team roper and tie-down roper in rodeo and wrestles in the heavyweight class. His parents, Jim and Sharlene, both competed in rodeo but Jade loves wrestling more than rodeo. He placed sixth at state in Class D in 2016 and fifth last year. The individuality of the sport appeals to him. “It’s all on yourself,” he said. “It’s how much work you put into it. With rodeo, it’s what steer you draw, and your horse, but with wrestling, it’s how well you prepare for it.”

    Buss, who is naturally quiet and reticent, handles diabetes with aplomb. “It was tough to learn but after a while it’s no different than anything else,” he said. “There’s no way around it, really. You learn how to live with it.”

    His mom has learned to pack food for him, for wherever he goes. When the family is moving cattle on their ranch, she’ll see Jade start to sweat, a possible sign of low blood sugar. “I’ll say, ‘need a sandwich?’ and he’ll say, ‘if you have one.’ He’s pretty well accepted the whole deal.”

    One learning curve they faced was when he began to wrestle. To make weight, wrestlers don’t eat much before competing and Sharlene never thought that Jade wouldn’t have breakfast before a meet. “We learned to pack our own meals,” she said.

     

    He loves to hunt and fish, and would love to wrestle collegiately if given the chance. He’d like to come back to Nebraska to ranch someday, he thinks. “I doubt I change my mind, but I could be wrong.”

    Jade’s responsibility for his blood glucose levels and insulin shots have made him mature beyond his years, Sharlene said. “At this age, he’s out and about and I don’t get to be with him for every meal” to monitor his health. “With this disease, you learn to grow up real quick.”

    Jade has three younger brothers: Cale, twelve, Cort, ten, and Reid, seven, and a younger sister, Brett, who is Reid’s twin.

    He has competed at the high school state finals the last two years. He competes in 4-H rodeo and team ropes with his dad at regional rodeos. Jade is a member of the National Honor Society and president of his local 4-H chapter.

    The Nebraska High School Finals Rodeo will be held in Hastings at the Adams Co. Fairgrounds June 14-16. Tickets are $7 for everyone ages five and up and are available through the office and at the gate. For more information, visit AdamsCountyFairgrounds.com or hsrodeo-nebraska.com, or call 402.462.3247.