Rodeo Life

Author: Ruth Nicolaus

  • From Rodeo Queens to Fans

    From Rodeo Queens to Fans

    Oregon family’s involvement in St. Paul Rodeo runs deep.

     

    St. Paul, Ore. (June 6, 2022) – The St. Paul Rodeo runs deep in the veins of the Richard and Christy Cloepfil family of Carlton, Oregon.

     

    Not only have they and their three daughters been part of it, Richard is the third generation of his family to be involved.

     

    It started with Richard’s grandfather, Harry Kuehne, owner of the Bar K Stock Ranch in Carlton.  A horse trader, Harry was one of the original stock holders of the St. Paul Rodeo and provided livestock for the rodeo.

     

    Richard, the son of Harry’s daughter Arlene, remembers riding in the St. Paul Rodeo parade when he was three, on the saddle with his dad, Darrel, “Boise.” As a four-year-old, he was “grown up enough” to ride his own pony through the parade. His mom Arlene, a horsewoman, roman rode at the rodeo on a matching pair of palomino horses.

     

    Two of Richard’s relatives: aunt Maxine Kuehne, was on the court, as was his sister, Linda Cloepfil Boline, who also went on to serve as Miss Rodeo Oregon.

     

    Richard and Christy had the next set of St. Paul Rodeo royalties, but with a twist.

    Their youngest daughter, Regina, wanted to try out for the title of St. Paul Rodeo princess, but she wanted her older sister, Adrea, to try out with her. Gina’s plan was that she and her sister would win the two princess titles and serve together. Addie was willing to try out, but her heart wasn’t in it as much as her sister’s was.

     

    But the irony was that Addie won a princess title, and Gina won nothing. “There wasn’t much conversation on the way home,” Richard quipped. That was in 2005, and Gina tried again, winning a princess title in 2007 and the queen title the next year.

     

    Being on the royal court requires a parent as chaperone, and for Richard and Christy to leave their farm was tough. They credit their oldest daughter, Kelsey, with staying home to oversee employees and the work while they were gone weekends for the two younger girls.

     

    The family attended when the girls were kids, but as they married and left home, they haven’t had the whole clan with grandkids at the rodeo together.

     

    This year, they will be.

     

    Kelsey is married to Mike Freese and lives in Yamhill with their son and triplet daughters.

     

    The other two Cloepfil girls live in Australia: Adra and husband Jarrod Vinen, with two sons in Sydney, and Gina and husband Greg Walter and their two daughters, in Melbourne.

     

    Because of pandemic restrictions, the Vinens and Walters haven’t been to the States since 2019.

     

    The girls and their kids arrive In early June for “grandpa and grandma camp”, with the husbands coming in late June.

     

    While in the States, Richard and Christy have fun things planned for the kids: camping out on the front lawn, bonfires, “backyard fun,” Christy said.

     

    They’ll all attend the St. Paul Rodeo, the parade, the carnival, the fireworks, and all the activities.

     

    The grandparents are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the entire clan. With eight grandkids between the ages of two and a half and seven, Christy thought about cleaning house to prepare for them, but decided against it, saying she’d have to clean house after they left.

     

    The friends they’ll reconnect with at the St. Paul Rodeo, not only for the daughters but Richard and Christy too, are “invaluable,” Richard said.

    He remembers his parents’ and grandparents’ generations, when the St. Paul Rodeo was often the only time the family left the farm for entertainment during the summer. “It was maybe the biggest thing they did each year, besides working on the farm.”

     

    Times have changed, but the St. Paul Rodeo is still a big deal.

     

    “We enjoy it,” he said. “It’s a good time.”

     

    The St. Paul Rodeo runs June 30-July 4, with performances nightly at 7:30 pm and a 1:30 pm matinee on July 4. Fireworks follow each night show.

     

    Tickets are available online at StPaulRodeo.com and at the gate. They range in price from $20 to $26.

     

    For more information, visit the website or call 800.237.5920.

  • Being The Judge

    Being The Judge

    Former contestants are now judges at Buffalo Bill Rodeo.

     

    North Platte, Neb. –May 31, 2022 – The men who are behind the scenes at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte, Nebraska next month have been on the scenes in the past.

     

    PRCA judges Skip Emmett and Clayton Macom used to ride and compete in North Platte. Now they will serve as judges for the competition.

     

    Emmett, of Ponca, Arkansas, and Macom, Stigler, Oklahoma, have been on both sides of the “arena,” in North Platte, so to speak.

     

    Emmett rode bareback horses, steer wrestled and team roped before he retired from competition.

     

    He won the College National Finals Rodeo in 1975, having become a PRCA member in 1970 and quitting the bareback riding in 1986 but adding steer wrestling and team roping.

     

    In the 1970s, cowboys who were injured had to serve as a rodeo judge, so Emmett took his turn at that. A school teacher, he taught ag then became a principal for ten years.

     

    In 2005, he began judging rodeos, juggling his teaching job and traveling on weekends and in the summers. In 2011, he retired and the next year was on the road for 100 performances, judging, including being selected to work the National Finals Rodeo, pro rodeo’s championship event, in 2014 and 2017.

    He went back to teaching for three years, but retired a second time this spring, and now works as one of the PRCA’s official judges.

     

    Clayton Macom’s career started much like Emmett’s. He competed in the bareback riding and bull riding, qualifying for the Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo several times. After retiring from competition in 1999, he began as a PRCA judge in 2005. He began judging to stay involved in the sport.

     

    Macom competed at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo three times, winning second one year. When he’s not on the rodeo trail, he ranches and does leatherwork.

     

    Both men have judged the rodeo more than once, and they enjoy it.

     

    “There’s tons of tradition at that rodeo,” Emmett said. “That rodeo draws good crowds and the fans enjoy it. When you have a good crowd and good facilities, it’s fun to work those rodeos.”

     

    Macom has a much more memorable experience from the Buffalo Bill Rodeo. In the early 1990s, he and a fellow contestant were flying in a twin engine plan, headed home. As they took off from the North Platte airport, the plane blew a tire. “It was really nip and tuck for a minute,” he said, “getting off the ground.” The pilot was ordered to land the plane, and Macom, who would have rather driven than flown anyway, looked down and saw a line of ambulances and fire trucks, waiting for them as they made an emergency landing.

     

    “I was OK till I looked down at the runway,” he said. “Then I started to panic. We are going to die in North Platte,” he quipped. But the pilot landed the plane with no problems. The cowboys stayed overnight as the plane got a new tire, missing the next rodeo, “but we lived to talk about it,” he laughed.

     

    While they’re in town, Emmett and his wife MaryLynn will shop, as will Macom. The men have brought their golf clubs, too, hoping to get a round of golf in.

     

    Being a rodeo judge doesn’t always make a person a favorite of the contestants, but Emmett and Macom know they have a job to do. “There are difficult calls to make,” Macom said. “I’m not always (the cowboys’) favorite person. Sometimes I am, if they win, and sometimes I’m not. But I enjoy it. I still get to travel and be around rodeo.”

     

    DeWitt Forrest is the third judge for the rodeo.

     

    The Buffalo Bill Rodeo takes place June 15-18 at the Wild West Arena in North Platte. Performances are held nightly at 8 pm.

     

    Tickets are on sale at NebraskalandDays.com and at the gate and range in price from $10-$23.

     

    For more information, visit the website or call the office at 308.532.7939.

  • High school rodeo athletes from across Nebraska head to Hastings for state finals

    High school rodeo athletes from across Nebraska head to Hastings for state finals

    Hastings, Neb.  (June 6, 2022) The best high school rodeo athletes in the state will make their way to Hastings, Nebraska June 10-12 to compete for the title of Nebraska’s best.

    The Nebraska High School Finals Rodeo features the top thirty contestants in each of thirteen events (top sixty in the team roping.) The high school students have accumulated points throughout the fall and spring seasons, and the following is a look at several of the event leaders.

    Dane Pokorny is back to defend his 2021 steer wrestling title.

    The Stapleton cowboy, a 2022 graduate of Thedford High School, leads the steer wrestling this year, a mere eight points ahead of his friend, Coy Johnston.

    His rodeo year has been good, he said, “consistent. I’ve been picking up points every weekend.”

    Not only does Pokorny excel in rodeo, but he was part of the Thedford High football team that won the state runner-up title in Class D2. He was all-state honorary caption and all-state running back, and started all four years in both football and basketball.

    And this is the last state finals rodeo for Pokorny’s horse, Shorty. He will be retired after Pokorny rides him at state finals, and, if he qualifies, at the National High School Finals. After that, it’s out to pasture, to be “loved on,” Pokorny said.

    Pokorny is the son of Brad and Paula Pokorny. He has also qualified for the finals in the team roping.

    Reagan McIntyre, Grand Island, has burst into the high school rodeo world in grand fashion.

    The fifteen-year-old cowgirl who just finished her freshman year is leading two events: the breakaway roping and the goat tying, with a double-digit lead in the breakaway over the number two cowgirl, Makayla Wray.

    McIntyre excelled in junior high rodeo, finishing at the National Junior High Finals in sixth place in the world in the breakaway. “That gave me the confidence going into high school,” she said. “I knew there was tons of tough competition (in high school) so I’d have to take a step up, coming into the high school ranks.”

    A student at Grand Island Northwest, she participates in volleyball, basketball and track, and was on the honor roll. Her 4×800 relay team finished seventh in Class B at the state track meet this year.

    The oldest of four children of Jeremy and Karen McIntyre, Reagan admits the entire family is competitive when playing games, such as spoons. “It’s definitely pretty intense,” she laughed. “We have pretty much stopped playing because (the games) get so competitive.”

    She has a plan for state finals. “I’m just going to go into it how I go into every run. It’s just another weekend where you have to lay down solid runs and stay on the top of your game.” She has also qualified for the state finals in the pole bending, team roping and barrel racing.

    In the bareback riding, Tate Miller is confidently in first place.

    The Springview cowboy has a six-point lead over the number two man, Spencer Denaeyer.

    His strong rodeo season has been good, he said, after a weak showing at the 2021 National High School Finals Rodeo.

    At Nationals last year, “I didn’t have the Nationals I’d have liked, and my confidence was down, coming into my junior year,” he said. “I’ve won a lot of (high school) rodeos this year, helping get my points up and my confidence built back up. I had a good season, so it boosted my confidence.”

    Miller, who will be a senior at Keya Paha County High School this fall, plays football and is a member of the FFA and National Honor Society. He is the son of Will and Jamie Miller.

    In the boys cutting, Cooper Bass sits atop the leaderboard.

    The Brewster cowboy, a graduate of online high school, has had an exceptional year in the cutting. “I’ve done very, very well,” he said. “My mare has been working great.”

    He will also come into state finals in first place in the team roping, heading for Zach Bradley, and in a third event, the tie-down roping, in fourteenth place.

    Because Bass has taken classes online, he’s had time for a job, working at three different sale barns, sometimes putting in 24 hour shifts. He also rides horses for others, putting thirty days of training on them. He is the son of Steve and Teresa Bass.

    Other leaders (as of press time) heading into the weekend’s finals include Hailey Witte, Crookston (barrel racing); Hunter Boydston, Grover, Colo. (bull riding); Brooke Forre, Newman Grove (girls cutting); Raina Swanson, Genoa (pole bending); Monte Bailey, Lakeside (saddle bronc riding); Sid Miller, Merna (tie-down roping) Brady Renner, Ericson (heeler); and Tatum Olson, Bloomfield (reined cow horse).

    The thirteen 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, reined cow horse and bull riding.

    The first go-round takes place June 10 at 11 am and 6 pm. The second go-round is June 11 at 11 am and 6 pm. After the two rounds, the top ten contestants in each event will advance to the short round on June 12 at 1 pm. The cutting will be held at 7 am on June 10-11, with the final round at 8 am on June 12. The reined cow horse will be at 10 am on June 10-11.

    The top four in each event, after the state finals are over, qualify for the National High School Finals Rodeo, held this year in Gillette, Wyo., July 17-23.

    The 2022-2023 Miss Nebraska High School Rodeo Queen will be crowned prior to the performance on June 12.

    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.

    ### –

    Qualifying high school rodeo contestants for the 2022 Nebraska State High School Finals Rodeo (unofficial listing; list is current as of 6-2-22, so contestants may have changed; qualifying contestants may choose to not compete at finals; hometown is in Nebraska unless specified):

     

    Bareback Riding

     

    1. Tate Miller, Springview
    2. Spencer Denaeyer, Seneca
    3. Cole Kerner, Sutherland
    4. Koltdyn Heath, Minden
    5. Tanner Drueke, Sutherland
    6. Cinch Kiger, Overton
    7. Taylon Pascoe, Lincoln

     

    Barrel Racing

    1. Hailey Witte, Crookston
    2. Anna Clark, Thedford
    3. Taci Flinn, Arcadia
    4. Jacei Spangler, Arthur
    5. Camryn Kocian, Brainard
    6. Mekenna Fisher, Hershey
    7. Summer Richardson, Ainsworth
    8. Bradie Crouse, Blair
    9. Clancy Jo Brown, North Platte
    10. Bailey Bell, North Platte
    11. Libby Hegemann, Arlington
    12. Whitney Jennings, Seneca
    13. Ashlyn Henderson, Hyannis
    14. Blaise Lange, Harrison
    15. Reagan McIntyre, Grand Island
    16. Kinley Crow, Hershey
    17. Peyton Fisher, Hershey
    18. Laney Hoier, Herman
    19. Jymmie Jensen, Burwell
    20. Emma Pearson, Broken Bow
    21. Morgan Rosander, Wolbach
    22. Ashton Werth, Hyannis
    23. Kieley Walz, Ainsworth
    24. Jaycee Lambert, Harrison
    25. Lillian Fletcher, Arnold
    26. Jayda From, Crookston
    27. Josie Anthony, Crofton
    28. Dakota Glinn, Keystone
    29. Gracey Rodocker-Peters, Taylor
    30. Rylee Nall-Sillivan, St. Paul

     

    Boys Cutting

    1. Cooper Bass, Brewster
    2. Bo Bushhousen, St Libory
    3. Dakota Storer, Arthur
    4. Trey Vance, Inavale
    5. Devin Konicek, Burwell
    6. Tatum Olson, Bloomfield
    7. Alex Hathaway, Pender
    8. Cody Miller, Broken Bow
    9. Matt Symonds, Mitchell
    10. Tate Talkington, Scottsbluff
    11. Clancey Symonds, Mitchell
    12. Tucker Gillespie, McCook

     

    Breakaway Roping

     

    1. Reagan McIntyre, Grand Island
    2. Makayla Wray, Ord
    3. Emma Ohm, Hyannis
    4. Jace Hurlburt, Arcadia
    5. Shayda Vaughn, Hershey
    6. Whitney Jennings, Seneca
    7. Summer Richardson, Ainsworth
    8. Laynee Ohm, Hyannis
    9. Bradie Crouse, Blair
    10. Tacey From, Crookston
    11. Fayth From, Crookston
    12. Libby Hegemann, Arlington
    13. Kieley Walz, Ainsworth
    14. Ali Vaughn, Hershey
    15. Clancy Jo Brown, North Platte
    16. Jacei Spangler, Arthur
    17. Brooke Forre, Newman Grove
    18. Jacie Naprstek, Gothenburg
    19. Laney Hoier, Herman
    20. Jasmine Dyer, Crawford
    21. Halee Sheffield, Farnam
    22. Rylee Nall-Sillivan, St Paul
    23. Jayda From, Crookston
    24. Jaden Mathis, Atkinson
    25. Mekenna Fisher, Hershey
    26. Jenae Whitaker, Chambers
    27. Kinley Greenough, Kearney
    28. Emily Leach, Dunning
    29. Kassidy Rambat, Ashby
    30. Kirsten Koenig, Ewing

     

    Bull Riding

    1. Hunter Boydston, Grover, Colo.
    2. Jason Ducker-Kursave, Aracdia
    3. Cooper Kursave, Arcadia
    4. Jett Sjeklocha, Hayes Center
    5. Tanner Drueke, Sutherland
    6. Koltdyn Heath, Minden
    7. Brady Painter, Ainsworth
    8. Slate Micheel, Sargent
    9. Ashton Higgins, Neligh
    10. Dalton Garey, Broken Bow
    11. Cole Kerner, Sutherland
    12. Colton Thornburg, Hastings

     

    Girls Cutting

    1. Brooke Forre, Newman Grove
    2. Whitney Jennings, Seneca
    3. Mekenna Fisher, Hershey
    4. Emma Pearson Broken Bow
    5. Ava Smith, Pender
    6. Peyton Fisher, Hershey
    7. Gracyn Hicks, Burwell
    8. Jayda Meyring, Alliance
    9. Jordan Downing, Dunning

     

    Goat Tying

    1. Reagan McIntyre, Grand Island
    2. Libby Hegemann, Arlington
    3. Laney Hoier, Herman
    4. Ashlyn Henderson, Hyannis
    5. Emma Warren, Thedford
    6. Kinley Greenough, Kearney
    7. Emma Ohm, Hyannis
    8. Jacie Naprstek, Gothenburg
    9. Jacei Spangler, Arthur
    10. Clancy Jo Brown, North Platte
    11. Mekenna Fisher, Hershey
    12. Jenae Whitaker, Chambers
    13. Laynee Ohm, Hyannis
    14. Bradie Crouse, Blair
    15. Tatum Reid, Crawford
    16. Abigail Lawton, Overton
    17. Sabrina Schemper, Holdrege
    18. Brooke Forre, Newman Grove
    19. Jace Hurlburt, Arcadia
    20. Peyton Fisher, Hershey
    21. Kylie Lancaster, Hastings
    22. Lynsie Lancaster, Hastings
    23. Kassidy Rambat, Ashby
    24. Samara Ruether, Beaver Crossing
    25. Winter Benscoter, Valentine
    26. Kirsten Koenig, Ewing
    27. Paityn Edwards, Waverly
    28. Jaycee Lambert, Harrison
    29. Whitney Jennings, Seneca
    30. Jayda From, Crookston
    31. Terrin Barthel, Ainsworth

    (due to a tie for 30th place, there are 31 qualified goat tyers)

     

    Pole Bending

    1. Raina Swanson, Genoa
    2. Gracey Taylor, Valentine
    3. Makalya Wray, Ord
    4. Clancy Jo Brown, North Platte
    5. Emma Pearson, Broken Bow
    6. Rylee Nall-Silivan, St. Paul
    7. Reagan McIntyre, Grand Island
    8. Abigail Lawton, Overton
    9. Jymmie Jensen, Burwell
    10. Tatum Reid, Crawford
    11. Peyton Fisher, Hershey
    12. Ashlyn Henderson, Hyannis
    13. Addison Oliver, Holyoke, Colo.
    14. Camryn Kocian, Brainard
    15. Emily Ahlers, Clearwater
    16. Sage Glinn, Keystone
    17. Kieley Walz, Ainsworth
    18. Emma Grube, Minden
    19. Laynee Ohm, Hyannis
    20. Dakota Glinn, Keystone
    21. Jacei Spangler, Arthur
    22. Rylee Legg, Kenesaw
    23. Morgan Rosander, Wolbach
    24. Sydney Fletcher, Arnold
    25. Jenae Whitaker, Chambers
    26. Josie Anthony, Crofton
    27. Nevaeh Wild, Hay Springs
    28. Lillian Fletcher, Arnold
    29. Tacey From, Crookston
    30. Mekenna Fisher, Hershey’
    31. Kenna McCaslin, Broken Bow
    32. Emily Bennett, Bayard

    (due to a tie for 30th place, there are 32 qualified pole benders)

     

    Saddle Bronc Riding

    1. Monte Bailey, Lakeside
    2. Leif Meidell, Harrison
    3. Augustus Painter, Ainsworth
    4. Carson Jones, Neligh

     

    Steer Wrestling

    1. Dane Pokorny, Stapleton
    2. Coy Johnston, Stapleton
    3. Taydon Gorsuch, Gering
    4. Sage Schrunk, Valentine
    5. Jaden Fanning, Ogallala
    6. Slate Micheel, Sargent
    7. Tucker Ravenscroft, Nenzel
    8. Beau Wiebelhaus, Springview
    9. Wyatt Reichenberg, Harrisburg
    10. Cinch Painter, Springview
    11. Gage Davis, Cody
    12. TC Hughson, Morrill
    13. Kyle Cox, Purdum
    14. Dawson Doggett, Stapleton
    15. Augustus Painter, Ainsworth
    16. Brady Painter, Ainsworth
    17. Cayson Johnston, Stapleton
    18. Thayne Kimbrough, Ohiowa
    19. Carson Cooksley, Valentine
    20. Cody Miller, Broken Bow
    21. Cale Buss, Atkinson
    22. Dakota Storer, Arthur
    23. Clayton Veldhuizen, Curtis
    24. Wyatt Hajny, Nelson
    25. Jett Sjeklocha, Hayes Cneter
    26. Clayton Elliott, Valentine
    27. Coy Fleming, Bayard

     

    Team Roping

    1. Brady Renner, Ericson
    2. Cooper Bass, Brewster
    3. Makayla Wray, Ord
    4. Sid Miller, Merna
    5. Zane Druery, Anselmo
    6. Brent Charlton, North Platte
    7. Carter Anderson, Merriman
    8. Sage Schrunk, Valentine
    9. Jate Saults, Big Springs
    10. Seth Glass, Central City
    11. Reagan McIntyre, Grand Island
    12. Zack Bradley, Brewster
    13. Summer Richardson, Ainsworth
    14. Cinch Painter, Springview
    15. Tyson Stracke, Stuart
    16. Bradie Crouse, Blair
    17. Dalton Garey, Broken Bow
    18. Zane Kreikemeier, Callaway
    19. Gage Davis, Cody
    20. Jace Hurlburt, Arcadia
    21. Coy Johnston, Stapleton
    22. Tate Talkington, Scottsbluff
    23. Skyler Hund, North Platte
    24. Ryan Shepherd, North Platte
    25. Emma Ohm, Hyannis
    26. Fayth From, Croookston
    27. Hayes Hammond, Valentine
    28. Jace Richter, Ogallala
    29. Cayson Johnston, Stapleton
    30. Evan Richter, Ogallala
    31. Trell Shrewsbury, Alliance
    32. Joe Todd-Hopkins, Bayard
    33. Montgomery Brown, Oshkosh
    34. Garrett Harms, Brule
    35. Jackson Wykert, Grant
    36. Tatum Olson, Bloomfield
    37. Jaden Fanning, Ogallala
    38. Kohl Kramer, Hyannis
    39. Cauy Preitauer, Stamford
    40. Sage Dieter, Alma
    41. Ashlyn Henderson, Hyannis
    42. Ty Growcock, Bartlett
    43. Taylor Drueke, Sutherland
    44. Laynee Ohm, Hyannis
    45. Jymmie Jensen, Burwell
    46. Dane Pokorny, Stapleton
    47. Jaden Mathis, Atkinson
    48. Cale Buss, Atkinson
    49. Layne Wallinger, Stuart
    50. Everett Blackburn, Bartlett
    51. Cooper Fay, Cody
    52. Riggin Heikel, Hazard
    53. Thayne Kimbrough, Ohiowa
    54. Layton Lindner, Broken Bow
    55. Matthew Miller, Callaway
    56. Tate Miller, Springview
    57. Tucker Ravenscroft, Nenzel
    58. Dakota Storer, Arthur
    59. Tacey From, Crookston
    60. Cody Miller, Broken Bow

     

    Tie-Down Roping

    1. Sid Miller, Merna
    2. Jate Saults, Big Springs
    3. Cooper Phillips, Burwell
    4. Carter Anderson, Merriman
    5. Tate Talkington, Scottsbluff
    6. Layne Wallinger, Stuart
    7. Coy Johnston, Stapleton
    8. Sage Schrunk, Valentine
    9. Seth Glass, Central City
    10. Brent Charlton, North Platte
    11. Gage Davis, Cody
    12. Matthew Miller, Callaway
    13. Cale Buss, Atkinson
    14. Cody Miller, Broken Bow
    15. Cooper Bass, Brewster
    16. Camilo Rios, Ashland
    17. Zane Kreikemeier, Callaway
    18. Trell Shrewsbury, Alliance
    19. Cayson Johnston, Stapleton
    20. Tyson Stracke, Stuart
    21. Cauy Preitauer, Stamford
    22. Montgomery Brown, Oshkosh
    23. Hayes Hammond, Valentine
    24. Layton Lindner, Broken Bow
    25. Jace Richter, Ogallala
    26. Cinch Painter, Springview
    27. Zachary Miller, Callaway
    28. Taylor Drueke, Sutherland
    29. Dakota Storer, Arthur
    30. Jaden Fanning, Ogallala

     

    Reined Cow Horse

    1. Tatum Olson, Bloomfield
    2. Charlie Bortner, McCook
    3. Tate Talkington,Scottsbluff
    4. Jayda Meyring, Alliance
    5. Tucker Gillespie, McCook
    6. Abigail Russell, Hay Springs
    7. Ashton Werth, Hyannis
    8. Alyssa Hockenbary, Valentine
    9. Paige Hoelting, Sutherland
  • Back When They Bucked with Don Lee Smith

    Back When They Bucked with Don Lee Smith

    “There’s just something about getting on one of those horses and having them do the best he can, and you yourself do well.”

    Good horses, whether they are saddle broncs, roping horses or cutters, are what make Don Lee Smith’s world go round.
    The Texas native spent the first part of his life on the back of a bucking horse, then his mid-years in the roping arena, and now he’s in the cutting circle.
    Born in 1937 in Aspermont, Texas, his dad, a banker-rancher-cowboy combo, leased a ranch in Ft. Pierre, S.D. The family spent their summers there and the school years in Aspermont.
    Don Lee was the elder of two sons born to Wayman and Vista (Mays) Smith and had a younger brother, Jeff.
    During the summers, he and Jeff would rodeo in the South Dakota Rodeo Association, but come school-time, they’d head back south to Texas. They were nearly always at the top of the standings in their events, but their leads would slip as they left South Dakota. Don Lee competed in nearly every event, but saddle bronc riding was his favorite
    After graduating high school in 1955, he went to college, mostly to please his parents. He attended Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas and competed collegiately, in his main event,
    Money was tight in college, and for a year, he roomed in the athletic dorm with the football, basketball and baseball players. He talked the baseball players into giving him half of his entry fees. “They’d come up with $100 and I’d enter at least three events, maybe four,” he remembers. “Then when I got home, I’d have to give them half of my winnings.” After a year, Don Lee finally got enough capital ahead he could have quit, but the guys kept paying half his fees.
    In those days, only two teams from each of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s regions went to the College National Finals. For all four of Don Lee’s college career, Sul Ross finished as first in their region and headed to the CNFR, with Don on the team.
    In those days, once a guy had qualified for the CNFR, he could compete there in whatever event he chose, not just the event he qualified in. So at the CNFR his four years, 1956-59, Don Lee roped calves once and bulldogged once, rode bulls and barebacks, and, of course, rode saddle broncs.
    In 1957, he won the NIRA’s Southwest Region bull riding, and a year later, at the College National Finals, he won both the average and the year-end titles in the saddle broncs, making him the NIRA world champion.
    His rodeo role in college included administration: he was part of the group that helped form the NIRA. In 1957, he served as a director, and the next year, was president.
    It wasn’t easy, being president of a fledgling organization. Money was tight, and there was no guideline for what the student board should do. Don Lee remembers going to a payphone to make calls, and he recalls renting an airplane (“I don’t know how I paid for it”) and flying to Lamar, Colo., to visit with Hoss Inman, who was one of the adults helping with the NIRA.
    Don Lee is proud of the things he accomplished while involved with the NIRA. He suggested a rule where before a person could be NIRA president, they had to serve a term as a director. At Sul Ross, where the administration looked down their noses at rodeo as a college sport, he got rules changed so that participation in the rodeo club was considered physical education, like participation in the other college sports was.
    He lettered in rodeo all four years and got the leather jacket to prove it. He graduated with a degree in animal science in 1959 and hit the pro rodeo road. He had purchased his Rodeo Cowboys Association (forerunner to the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association) card two years prior.
    But it was while at an airport, headed west to Oregon, that his pro rodeo days came to an end.
    “I was sitting in an airport with my (bronc) saddle, and a little girl was playing on it. I told myself, ‘crap, you have one of those (little girls) at home, you’d better get your butt home.’ I loaded up my saddle, got another airplane ticket, went home, never went to another rodeo, and savored my little girl who is now taking care of me.” Roxanne, his oldest daughter, was about two years old at the time.
    Don Lee’s attention turned to the ranch in South Dakota, which he and his brother Jeff leased. They had 40,000 acres, half deeded, half-leased and ran 1,000 mother cows with another 1,000 yearlings.
    While he ranched, he and Jeff team roped. They had practice steers and competed at the South Dakota Rodeo Association rodeos and jackpots. Don Lee also judged SDRA rodeos as well.
    He retired from ranching in 1999, and that year, was at a cutting in South Dakota when a good friend let him ride one of their cutting horses.
    His new passion was ignited. “That was the last of my fortune,” daughter Roxanne laughed.
    In 2000, he and his wife Lorren traveled the nation competing in the National Cutting Horse Association. That year, he finished as reserve world champion in the $50,000 Amateur and $20,000 Novice Non-Pro. “He is such a competitor,” Roxie said. “I think, let’s just go ride and turn some cattle back. But he doesn’t want to do that. That’s not his thrill. He wants to go and win. He works pretty hard at it.”
    He considers cutting a true ranching sport. “The competition is to see whose horses are the best. It’s the way a rancher can take his horse, ride really quiet into a herd of cows, and pick out a particular one that might be sick, that we want to doctor, or one that we want to sell, and quietly move that cow out of and away from the herd, and hold her there, so she doesn’t get back in. That’s what the cutting competition is all about.”
    Roxie remembers her dad’s philosophy when they worked cattle on the ranch. “Dad always stressed, don’t rouse them around.” That’s exactly what cutting is, Don Lee said. “Easy, with no disturbance of the herd. I enjoy getting a good cow cut out.”
    He has four reserve world champ buckles, “great big things,” he said. “Somebody said, what are you going to do with these? And I said, I’m going to use them as hubcaps on my Freightliner trucks.”
    College rodeo opened up the world for people like him, his classmates, and even kids today, he thinks.
    “I think, in my day, those kids on the rodeo team were all smart kids who did well in college. But they went to college not to be educated, but to rodeo. I honestly don’t think some people would have gone to college without rodeo.” Some of his college rodeo classmates became teachers, architects, airline pilots, and more. “The point being, (college) took them out of their little bitty schools, and the NIRA rodeo did a world of good for them.”
    Rodeo, team roping and cutting all three satisfy something deep in him.
    “I don’t think it was the buckles or the fanfare,” he said, of his rodeo career. “It’s hard to explain. There’s just something about getting on one of those horses and having them do the best he can, and you yourself do well. It’s a challenge to get on one and ride them.”
    The same goes for the cutting. “It’s not the buckles or the notoriety. Cutting is a real cowboy event, and it’s about getting a cow out easy with no disturbance of the herd.”
    Don Lee had three kids: Roxanne, born in 1959, Judy, born two years later, and Lee, born in 1963. He married his second wife, Lorren, in 1970; she passed away in March of 2022.
    Now it’s his grandchildren that bring him joy. Roxanne is married to Chris Harrison; Judy is married to Robert Fisher, and Lee isn’t married. He has six grandkids and seven great-grandkids.
    “I didn’t get to enjoy my children like I have my grandchildren,” he said. “I love having them on the ranch, and watching them do the things they do.
    “And I became a Christian thirty years ago, and that has been a big thing in my life.” He knows where he’s headed after life on this earth. “Besides the buckles and the mementos hanging in my office, it’s having the security” of heaven.
    The best part of life has been its fullness. “I’ve gotten to do everything I wanted to do,” he said.

  • 5 Star Featured Athlete: Tandy Meyers

    5 Star Featured Athlete: Tandy Meyers

    The tail on Tandy Meyer’s horse went viral after Rodeo Houston.
    Not in a bad way, but in a good way.
    The Sallisaw, Oklahoma cowgirl’s barrel horse has a very long, beautiful, gray and white tail, and as she ran out of the arena after her run in Houston, Impulse Photography caught a shot of the tail streaming behind the horse.
    Tandy has been running barrels since she was a kid, growing up the daughter of Gary Jacobs and Nita Jacobs.
    She and her partner Doug Chaney have a 28-stall barn, all of them full of colts and young horses, and they ride and train.
    Tandy is a 5 Star Equine Products customer who loves what their products do for her horses.
    She got hooked on 5 Star saddle pads through the famous-tailed horse, Beep.
    With Beep, she’d have to keep tightening the cinch and scooting the saddle up because the pad didn’t fit well. But at an event in Topeka, a friend had a 5 Star saddle pad and let her borrow it.
    “When I put the saddle on,” Tandy said, “it was almost like you could hear it suck down on his back. I was sold. The saddle didn’t move.”
    She loves the pads because they’re easy to clean, and durable. With Beep, she uses the normal style of pad, but she also likes the cutback ones for high withered horses, “because the saddle sits up so much better and they seem more comfortable.”
    Tandy uses the 5 Star boots, too. “They’re durable and lightweight, and not a lot of dirt gets in.” She notices that when she takes them off, even if her horses have run in deep, heavy ground, their legs are clean.
    Beep, whose registered name is Streakin Dusty Light, has taken her and Doug’s program in a different direction.
    Because of him, Tandy bought her WPRA permit, filled it, got her card, and went to the WPRA Finals in Waco for the first time last year, at age 53.
    “He’s just been a blessing,” she said. “He’s opened up other doors for us.”
    He came to them as a two-year-old and they began training him for his owner. But after seeing his potential, they purchased him.
    Beep started and trained easy, but he was spooky. “He wasn’t the best futurity horse,” Tandy said. “He let his surroundings bother him.”
    Tandy took him to amateur rodeos, where he calmed down.
    “The rodeos didn’t bother him. Once I took him to a couple of rodeos, he got settled in and was competitive everywhere.”
    Beep isn’t scared, just spooks easily, although he’s gotten much better, Tandy said. “Around the farm, if he gets spooked, it’s because something is there that wasn’t there the day before.”
    His beautiful tail came to be known by the rodeo world in Houston with the photo. “It’s so long, I trim it two or three inches every two weeks, and it still lays on the ground,” she said. The top half is gray and the bottom half is white, and usually Tandy braids it. For her first run, it was braided. The next night, the braid was fully loosened. The picture “is unbelievable,” she said. “He’s running in full stride, and his tail is flowing out behind him. It’s beautiful.” Clients of hers bought the picture, had it put on a canvas and it hangs over her couch.
    It takes a team to keep things running at their farm. Her partner Doug Chaney, her daughter Mia Meyers, and their helper Kinsley Sweptson all work together. “We have a good team.”
    Last year, Tandy finished fourth in the barrel racing average at the WPRA World Finals and third at the Senior World, both times aboard Beep. This year, he was second at the Barrel Bash in Guthrie, Okla., one of only two horses who made fifteen second runs.

  • A Nurse’s Care

    A Nurse’s Care

    Nebraska high school cowgirl headed for a nursing degree with full ride scholarship.

     

    Broken Bow, Neb.  (May 9, 2022) – A Nebraska high school rodeo cowgirl is getting her college education paid for.

     

    Kenna McCaslin, Broken Bow, Neb., has been selected as one of nineteen students from across the state for participation in the Rural Health Opportunities Program (RHOP).

     

    The program pays for her entire tuition and board at Chadron (Neb.) State College and guarantees her a spot at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Scottsbluff. In return, RHOP recipients must spend two to four years working in rural Nebraska.

     

    The eighteen-year-old cowgirl competes in the breakaway roping, barrel racing and goat tying. A graduate of Broken Bow High School, throughout her high school career she played volleyball for a year, basketball for two years, and was a member of her school’s FFA chapter and Future Health Professionals (HOSA). She is a member of the National Honor Society.

     

    Tagging along with her veterinarian grandpa, Harold McCaslin, as a kid, she always wanted to be a vet. “I looked up to him in so many ways,” she said. “I loved spending time with him and at the farm.”

     

    But as she job shadowed at the local hospital in high school, she changed her mind. “I did a twelve-hour shift the first day and fell in love with it.” Being able to talk to her patients instead of guessing where they hurt, like with animals, made a difference. “I thought it might be nice to have patients that can tell you what’s wrong, instead of playing a guessing game,” she joked.

     

    In addition to rodeo and her high school activities, Kenna stays busy with several other activities. She loves her job at the feedlot and got her certified nursing assistant certificate (CNA) and will work at a local nursing home this summer.

     

    McCaslin has qualified for the Nebraska State High School Finals Rodeo the last three years, finishing in the top twenty in the goat tying twice.

     

    She will work towards a bachelors in science- nursing degree and is undecided if she will specialize in pediatrics or trauma.

     

    High school rodeo teaches life lessons to students, she believes. “I think it builds character. It teaches you how to be responsible, because you’re not only caring for yourself but your animals, too. And you’re learning how to balance something that takes a lot of time, and staying on top of your schoolwork. It’s not an easy thing to accomplish, but it is possible.”

     

    She is the daughter of Thomas and Ann McCaslin.

     

    The RHOP program requires that recipients maintain a grade point average of 3.3.

     

    McCaslin, along with about 150 other high school youth competitors, will compete at the Nebraska High School Finals Rodeo in Hastings June 10-12 at the Adams County Fairgrounds. Rodeo performances begin at 11 am and 6 pm on June 10-11, with the short round on June 12 at 1 pm.

     

    The cutting horse competitions will be at 7 am on June 10-11 with the finals at 8 am on June 12. The reined cow horse takes place at 10 am on June 10-11.

     

    For more information, visit AdamsCountyFairgrounds.com or hsrodeo-nebraska.com, or call 402.462.3247.

  • IMMORTALIZED IN BRONZE

    IMMORTALIZED IN BRONZE

    Bust of North Platte rodeo announcer, Hall of Fame member Hadley Barrett graces Wild West Rodeo Arena.

     

    The PRCA Hall of Fame member, a native of North Platte, was best known as a rodeo announcer, having announced some of the biggest pro rodeos across the nation, including the National Finals Rodeo four times and as television announcer for the Finals 22 years. Barrett passed away in March of 2017 at the age of 87, less than a week after announcing the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.

     

    But before he was a rodeo announcer, he was lead for the band Hadley Barrett and the Westerners, singing at dance halls, proms, and county fairs across Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado.

     

    In his youth, Barrett rode bareback horses and bulls and roped. He was, first and foremost, a rancher.

     

    He started his son-in-law, Randy Corley, in the rodeo announcing business in North Platte, and the two co-announced several rodeos, including the Buffalo Bill Rodeo, which Barrett began in 1965 and Corley in 1980.

     

    “Hadley took me under his wing,” Corley said. “He never tried to tell me how to announce a rodeo, but he told me the shortcuts. He was one of the greatest mentors a person could have. He was so good. There’s not a rodeo that he and I worked together, that I go today, that I have a real emptiness in my heart for what Hadley Barrett was.”

    The sculptor of Barrett’s bronze is Jake Hebbert, who was born and raised in the Sandhills of Nebraska, near Hyannis.

     

    Hebbert knew he had a serious mission: to portray the man who meant so much to rodeo and the residents of North Platte.

     

    When people heard he was working on the bust, they would get excited. “I’d tell people I was working on this project, and their eyes would light up. You can’t go very far around here without running into a story about Hadley.”

     

    Hebbert used one of Barrett’s cowboy hats as part of the model. “The family lent me his hat, and I sculpted around that. If you get the hat right, especially with cowboys, then you’re a long ways towards the likeness. You can recognize people by their hats, and that was one thing I wanted to get absolutely perfect.”

     

    The bust will greet rodeo fans as they enter the grandstands at the Wild West Arena.

     

    Donors for the Hadley Barrett bust include Jim Backenstose, Benje Bendele, Beveridge Inc./Chrystal Minshull, Beutler and Son Rodeo Co., Todd and Ann Bissell, Randy and Michelle Corley, Duane Deterding, Vern Ehlers, David and Lisa Fudge, Gaye Fudge, Larry Gosnell, Merla Hebbert, Leonard K. Hiatt, Dan Keenan, Cory and Ashley Johanson, Dr. Ben Lashley, Lowell and Frankie Moore, Jack Morris, Shawn P. Murdock, NebraskaLand National Bank, Marty Petersen, Matt and Lindsey Pederson, Michael Phillips, Lance Polk, Rick Salee, Chuck Salestrom, Rosenberg Insurance/Larry Stobbs,  Chuck Salestrom, Travis Schauda, Kimberly Schroll, Larry Seger, Three Cedar Inc., Bill and Laura Troshynski, Lacy Wickham, Sara and Greg Wilke, Jan Wright, and anonymous gifts.

     

    This year’s Buffalo Bill Rodeo will be held June 15-18 at the Wild West Arena in North Platte, Neb. Performances begin at 8 pm nightly. Tickets are on sale at NebraskalandDays.com and range in price from $10-$23.

     

    For more information, visit the website or call the office at 308.532.7939.

     

    ### –

     

    Hadley Barrett’s first pro rodeo announcing job was at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte in 1965. Now he is remembered there with a life-size bronze bust commemorating his contributions to the rodeo industry, music world, and the North Platte community. Photo courtesy NebraskalandDays.

     

    Members of Hadley Barrett’s family gather around a bronze bust of the famed rodeo announcer, musician, contestant and rancher. The bust is located at the Wild West Arena in North Platte, the first pro rodeo Barrett announced. From left to right: Randy Corley, Michelle Corley, Brittany Ballard holding her daughter (and Hadley’s great-granddaughter) Hadley Ann; Kim Jurgens; Wyatt Barrett and Trent Barrett.

  • Park Yourself

    Park Yourself

    Franklin woman delights as volunteer in parking lot for Franklin Rodeo

     

    Franklin, Tenn. (April 25, 2022) – Catherine Ligon will be in a hurry to get her final college exam done on May 17.

     

    While her dad is busy packing up his daughter’s things.

     

    That’s because the two of them have to hurry home to Franklin from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville for the Franklin Rodeo, where she does one of her favorite things: volunteering in the parking lot for the rodeo.

     

    The Franklin girl, who is nineteen years old, directs the vehicles as they park, optimizing the space and parking them as safely and as orderly as possible.

     

    It’s a job she started doing with her dad, John Ligon, about ten years ago. At the time, she was too young to park cars, so she hung out with her dad. A few years later, she began her present job.

     

    She’s usually there all three nights of rodeo, this year May 19-21, along with her dad John, a Rotarian. “She works hard at it,” he said, “and I don’t like doing it unless she’s there.”

    Catherine is good at her job, her dad says. She loves to talk to people. “I’m a people person, let me tell you,” she said. She likes the older people as well as the little ones, dressed up in their boots, hats, and big belt buckles. “I get along with everyone I work with at the rodeo,” she said. “We’re all big old besties.”

     

    When her shift in the parking lot is done, she and her dad move inside the Williamson Co. Ag Expo Park, where they help with the mutton busting and calf scramble. And on Saturday night, when the rodeo is over and it’s time to tear down, she stays with the Rotarians till two or three a.m., helping take down banners and put things away.

     

    Catherine has attended a couple of Franklin Noon Rotary Club meetings, starting in third grade, with her dad. She enjoys the speakers and the “this day in history” facts that are presented. She’d be a Rotarian, if they’d let her. But she has to have a career and be invited before she can be a member.

     

    Last year, she was received the Junior Rotarian of the Year award for her volunteer work with the club; her grandpa Ron Ligon is a member, as is her uncle, Matt Ligon. Ron has been a Noon Rotary Club member and a volunteer at the Franklin Rodeo since 1970.

     

    She loves the time spent with her dad, at the rodeo and the “Vitamin D,” she gets by being outside while parking cars. “It’s hard to say why parking is fun,” she said. “It doesn’t sound like fun, but I like to be in charge, directing cars,” she laughed.

     

    Her dad loves spending time with her. “She’s a good running buddy,” he said. “She’s really funny and witty.”

     

    Catherine’s mom is Paula Ligon; Paula and Jon have an older daughter, Catherine’s sister, Margaret.

     

    The Franklin Rodeo will be held May 19-21 at the Williamson Co. Ag Expo Park. Performances start at 7 pm each night. Tickets are $25 for adults and $12 for kids ages twelve and under, and are available online at www.FranklinRodeo.com. For more information, visit the website.

     

     

  • Back When They Bucked with Dallas Hunt George

    Back When They Bucked with Dallas Hunt George

    Because of her grandfather, Dallas Hunt George began a lifelong love of horses, rodeo and rodeo queening.
    Born in Lincoln, Neb. in 1938, the now-Arizona resident served as the first Miss Rodeo Nebraska in 1956 and then as the 1957 Miss Rodeo America, at age eighteen.
    But eight years prior, she could be found crying as she walked back to the family farm, after having been thrown off her half-Shetland/half-Tennessee Walker pony.
    Her great-grandfather owned the first livery stable in Lincoln, and his son, Guy Hunt, her “Gramp,” loved horses.
    When she showed an interest at age three, they became inseparable, “attached at the hip,” she remembers.
    He would take her to horse sales over the weekend, and he’d bring home a horse. She rode for him, everything from Arabs to Tennessee Walkers to horses off the track. And when he got her the pony, he told her when she learned to ride it, he’d get her a better horse.
    He did. At age sixteen, she got an “upgrade” to the quarter horse Wyoming Badger, a son of the AQHA Hall of Fame horse Grey Badger II. Dallas showed Badger at the American Royal and Denver’s National Western Stock Show, earning an AQHA championship in 1958.
    She also competed in high school and regional rodeos, barrel racing and pole bending, and in 1955, was crowned Miss Burwell (Neb.) Rodeo, the Nebraska High School Rodeo Queen and the National High School Rodeo Queen.
    The next year, 1956, she was to go back to Harrison, Neb., as the reigning state high school and national high school queen, but Gramp had a different idea.
    He and Dallas went to Burwell, Neb., for the first ever Miss Rodeo Nebraska pageant, which she won.
    Gramp had even bigger plans for his horse-crazy granddaughter. There was to be a fledgling Miss Rodeo America pageant in Chicago, with cowgirls qualifying by winning their district. (This was the days prior to the present MRA organization.) Cowgirls didn’t have to be state queens to run; but they had to win their district contest to advance. Dallas’ district pageant was held at Ak-Sar-Ben in Omaha, which she won.
    Ak-Sar-Ben’s district contest was similar in some ways to today’s pageant, but had its differences. It still involved horsemanship, personality and appearance, but it included a barrel racing component. Cowgirls rode their own horse for the first round of barrels, then drew from the other candidates’ horses for the second round.
    Dallas took Badger, who was 15.3 hands and “drop dead gorgeous,” but he could be a handful. “You had to ride him correctly or he might decide to dump you off,” she remembered.
    Badger’s “naughty” side came out; another queen drew him for the barrel race and he misbehaved.
    She also remembers, from the Miss Rodeo America contest in Chicago, a paint horse who had been snake bitten on his lower lip, which gave him a funny look. The first cowgirl who drew him for the barrels couldn’t get the sour horse away from the others. That night, Dallas told her Gramp her luck would be that she’d draw the paint the next day, and she did. But he behaved better for her. “He was perfect for me,” she said.
    She won the 1957 Miss Rodeo America title, and was put to work right away, heading to Denver for the Stock Show, where she also had the chance to run barrels as a Girls Rodeo Association member.
    She remembers traveling about 100,000 miles that year, making appearances at Denver, Helldorado Days in Las Vegas, the Lions Rodeo in Pomona, Calif., a three-week series in West Yellowstone, Belle Fourche, S.D., the Diamond Spur Rodeo in Spokane, the Iowa State and Kentucky State Fairs, and more.
    Gramp got a new nickname as he chaperoned Dallas that year: the Eye. He kept an eye on Dallas and the other rodeo queens. “I was only eighteen,” Dallas said. “There was no way he was going to let those cowboys get to me,” she laughed.
    Dallas turned over her crown at the Cow Palace, where her best friend and fellow Nebraskan Lolly Cameron Klug competed. Lolly finished in the top five for the Miss Rodeo America title; the pageant was just one adventure the two women would share over their lifetimes.
    Dallas’ rodeo queening was over; she had graduated from Lincoln (Neb.) High School in 1956 and had put in three semesters at the University of Nebraska.
    Then she became a flight attendant for United, but only for a year, because in 1959, she married, and in those days, flight attendants couldn’t be married.
    After her marriage failed, Dallas, who lived in Scottsdale with her two children, went back to college in the early 1970s. She became a veterinary technician, and married one of the veterinarians, Larry George, in the office where she worked. They married in 1974.
    During her first marriage and as a single mother, there was no time or money for horses or rodeo.
    But when Gramp passed, he left her money in his will to buy a horse and a trailer and start back up, and she did just that. She bought a thoroughbred mare and did dressage and jumping. Then she got two quarter horses, Cactus Moon Star, “BJ,” and TJ Plum Classy, “Classy,” a little roan mare with white socks. She worked with Cynthia Canterbury and her husband, Red, and went to the AQHA World Show, qualifying for the Amateur Trail and Open Trail and finishing eleventh in the world at Amateur Trail.
    Dallas also had a gray mare, Zippers Tight Jeans, “Gracy,” who she raised and with whom she won an Open Superior Trail Award in the AQHA. On Gracy, she qualified in 2003 and 2004 for the Select World Trail in Trail.
    Her fourth horse, Pleasure on Impulse, “Promise,” earned Register of Merit in western pleasure, trail, showmanship and performance halter, finishing in the top fifteen at the 2010 Select World in performance halter. Promise also carried Dallas’ granddaughters to many championships.
    She’s retired from the show pen, “because judges look at eighty-year-old ladies differently than fifty-year-old ladies,” she quipped.
    On the thirtieth anniversary of her crowning as Miss Rodeo America, at the insistence of her friend, Lolly, Dallas attended the convention in Las Vegas.
    The women were put to work as volunteers with the MRA “store,” selling programs, memorabilia, and event tickets. Every year, from 1987 through 2021, she and Lolly ran the store. As time went on, it grew to include Wrangler clothing and products. “We went from three tables (of merchandise) to racks,” Dallas remembers. They decorated the store, and in the past few years, began selling roses for the pageant contestants.
    The store was a way to meet lots of people: parents and family members of contestants, and fellow volunteers. “We were there every day,” she remembers. “I loved it. I got to meet everybody, the parents, the grandparents. It wasn’t a job, it was a labor of love.”
    Dallas and Lolly were a good team. At the MRA convention, they roomed together and worked together. “Every night, we’d go to our room and do our spreadsheet, spread out our books, and make our deposit,” she remembered. “We’d laugh and have fun.” Dallas said Lolly was the “brilliant” one, and she was the go-fer.
    The two women, friends since their youth, are “attached at the hip,” Dallas said. “They laugh at us and call us the Bobbsey twins.”
    Dallas volunteered with the Miss Rodeo Arizona pageant for years, was a member of the association and served as president. She’s a lifetime member of the Miss Rodeo Nebraska Association and the American Quarter Horse Association. She and Lolly have both judged state queen contests, from California to Missouri, and from Florida to Washington.
    Last year, after the women’s 65 years of service with the Miss Rodeo America organization, Dallas and Lolly were recognized during the coronation ceremony on December 5. “They treated us like queens,” Dallas said, “for the whole week. They turned the two of us out to pasture in grand fashion.” The women got a standing ovation for their years of service.
    She and Larry blended their families: her son, Burr (Janiece) Shields and daughter, Cathy (Michael) Cushing, and Larry’s daughters, Cyndi (Drew) Callahan and Debbie (Roger) Benson. She has eight grandchildren: girls Ashlie, Mandie, Jynsen, Kyndra, Cory, Sarah and Maddie, and a boy, MJ. Jynsen, Kyndra and Cory showed horses with their “Grammy,” riding her horses, with Jynsen and Kyndra winning a combined nine buckles showing Promise. She has two great-grandchildren, a boy, Brody, and a girl, Savannah.
    Her husband, Larry, passed away in October of 2020.
    Lolly loves her best friend. “She’s a chip off the old block, from her granddad,” she said. “She’s just truthful and wholesome. What you see is what you get when you talk to Dallas. She’s the most precious person there is in the world today.”
    Dallas loves her MRA family as much as she loves her non-rodeo family. “The nucleus of that organization genuinely cares about each other,” she said. “I don’t know how else to say it, but rodeo is a family.”
    Rodeo exemplifies the Christian life, of which Dallas is a believer. “I love the Lord, and that’s one thing I love about rodeo, too, the prayers beforehand, the national anthem.
    “I’ve been very blessed.”
    Dallas is a 2014 inductee in the Miss Rodeo America Hall of Fame; Lolly was inducted in 2015.

  • 5 Star Featured Athlete: Jessica Routier

    5 Star Featured Athlete: Jessica Routier

    The Routier family is a 5 Star Equine family through and through.
    Riley and Jessica Routier and their five children: son Braden and daughters Payton, twins Rayna and Rose, and Charlie, use and love 5 Star products.
    Every horse on the Routier ranch, located in the far northwest corner of South Dakota, near Buffalo, wears a 5 Star pad. They love them. “I still have the very first 5 Star pad I owned,” Jessica said, “and they’re still just as good as the day we got them. They don’t wear out, and they fit a horse good.”
    She uses the one-inch pad on her barrel horses. The ranch horses wear the rancher pad, and the ponies wear the seven-eighth inch pad because they’re “a little bit round.”
    Once or twice a year, it’s saddle pad cleaning time for the Routiers. The family uses the cleaning spray and sponges that are sold alongside the pads, then hose them off, “and they’re good to go for another six months.”
    Jessica also uses the mohair cinches and loves the variety of colors they come in.
    The Routiers are partial to the boots, too. Fiery Miss West, “Missy”, her primary barrel horse, doesn’t wear boots at all but the other horses do. “I like how they fit. I think they give the horses a lot of support.”
    Five Star products are easily customizable with different colors and patterns, but that has caused a bit of competition amongst the two older Routier kids. The family has three sets of boots: blue, purple and red, but Braden and Payton always want the blue set. “We have a big fight going on the barn right now,” Jessica said. “Everybody thinks the blue boots are the best.”
    Jessica has qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo four times, each time on Missy. She finished the 2018 season as reserve world champion and has won the Badlands Circuit Finals year-end title four times (2017, 19-21).
    Now the next generation of Routiers is rodeoing.
    Son Braden, a sophomore in high school, competes in the tie-down roping, team roping and steer wrestling in both high school rodeo and Little Britches.
    Payton, who is an eighth grader, trick rides and breakaway ropes, although the trick riding might go on the back burner for a while, her mother said. “I think she was getting lonely spending weekends with her mom (trick riding at rodeos) when her friends were at other rodeos, roping and running barrels.”
    The three little girls are always in the mix. Rayna and Rose are six years old, and Charlie is five. They like to run around the barrels, do poles and they’ve dabbled in the trick roping. They track calves out of the roping box and rope the calf sled behind the four wheeler.
    Rodeo is special to Jessica.
    “I don’t even know what my life would be like without rodeo, and without having found that one once-in-a-lifetime horse (Missy). It’s built my whole life and who I am. I have an amazing rodeo horse and I’ll rodeo on her as long as she’s healthy and willing.”
    She’s helping her kids rodeo, too.
    “My goal is to find that once-in-a-lifetime horse for my kids, the horse that shapes their lives.”
    She loves the life she and Riley have built, with their family.
    “I’m just so thankful to have raised them in a rodeo community and on a ranch. I don’t think there’s a better place to raise kids.”

  • RED BLUFF CROWNS CHAMPIONS

    RED BLUFF CROWNS CHAMPIONS

    Texas cowgirl and horse repeat win; Oregon and Kansas cowboys among winners

    Red Bluff, Calif. (April 17, 2022) – The eyes of the rodeo world were on Red Bluff this past weekend, with the 101st Red Bluff Round-Up taking place April 15-17.

     

    Nine pro rodeo cowboys and cowgirls added to their world rankings and padded their bank accounts with gold-buckle wins and first place finishes in Red Bluff.

     

    Among those crowned as a 2022 Round-Up champion is an Oregon cowboy. Dalton Massey, Hermiston, turfed four steers in 19.8 seconds to win the gold buckle.

     

    Massey didn’t have a great start to his Round-Up week, but it got better. In the first round, he had a time of six seconds, which wasn’t fast enough to win a check.

     

    “Shoot, I told my dad (Kurt) I was going to get faster every day, and I’d be in contention come Sunday (for the finals.) I drew good enough and that’s exactly what happened.” His times got progressively faster, going from six seconds to 4.8 seconds in the second round, 4.4 in the third round, and 3.7 in Sunday’s round to win the title.

     

    This is the fourth time for the Oregon cowboy to compete in Red Bluff. The past three years, he’s broken the barrier during one of his runs, adding ten seconds to his time and effectively taking him out of the winnings. “This year, my goal was to get out at the barrier at every steer, and have a chance come Sunday.”

     

    Massey rode a borrowed horse, a mare named Sassy who is owned by fellow steer wrestler Mike McGinn. She’s been his mount all winter. McGinn and another steer wrestler, Justin Kimsey, also rode the mare in Red Bluff.

     

    A win of over $7400 will help him get down the road, paying for fuel and entry fees, and hopefully be momentum enough to get him towards his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualification, after finishing nineteenth in the world last year.

     

    The Red Bluff Round-Up is a favorite rodeo for the 2022 Round-Up barrel racing champion’s horse.

     

    In fact, the same duo: Stevi Hillman and her mount Truck, won the rodeo twice: this year, and in 2017.

     

    Truck, whose registered name is Cuatro Fame, carried his rider for a time of 34.42 seconds in two runs for the win.

     

    “Truck loves Red Bluff, and so do I,” she said. “It’s one of our favorite rodeos. We’re outside, the sun is shining, and it’s Easter. I just couldn’t be any more thankful today.”

     

    Hillman has ridden the fifteen-year-old big bay gelding for the last seven years and has owned him for two of those years.

     

    She came to the Round-Up in 2016 will fellow barrel racer Taylor Langdon, who won the Round-Up that year.

     

    “I helped Taylor carry her Yeti cooler back to the trailer in 2016, and the next year, she helped me carry it. She’s not here, but, Taylor, I’m thinking about you,” she said.

     

    The winners each win a Yeti trailer, plus gold buckles and prize money.

     

    Hillman has qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo six times.

     

    In the tie-down roping, a Kansas-turned-Texas roper won the Red Bluff title.

     

    Cooper Martin, a native of Alma, Kan. but now residing in Salado, Texas, was reserve tie-down Round-Up champ in 2018 but this year took the top honor with a time of 41.7 seconds on four runs.

     

    A three-time National Finals qualifier, he’s coming off an injury that sidelined him for six months last year.

     

    He tore ligaments in his wrist, but the two surgeries to repair it caused carpal tunnel syndrome, which made his recovery time even slower.

     

    But the time off was a blessing.

     

    “I learned a lot about myself,” he said. “I’d never been able to be in the gym that much. We’re always driving and sleeping, and driving some more and sleeping some more, and when you have time off (while on the road), you don’t feel like doing anything else.”

     

    He competed in Logandale, Nev. last week and will rope in Clovis, Calif. this week, before heading home.

    “I’ve always liked to rodeo” in California, he said. “These four-head rodeos are good to me. They fit my style.”

     

    He rides a gray gelding named Gru (from the movie Despicable Me), who is an excellent tie-down horse. “He’s consistent, and consistency is the key. If he’s consistent, I’m consistent. I’ve sure been blessed to have him. He’s had a huge impact on my career.”

     

    Other Red Bluff champions include bareback rider Bodee Lammers, Tolar, Texas (88 points); team ropers Cory Kidd V and Lane Mitchell (31.7 seconds on four runs); breakaway roper Lari Dee Guy (6.5 seconds on 2 head); saddle bronc rider Wyatt Casper (88 points) and bull rider JR Stratford (90 points).

     

    During the rodeo, which was the annual Tough Enough to Wear Pink event, a Pendleton (Ore.) Roundup “Let ‘Er Buck” package was auctioned off. Jan Sutherland, owner of Taco Bell, purchased it for $23,000. The package includes four VIP tickets to the Round-Up, round trip airfare for four, lodging, and more. Monies raised during the Round-Up’s “pink” campaign help fund breast cancer services at St. Elizabeth Community Hospital. Monies raised during the Round-Up’s “pink” campaign go to breast cancer treatment at Dignity Health/St. Elizabeth Hospital.

     

    For more information on the rodeo, visit RedBluffRoundup.com.

     

    Cutlines:

     

    It was the second time for barrel racer Stevi Hillman to win a Red Bluff title. The Weatherford, Texas cowgirl rounded the barrels in 17.10 seconds in the finals to win the barrel racing in Red Bluff. Photo by Crystal Amen.

     

    Cooper Martin, Alma, Kan., is the Red Bluff Round-Up tie-down roping champion, having the fastest time on four head (41.7 seconds). Photo by Crystal Amen.

     

    Results, Red Bluff Round-Up, April 15-17, 2022

     

    Bareback Riding – 2022 Red Bluff Round-Up Champion:  Bodee Lammers, Tolar, Texas

    1. Bodee Lammers, Tolar, Texas 88 points on C5 Rodeo’s Virgil; 2. Tilden Hooper, Carthage, Texas 87; 3. Wyatt Denny, Minden, Nev. 86.5; 4. Caleb Bennett, Corvallis, Mont. 84.5; 5. Keenan Hayes, Hayden, Colo. 84; 6. Clayton Biglow, Clements, Calif. 83; 7. Seth Hardwick, Ranchester, Wyo. 80.5; 8. Zack Brown, Red Bluff, Calif. 79.5.

     

    Steer Wrestling 2022 Red Bluff Round-Up Champion: Dalton Massey, Hermiston, Ore.

    First round:

    1. (tie) Kyler Dick, Oakley, Utah and Levi Rudd, Chelsea, Okla. 4.2 seconds each; 3. Nick Guy, Sparta, Wis. 4.3; 4. Bridger Chambers, Stevensville, Mont. 4.6; 5. Bear Pascoe, Morro Bay, Calif. 4.7; 6. (tie) Zack Jongbloed, Iowa, La. and Josh Garner, Live Oak, Calif. 4.8 each; 8. Tyke Kipp, Lordsburg, N.M. 5.1; 9. (tie) Don Payne, Stephenville, Texas and Ty Allred, Tooele, Utah 5.2 each; 11. (tie) Kalane Anders, Cheyenne, Wyo., Aaron Vosler, Cheyenne, Wyo., and Justin Kimsey, Dayton, Wash. 5.4 seconds each.

     

    Second round:

    1. Stetson Jorgensen, Blackfoot, Ida. 4.0 seconds; 2. Sterling Lambert, Fallon, Nev. 4.1; 3. Ty Erickson,  Helena, Mont. 4.3; 4. (tie) Eli Lord, Sturgis, S.D. and Austin Eller, Glendo, Wyo. 4.5 each; 6. Tyke Kipp, Lordsburg, N.M. 4.6; 7. Kalane Anders, Bayard, Neb. 4.7; 8. (tie) Cameron Morman, Glenn Ullin, N.D. and Dalton Massey, Hermiston, Ore. 4.8 each.

     

    Third round:

    1. Stetson Jorgensen, Blackfoot, Idaho 3.9 seconds; 2. Dalton Massey, Hermiston, Ore. 4.4; 3. Levi Rudd, Chelsea, Okla. 4.6; 4. Caden Camp, Belgrade, Mont. 4.8; 5. Bridger Chambers, Stevensville, Mont. 5.1; 6. Justin Kimsey, Kennewick, Wash. 5.2; 7. Trisyn Kalawai’a, Hilo, Hawaii 5.3; 8. Taz Olson, Prairie City, S.D. 5.4.

     

    Finals:

    1. Dalton Massey, Hermiston, Ore. 3.7 seconds; 2. Ty Erickson, Helena, Mont. 4.2; 3. Dakota Eldridge, Elko, Nev. 4.3; 4. Ty Allred, Tooele, Utah 5.7; 5. (tie) Levi Rudd, Chelsea, Okla. and Bridger Chambers, Stevensville, Mont. 6.3 each.

     

    Average:

    1. Dalton Massey, Hermiston, Ore. 19.8 seconds on 4 head; 2. Bridger Chambers, Stevensville, Mont. 21.1; 3. Levi Rudd, Chelsea, Okla. 22.3; 4. Kalane Anders, Bayard, Neb. 22.9; 5. Ty Erickson, Helena, Mont. 23.7; 6. Ty Allred, Tooele, Utah 26.3; 7. Dakota Eldridge, Elko, Nev. 27.1; 8. Stetson Jorgensen, Blackfoot, Idaho 30.5.

     

    Saddle bronc riding 2022 Red Bluff Round-Up Champion: Wyatt Casper, Miami, Texas

    1. Wyatt Casper, Miami, Texas 88 points on Calgary Stampede’s YoYo Marble; 2. CoBurn Bradshaw, Beaver, Utah 87.5; 3. (tie) Ryder Wright, Beaver, Utah and Sage Newman, Melstone, Mont. 85 each; 5. Sterling Crawley, Stephenville, Texas 84; 6. Ben Anderson, Rocky Mountain, Alb. 83; 7. Carter Elshere, Elm Springs, S.D. 82.5; 8. (tie) Wade Stansfield, Spring City, Utah and Jesse James Kirby, Cheney, Wash. 82 each.

     

    Tie Down Roping 2022 Red Bluff Round-Up Champion: Cooper Martin, Alma, Kan.

    First round:

    1. Rhen Richard, Roosevelt, Utah 8.6 seconds; 2. Cooper Martin, Alma, Kan. 8.7; 3. Garrett Jacobs, Bosque Farms, N.M. 8.9; 4. Macon Murphy, Keatchie La., 9.3; 5. Lane Livingston, Seymour, Texas 9.6; 6. (tie) Ladd King, Kaysville, Utah and Zack Jongbloed, Iowa, La. 9.7 each; 8. Tyson Durfey, Brock, Texas 9.8; 9. (tie) Tom Joe Crouse, Gallatin. Mo. and Bo Pickett, Caldwell, Idaho 9.9 each; 11. (tie) Trenton Smith, Bigfoot, Texas and Cash Hooper, Carlsbad, N.M. 10.2 each.

     

    Second round:

    1. (tie) Marcos Costa, Iretama, Brazil and Taylor Santos, Creston, Calif. 8.9 seconds each; 3. (tie) Shad Mayfield, Clovis, N.M. and Chris McCuistion, Collinsville, Texas 9.1 each; 5. Hudson Wallace, George West, Texas 9.2; 6. Rhen Richard, Roosevelt, Utah 9.4; 7. Hunter Herrin, Apache, Okla. 9.7; 8. Bo Pickett, Caldwell, Idaho 9.9.

     

    Third round:

    1. Zack Jongbloed, Iowa, La. 9.9 seconds; 2. Brushton Minton, Witter Springs, Calif. 10.2; 3. (tie) Lucas Peres, Brazil and Hagen Houck, Henrietta, Okla. 11.1 each; 5. (tie) Riley Wakefield, O’Neill, Neb. and Reese Riemer, Stinnett, Texas 11.2 each; 7. Cooper Martin, Alma, Kan. 11.4; 8. Taylor Santos, Creston, Calif. 12.1.

     

    Finals:

    1. Cooper Martin, Alma, Kan. 9.8 seconds; 2. Reese Riemer, Stinnett, Texas 10.2; 3. Tyson Durfey, Brock, Texas 10.9; 4. Tom Joe Crouse, Gallatin, Mo. 11.3; 5. (tie) Lucas Peres, Brazil and Zack Jongbloed, Iowa, La. 12.9 each.

     

    Average:

    1. Cooper Martin, Alma, Kan. 41.7 seconds on 4 head; 2. Reese Riemer, Stinnett, Texas 43.2; 3 Zack Jongbloed, Iowa, La. 43.4; 4. Tyson Durfey, Brock, Texas 44.1; 5. Tom Joe Crouse, Gallatin, Mo. 44.7; 6. Dakota Felton, Mountain Home, Texas 47.1; 7. Lucas Peres, Brazile 47.4; 8. Hagen Houck, Henrietta, Texas 53.8.

     

    Team Roping 2022 Red Bluff Round-Up Champions: Cory Kidd V, Statesville, N.C. and Lane Mitchell, Bolivar, Tenn.

    First round:

    1. Rhen Richard, Roosevelt, Utah/Jeremy Buhler, Arrowwood, Alb. 6.5 seconds; 2. (tie) Kaleb Driggers, Hoboken, Ga./Junior Nogueira, Presidente Prudente, Brazil and Zach Kilgus, Stephenville, Texas/Jake Edwards, Ft. Ann, N.Y. 6.6 each; 4. (tie) Cory Kidd V, Statesville, N.C./Lane Mitchell, Bolivar, Tenn. and Tanner James, Porterville, Calif./Phoenix Everano, Pendleton, Ore. 6.7 each; 6. Luke Brown, Rock Hill, S.C./Hunter Koch, Vernon, Texas 6.8; 7. (tie) Britt Smith, Broken Bow, Okla./Jake Smith, Broken Bow, Okla. and Jr Dees, Aurora, S.D./Levi Lord, Sturgis, S.D. 7.1 each; 9. (tie) Derrick Begay, Winslow, Ariz. /Paul Eaves, Millsap, Texas and T. C. Hammack, Chiloquin, Ore./Cody Stewart, Janesville, Calif. 7.4 each;
    2. Ryan Tripp, Shasta Lake, Calif./Dusty Bravos, Anderson, Calif. 7.5; 12. (tie) Cody Mora, San Miguel, Calif./Jason Johe  San Luis Obispo, Calif. and Kolton Schmidt, Stephenville, Texas/Lane Siggins, Coolidge, Ariz. 7.7 each.

     

    Second round:

    1. Clint Summers, Lake City, Fla./Ross Ashford, Lott, Texas 5.5; 2. (tie) Brayden Schmidt, Benton City, Wash./Logan Cullen, Courtenay, B.C. and Rhett Anderson, Annabella, Utah/Max Kuttler, American Falls, Ida. 5.9 each; 4. Jeff Flenniken, Caldwell, Ida./Jake Minor, Ellensburg, Wash. 6.1; 5. Andrew Ward, Edmond, Okla./Buddy Hawkins II, Columbus, Kan. 6.3; 6. (tie) Jr Dees, Aurora, S.D./Levi Lord, Sturgis, S.D. and Luke Brown, Rock Hill, S.C./Hunter Koch, Vernon, Texas 6.5 each; 8. Tanner Bryson, Camp Verde, Ariz./Rhett Kennedy, Chowchilla, Calif. 6.6.

     

    Third round:

    1. Zach Kilgus, Stephenville, Texas/Jake Edwards, Ft Ann, N.Y. 5.3 seconds; 2. Britt Smith, Broken Bow, Okla./Jake Smith, Broken Bow, Okla. 5.5; 3. Braden Pirrung, Hartford, S.D./Coley Nicholls, Kinnear, Wyo. 6.5; 4. Hayes Smith, Central Point, Ore./Cullen Teller, Ault, Colo. 6.7; 5. Rhen Richard, Roosevelt, Utah/Jeremy Buhler, Arrowwood, Alb. 6.8; 6. Jake Raley, Brush Prairie, Wash./Steven Gaona, Winkelman, Ariz. 7.0; 7. Jeff Flenniken, Caldwell, Idaho/Jake Minor, Ellensburg, Wash. 7.2; 8. Manny Egusquiza Jr, Stephenville, Texas/Walt Woodard, Stephenville, Texas 7.4.

     

    Finals:

    1. Cory Kidd V, Statesville, N.C./Lane Mitchell, Bolivar, Tenn. 8.5 seconds; 2. Jake Cooper, Monument, N.M./Sid Sporer, Cody, Wyo. 8.7; 3. Rhen Richard, Roosevelt, Utah/Jeremy Buhler, Arrowwood, Alb. 11.8; 4. Manny Egusquiza Jr., Stephenville, Texas/Walt Woodard, Stephenville, Texas 15.2; 5. Jack Graham, Lakeview, Ore./Reno Eddy, Gallup, N.M. 17.0.

     

    Average:

    1. Cory Kidd V, Statesville, N.C./Lane Mitchell, Bolivar, Tenn. 31.7 seconds on 4 head; 2. Rhen Richard, Roosevelt, Utah/Jeremy Buhler, Arrowwood, Alb. 32.2; 3. Jake Cooper, Monument, N.M./Sid Sporer, Cody, Wyo. 32.4; 4. Manny Egusquiza Jr., Stephenville, Texas/Walt Woodard, Stephenville, Texas 38.6; 5. Jack Graham, Lakeview, Ore./Reno Eddy, Gallup, N.M. 40.6; 6. Britt Smith, Broken Bow, Okla./Jake Smith, Broken Bow, Okla. 20.0 seconds on 3 head; 7. Jr. Dees, Aurora, S.D./Levi Lord, Sturgis, S.D. 21.4; 8. Luke Brown, Rock Hill, S.C./Hunter Koch, Vernon, Texas 21.9.

     

    Breakaway Roping- 2022 Red Bluff Round-Up Champion: Lari Dee Guy, Abilene, Texas

    First round:

    1. Sawyer Gilbert, Buffalo, S.D. 2.6 seconds; 2. (tie) Josey Murphy, Keachi, La. and Paige Wiseman, Paola, Kan. 2.9 each; 4. Cathy Cagliari, Corning, Calif. 3.2; 5. (tie) Kelsie Domer, Dublin, Texas and Lari Dee Guy, Abilene, Texas 3.2 each; 8. Liz Hirdes, Turlock, Calif. 3.4.

     

    Short round:

    1. (tie) Josie Conner, Iowa, La., Samantha Fulton, Miller, S.D., and Lari Dee Guy, Abilene, Texas 3.3 seconds each; 4. Macey Cox, San Luis Obispo, Calif. 3.5; 5. Taylor Munsell, Alva, Okla. 3.6; 6. Josey Murphy, Keachi, La. 3.7; 7. (tie) Erin Johnson, Fowler, Colo. and Tacy Webb, Midway, Texas 4.3 each.

     

    Average:

    1. Lari Dee Guy, Abilene, Texas 6.5 seconds on two head; 2. Josey Murphy, Keachi. La. 6.6; 3. Taylor Munsell, Alva, Okla. 7.1; 4. Samantha Fulton, Miller, S.D. 7.5; 5. Jordi Edens, Gatesville, Texas 8.0; 6. (tie) Macey Cox, San Luis Obispo, Calif. and Tacy Webb, Midway, Texas 8.2 each; 8. (tie) Erin Johnson, Fowler, Colo. and Kelsey Nonella, Redmond, Ore. 8.4 each.

     

    Barrel racing – 2022 Red Bluff Round-Up Champion: Stevi Hillman, Weatherford, Texas

    First round:

    1. Payton Schoeppach, Lincoln, Calif. 17.29 seconds; 2. Stevi Hillman, Weatherford, Texas 17.32; 3. Chelsie Stodghill, Prineville, Ore. 17.38; 4. Nellie Miller, Cottonwood, Calif. 17.40; 5. Carly Taylor, Andersonville, Tenn. 17.43; 6. Emily Beisel, Weatherford, Okla. 17.46; 7. Paige Jones, Wayne, Okla. 17.51; 8. Sissy Winn, Chapman Ranch, Texas 17.54; 9. Kathy Petska, Turlock, Calif. 17.56; 10. Lisa Lockhart, Oelrichs, S.D. 17.60.

     

    Second round:

    1. Stevi Hillman, Weatherford, Texas 17.10 seconds; 2. Lisa Lockhart, Oelrichs, S.D. 17.18; 3. Paige Jones, Wayne, Okla. 17.26; 4. Nellie Miller, Cottonwood, Calif. 17.31; 5. Kristi Youngblood, Willows, Calif. 17.42; 6. Sissy Winn, Chapman Ranch, Texas 17.45; 7. Carly Taylor, Andersonville, Tenn. 17.47; 8. Kylee Scribner, Azle, Texas 17.56; 9. (tie) Kathy Petska, Turlock, Calif. and Mandy Staley, Cottonwood, Calif. 17.61 each.

     

    Average:

    1. Stevi Hillman, Weatherford, Texas 34.42 seconds on 2 runs; 2. Nellie Miller, Cottonwood, Calif. 34.71; 3. Paige Jones, Wayne, Okla. 34.77; 4. Lisa Lockhart, Oelrichs, S.D. 34.78; 5. Carly Taylor, Andersonville, Tenn. 34.90; 6. Sissy Winn, Chapman Ranch, Texas 34.99; 7. Kathy Petska, Turlock, Calif. 35.17; 8. Kylee Scribner, Azle, Texas 35.18; 9. Chelsie Stodghill, Prineville, Ore. 35.20; 10. Michelle Darling, Medford, Oka. 35.34.

     

    Bull Riding 2022 Red Bluff Round-Up Champion: JR Stratford, Byers, Kansas

     

    1. JR Stratford, Byers, Kan. 90 points on Big Stone Rodeo’s War Cry; 2. (tie) Ruger Piva, Challis, Idaho and Josh Frost, Randlett, Utah 87 each; 4. (tie) Brody Yeary, Morgan Mill, Texas and Boudreaux Campbell, Crockett, Texas 85 each; 6. Ray Mayo, Clearlake, Calif. 84; 7. Brady Portenier, Caldwell, Idaho 83.5; 8. (tie) Cole Fischer, Jefferson City, Mo. and Reid Oftedahl, Raymond, Minn. 81.5 each.

     

    ** All results are unofficial.  For more information, visit RedBluffRoundup.com.  For complete rodeo results, visit ProRodeo.com.

     

    – ### –

     

  • Back When They Bucked with Roy Rodriguez

    Back When They Bucked with Roy Rodriguez

    “He was extremely fast from the horse to the calf, he was well mounted, and he was a competitor. He wanted to beat you and still be good friends while doing it.”

    Roy Rodriguez let his actions speak louder than his words.
    Whether it was in the rodeo arena, on a rodeo board, with his family or at his job, the Clayton, Michigan man did the right thing, even if it didn’t benefit him.
    A calf roper, team roper, and bulldogger, he dominated the rodeo arenas across the upper Midwest for several decades.
    He was fast, well-mounted, and for him, rodeo was a business and a way to provide for his family.
    Roy was born to Juan and Beatriz Rodriguez in 1944, the youngest of six children, in Cotulla, Texas. When he was two, his parents moved to Michigan because of the promise of better paying jobs. His dad went to work for a company that made motor parts for the Ford Motor Co.
    In Texas, Juan was handy as a ranch cowboy and with leatherwork, but also with a rope. He competed against some of the toughest ropers of his day in match ropings, beating many of them. But he didn’t have the wherewithal to rope full time.
    When he came north, he worked at a dairy farm for a short time before beginning at an auto parts factory, where Roy would join him after high school.
    Juan was a founding father in the Michigan Ropers Association in 1948-49. He competed in the organization, as did Roy and several of his brothers. At the age of 55, Juan was the MRA champion. Two years later, his son Ray was champ, and in 1974 and 1978, Roy was champ.
    In addition to the Michigan Ropers Association, Roy was a member of the now-defunct Midwest Cowboys Association.
    He graduated from high school in 1962 and a year later was working for the same company as his dad, starting as a laborer, then, two years later, as a foreman. By the age of nineteen, he was in charge of a multi-million dollar plant from 11 pm to 7 am each day.
    He was a “weekend warrior,” competing on the weekends and being home for a job Monday through Friday.
    He followed in his dad’s footsteps with his roping abilities. Calf roping was his strength, but he team roped and steer wrestled, too.
    He competed not only in the MRA and the MCA, but Mid-States Cowboy Association (the eastern association, compared to the western association), winning the tie-down title in 1978 and 1983. He also competed in the International Pro Rodeo Association. He was consistently in the top fifteen in all of his associations. Finals weren’t always held, due to a lack of funding, but when they were, Roy was at them.
    In 1966, Roy was drafted and sent to Vietnam for a year. He was discharged in July of 1968.
    While in Vietnam, he became acquainted with another rodeo cowboy, Ned Londo. Roy was in Fire Direction Control, Ned was in the 11th Armored Calvary Black Horse, on the gun. As is typical in the military, there was plenty of slow times, with nothing to do. Roy and Ned found a coil of rope , made a dummy and roped the dummy to kill time.
    But their biggest fun was a bit of rodeo in the jungles of Vietnam. Kids would walk by, heading to the rice fields with the Brahma cattle they used in the paddies. One time, it turned into a dare. “I don’t know if he said it or I said it, but one of us said, if you rope him, I’ll ride him,” Ned said. So Roy roped the Brahma and Ned rode it. “She didn’t buck much but we had fun and the kids enjoyed the show.” The village elders did not appreciate the rodeo, however, and the commanding officer spent the evening in the village smoothing things out!
    A year after his return to the States, Roy danced with a brunette girl at the dance hall by the lake. Later that night, at the hamburger joint, they met up again, and he asked her out. It was love at first sight, Sharon said. They married on Valentine’s Day, 1969.
    Roy made his own rope horses. His first horse was his dad’s, a big buckskin that stood 16 hands and weighed 1,600 lbs. When he went to buy his own horse, he found a black barrel horse in Oklahoma with the reputation of stopping so hard he flipped people over his head. The horse had been sold to a woman for the barrel racing, but it was also a calf horse. When Roy asked how much, the woman priced the horse so low “I couldn’t turn it down,” he said. He bought it, named it Smoky, and that weekend, went to a couple of rodeos and a match roping. “I ended up winning the match roping, placing at both rodeos, and I paid for him.”
    Smoky was “no speedster but he was quick,” he said, “for probably a good 100 feet. He’d get out of the box so quick, I’d get a shot off quick and I wouldn’t have to run my calves so far. He was quick and he was stout. He basically looked like a miniature draft horse.”
    Roy was the first calf roper in his part of the country to dismount on the right. It happened by accident. It was the early 1960s, at a rodeo in Michigan, and Roy was late in arriving. His dad advised him to not break the barrier, because the calf was fast. “When that calf came out, he flew,” Roy remembers. “I caught up with him at the bucking chutes. I was committed on the right side, and we were running so fast, I finally ended up throwing the rope and flew off the right side. And from that day forth, I got off on the right.”
    His wife Sharon was a farm girl, not a rodeo girl. She had always wanted a horse, so when they married, Juan bought her a saddle with a high back. “It was like a death trap,” Sharon laughed. “It had big swells in the front and the back came up. When you got in that saddle, you weren’t going anywhere.” She learned to ride and enjoyed it.
    The couple volunteered in several associations. In the 1980s and 1990s, Roy was president and Sharon was secretary of the Michigan Ropers Association. They held the same roles in the Mid-States Association for three years.
    When their children rodeoed in high school, there was no high school association in the state of Michigan, so they, along with others, traveled to Ohio to compete. After a few years, Roy said, “this is ridiculous. What does it take to get a high school association in Michigan?” It required $300. He went on a campaign at his rodeos, asking for donations. By the time the collections ended, he had $1,500. He and Sharon were founders of the Michigan High School Rodeo Association in 1989 and stayed on as board members till their kids were through high school.
    Their children: Raul, Ryan and Mindy, all competed in rodeo at one time or another. Raul was a roper, finishing third in the National Inter-Collegiate Rodeo Association in the steer wrestling. He continues to rodeo and is a PRCA judge. Ryan, a rodeo clown, worked PRCA events for years, including the 2010 National Finals Rodeo. Mindy, a barrel racer, qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo.
    Raul remembers his dad always stood for what was right, even when no one was watching. He often told his kids, “this is not going to benefit you,” he’d say, regarding whatever situation they were in, “but it is the right thing to do.” He always dressed western for rodeos. “When you went to a rodeo, you’d better look the part,” Raul said. “Boots polished, jeans starched, a long sleeve shirt and a hat.”
    In addition to his fulltime job, rodeo board memberships and competition, he and Sharon had 160 acres, a couple dozen head of cattle and horses, a stud and brood mares. He was plant superintendent by the time he retired from his job in 2004 after 44 years of service.
    He roped his last calf in 2009. He’d had his knees replaced and didn’t want to put them through jumping off a horse.
    He’s won two calf roping titles in the Mid-States (1978, 1983) and two in the Michigan Ropers Association (1974, 1978). In 1974, he finished in the top twenty in the world in the International Pro Rodeo Association.
    “He was fast when nobody was fast,’ remembered his friend, Jeff Tracy. The Orient, Ohio cowboy roped against Roy numerous times. In the Ohio area in the ‘70s and ‘80s, cowboys were making runs of eleven, twelve, and thirteen seconds. But when Roy came to town, he was tying calves in the tens. “He was extremely fast from the horse to the calf, he was well mounted, and he was a competitor. He wanted to beat you and still be good friends while doing it.”
    Oftentimes Roy and Sharon’s oldest boy, Raul, rodeoed in high school in Ohio without his parents. Roy made Jeff Raul’s parental guardian while in the state. The Rodriguez family “isn’t big on patting themselves on the back,” Jeff said, “but they let their actions do the talking.”
    Roy had a family to support with his rodeo. When he bought his first house, he had a decade to pay it off. “I got it paid in ten years, with the help of rodeo,” he said.
    “He had a family to support,” Jeff said. “He was good. No matter where you put him, he would have been an excellent athlete. It just happened that he roped calves.”
    Roy and Sharon have four grandsons and one granddaughter: Paxton and Preston, the sons of Raul and Polly; Rad and Riot, the sons of Ryan, and Reese, the daughter of Mindy and Gary Fetzer.
    He’s loved his life. “I’ve been blessed, with almost everything I’ve done. I have a wonderful wife, I have good kids, and good grandkids. So what more can a person want?
    “I would do it all over again. I’d do it just like I did it the first time.
    “I’m blessed.”