Rodeo Life

Author: Siri Stevens

  • The Thompsons

    The Thompsons

    Thorpe and Shelly Thompson of Whitney, Neb., have six children: Turek (3), Hadley (5), Tiegen (7), Haiden (9), Jacey (14), and Jamie (17). Each child has a competitive side and they all like to express it through the sport of rodeo. At the National Little Britches Finals Rodeo (NLBFR) in July, this family alone accounted for 46 runs over the course of four days. And this doesn’t even include the short-go. In another year, all six will be competing in the NLBRA, from five to 18. They will haul 8 horses for them to compete on. “Finding horses is the hardest thing for us – each horse has to be able to do more than one event and have more than one rider,” said Shelly.
        “It’s a team effort,” explains Thorpe, who owns a feedlot, farm, and has several other businesses going like AI, embryo transfer, and most recently a power washing business on the oil rigs in North Dakota. “The kids all pitch in. I’m proud of the kids from the standpoint they make their own decisions on ninety percent of stuff. Shelly and I help and provide as many opportunities as we can and the kids contribute by putting in the time and effort required to do well. They help with everything we do. They all understand what physical labor is and know what it’s like to put in an 18 hour day.” The days are long, but they’re spent together. 
        “We are big into practice at our house,” says Shelly. “Jamie and Jacey are usually up at 5 most days saddling horses. Our goal is to have everything warmed up by 6, then practice until around lunch.” Shelly home schools the kids and they work for everything they do. “They help dad ride pens, heat check, and anything else that needs to happen here. Thorpe was in a bad accident in March and was in and out of the hospital, so the kids had to look elsewhere for the coaching that Thorpe had started.” Shelly is on the Nebraska Farm Bureau Board of Directors and travels one week a month. “They have to be organized and keep the place up when I’m gone. There’s a lot of planning that goes on around here or it doesn’t work.”  
        The oldest help the youngest first. “We have them focus on one event and while they’re cooling off horses afterward Jacey and I will discuss what needs more work,” said Jamie. “Jacey and I are as close as sisters can get.” says Jamie. 
        “I use two horses,” said Hadley Jo, the youngest competitor. “Frosty and Spitty. “Frosty’s my favorite because she runs faster.”  She likes Little Britches rodeos because she gets to compete with her brother and sisters. She loves going to the National Little Britches Finals Rodeo in July in Pueblo, Colo. “I had fun and liked the water fights,” she says. This past year was a challenge for Hadley Jo as she broke her arm while playing with friends. She still competed using one hand. 
        Tiegen’s favorite events are goats and flags. “When I do goats, I just go out and have run,” he says. “I use Spitty for this and he is good.” Tiegen uses a pony named Squirt for Flags. Squirt has a tendency to buck if he’s not properly prepared. 
        Haiden’s favorite subject in school is math. Her least favorite chore is cleaning the goat pens. “We have 30 goats,” she said. Like most other responsibilities, the family shares this chore – until someone gets in trouble that is. Then the task becomes their responsibility. Another trademark specific to Haiden is her two-tone hat with decorative flower. “I saw someone wearing one and liked it,” she explains. “Then I got mine for Christmas.” 
        Jacey has moved on to high school rodeo this year. “It was an easy transition,” says Jacey. “National Little Britches gave me a lot of rodeos to go to and practice performing at the big rodeos, like their finals, which helps me with the pressure.” For the past two years, she’s accompanied the family to Wyoming high school rodeos…and then worked behind the scenes to help put them on. As a freshman, she now gets to spend her time competing instead of holding goats, a job she held for two years. Jacey takes responsibility for training her own horses and is proud of this. Her breakaway horse has a thing for donuts. This was discovered by accident. “Haiden had one and set it on the trailer. When she went to pick it up, Shag was eating it,” she explains. “My main goal this year is to win state in goats,” she explains. She has a lot of other goals including winning the All Around and breakaway. As an eighth grader, she was the reserve national champion for NLBRA in this event. 
        Jamie has been competing in Wyoming High School Rodeo as well as NLBRA. Jamie is the Wyoming State High School Goat Tying Student Director this year. “I like it, I like being down there to see how the other girls tie and encourage them. I like the responsibility part of it. Mom and Dad have always taught us to step up and help wherever we can.” She has made it to the short round a the Little Britches finals every year, qualified for the Nigh School Nationals and was the Reserve World Champion Goat Tier at the National Junior High Finals in Gallup, NM. She’s also active outside the arena, “I’m a member of the Alliance FFA chapter,” she explains. Alliance is an hour drive for her and she takes online college Ag courses to be eligible to be part of it. She’s the acting Sentinel for the club and participates on the Livestock Management/Judging Team as well. “I skype call for the weekly meetings and go there once a month to the meetings. FFA has taught me leadership skills and what kind of person it takes to be one.”
        The Thompson children are thankful for the life they lead and the oldest speak for the bunch when they extend thanks first to their parents for all the driving, support, and encouragement. They then pass out appreciation to others who’ve made important contributions to their success. “We would like to thank Jordan Thurston for her help with our goat tying,” they say. “We would also like to thank Paul Tierney for his help with breakaway and team roping, Carol Hollers for her advice on breakaway roping, and Sam Flannery for her help with barrel racing.” The sisters continue by offering appreciation to their extended family for encouragement over the years, and make it a point to mention Papa T. for supplying donuts – and handling chores while they’re away from home. 
        Jamie and Jacey speak on behalf of the entire family when they take the opportunity to give thanks to God. “We would like to say thanks to The Good Lord Above for watching over us and providing what we have.” 

  • Linsay Rosser-Sumpter

    Linsay Rosser-Sumpter

    Linsay Rosser-Sumpter and her husband of four years, Wade, are expecting their first baby sometime around December 20th. Since Wade is sitting 11th in the bull dogging standings, it’s looking like he’s going to Vegas without her this year. “That’s going to be hard,” she said. “I did the opening (for the NFR) when I was 6 and I’ve been there ever since – 24 years.” That’s not the only thing that has been challenging. As the coach for Otero Junior College, she has continued a rigorous schedule of daily practices and a fall schedule which included traveling to five rodeos. “I stopped riding at about seven months, and stopped roping after the Reno Rodeo All Girl Roping.  I continued to keep horses legged up, but I haven’t slowed down – I wasn’t raised that way.” 
        Linsay entered her first rodeo when she was 10. “My grandfather (Cotton Rosser) has been in the rodeo business for close to 65 years, so I would go with Flying U Rodeo Company and help with all aspects of the business.  I’ve been carrying the American flag since I could hold it. I would take care of saddle horses, do victory laps, and I spent a few years performing trick riding (11-13). I have also timed, we grew up rodeoing, on the work side of things.”
        There weren’t a lot of choices for junior rodeos and since her family produced rodeos, it made it tough to haul to very many. “When my brother got into high school rodeo, they hauled him, and that opened the door for me to start.” Linsay claimed the California State High School Champion Goat Tier in 2000 and 2001, and All Around Champion Cowgirl her senior year – 2001. She went to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and went to the college finals two years (2003-2004). Linsay took a job as PR and marketing for the PBR, until she got married and then started at Otero in June of 2009. “I loved that job (PBR), it was a lot of work and hard, but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.” The coaching position fits Linsay’s life better. “I was on the road a lot, and so was Wade, but now I’m home during the week, and it allows me to take care of our place. My contract here is an 11-month contract, so I don’t get to travel with Wade but I don’t crave the travel – I like to fly in to the good ones and fly home. I was raised in the rodeo business, so I don’t have the desire to go to all 70 rodeos that Wade is entered in. I put my vacation time around the rodeos that are easy to fly into and the All Girl ropings that I like to go to.”
        Linsay is one of a handful of female coaches in the nation. “When I started here, there were only two of us,” she said. “I’m lucky in the fact that I’m not little. I’m almost six foot tall and my mother tried really hard for me to be the debutante and I loved the rugged cowboy lifestyle. My grandfather always had a bunch of cowboys working for him and I worked right beside them, riding colts, branding, and doing whatever they were doing. Since I was never discriminated against, I have the ability to speak my mind, work like a man and stand my ground. Being in this business for so long, I sometimes feel like I know too much, but you have to show respect to get respect. I work alongside my team from flanking, roping, tying with them and working hard every day at practice.  Her assistant coach, JW McCuistion, handles most of the rough stock side of the program. She also gets PRCA cowboys like Casey Colletti, Trevor Knowles, Seth Brockman, and Jake Rinehart to come and help. “I never ask them to do something I won’t do. Obviously I can’t go to the gym now, but before that I was at the gym every lunch break with the team and we have an outstanding strength and conditioning trainer at Otero.”
        Wade and Linsay have around 15 horses at the house. “Wade has two really nice bull dogging horses, Dashs Dapper Star “Wick” the AQHA/PRCA Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year 2010-11 and Speedy Faila “Two Guns” AQHA/PRCA Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year 2013 and his haze horse Grumpy, who has really done a great job this year.  “We have a lot of colts and ranch horses, and I have a good head horse and a good breakaway horse that I compete on.” Wade and Kenneth Lewis bought Wick in 2006 but now Wade is partners Billy Bugenig his traveling partner and Two Guns came from NFR team roper Charly Crawford. He was a head horse when we got him, and Wade trained them so it makes  horse of the year title extra special. “We love to train horses, I haul them to jackpots to expose them to the elements – I’ll try to go as much as I can after the baby comes. It’s unchartered territory but I’m not hanging up my rope. The baby will be like every other rodeo baby and since we all survived it, he will too.  He’ll be my new accessory.”

  • Jimmi Jo Montera

    Jimmi Jo Montera

    Jimmi Jo Montera loves to rope. “We started riding when we were three and roping when we were four,” she shared of her childhood with her older sister, Shannon, and brother, Shawn. “I tried barrels a little bit, but never got too excited. We tried horse shows too and it was boring. I love to rope and I love to tie goats.”
    Jimmi Jo grew up outside Longmont, Colo. Her parents, Jim and Shirley Martin, began Colorado Animal Health 40 years ago and although Jim wasn’t raised roping, after college he took up roping as his kids were learning about rodeo. All three competed in National Little Britches and High School rodeo. Jimmi Jo went to Otero College for one year, following her sister there, and then switched to the University of Wyoming from 1987 – 1990, under the coaching of Pete Burns and Danny Dunluvy. “Jimmi Jo is as good a hand as I’ve ever worked with, man or woman,” said Pete. “I didn’t have to do a thing with her – all I did was load calves and give her a scholarship.” Her abilities across the various events came to fruition in 1990 when she alone won the women’s team enough points to take the National Women’s Intercollegiate Team Championship Title. She won the All Around Cowgirl of the NIRA, placed in the breakaway, took second in all three rounds of goat tying and won the average.
    After college, Jimmi Jo took her degree in merchandising and marketing and went to work for her dad. “I did the in-store buying until I got pregnant with Colby, then I went back part time.” Colby had heart surgery at two days old and open heart surgery when he was six months old. “Obviously that didn’t stunt his growth,” said Jimmi Jo of her 6’5″ basketball playing son. Garrett came along a few years later and Jimmi Jo stayed home for ten years raising her sons. Both excel at basketball and she spends her time helping them pursue their goals to be pro ball players. “My boys are 16 and 13 – huge basketball players. Between my practice and getting them to club basketball – that’s what I focus on. Colby and Garrett have been involved in basketball since fourth grade.” They attend school 25 miles from home, Fossil Ridge High School and Preston Junior High. “We really like the schools and they are very competitive,” she said.
    Competitive is something the boys inherited from Jimmi Jo. Years after winning the team championship, Jimmi Jo is still working every day to improve her roping. Her most current win was the Wild Fire, heeling for Lari Dee Guy. “That is one of the best all girls ropings and I’ve come close to winning it before, but I’d never won it. It pays really good for an all girl roping.”
    Jimmi Jo is concentrating on the little things in her roping and riding. “I’ve gotten better, but I’m not where I want to be,” she said. “During the fourth (of July), I see all these guys come through here and practice and you see how good they are – it’s no mistake that’s why they are good.” Jimmi Jo works closely with Speed Williams on her roping. “I’m working on position right now – Speed is helping me a lot. He preaches to me – the roping part is easy, but I don’t ride my horse right or make my horse work right. So I’m paying attention to that.” She has realized through the years that it is one thing to practice and another thing to practice productively. “I’ve gained information from great ropers like Speed, Alan Bach, and others that made me think about things a little differently.” She still heads some, but likes heeling much better. “I feel like I’ve studied it a lot and worked on it. In the time frame I have to practice, I want to focus on my heeling. It works out well because Rick (her husband) likes to head.” The couple, who married six years ago, have been around the rodeo and roping pens for years. “Rick and I we go roping all the time; he supports my roping – he loves it as much as I do.” Their place, located east of Ft. Collins, Colo., includes a barn that Jimmi Jo spends a fair amount of time at.
    “We don’t have people over for dinner, we have people over to rope,” she says with a laugh. “We also host a few charity ropings in the barn, but it stays pretty busy in here with ropers all year long,” she said. At one of the events this year, the Bill Perusek Memorial Roping, Jimmi Jo won the saddle and immediately gave it to a little girl in the audience that was all decked out in her western attire while maneuvering little crutches. “I’d seen her there and she loved horses – she had her boots on and there was something about her – I could have lost Colby and it just hit me how fortunate I was – we are – to be able to do normal activities.”
    She has a busy October between her roping and her sons’ ball games. She and Rick will haul up to Billings Mont., the beginning of October for the Wrangler Finals and will finish the month in Oklahoma City at the USTRC Finals (October 26 through November 3.) She hauls three horses – Chain Saw, who she got from JW Borrego, Chica, from Gary Grokett, and Rango, from Chris Glover. She’s got two others that she practices on and young horses that are coming along. “I’m a horse collector – I’ve got lots of them. I could have a whole herd – it wouldn’t bother me.” She also recognizes that roping at her level requires great mounts. “It’s hard to take a young horse and win right now, there’s no cheap roping. Look what you’re asking these horses to do. Go from a dead stop to blowing their guts out, sliding around the corner, dead stop, take a hit, do it again fifteen times at a jackpot.”
    She practices at least four days a week, and ropes the dummy in between. “You have to rope the dummy correctly, you can actually reinforce bad habits on the dummy. I’ll rope the dummy to work on little weaknesses I’ve got.” She is also a regular at the gym. “I broke my back (L4 & 5) nine years ago, so it’s fused. Working out is one thing I do pretty faithfully because if I don’t, I can’t rope. At the US finals, I can go a week, but by the time I get home I can tell.” Her workouts consist of free weights, stability ball exercises, bands, elliptical, treadmill, and the bike. “I’ll do some basketball with my boys too,” she said. “I don’t feel good when I don’t work out, it’s a habit. I like working out.” She is also a regular at the chiropractor and sticks to a healthy diet. “I try to eat right 75% of the time – I stick with the simple stuff – fruit, good yogurt, and I pack a lot of protein bars, nuts, and almonds. My favorite are Kind bars – they are mainly nuts and coconut. I love Mexican food, and I rarely buy packaged food, or eat fast food.”
    Jimmi Jo plans to continue to improve and win. “I’d like to win the US finals coming up and the Wrangler Finals next week.” She sees team roping as a sport continuing to grow thanks to the numbering system and the national sponsors that step up to assist with the cost of going down the road. “There’s people that can compete and win that can’t rope365 days a year and that’s part of the draw. When I was young, I had to go in the mixed ropings and rope against people like JD Yates.” She has also seen the increase in talent that has come along with more instruction. “It’s just like any sport – there are more tools – we didn’t have all the learning DVDS. I watch the Patrick Smith video – I wish I would have had that when I was young. My dad was learning and I would learn from him … my parents worked hard to afford our horses and rodeo. We did what we could and got information where we could.” She will continue to improve and work on the details that make her a strong competitor. Her sponsors include Classic, Wrangler, and Speed Williams. She is grateful to them for continued support and plans to represent them for a long time. “I never think ‘Gosh, I don’t want to go rope.’ I’m fortunate that my husband loves to do it. And I’m fortunate that I can fit it in. I just love to rope.” 

  • Michele McLeod

    Michele McLeod

    Michele McLeod has been training futurity colts since 2005. “Basically my job was to train and I didn’t travel more than a three hour radius from home to compete,” said 43-year-old mother of three from Whitesboro, Texas. All that changed this March when she met the Black Stallion.
       “Every girl’s dream,” said Charlie Cole, co-owner of the five year old stud, with his partner, Jason Martin, (High Point Performance Horses) out of Pilot Point, Texas. “It’s the most random story. I was not looking for a barrel horse at all. I had just sold a horse and I had always wanted a barrel horse sire so I was watching the barrels at the AQHA World Show and he blew everyone away – 2012 World Champion Jr. Barrel Horse. I texted my business partner and said I saw an amazing horse just run. The next day I watched the finals and the way he worked I just knew he was a special horse. He used himself well and had explosive power away from the barrels and accelerated his way to the next one. He kept his feet moving around the barrel. I texted my business partner again and I got him bought in two weeks.” He was dead lame four days later. Slick By Design had to have knee surgery late last December and they took their time rehabbing him. The comeback of the stallion out of Brazilian owned sire Designer Red out of Dreams of Blue – a former barrel horse by Dream on Dancer, “is history. I thought Michele was a good fit and from the moment she stepped on him it was a match made in heaven.”
        “They approached me in March to see if I’d start taking him around the house,” said Michele. “Right off the bat we started doing well – it was crazy. After I won Guymon and Duncan, Charlie and Jason asked me if I’d go for the summer to see if we could get into some of the winter rodeos.” Michele wasn’t sure if she wanted to leave home for that long, so she jokingly said if she won the Derby (Slick by Design, Old Fort Days Derby, Fort Smith, Ark.)  she would have enough money to leave at home for her three daughters, then she would go. “I won and I hit the road.” 
        The general plan was to see if the team could get in the top 40 to get into some of the winter rodeos and get some more experience on him. “We hired Ann Thompson to do all the entering for me and she knew exactly what to do. Jason, Charlie and I would laugh that it was the blind leading the blind. We give a lot of credit to her for that. She knew the miles and exactly how long it would take.”
        Michele left Katelyn (20), and Lindsay (17) at home to run the place with her husband, John. “He doesn’t travel – he stays home and has a normal job as an insurance adjuster for a body shop.” Daughter Jenna (25), who was living in Los Angeles at the time, came home in August to help run the technical side of the team. 
        Michele had a great summer. “When you’re winning like that how could you not,” she said. “Some of the all night drives we did were a little nerve wracking. It was so different for me – I’m used to working all day long, riding horses. For the summer I took three horses with me in addition to Slick, but sitting in the trailer waiting for the rodeo took a little adjusting.” 
      She and Slick quickly climbed the standings and ended the season third in the world. “I’ve never been to Vegas, to watch or anything. I’d said years ago I’d never go unless I make it – so I guess we’re going. The whole family is going – everyone will be there – parents – aunts – uncles. It hasn’t really set in yet because I’ve been so busy, but now that it’s getting closer, sending photos to the WPRA, I’m actually going to the NFR.”
      “I had no idea this is what I’d be doing with my life.” Michele grew as an only child and her parents, Gary and Gloria Morrison, didn’t have any interest in animals. “I got a pony as a birthday present when I was 8, but I didn’t learn to run barrels until I was 18.” She went to some college rodeos, but decided to go another route. “I went to the fire academy,” she said. “And then things changed. I got pregnant with my first daughter.” That sizzled the firefighting plan. “Once you start a family, you have to redirect what’s best for having a family.” Michele became a vet tech and worked for the next 16 years on the night shift for a mix practice so she could be home with her daughters. “I trained horses on the side, and finally quit my job to train full time for the public in 2005.”
        Her partnership with Charlie and Jason began in 2013 and now she is running another of their recent purchases, Kellies Chick, a mare they purchased in July from Kelly Conrado, Colorado horse breeder and trainer. “When we tried her, I ran her in Steamboat, and won. I sent her home with my daughter, Katelyn, to do some tuning, and Katelyn entered her in the Oklahoma City Summer Shoot-Out and won it. So now I have two great horses. They have very different styles, so we’ve given Slick some time off – he doesn’t like to see a trailer leave without him in it, though. I’m running Skye now for the rodeos that are counting for the 2014 season. I’ll stay on her until after Congress and then I’ll get back on Slick.”
        As for Jason and Charlie, they are getting ready for Congress. “That’s a lot of my life,” he said. “Barrel racing is my hobby and I spend most of my time working with the 40 horses we’ve got at Congress. We do things on a giant scale in the horse show world.” The two have accumulated more than 100 World Championships during their 20 plus years of combined training. “I love it – the horse training industry has been unbelievably good to me, I have no complaints.” Charlie has only had barrel horses for 15 years. “I had a rodeo background from being at boarding school, Rawhide Ranch, in Bonsall, California, I went the show horse route and we’ve had a great career doing that. I thought about getting a reiner, but that was judged and I wanted something that was all about the clock. You can blame the ground, yourself, or the horse. You only have three options. So I went the barrel horse route. I got lucky right out of the box.” 
        As for Michele, she’s still having the time of her life on the road. “We had a great time in Omaha – there were 12 of us there – and we will all be in Vegas.” Her Cruel Girl partnership along with her other sponsors are happy to help get her ready to make her first appearance in Vegas…. Shorty’s Caboy Hattery, Deuces Wild Tack, Alfalfa Express, Professional Choice, Back on Track, Cetyl M, Oxy-Gen, SmartPak, and Shiloh Saddles. “We’re for sure going next year,” she said. 
        “She is so hard working and so deserving of this,” concludes her family.

  • Mike & Sherrylynn Johnson

    Mike & Sherrylynn Johnson

    “I don’t know any other way of life,” said Mike Johnson, who went straight from high school to the rodeo road in 1982. “I’ve never held a job, I just rodeo. I’ve been an event representative in the PRCA for tie down for four years, but that’s as close to a job as I’ve had.” Born and raised in Henryetta, Okla., Mike averages around 40 days a year at home. He started roping when he was 6, and went to his first rodeo at 10. He had his PRCA card at 18. He roped the dog and everything else when he was a kid. “Rodeo is what I’ve wanted to do – all of a sudden 31 years have gone by and I have no regrets. You meet a lot of people and go a lot of places.”
    His traveling partner, best friend, and wife, Sherrylynn agrees. “I think if there was a male me, it would be Mike. When you’re in a box as much as we are – truck or horse trailer – you’ve got to be best friends – you’re together constantly.” They share the same common goal that they had and accomplished five years ago – to make the Wrangler National Finals. Along the way, they are giving back. They didn’t even know their truck had Sirrus radio for a year and a half. “We’d read the Business Journal and talk about it,” she said. “When we’re on the road we take in things we enjoy. We’re doing what most people do when they retire. If we’re in San Diego and the pro game is going on, and we’ll get on the internet and buy tickets and go.” They have a four horse Hart aluminum with a slide out. “It works great. We pull it with a 3500 Dodge dually. We pull two horses and another young horse with us. We use the front hole for storage for hay. We have a pod on top with prizes for our clinics.
    The couple married in 2002, 18 years after they first met during a high school rodeo. “We got married in Calgary, Alberta. We went to the rodeo the week before got married in an 1800-style church, complete with costumes.” The church they got married in was the first church in Canada. “I ran ribbons for Mike in high school and we won the Ribbon roping at the High School finals in 1982 – Oklahoma High School. We laugh because we can end that way – when we get into the Old Timers.” Sherrylynn went to college at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. “When I left high school I wanted to go to college. I went to school for 3 ½ years and agriculture and business. The college allowed me to stay on and coach the team and work on my masters. I completed on my masters and went on for my doctoral in developmental education. Sherrylynn finished her masters in counseling while coaching the rodeo team at Southern Arkansas University. She completed 30 plus hours towards her doctorate in developmental education while teaching at the college. She went on to teach for five years, moving from that to working for Purina. “I had a really nice horse, I felt like I was in a rut and decided to test myself and try to make the Finals with Purina’s support. The first year we took my vacation days and doubled them and I went out on the road for a month and a half. I worked both for the first year and I made the Finals. I did that for two years and then hit the road.” She met up with Mike on the road.
    The couple has built their life around rodeo and passing their knowledge on to others. Mike started doing clinics 30 years ago. “They were more mom and pop type clinics when we started helping,” said Sherrylynn. “Mom and dad(name) have also sold horses with Martha Josey at the Josey Ranch for over 20 years. We ventured out and got a schedule of days we weren’t rodeoing and started helping kids in small groups. It’s went bonkers. We’ve been doing these now for five years. We take off March, April, and May for clinics.” They have one open week from now until the end of May. Thanks to the great support of sponsors like Spalding Labs, Nutramax Labs, PRO, Wrangler & Cowgirl Tuff, they can get to even more clinics than before. “Spalding Lab flew us in for the National Little Britches Finals so we could help those kids,” said Sherrylynn. “We have really good sponsors and part of what we ask is for them to be a part of the clinics so it’s not so expensive for the parents.
    “We don’t have kids, I don’t have patience for young horses, but I do with the kids. A lot of our clinics have adults that want to go faster and win but we have a special place in our hearts for the kids. They call me the energizer bunny because I’ll just stay until they get it.” Their students have become the children they never had. “There’s a lot of kids we see once a year. We did a clinic in Indiana and when the kids found out we were there all week, we would go to a barn every night and work with a group. It’s so rewarding to help students at a clinic and see them go from running a 21 in the poles to breaking the 20 second barrier at their next rodeo – we help in all the events, poles, goats, barrels & tie down.”
    Part of what they educate people about is their horse. “You ride the horse the style he goes. You can tweak it and make it better, but at the end of the day he’s got a style – you have to learn that. I just did that about a month and a half ago. He wasn’t the style I wanted to continue to ride. I make sure they understand that,” said Sherrylynn. “Maybe we don’t come from money so we understand how much it costs to do the sport we love. Our clinics are designed by the person that puts them on to help their individual groups and what they can afford. The majority of people don’t have six figures to buy a horse.”
    They also talk about tack and bits – and they have developed a line of barrel racing and roping saddles with Circle Y. The Johnson sportline racer and roper has evolved over time. “We have a nice saddle with a ten year warranty. We’ve been super fortunate with them. They give us try saddles for the kids to try – they can work the barrels, or see how it fits. We’ve been lucky that way.”
    The couple has worked their entire life to do what they doing now. They have an extended family with several of their repeat clinics, including Central Wyoming College in Riverton, Wyo. “We’ve gone back twice a year for the past three years. – it’s our third year going there and we get to see those kids improve. They bring us in as their family and it makes us feel good – it’s a special place for us.”
    They don’t have a five year, or ten year plan, but they do have a one year. “My guess is we’ll still be rodeoing and doing clinics,” said Mike.

  • Willow Raley

    Willow Raley

    Willow Raley started roping when she was 13. “I junior rodeoed a little bit when I was 8, and then I got a horse from my aunt, who rode English, and I rode in a pony club for three years. I used to do a lot of three phase jumping – it’s where you do dressage, cross country, and show jumping in one day.” What she gained from that is balance. “I remember when they took our stirrups away and made us jump jumps – that taught me how to keep the horse soft and squeeze with my legs and keep good balance. That has helped me with my roping.”
    Willow has given up the English riding, but she still has her saddle. “I don’t have time,” said the 31-year-old that calls Baggs, Wyo., home. Located about an hour and a half north of Steamboat Springs, Colo. Baggs has a nice indoor arena that belongs to the county. “We buy a membership for $600 for a lifetime for residents and we can rope all winter.” The arena isn’t heated, and Willow rides until the temperature drops below 15 degrees. “If it’s over that, it’s usually bearable. We usually have about two weeks of 40 below weather – and it usually hits around the NFR.”
    Willow and her husband – Aaron – have been married for eight years. They rope together and spend the summer showcasing horses they have trained. Willow belongs to seven associations: CPRA, WPRA, PRCA, WRA, USTRC, WSTR, WTRC. “I have a lot of money in memberships,” she admits. Her membership in the PRCA landed her a spot in the short go at Cheyenne this year. “I didn’t know I was the only girl to do that,” she said of her accomplishment in Cheyenne. Her next goal is to make the Circuit Finals. “Finding partners is hard sometimes – everybody that I rope with at the circuit level I rope with at the amateur level, so it’s the same group of guys.” As far as a shot at the NFR, she is skeptical. “It’s the hauling and the amount of money you’ve got to do to get there,” she said.
    Aaron appreciates his wife’s drive. “It’s just something that I like about her – that she wants to do good at what she does. She is so talented. One of my bigger goals is our horses that we raise and rope on. For me, that’s a goal that I’m getting accomplished with her.” Aaron realizes that there is no better way to advertise their horses than to have them on the road roping on them. “My goal is to have those horses that people want to have.”
    Aaron, Willow, and Willow’s dad, Paul Nicholas, bought their first stud in 2004, before Willow and Aaron were even married. Senator Dual, out of Dual Pep and a daughter of Doc O’lena, was purchased from Texas as a five-year-old. “He had some earnings as a cutting horse, but he was bred well and has a great disposition,” said Willow. “You can do anything on him.” They brought him back to Baggs and started roping on him and breeding their mares to him.
    They furthered their program by purchasing better mares and then they found Tigh and Jill Cowan. They owned Sun Frost and they sold Aaron and Willow a Sun Frost stud. “We became good friends and they’ve been like family to us as we have put our program together. They have been instrumental in our success. We are trying to build the perfect performance horse from barrels to roping to ranching,” said Aaron. The couple continues to strive to get that next best horse. “Our goal has always been to build the best rodeo horse we could get on. The rest is gravy. If we can raise a nice horse for someone else, that’s great.” Aaron competes in team roping and throws a steer from time to time. He roped calves in college but as time has gone on, he has settled on team roping and training horses. “When I met Willow I was getting into raising horses and we started roping together and that’s where we are today.”
    Willow met Aaron through mutual rodeo friends while she was going to school in Casper, where he lived. They spend most all their time together. They are on the road a lot in the summer and hire a person every year for the summer to feed, ride, and take care of the place. “You’ve got to have somebody to help with chores and the horses,” she said. “We have a girl that’s out of college for a year and that’s who is helping us right now.”
    Aaron spends most of his fall guiding hunters for Snake River Outfitting. “I help them and Henry Ranches,” he said. “I grew up around Casper and have been hunting ever since I can remember. I’ve been guiding since 1998.” The three months is the only time the couple is apart.
    Willow’s dad had an outfitting business when she was growing up so hunting is not new to her. “He’d throw me on a horse on a pack string and send me on my way,” she said. “I would enter the Baggs Fun Days on our pack string horses.” She competed in high school and she tried out the poles on a horse that won her a second place check at her first rodeo. “It’s an addiction to keep going and trying to do good. The people and the competition is so fun.” She made the High School Finals her freshman, sophomore, and junior year in the pole bending and went on to college at Casper, where she made the CNFR in the breakaway from 2002-2005 and won the region in 2003. She majored in Ag Business and Accounting and uses her degree in her role as book keeper for the family came out of that degree.
    She added another role to her life. She sold saddle pads for K Bar K Saddle Pad company because they used the pads. “Allen Bach endorsed them for awhile,” she said. “They are good, hand-made quality pads. The owner retired and we tried to find another pad that compared and couldn’t find one.” They found the guy and made him an offer. “We drove to his place, learned how to make the pads, brought the materials home, bought a new sewing machine, and that’s what I do in the winter.” The pads are made from scratch, including cutting out the material, sewing it together, and selling them (which Aaron does). Willow made the pad the Nikki Steffes rode at the Finals last year. “I’ve learned how to tool leather and found a person that will bling them out.”
    At the end of the day, Willow’s favorite thing to do to relax is take the boat on the lake. “There’s no cell phone service out there,” she said.

  • Lloyd Palmer

    Lloyd Palmer

    Lloyd Palmer learned how to ride bucking horses by being born in the ranching business. “Your transportation was horses,” said the 87-year-old rancher from Kremmling, Colo. “I was born in Summit County up the Blue River just before the great Depression. We rode horses to school and kids that were born on these small ranches seem like they could get started in life if they were a good hand. Riding horses was part of the business. Rodeo was a way of getting ahead. I wasn’t the greatest, but rodeo never owed me nothing when I was done. I wasn’t crippled up and I wasn’t an alcoholic. I came out ahead.”
    Lloyd was drafted into the Army in 1945 and served 17 months, 28 days, and four hours. “I was a limited assignment guy on account of injuries.” After he got out of the Army, Lloyd broke colts, trapped, and went to work at the saw mill in Kremmling. He met his wife, Edna, during WW11. “I went to a bond drive dance. She was there with her dad and mother and he was buying war bonds.” That was November of 1944, and the couple married on October 26, 1947, after Lloyd got out of the Army. “I won enough money riding broncs to buy the rings.” He went to work on a ranch for six years, rodeoing on the weekends. He saved and borrowed money to buy the ranch where he still lives in 1963. Two years after that, in 1965, after 20 years, he quit riding bucking horses. “The last horse I got on was in Walden, Colo.”
    Edna passed away March 19, 2012. They had been married for 64.5 years of marriage. Together they raised two sons and two daughters, created a ranch and a raised a herd of Maine Anjou cattle. “I sat on a stump and had a long talk with myself about the cattle business. I applied my ignorance put everything I had learned together to start raising a champion herd.” Along with their ranch, Lloyd and Edna built a castle in the pines – a two story cabin nestled amongst the forest service ground they ran their cattle on. Lloyd is quick to share some advice he has learned from his years. “After 60 years old, a person should start after the things they have missed in their life. I’m too old to enjoy this cabin,” he admits, but is quick to add that he is proud of his family. “I raised world class athletes – they weren’t just ordinary – my boys, Zane and Weston, were ski jumpers. Zane made a good bronc rider, and Weston was a bull rider, but they both were skiers. Edna and I saw the world with the accomplishments of our sons.” He was able to offer his sons a program that was done in Winter Park through the Denver Post. “They were putting on a ski school for Nordic ski jumping. An old Olympic coach was teaching it. I got them into that and moving on, and the next thing they made the Junior team and Zane moved on. When he made the National Team, we got to see the world. I went to the World Championships Ski Flying in Planicia in Sylvania in 1997. Zane jumped there prior to that on the circuit. He went across the ocean 40 times. He now lives in Edward with his family. Weston is in the ranching business and lives about a mile and a half from me.” Their two daughters are Martha and Joyce – Martha lives in Limon and Joyce lives at Edwards.
    Lloyd learned the cattle business from years of watching the ranchers he worked for. “I left home and had a job at 12 years old working for a rancher,” he said. “He raised World Champion Herefords. I went from there to Kremmling and worked for a great cattle man. They had Scottish Herdsman – most of them came from Scotland. They knew how to feed and show cattle. I worked with those guys and watched them feed those cattle. I self-educated myself.” Lloyd was raised with four brothers and sisters on a ranch that was a distance from the middle and high school. When he finished the ninth grade, he had to drop out because he could not find enough work to pay for board and go to school at the same time.
    Lloyd has accomplished a lot for his limited education. “I’ve done whatever it took to keep active and busy,” he said. He is a self-proclaimed world champion post hole digger and trap shooter and bench rest shooter, spending hours loading his own ammo. “As I grew old I lost my ability to do the job, so I kept my home here and sold the rest.” He spends his days visiting with friends that stop by and whenever he can, he gets up to his castle in the pines. Lloyd was honored at the 2011 WNFR during the rodeo as a member of the Old Cowboys Turtle Association.”

  • Cord McCoy

    Cord McCoy

    “I’ve been blessed with competing in rodeo,” said Cord McCoy. “The Western way of life keeps you pretty grounded. It’s a humbling experience. You really can’t tell the bulls about reality TV and when you’re breaking colts at the house, they don’t care if 30 million people saw you on Sunday night’s TV.” At the age of 33, Cord has been around the world twice, once going east and once going west and his ranch is one mile from his mom and dad’s place in Tupelo, Okla. (population 323).

    He went around the world during his two seasons on the Amazing Race, partnered with his brother, Jet. “I think that race is built for rodeo cowboys and cowgirls. You’re going to be tired, hungry, sore, and broke – it sounds like a normal fourth of July to me,” he said. “They turn you lose in countries they know you won’t have a clue and make you do things so out of your comfort zone and set back and watch how you cope and handle it.”

    Cord learned early in life how to handle things. He shocked the rodeo world in 1997 by becoming the first high schooler to win the All Around title at the International Finals Rodeo, IPRA’s championship event. His brother broke his wrist that year, knocking him out of contention for second place, but still winning the IPRA Rookie of the Year. Both boys competed in all three rough stock events. Two of five children, the family was raised rodeo by their parents, Denny and Janet, both competitors in the sport. Cord entered his first rodeo at age five. He was the catcher on his high school baseball team and qualified for the state tournament. He was a member of the Oklahoma high school team that won a national rodeo title and was a member of the Southwestern Oklahoma State rodeo team that finished second in the nation in 2000. He graduated from Tupelo High School with 13 other people and attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, Oklahoma and achieved a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

    Cord appreciates the IPRA for allowing kids under 18 the opportunity to compete. “All through the IPRA I’d won trailers, saddles, and a truck one time when I was still in high school. Jett and I had this idea if we saved our money together we could buy a truck faster. We bought Jett’s truck and just started saving for mine and I won one at Lowell Indiana – a 1997 Chevy – I don’t think the kids as school understood rodeo o until I drove in with a brand new truck in high school. I was 16 ½ and walked in with a paid truck. My wife jokes about it, I was winning more than the teachers that were educating me.”

    Cord was kicked in the head coming off a bucking horse at the IFR in 2004 fracturing his skull. He was in a coma for two weeks and spent the next several months in intense therapy learning to walk and talk again. He decided to stick with bulls after that, qualifying for the NFR in 2005 and then solely competing in the PBR. He made it to the PBR World Finals in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011.

    He and his brother ended up on the Amazing Race 16 thanks to Jett. “I was leaving Cheyenne Frontier Days and Jett called me up and told me he had a great idea -be a team, race around the world, and win. I was ready to eat whatever and jump off a cliff. We went home and did a 30 second video and sent in explaining who we are and why we’d win. They called us from California and we spent a week out there doing interviews. They had 20,000 entries. Just to be picked as one of the 11 teams was huge. Walked in and sat down wearing western attire, and they asked what we were going to wear when we raced and we said we were ready to go now. The coolest thing is every week our family got together to enjoy the race.” At the end, Cord is quick to reply that his favorite country is the United States of America. “It gives you a better appreciation for where we live.” The team finished second and were invited back to compete in Amazing Race 18 – unfinished business.

    Cord met his wife, Sara, at a bull riding in Tulsa, Okla. “I was told to tell him hi for my dad and the next thing I know I’m moving to Oklahoma,” said the ranch girl from Iowa. Cord proposed to her on November 1, 2009, while being interviewed by PBR in front of an audience.[ “We were engaged when he was on the first race.” They got married the day before he left for the second race.

    Now Cord spends his time raise bucking bulls that he hauls to PBR and ABBI and UBBI competitions and hosting a RFDTV show called The Ride. “Cow Horse Productions approached me and asked if I would be interested in doing this show that would showcase ranchers, trainers, rodeos, or whatever would highlight the western way of life.” The program, shown every Monday at noon and ten pm (Central Standard Time), has been on for 8 months. “Every week it gets better. We just got through filming a show with Clyde and Elsie Frost. It’s been almost 25 years ago since Lane was killed and it was pretty neat to sit down with them and go to their ranch.” His most recent show profiles the International Finals Youth Rodeo. Cord shoots 26 new episodes a year which leaves little time for riding bulls, which he still does from time to time.

    Cord and Sara spend quite a bit of time apart. “I’m the hired hand around the ranch,” she says with a laugh. “We were ten hours apart when we dated, so it’s not unusual. Between the TV show and hauling bulls, he’s gone a lot. But in all of it he’s grounded and down the earth and that’s what I admire most about him.”

  • Gene DiLorenzo

    Gene DiLorenzo

    Gene Dilorenzo grew up in Pelham Bay, Bronx, NY. “We had five riding stables close by and I started riding at an early age because of my dad. He was an instructor in the Calvary, so that’s how I started my life with horses and riding. I rode every day from the time I was 8 years old.” As a young boy, Gene went to Madison Square Garden in hopes of getting to meet some of the cowboys competing there. “I was one of those kids that would go down to Belevadare Hotel and hang out there.  I would try to get a contestant to give me a pass to see the rodeo.”  There were no schools when Gene started and nobody wanted to give much information. “They didn’t want you beating them,” said Gene, who resides in Spring Valley, New York. “I got my start by joining the Wild West rodeos. There were three producers in New Jersey – Jackie Westcott, Westcott rodeos, Buddy Baldwin and Circle K. Tillie Baldwin, from Norway, won the ladies bronc riding in Oregon. At the Wild West shows they paid $5 a head for any stock you got on. Madison Square Garden used to give me $20 to get on the rank horses. One evening I rode one of their best horses – El Capitan. I also set up and tore down the rodeo arenas, from putting the spikes in the ground, to stretching the wire.” When Gene started steer wrestling, the horses weren’t trained like they are today and the steers weighed from 750 pounds up. He was able to put his mind and body into it with the help of his background as an amateur fighter. “At the riding stables we had quite a few professional Italian fighters – including Tony Canzoneri (three-time world champion) – and they helped teach me boxing skills and how to punch effectiveley. In my first Golden Glove fight I was shocked with the first punch I threw I knocked my opponent down for the count.  Gene was drafted in 1953 and volunteered for the 82nd Airborne and spent two years in the service, stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC. “At a rodeo I ruptured my liver from a bull and my father wanted me to quit rodeo. I didn’t rodeo for four years.”  In 1957, a friend of his asked him to go to Cowtown, NJ, where there were televised rodeo and quite a bit of added money per event. He found some good bull dogging horses to steer wrestle off of and won $550 in one day in 1957. “From then on I was hooked. I rodeod with a changed name – you couldn’t be RCA and amateur – so I changed my name to Gene Newman because he had an RCA card and I could use it.”
        Gene fell in love with Janet in 1957 was engaged the following year. “I went to some rodeos during the Syracuse State Fair and I won $1,200 and bought my wife a two carat diamond with the money.” They were married in Pleasantville, NY, in 1959. He continued to rodeo, and built a practice arena in the Bronx on rented property from the railroad. We roped and bull dogged right there. I knew a rodeo producer who would let me practice on some of his good bucking horses.” 
        His traveling partner, Jack Meli,  who now lives in St. Cloud Forida,  and Gene did everything they could think of to earn money on the road. Together they purchased $10,000 worth of Wrangler jeans to sell at the rodeos. “We’d sell four pair for $20 out of the trunk of the car.”
        When Gene started on the rodeo road, he loved traveling and camping on the grounds. He would stay at the same rodeo for a week – six performances, three head a day. “Everybody spent the week together. At that time, Waverly, NY, was the rodeo capital of the East, and the producer was Colonel Jim Eskew. After my experience in the cook tent, I told myself I better learn how to win because the cook would buy his whiskey first and buy the food after that.” 
        He and Jack were responsible for starting the first bull dogging schools on the east coast (Dover, N.J.) in 1967. “We would fill up,” he said. “We would have anywhere from 20-25 students.” He put on the schools until 1970. 
        Gene’s life changed when he turned 40. “I had to change positions in life. I felt I didn’t want to rodeo past then. I had four young children (Eugene, Christopher, Lisa, and Janine) and I wanted to send them all off to good schools so I thought I had to earn some serious money at my business.” When he got out of the military, he started in the display business. He concentrated on window displays for liquor,  wine, and beer industry. He gets his creativity from his family. “My father was a show card writer, a painter, and a very creative person. My grandfather was political cartoonist.” He decided to branch out of the display business and get into the manufacturing part of it. “The wine boom came and I thought I was the wine rack king, I had patents on the racks. I developed a whole line of promotional bar accessories. If you’re creative you have to adapt to the situation. I should have been out of  business a dozen times. I hitchhiked through the various ups and downs in the economy. It’s a creative business so it’s endless. It’s an exciting place to be because it is very technical. We are creative design manufacturers. We make point of sale displays. I could do anything for anyone, but we’re in the liquor industry.” At 82, Gene has built 7 companies, including a real estate business. 
        Their sons are running the business, along with a partner, and Gene goes in two or three days a week to check the cash position. “I take care of my little ranch, go to work, and head to the Caribbean for the winter. We have a place in the Dominican Republic – it’s nice and warm, we are right in front of the beach.” Gene enjoys riding in the mountains of the Harriman State Park, close to his home in New York. “I have 130,000 acres of parkland. In five years,  I’ve only seen five riders.” 
        Gene is proud of his rodeo background. It taught him to be competitive and have staying power. “It’s not always peaches and cream – rodeo taught me how to set my standards and achieve my goals. When I got into the injection molding business, they told me I needed one good tool to be successful and I had one. It makes me think of the rodeo business, when a cowboy only needs one good horse to win.” 
        In December of 1969, Sports Illustrated did an article on the Effette East. It was about Cowtown, New Jersey, and its rodeo contestants. It ended with: when the coffee pot is empty and the campfire is out, a rodeo cowboy will always be there.

  • Dale Motley

    Dale Motley

    With a rodeo career that currently crosses six decades; the full story of Dale Motley is yet not finished. Not by a long shot. But, here’s what we know so far. Dale was born in Bowie, Texas, lived in Oklahoma until his family moved to Colorado when he was 13. He began competing in Little Britches rodeos in the Denver area. “My dad owned a boarding stable down by Mississipi and Colorado Blvd. in Denver. All the kids around there were entering the Little Britches rodeos so I entered too. I think I entered everything they had and I went to Little Britches Finals; I think I was 17 or so when I got started. I didn’t do any high school rodeo and went to the amateurs after high school.”

    From there Dale began entering any and every amateur rodeo that he could. “I didn’t start roping until a little bit later because I just wasn’t around any ropers to learn from. When I did get started, Dean Pariott from Westminster helped me learn; I didn’t even know how to tie a calf. I steer wrestled quite a bit then and rode bareback horses for a couple of years. But calf roping has always been my main event. Back then I learned to get off the horse on the left and it took me a long time to convert over.”

    He recalls some of the early jackpots that brought him into contact with ropers that helped launch his career. “Every Saturday we’d be at somebody’s place to rope. We’d throw in a dollar; 50 cents for the calf and 50 cents for the jackpot. That was in the early ’60s.” Dale talks about his first calf horse. “I bought her to train for calf roping and she was really a good one. She had to train herself because I didn’t know anything about training at that time.”

    He joined the PRCA in 1967 and served as circuit manager for three years in the ’70s. “I organized the Finals and ran meetings. I was calf roping director under Dean Oliver; I had Colorado and Wyoming.” Dale competed in the Pro’s until well into his 50’s “The last time I went to the Circuit Finals, I was 50 years old.” Some of his most memorable PRCA rodeo accomplishments include winning the short round in Houston and winning the Greeley All Around in 1973. “These are my biggest and most exciting wins. I have placed at nearly every big rodeo once or twice in my life. I’ve placed at Cheyenne a couple of times. I’ve made the Circuit Finals several times.” Dale is now a Gold Card member of the PRCA.

    He began in the Senior Pro association when he turned 40. Between age 40 and 50, Dale was competing in both the PRCA and NOTRA (National Old Timers Rodeo Association, forerunner of the Senior Pro Rodeo Association). “I compete in the calf roping, team roping, steer wrestling, and ribbon roping. My wife, Jody was my ribbon runner for a lot years and she was fast. The Senior rodeo is a lot fun and geared more towards that than the PRCA. The camaraderie is great, you have time to stay in one place and have BBQ’s and get to know people.” He also served as association president for three years.

    With a little bit of a laugh he adds, “Since I’ve had both my knees replaced, it’s become more fun to stay on the horse than it is to get off.” He’s recovering from a recent knee replacement and is thinking he might be ready for some events in this year’s Frontier Circuit and the Finals. In the course of his Senior Pro competition he has won the 2002 Reserve Champion Calf Roping title, the All Around title in 2007, the All Around title in 2010 along with the Champion Ribbon Roping and Champion Calf Roping titles. He was inducted into the NSPRA Hall of Fame in 2004.

    In the mid-1970’s Dale became a member of the Major League Rodeo Association that established rodeo competitions between teams from various cities. “I was on the Los Angles team and we’d travel to other cities to compete against their teams. It was kind of like football leagues today. Casey Tibbs was our coach and that was one of the really neat things in my career was to meet him and get to know him. He was a real character. Steve Ford, President Ford’s son was on our team; he was a team roper.”

    The Major League Rodeo led to him being tapped to star in a beer commercial while he was in California.”This was for a South African brewery and I was the main guy in the filming. Just about everyone on our rodeo team was in the commercial. In one scene, a fallen tree was on fire and had me trapped, and I rode a horse that would jump the tree. It was a lot of fun to do that.” No beer commercial would be complete with the obligatory swig of the goods and Dale recalls, “There was a scene where another cowboy tosses me a bottle, I open it, and take a drink and I don’t normally drink beer. Well, they had to re-take the shot about 10 times and by the final shot, I was beginning to ‘feel’ the part.”

    He later appeared in a Pepsi commercial. “We were in Tucson at a rodeo and they were filming some blind taste tests and paying $5. So another guy said, ‘Let’s go get the $5 and go get breakfast.’ Being cowboys, we really just wanted the five bucks for breakfast. It was on TV a few times back then.”

    Besides his rodeo career Dale worked on the Denver fire department for 36 years before his retirement 10 years ago. “I was at station 15 in Denver for 15 years, on a crash team at the old Stapleton Airport, and at DIA for 10 years. I saw some pretty big fires and was in on one crash. I had to adjust my time off so that I could get to rodeos, so that limited some of what I could do. I traveled by myself quite a bit because of needing to get back to work.” Dale and his wife, Jody have two grown children, Josh and his wife, Jeane; and their daughter, Laura and her husband Ricky Lambert.

    Looking back over his years in rodeo, Dale says that all he ever really wanted was, “…to be a good cowboy, to keep my family together and provide for them. The PRCA was a dream come true for me, to do as well as I did and accomplish what I did. And the Senior Pro now is a real big deal for me. It’s a way of life that has been good for all of us. Josh is in the Senior Pros and Laura is running in the PRCA.”

  • Jim Baker

    Jim Baker

    Dr. Jim Baker was born in Lusk, Wyo. His dad was a dirt contractor. “When I was a kid I thought if you didn’t play basketball and rope calves they’d send you away,” said the 78-year-old retired veterinarian. “I was too tall and skinny to play football.”

    He graduated from Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyo., and went to Casper Junior College on a basketball scholarship when it was on the third floor of the high school. “I was the first pre-vet student that they had at Casper Junior College.” He was going to be an engineer, but changed his mind thanks to the encouragement of a teacher. “I was good in science and my physics teacher said that I should go into veterinary medicine. She pointed out my love for animals and scientific mind and that got me and it fit. I’ve been more content than most people with my chosen profession.” He was in the top ten percent academically in both junior college and veterinary school. “I wasn’t as smart as I was persistent – still am today.”

    He transferred to Ft. Collins, Colo., and continued with their rodeo team, competing in calf roping, bull dogging, and ribbon roping. He had used up two years of eligibility at Casper College where he was part of the first Casper College Rodeo Team that consisted of himself and Bob Sager. He was the director for the Rocky Mountain Region for the NIRA. “My bulldogging was good, but I got hurt in the early 60s and that ended that. This old steer tried to get under the horse and I was in position. The hazing horse hit me with his stifle and threw my head around and I went end over end and that was it. T11 had a compression fracture. It was severe enough for 24 hours that I couldn’t feel my feet so I was in traction.”

    Jim qualified to go to the college finals in 1955 but didn’t have enough money to go to Lake Charles, Louis. “I didn’t think my old Plymouth would make that trip. Besides that I had two kids and was working for the college grading papers for the chemistry class for $1 an hour.” Steve was born when Jim was in his second year of college in junior college. Dan was born 11 months later. He and Lynne were married for 20 years.

    Jim graduated from CSU in 1959 and began his practice. “I did it all for about three or four years but the large animal side got so demanding that I stuck with that. Our generation of vets was responsible for the beginning of preg testing. Locally I did a lot of fertility and breeding soundness in bulls. As time went on I went to work for the True Ranches – preg checking their cows – the biggest year I had was 17,000 cows total.” Jim could preg check 900 head a day. “My record was 1,050 – I was a work horse testing cows – I had some really big clients.”

    He and his partner, Dr. Keith Doing, had a general practice based out of Casper – Animal Clinic – a block and a half from the Fairgrounds. They worked together for 20 years, from 1959 – 1979. While was Jim lived in Casper and after he purchased the ranch, he served on the Central Wyoming Fair Board, Wyoming Pari-mutuel Board and the Wyoming PCA. When he sold the clinic, he rodeoed for a year and a half before buying a place called the Split Rock Ranch out of Muddy Gap Wyo. “We spent 22 years up there – it was a lifetime dream.” Jim continued his rodeo competing mostly in steer roping, making the finals four times 1967, 68, 74, and 77. “I’ve never been a real champion – I’ve just gone and nipped at their butts. I roped along pretty good, but never up in front. Work always came first – rodeo is a hobby. I’m truly a part-time rodeo hand.”

    Jim and Shirley bought the Split Rock Ranch in 1980 which consisted of about 200 sections. While he was at the ranch he constructed 52 miles of water pipeline for livestock and wildlife. “One spring I put in 30 days and figured if I’d ridden in a straight line, I’d be in the Pacific Ocean.”

    With his hard work and improvements on the ranch, he and his wife, Shirley, won the environmental stewardship award in 2000. “I got old too quick and got tired of fighting the state, BLM, and age all at the same time. You know you can trick Mother Nature but you can’t outrun Father Time. I sold the ranch because there were some things I wanted to do – I wanted to rope some more and travel a little bit.” Jim recognized that about every 20 years he’s switched saddles somehow. “It’s my personality – I’m involved in the growth phase but to maintain it, I’ve got to move on.”

    The other business that Jim started with his partner Bud Howard, was the Budweiser Distributorship in Casper. “We went from leased property, one pickup and one truck, and ended up with a business that sold 420,000 cases a year,” he said. “At one point in my life, I was involved in seven sets of books.”

    His biggest accomplishment is finding Jesus Christ. “When I sold the ranch the Good Lord sent me down to Leota, Kan. We had 144 heifers I didn’t want to sell and they were too good to give away. So I went down to Kansas and had two guys look after them. They were two good Christian men and they led me to the Lord.”

    “I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of doing things and living at the right time. There’s a girl or two I should have danced with longer, a whiskey or two I should have put down, and a fellow or two I should have whipped, but I think God is behind this whole thing and He’ll send you the people you need when you need them. I’m not going to tell you I don’t worry, because I do. My goal is to spend the rest of my life trying to feel good.”

  • Casey Martin

    Casey Martin

    Casey Martin began his bull dogging career when he was a freshman in high school. “Before steer wrestling, I mostly roped calves and team roped. My brother and I decided to try it one day when Matt Rider, a rodeo friend, had a bunch of fresh steers they were going to break in. We come back with cuts and scrapes and some clothes missing.” Casey comes from a large rodeo family consisting of five brothers and three sisters. Rodeo resources were abundant. Casey’s grandfather, the late Preston Martin, owned a feed store and always made sure that horses were available to Casey and his siblings. He would often bring horses home for the kids to break. His grandfather’s feed store was somewhat symbolic in that a rodeo seed was planted, which flourished on the Martin family land. Rodeo became a way of life for Casey and his family.

    Casey competed in the National High School Rodeo Finals in steer wrestling and saddle bronc riding during his senior year. After high school, he attended McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. While competing on the MSU college rodeo team, Casey also worked for his father in residential construction, which allowed him to buy his PRCA permit. He made the National College Rodeo Finals his junior and senior year (2002, 2003), ending one year as the reserve champion. “I decided to make a run at this (PRCA). I knew I could do it, I wanted it bad enough, I just had to figure out how. I was tall and skinny and grew way too fast.”  Casey jokes about having to spend extra time on his footwork due to his rapid growth spurt. “I had legs going everywhere for a long time.” He credits Tom Carney and lots of practice to eventually learning the mechanics of controlling his frame and long legs.

    Casey spent much of his time practicing in an arena his father built on the family ranch. He remains close to his brothers and sisters who have all built homes near the house in which they grew up. In August 2004, Casey’s family grew when he married Shawna. They have five children; Reese (7), Sydna (6), Therese (5), Waylon (2), and Woodrow (1). Casey admits that Shawna doesn’t ride, however she remains supportive of her husband and the rodeo lifestyle. “Right beside the arena is a 40×40 outdoor kitchen.” Casey explains that with such a large family, such a large structure is essential. “There are 55-60 at the dinner table,” said Casey. The outdoor kitchen is conveniently located right next to the family arena. “It’s a good practice session going on every day.” Being a typical southern family, dinner and fellowship are also important to the Martins. Whether it is Betty, the matriarch of the Martin family, preparing Sunday dinner or a sister-in-law cooking a simple meal for all, the end result is an atmosphere is of faith, laughter, and of course, rodeo stories. Casey has 38 nieces and nephews, which serves as a comforting distraction for his children while he is on the road. He currently runs down the road with his partners; Dru Melvin, Bray Armes and Sean Mulligan, while hauling five horses in a trailer complete with living quarters. Casey explains that traveling and living with three other guys is easy, “Everybody takes care of their own business”.

    The Martin family faithfully follows Casey’s travels. A good indicator of Casey’s success is when his girls come home with ICEEs. His earnings from rodeo and resourcefulness have provided for his family of seven for the last couple of years. “I worked (construction) until the last year or two,” he said. Admitting that rodeo life is expensive, Casey jokes, “everybody eats and has clothes.”

    Casey is very grateful to Tom for teaching him the mechanics behind bull dogging. He has attended Tom’s schools since they started and he’s helped since his senior year in high school. Steer wrestling is short on instructors. “You can’t go anywhere and find a practice pen,” he said. “But, there’s dang sure quite a few kids interested in it.” In an effort to give back to the sport, Casey took a few days off during his July run to go to the International Finals Youth Rodeo and help his mentor, Tom Carney, teach Steer Wrestling 101. “I had a couple days off due to not getting up right, so it worked out good,” he said. “Everything I’ve accomplished is from Tom – all the form and everything. He calls me and I call him. I’ve never called anybody else. Everybody has cold spurts – not winning steers – you just have to be able to handle that. To be able to win, in my opinion, you have to be able to lose. I try to not to ever look back. It’s got to get better.” Even his mother, Betty Martin, considers him dedicated. “If I had to use one word to describe my son, it would be faithful. Faithful to his family, faithful to his beliefs, faithful to his friends, faithful to his practice in the rodeo pen. Casey is truly living his dream.”

    His goal for this year is to get the gold buckle. He came in second last year behind Luke Branquinho. Beyond that, he has no plans. He knows that rodeo is what he wants to do for now.

    “Do what you want to do, set goals and stay at it. Don’t give up, do what you love and what you’re passionate about. 15 years ago when I started, nobody thought I’d stick with it, but I did.”