Category: On The Trail

Just as the Buckeye tree plants its roots in Ohio, Bump Postlethwait, a natural-born cowboy from Byesville, plants his in rodeo. Born Raymond Postlethwait, or JP as his mom liked to call him, was given the name Bump when his dad heard the bump, bump sound of his heart beat while his mom was in labor. She passed away when he was only eight but, “The name’s stuck with me ever since.” Though raised in southern Ohio Bump now resides in Adrian, Mich. with his wife, Andrea and their four kids Chelsea, Haley, Hunter and Ayden.

Following in the footsteps of a man he’s always admired, Bump took to rodeo at a young age watching his father. “I grew up around it, I wanted to be like him.” His father who placed 16th in the world at the RCA was one of Bump’s biggest supporters growing up and always helped him along the way. Starting at nine years old, Bump rode his first amateur bull then at fourteen he was doggin’ steers. He went to a clinic held by his friends who taught him how to bull dog and when he went to his first rodeo he placed. “I never really had to work at anything, never practiced much. I’ve just always been able to do it. If I wanted it I went and I did it.” The Buckeye Rodeo Company was a rodeo was where his dad went and where he grew up. Today, Bump competes in all three rough stock events: bull riding, saddle bronc and bareback as well as team roping and bull dogging.
What started out as a fun, family affair soon turned into a job for Bump. He won all-around four years in a row in high school and did so well he qualified for a scholarship to Martin, Tenn. His rodeo career was doing well and as he continued to succeed he turned down the chance for the scholarship, “I was making good money and it was easier not to go to school.”

It was while riding horses at a horse sale he met his future wife who was looking at horses to buy. In 2008 after dating a few years, Bump married Andrea and welcomed her four children as his own. “It’s hard when she’s not at the rodeo with me,” Bump explains. “She keeps the horses warmed up and ready for me. She makes my job a lot easier.” Andrea is his backbone and what he does couldn’t be possible without her support. As for his kids, “Hunter,” Bump says, “wants to go on with it more than the others.”

Full story available in our May 1, 2015 issue. Read online!

Fallon Taylor grew up in Tampa, Fla, and moved to Texas when she was seven. “I started riding horses and in six months I decided that’s what I wanted to do,” said the youngest of three. Her parents, Shelton and Dian, hired a trainer to help since they knew nothing about riding horses or rodeo. Fallon was homeschooled so she could focus on riding and barrel racing. “We stumbled our way through the rest and ended up with a trainer that lived at the ranch and trained my mare, Flowers and Money, the dam of Babyflo.”

Fallon qualified for her first NFR in 1995, at 13 years old. She qualified for the next three years and found that life on the road had lost its allure. The bright lights of New York City caught her attention and she spent the next ten years modeling in New York City, acting in Las Angeles, and riding her horses in Texas. “I was training horses for other people, and had no aspirations to come back to the NFR,” said the 32 year old. A near-fatal accident five years ago set Fallon down a different path. She was loping a 16.3 hand gelding one night and he slipped and started bucking “It got Western,” she said. “He was snapping and kicking. He reared up and fractured my skull in four places. I picked a spot to land and tried to get off – terrible idea. When I did, he kicked my feet and I went 12 feet in the air and landed straight on my head.” Fallon was paralyzed for three days with the same injury as Christopher Reeves, better known as Superman, and was given a 2% chance to walk. She shattered bones on the right side of her face, including her eye socket, fractured her skull in four places and broke the C-2 vertebra. “I’m blessed to be here.” Fallon’s recovery included wearing a halo for three months. “I had no other choice so I made it my life mission to learn how to recover. I had one come apart moment when I was trying to eat dinner with a halo on and couldn’t get the fork to my face.” After that, Fallon’s mission was to ride again and after a year of riding poorly, she finally found her stride. “I ride ten times better now than the first finals in the 90s, I have a lot more awareness of my body and my horse.”

Along came a football player named Delbert Alvarado – who came to town with the Dallas Cowboys’ training camp. “My uncle and his dad are coworkers – he gave me his phone number, and asked me to show him around. I’d just gotten out of the collar and he came to the ranch.” They were married three years ago and even though Delbert had never ridden before, he saw the talent that Fallon had in her horses and herself and encouraged her to pull the horses out of the pasture and try again. “Babyflo was the last one I pulled out of the pasture, and I cinched her up and we ran barrels that night.” Flos Heiress, sired by Dr Nick Bar out of Flowers and Money, was born, raised, and trained on the ranch. The 14.2 hand 8-year-old mare has carried Fallon to two NFRs and the team continues to improve.

Full story available in our March 2015 issue.

Sean Mulligan grew up in Valentine, Neb., going to rodeos with his dad, Bill, in a 1978 Ford Super cab pulling a two horse inline. “His first love was calf roping, but he’s a better bulldogger.” Sean learned from him, jumping his first steer at Paul Cleveland’s school in Ogallala when he turned 16. Sean grew up with three older sisters and made the National High School Finals rodeo his junior and senior year. He was recruited by Pete Burns to the University of Wyoming. “I bull dogged – roped in college, but there’s a reason I bulldog; I can’t rope – I have to ride up and grab them by the horns.”

He started rodeoing fulltime after graduating with an Ag Business degree in 1998. He hit the northwest with Lynn Churchill and had a good fall out there. “I loved the country – and I thought rodeoing was awesome.” His career as a PRCA cowboy includes four WNFR qualifications – 2000, 2004, 2007, and 2011. He met his wife (Bryel Zancanella) in college. “She won the region in breakaway roping every year but her senior year.” She quit roping after college due to a bad shoulder and concentrated on training barrel horses. Bryel was raised in Rock Springs, Wyo., where her dad is a vet. Her initial plan was to go south for college and is glad she didn’t because she met Sean while getting her teaching degree from the University of Wyoming.

“After I graduated, I did my student teaching in Rock Springs, and taught for a year in Brookings, South Dakota. I loved the kids, but I wanted to spend more time with the horses.” Sean and Bryel moved from Brookings, South Dakota, to Coleman, Okla., and ended up in the stallion business quite by chance. “I was riding for some people from South Dakota and found an FM Radio horse for them on the internet. We found another colt, full brother to FM Radio (AQHA Junior Barrels World Champion), that was really nice and bought Lions Share of Fame off the internet from a picture. We got him home and my sister-in-law started him, put him on the barrels, and the rest is history.” They had decided to leave “King” a stud as long as he earned that right. They watched his full brother, Gun Battle, run the fastest qualifying time at the All American Futurity, winning second in the race. After watching that, they decided to keep King as a stud. He won $60,000 as a futurity colt.

Full story available in our February 2015 issue.

It’s been five years since Jet McCoy last competed in the International Finals Rodeo. During that period, the five-time IPRA World Champion and his wife, Ashlee, have been raising their daughter, and managing their ranch in Ada, Okla. Jet has also appeared three times on The Amazing Race with his brother Cord. After his hiatus from the regular rodeo circuit, the 35 year old is returning for the thirteenth time to the IFR in the saddle bronc riding, thanks in part to Ashlee, who will be one of the breakaway competitors to watch at the finals. She took up the event in 2013, and the combination of her team roping background, and the hours spent in the practice pen with Jet’s coaching, have put her in the top 20 of the breakaway roping.

Ashlee’s newfound passion for breakaway made Jet realize how much he missed riding roughstock, having only done the occasional ranch rodeo since 2009. Sitting in the bleachers didn’t suit him, and in the spring of 2014, he was back in the bucking chutes with the saddle broncs. Jet rode all three roughstock events through high school and college, qualifying for the NHSFR, and later, the CNFR four years in a row on the Southwestern Oklahoma State University rodeo team. He also qualified for the IFR in all three events, and placed second in the saddle bronc riding at the DNCFR in 2004. “I can remember playing with my older brother when we were little, and him showing me how to put a saddle on by strapping it to a bale of hay,” Jet recalls. “I went to my first rodeo when I was five, and I can’t ever remember not rodeoing.” Jet, his sister, and their three brothers, all competed in rodeo growing up, while their dad rode bulls and bareback horses professionally.

Similarly, Ashlee, 30, grew up with a rope either in her hand or coiled and at the ready. Her dad taught her to team rope, and they entered jackpots and USTRC ropings as Ashlee grew up. It wasn’t until two years ago that she competed in a rodeo, however. “In 2013, I saw breakaway at a rodeo for the first time, and I just went for it. It’s been very challenging, but Jet has helped me a lot, and it’s been quite an experience!” Ashlee recently won the breakaway roping at the IPRA Southeast Region Finals in Gay, Ga. She is roping off a five-year-old Quarter Horse palomino named Bingo that she purchased in December of 2013. The gelding was originally a western reining horse that made the Non Pro futurity in Oklahoma City, but he transitioned into a solid mount in the breakaway that Ashlee says makes the same run every time.

Full story available in the January 2015 issue.

KC Jones keeps organized with lists. The 43-year-old bull dogger from Southeastern Colorado has qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo eight  times since joining the PRCA in 1995. When not on the rodeo trail, KC works on his lists, which include two successful businesses he created: Rodeo Vegas (the Official NFR After Party of the PRCA) and Pro Fantasy Rodeo (the official fantasy rodeo game of the PRCA and WNFR).
KC has been rodeoing for 20 years with a pro card. “When I started I never got to rodeo like a lot of others,” he said.  I was late to get my PRCA card as my parents wanted me to get a college degree before joining the pro ranks.  Early in KC’s life, “Mom and dad (Ruby and Charlie) did everything for me, taking me to gymkhanas, jackpots and junior rodeos. It was all about making sure we had everything we needed. It was more important to have a good horse than a fancy rig. So we were always mounted well, and they went out of their way to haul us around.” KC and his sister Kelly competed in about every event in every division of rodeo except the rough stock events.

He grew up with National Little Britches rodeos and high school rodeos. “I won enough scholarship money to go to college,” he said, starting his college career at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colo. “I wanted to be an Architectural Engineer, so I got an Associate Degree at Sterling and went on to the University of Wyoming.” He switched his major to Business Marketing, graduating in 1994. He went back to the farm and started working and rodeoing. “My rodeo habit was costing a lot, so I started shoeing horses and went to Equine Dentistry School. I could work really hard doing Equine Dentistry and still go rodeo.” He had a fair amount of success in the circuit and decided to branch out in 2000. He bought a big green truck that he named “Mean Green” which was one of the first “Big” trucks that was converted and used for rodeo and it carried everything he owned – shoeing tools on one side and equine dentistry on the other. “I was $600 short of making the cut to the WNFR that year.”
He met his wife, Gayle, a barrel racer and flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, in 2002 in Oakdale, Calif. “I gave her a ring a month later, in November, we got married. “Neither one of us was looking and it was meant to be at first site…it happened fast and we’ve been running ever since,” he said. “I’ve been successful ever since I met her. She’s got my back 100% so that gives me the confidence to do anything.   She is in charge of the horses…she gets up and feeds all the horses, giving them their supplements and exercises them.  During the winter we have a lot of guys staying here (Decatur, Texas) for the winter rodeos. She cooks and cleans for everybody – I don’t want her job.”

Full story available in the December 2014 issue.

The Missouri Valley College rodeo team in Marshall, Mo., claims WNFR qualifier Tim O’Connell as one of their own. The 23 year old is sitting fourth in the bareback, having reached the $100,000 mark for the first time in his rodeo career. Tim was the 2013 PRCA Rookie of the Year, but didn’t qualify for the WNFR that year, making his 2014 qualification all the sweeter.

Tim’s dream of riding bareback nearly didn’t come to realization. In high school, Tim’s original goal was to be, as his dad put it, “A Ty Murray”, and compete in all three roughstock events. He soon discovered that saddle bronc riding was too technical for his taste. He was considered small for his age, and the bareback riding left Tim flying high and doing face plants, so he zeroed in on bull riding. Tim’s hometown is Zwingle, Iowa, but he rodeoed with the Wisconsin High School Rodeo Association and was their year-end bull riding champion in 2010. He also poured himself into high school wrestling and was a three time state qualifier, placing fourth in the state his senior year. But the bareback riding was ever at the back of his mind. After a bad wreck while bull riding at the NHSFR his senior year, Tim soon decided to quit riding bulls. He attended a rodeo school in Iowa that PRCA saddle bronc rider Wade Sundell helped put on. “I don’t really know to this day what made me decide to start riding bareback again,” says Tim. “I would pay thousands of dollars to go back to that day at the school and know what was going through my mind!” He rode three barebacks that day, a new enthusiasm springing up in him for the event.

Roughstock runs steady in the O’Connell family. Tim’s dad, Ray O’Connell, competed in saddle bronc riding in high school, then began working as a pickup man. By the time Tim and his older brother Will were born, Ray was working mainly for Cervi Rodeo Company and Three Hills Rodeo Company. He took his boys with him whenever their school allowed. They loved to help their dad cool his horses out after the rodeo, and at many of the high school rodeos that Ray worked, he would leave young Tim riding double with the kids in the warm up pen. When they were on deck, Tim was passed along to someone else.

Growing up in the shadow of the bucking chutes made an impression on Tim early on. “Tim enjoyed being around the livestock, and if he decided to rodeo, you could tell that roughstock was where he was leaning,” says Ray. Tim started riding sheep, then worked his way through calves, steers, and bulls before finally settling on bareback. His mom, Joann O’Connell, admits that watching Tim and his brother Will – who also rode bulls – took her out of her comfort level. “I’m their biggest fan, but I worried every time they got on,” she remembers. Joann would watch the other kids ride, but left the stands when her boys rode, listening, but not watching. Today, she’s cheering from the stands – and watching with both eyes open. “I ride that horse jump for jump with Tim.” She and Ray add, “These last few weeks, Tim has been on fire, and we couldn’t be more proud of him.” Will, who is five years older than Tim, went on to be a pickup man like his dad, and fights bulls. Ray and Will have also started Diamond R Bucking Horses together, and will be taking two of their colts to the futurity sale at the WNFR.

Full story is available in the November 1, 2014 issue.

It has been fifty two years since Ace Berry entered the arena in 1962 for his first National Finals Rodeo. The fifteen year old couldn’t drive yet, but he remembers being in awe of the moment. “Going out in the arena with the legends I’d heard about and competed with – there they were.” Ace was  the first one to qualify in the riding and roping – Jim Tescher had qualified in saddle bronc and steer wrestling. “I was really set on that. I never dreamed of winning them both – it just kind of happened.” Ace was the youngest contestant ever to enter the prestigious rodeo until JD Yates beat his record by three months.

The 68-year-old is heading to the USTRC Finals in Oklahoma to compete in the #11 and the Century. “I haven’t roped 60 steers yet,” he admits, “I am practicing once or twice a week, running a half a dozen steers each time.” Ace hasn’t roped for nine years. “I quit roping because I had a lot of stuff going on with the ranch … and I was kind of burned out.” He is back to have fun with it, “I’m roping because I want to, not because I have to.”

Ace is a true all-around hand, roping at 14 consecutive NFRs from 1962-75. He rode bareback horses at the Finals six times, in 1967, and from 1969-73. He judged the bareback riding at the NFR in 1985, and flagged the NFR team roping in 1986. He did all of this while managing a 10,000 acre ranch in California. “I went to a lot of rodeos through the years, but I never went to many each year. 65 was my tops,” he said. “I didn’t travel – I was always going back to the ranch. I’d leave in the winter and go to the winter rodeos, and then I’d go back to the ranch in the Spring.”

Ace followed the California rodeos on the weekends and made enough to get to the Finals. “In those days it didn’t take near as much to make it.” Ace Berry and Phil Lyne are the only two cowboys in rodeo history to win rough stock and timed-event average titles at the NFR. “Winning the average in the NFR four times stands out as the biggest accomplishment I’ve made,” said Ace. “That’s the only thing I’ve ever done that nobody has done or tied me in – two times in timed event and two times in the riding event.” Ace attributes his success to having the “want to. It takes a lot of work and persistence. It’s something I set out to do.” He won the 1967 NFR team roping average heeling for Bucky Bradford, back when half the rounds were team tying and the other half were dally roping. In team tying, the header was tied on. After he roped the steer, he went left and the heeler was tied on too. When the steer was laid down, the header would step off, run down, and tie a square knot around both hind legs. Ace competed as both the header and heeler, depending on his partner. It took a lot of horse power and practice – something Ace learned growing up.

Full story available in October 15, 2014 issue.

The Dickens, Jacy, Kim, and daughter Sara, are carrying on a family tradition. “Sara is the fourth generation on my side, and the third on Kim’s,” said 55-year-old Jacy, who started competing when he was 8 and still competes in the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association. Kim started competing at 9 and couldn’t wait to turn 40 so she could enter the Senior Pro rodeos. Sara spent her childhood at the Senior Pro Rodeos with her parents and started competing when she was 8. All three in the Dickens family got their start in the National Little Britches Rodeo Association.
Kim was 29 and Jacy was 35 when they married. “I went to more than 75 rodeos a year,” said Jacy. “I was around a lot of good marriages and a lot of bad marriages and I knew I had to find someone that had things in common with me.” Jacy didn’t think he would ever get married and he loved kids. “I was training horses the winter of 1993 and I was praying in this fifth wheel and God told me it was time to get married. I didn’t have the money and I didn’t enjoy looking so I told him to bring her in front of me.” He remembers Kim was wearing a yellow sweats and cowboy boots when he met her at a rodeo. He knew she was the one. And then he just had to convince her.
Born 1959 in Cortez, Colo., Jacy went to his first rodeo at the age of two. His parents rodeoed (Joe and Jane), and when they divorced, his stepdad (Hugh Green) stepped in and helped him achieve his rodeo goals. “You can’t rodeo successfully without help,” he said. Jacy was the state champion steer wrestler in 1977 and continued rodeoing at the University of Southern Colo. In 1984, he got his PRCA card and hit the road, training horses and doing odd jobs when the checks didn’t cover his expenses. He won the Colorado State Rodeo (CPRA), four times in the calf roping (1979, 83, 86, 93). In addition to calf roping, Jacy competed in steer wrestling and team roping. “I enjoyed roping calves, but I always won more team roping,” said the header, who currently ropes with Mike Clancey in the National Senior Pro circuit.  Once he got married, Jacy took a full time job with Weld County and concentrated on his family until he could enter the Senior Pro Rodeos.

Full story available in October 1, 2014 issue.

JD (James Daniel) Schulze calls Brighton, Colo., home, but he is most at home in the arena. The rodeo clown spends the summer working rodeos in Colorado and surrounding states. “From June until the end of September I will have worked 63 performances,” said the 39-year-old single dad. “I’ve been home a couple days all summer.” His ten-year-old son, Landon James, travels with him on the weekends JD has him. “This year he’s really taken a part in wanting to help out with the acts.” One of JD’s acts, the Shrinking Machine, features Landon as the small version of JD. Landon plays baseball too, a sport that JD helps by being one of the coaches.
“When it comes to coaching, I really try to make it fun and have fun with the kids so they learn to love the game – and have fun – which in turn hopefully carries over to everyday life in all they do. In the rodeo arena, I’m there to be a goofball and be part of the bull fighting trio – the island of safety – that’s where the barrel man comes in.”
JD grew up on the Eastern side of Aurora, Colo., and the middle of Denver. His parents were divorced and he and his three older brothers split their time between the two houses. He also has three younger sisters. “It was my norm,” he said of having two homes. Growing up in the city, JD got his break into rodeo through friends who were bull riders. “I always loved the Western lifestyle and hanging out with friends that rode bulls got me started riding.” JD rode bulls until injuries took him out.
Full story is available in the September 15, 2014 issue.

“A lot of kids ride bulls, but some kids are just born to do it.” This is how Phil Fabela, a family friend and mentor, describes Garrett Tribble, who has been sitting first in the IPRA bull riding standings for nearly two months. Garrett isn’t the type to boast, but the bull rider from Slick, Okla. joined the IPRA in January 2014, and 11 states, three Canadian provinces, and nearly 50 rodeos later, he is sitting first in the world standings – ahead of second place by almost $20,000. And he’s only 17.

“Garrett’s bull riding career really started when he was about two or three years old,” says his dad, Rodney Tribble. “He fell in love with bull riding and has wanted to do it since he was very young. From about the time he was three, he’d come home from school and put in Eight Seconds – he watched it every day!” Garrett’s bull riding dream took shape when he was about five. One of his friends was participating in the mutton busting at a local rodeo and invited Garrett to join him. Short as it was, the wooly ride made up Garrett’s mind. He was going be a bull rider. Although none of Garrett’s immediate family had ever competed in rodeo, his parents helped him join youth associations like the Junior Bull and Bronc Riders Association (JBRA), National Junior Bull Riders Association (NJBRA) and the Oklahoma Junior Rodeo Association (OJRA).

Full story available in the July 15th edition.

Taylor and Rickie Engesser learned how to ride without a saddle – bareback. “They ran barrels with bucking riggings,” said their dad, Shorty. They started riding when they were two and competed at the Belle Jackpot, the starting place for other rodeo greats like Nikki and Kristi Steffes. Taylor finished her first year in college as the 2014 CNFR Barrel Racing Champion as well as Rookie of the Year. Rickie won the South Dakota State High School Barrel Racing Championship and is headed to Rock Springs, Wyo., to try for the National High School Barrel Racing Championship.

Both girls run barrels on the same horse, a 19-year-old gelding named Rowdy. “I just bought him because I liked him,” said Shorty, who bought the gelding when he was four from a friend in Gillette. “We tried to sell him two or three times – he was strong and couldn’t keep the barrels clean.” It took several years for the horse to start clicking with the girls. The family credits younger brother, Jace, with helping to make Rowdy a champion. “When Jace started running flags on Rowdy, it seemed to free him up to run barrels.”

Shorty is always looking for horses. The family currently has around 20 horses on the place in various stages of training. “I either fix them and sell them, or we keep them. Rowdy is the real deal.” With Dee Bar, Leo Bars, and Cool Deep bloodlines, Cool Rowdy has taken all three Engesser kids to the pay window on many occasions. “He set an arena record in Shawnee, he’s made it to the high school finals three years and won the short go there last year. He also took Jace to the World Champion in Flags in the National Little Britches Finals Rodeo last year.”

Full story available in the July 15th edition.