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“I changed the expectations for the quality and professionalism of the position of rodeo clown or entertainer, as the times changed. All while staying true to the history and integrity of the sport. And that through it all, I hope I treated everyone with kindness and respect.”

Flint Rasmussen was the start of a new era in his job as a rodeo clown. He was the end of the era and an era during which nobody touched him. Now, at 55, he will step out of the dirt and onto the stage or the mic or whatever comes next. The Choteau, Montana, native has spent the past 50 years entertaining audiences. The youngest of four, his mom, Tootie, wasn’t surprised when her son hit the stage. “I always say, he learned how to entertain himself because he was a latch key kid,” she said. “After he went to school, he’d have to come home and be alone.” She and Flint’s dad, Stan, were both working. “He used his imagination to entertain himself.” Stan worked as a rodeo announcer and was the past president for the Northern Rodeo Association (NRA) and Tootie served as a timer. Their four children, Will, Pete, Linda, and Flint were raised on the announcers stand. “My claim to fame is I have four talented kids,” said Tootie. “I remember when Flint was really little, like three or four, and he would do imitations and pretend he was playing football in the middle of the floor in slow motion.”
He got his first taste of clowning when he was a teenager. Lloyd Ketchum asked him to help him with a skit. “Loyd helped me put my make-up on,” Flint said. “It was a two-man act. We blew up an outhouse. It was awesome.” While in college, he became the voice of the Bulldogs, announcing basketball and football. After he completed college, Flint returned to the town where he was born, Havre, and taught math and history at Havre High School. He also coached football and track, continuing his announcing on the side. “I didn’t have any aspirations to do this (rodeo clown) for a living. It was my summer job. I did it for six years for the NRA, perfecting my craft and developing a character. When I jumped in and went to Red Lodge for the first pro rodeo (1994), I was pretty good – I’d been doing this awhile.”
He started down the road, quickly racking up the accolades. He earned the title of PRCA Clown of the Year for eight consecutive years and won the Coors Man in the Can honor seven times. Flint met ex-wife, Katie Grasky, who was a barrel racer, while he was touring. He was working at both PRCA and PBR events when Randy Bernard, CEO of PBR called, offering him an exclusive deal. Flint turned it down because of all the work he had lined up. By the end of that year (2006), he made the decision to go full-time with PBR. With the PBR, he could fly on the weekends, and be home during the week. “We used to load up the motor home with a three-horse trailer behind it. We’d travel from June to September. We went together. When the girls started school, and their activities were on the weekends, it broke the connection we had – I was gone every weekend.”
Paige, his youngest daughter, remembers growing up on the road with her dad. “I remember life in the motorhome,” said 21-year-old Paige. “It was how we lived. It wasn’t this crazy thing to me that my dad was a clown, we had a kiddy pool and other kids our age would come and play. It was normal for us to live on the road.” When the girls started school, he flew out on the weekends and then he would be home. “I remember going to rodeos with my dad and my mom around home.” Along with rodeo, she did track. “My dad was my track coach in high school – he was great. He was a great athlete himself – I did all the same events he did in high school, 100 hurdles, relay, triple jump and long jump.”
Paige is a senior at Montana State University, where her sister, Shelby, graduated and is an assistant coach. Two years ago, as a sophomore, Paige was the 2021 College National All Around Champion. At the Finals in goat tying Paige was leading by a long way. In the short round she was confident she had it with 6.3 seconds. “It was a done deal – at the last second the goat got up,” she said. “I was heartbroken; my goals were relying on winning the goat tying.” Although she was teary-eyed, she went to the awards to support her team and sister, Shelby. Their team had won the National Women’s Title. “But then they announced that I won the All Around. It was surreal.” Paige did split the All Around title with her good friend that did win the Goat Tying.
Paige has her own coaching business, traveling to produce clinics. That, along with rodeo will take a pause as she pursues medical school. “I want to be a psychiatrist in the Air Force and work with veterans with PTSD.” She loves learning about the brain and she has family roots in the military. “It would be great to work with populations that serve our country so I can serve them back. Before applying to med school, Paige is taking a year off to intern at MIT, in Boston, Mass., and prepare for med school. “I’ll be working in the brain institute at MIT – studying MRIs of teenagers and kids and looking for abnormalities.” When she’s done with her internship, Paige will study and prepare her applications for med school.
She has maintained a 3.9 grade point average as well as competing on the rodeo team. It’s taken lots of early morning and late nights and weekends practicing and studying. “All my close friends on the rodeo team are good at time management; every free minute we get stuff done.” The team is under the athletic department, so they have their own strength training coach, twice a week at 6:30 am. The team does condition training the other day, and Paige works out on her own the fifth day of the week.
Shelby has been coaching Paige forever, so having her as the coach for the team was an easy transition. “We get along well – she’s my role model, so now she just tells me what I need to hear when I need to hear it.” They also live together at the family home in Bozeman, Mont. “My mom lives in Arizona in the winter so we stay here.” In the summer, they all split up and rodeo. They also share a love of music and dance – something that runs in the family and was encouraged growing up. Both sisters went to a one-room school, where the teacher emphasized music. “I write songs, and play six different instruments, including drums. I also did musical theater in high school.”
Shelby remembers that tiny county school. “I played trumpet, violin, and piano. We learned all about drums, and ballroom dancing. My dad’s whole family is very musical.” Her earliest memories of her dad revolved around rodeo and the motorhome. “We’d be gone for months at a time going to rodeos.” Even after school started, she remembers going during the summer until she was in second or third grade. “My mom trained barrel horses even on the road with my dad.” Her love was rodeo and competing was not thwarted by the weather of Montana. “It adds a whole level of difficulty – we had an indoor barn in Choteau and that helped – we just got two feet of snow here last week.”
Shelby graduated from Montana State with a degree in marketing and is enjoying her first year as the assistant coach. “I’m using what I learned in marketing to find what styles work best for the students and communicating that.” The 24-year-old wants to be a role model for her team as well as anyone else she meets along the way. “My parents are both role models.” She is looking forward to her dad retiring from the arena. “All we’ve ever known is dad in the arena, so we don’t know. He will still be traveling, but maybe have some time to get to our stuff – he just went to his first rodeo banquet this year. It will be nice to have our dad back.” Both daughters are dedicated to preserving the Western lifestyle that they grew up in.
“People don’t realize how close we are to losing it,” Flint said about the Western lifestyle. Flint travels to large cities like Madison Square Garden in New York City. “The farther we get away from it, the unhealthier our country is.” Flint set out to help bridge that gap and entertain people. He never dreamed of what would happen to his life once he made that decision. He also never realized the sacrifice that his career cost his family. “In my job there is a selfishness to it, a pride in doing it for myself. But I really truly believed through my career I was doing it for them. I consider them to be my biggest fans in the world, alongside their mom, who still is.” Flint is quick to give Katie credit for the girls’ success in the rodeo arena. “We did a lot of neat stuff. My job put us in the rodeo business, but the person that taught them how to ride and take care of horses is their mom – she college rodeoed.”
On March 11, 2009, Flint, at the age of 41, suffered a heart attack. “We were home, and I was working out. I was out of breath and had stations set up – my wife, Katie, was trying to visit with me and I couldn’t talk – I ended up having a heart attack that day. We lived 11 miles out of town and she drove me to the ER in our little town.” Being in shape saved his life, and after a couple of procedures, he was back in the arena. “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t forget about it. I was working out when I had the heart attack. I was angry and confused. If I had a heart attack doing this, when’s the next one.” He had to wear a heart rate monitor and had to take a few breaks when his heart rate exceeded 140 bpm.
His favorite part of his job is also the worst part of it – the travel. “What a wonderful thing – I’ve watched the college basketball tournament and I know where all the locker rooms are. The best thing is I fulfilled something that was always in me – performing in front of crowds. Singing and dancing and being in front of people fills up a place in you that other people don’t understand. I get to be on a starting lineup and bring people joy.” The PBR has had a record setting year. Before each rodeo, Flint has a little huddle with the bullfighters. “Look over your shoulder,” he reminds them. “These people paid to come see us, we are doing something right.”
“There’s no handbook or guidelines about family – I’m a small-town guy that worked my way up. “In middle age, I’m in front of 15,000 fans in Madison Square Garden … no matter how ready for it you are, you aren’t ready.” Being on the road every weekend took it’s toll on family time – he missed a lot of things due to travel. “It’s the part of this job that people don’t think of. At the time, I was making decisions based on what was best for my family. I do believe I was. My girls have had an amazing life. “
Flint has used his platforms to promote the sport of rodeo. From his studio in Montana, he has produced 66 podcasts, According to Flint, featuring guests from all walks of life that Flint has encountered over the years and some who he is meeting for the first time. His years of knowledge in the industry makes interviews easy. Flint has also hosted “Outside the Barrel” for 18 years at the National Finals Rodeo. “I don’t do the show because I’m a rodeo clown, but because it is a separate passion of mine. That’s all I ever wanted to do – I wanted to be a talk show host, to be on stage. If you want to be effective, you have to perfect your craft. That’s what I tried to do.” Flint also hosts the NFR’s Buckle Ceremony following the nightly performances. “That is part of the transitioning.” He wants to be an Ambassador for the lifestyle. “I see how close it is to disappearing – part of my job moving forward is to preserve the Western lifestyle.”

I’ve learned how to win and lose – to deal with adversity – that’s easier said than done. I try to be thankful from the beginning and look failure in the eye.

he first time Riley Wakefield went to the Cinch Timed Event Championships, he and his older brother Brady were star-struck. The next time he attended, 15 years later, he went as a contestant, finishing in fourth place. At the 2023 Cinch TEC, the O’Neill, Neb. cowboy turned in a time of 366 seconds throughout five rounds to finish fourth and win $10,000. After applying for the prestigious event for the past five years, Riley was first on the alternate list this year. He got the call in early February that someone couldn’t make it, and there was a spot for him. He prepared, making four or five runs in each event, every day.
It was in 2008, when Riley was eleven years old, that he and his family, including parents Jim and Susan Wakefield, went to Guthrie’s Lazy E Arena as spectators. “It was a treat,” Riley said. He and Brady saw their heroes among the competitors. “I just remember seeing role models,” he said, “seeing people in places that I wanted to be, people with extreme talent. We had old videotapes of the finals so we knew who guys were, and when they’d walk by us, we’d stare at them. And to see them in person, we were star struck. It was a pretty amazing experience.”
He and Brady, who passed away in a vehicle accident in 2015, got their picture taken with Trevor Brazile.
The CINCH Timed Event Challenge is an invitational event, taking the best twenty cowboys in the world, to compete in five events: steer wrestling, tie-down roping, heading, heeling, and steer roping, in four rounds, with the best fifteen going on to the fifth round. Fastest time in all four events, over five rounds, wins. Riley was leading the average going into the fifth round but a sixty second run in the team roping put him in fourth place for the finish.
A 2020 graduate of Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva, Riley has been living in Stephenville, Texas. But this winter, he was at home on his parents’ (Jim & Susan) ranch near O’Neill, during what was the worst winter in the last ten years in north-central Nebraska; O’Neill has had 57 inches of snow. The snow and cold weather made everything harder to accomplish. “We had three feet of snow on the ground, and it was an absolute workout to get to the horses. You had to lift each leg through the snow.” All the watering was done by hand, because the tanks would freeze to the bottom by morning. “We hand watered everything,” he said. Riley’s girlfriend Jenna Dallyn helped him, loading cattle, roping with him, until she had to return to High River, Alberta, to work. Then his dad helped. Jim “was out there every day, all day, pushing cattle. When Jenna left, he had to fill in and be the guy to help me. He was a huge part of this.”
Cinch TEC contestants designate “helpers,” who head, heel and haze for them. Cinch TEC contestants cannot head or heel for each other, but they can haze for each other. Riley’s header was CJ DeForest; his heeler was Tanner Braden, and Allen Good was his hazer for three rounds with Mason Couch for the last two rounds. Nerves wore on him for round number one, which showed up in the heading. “That first head loop I threw, it was not a good head loop but a nervous head loop. It was sloppy,” he said. “I was feeling the nerves.” But when the tie-down roping came around, he settled in. “As soon as I tied my first calf, I felt a lot more comfortable. The set-up fit my horse perfectly. He has a lot of run, he’s fairly free, and he doesn’t take my shot away.”
In February, after getting the call that he would be competing at the Cinch TEC, Riley was nervous. The event was so important to him, the concept of being a “true” cowboy and showing skills across four disciplines, had him anxious. So nervous, that he’d never felt this much nerves since he and Brady backed into the box at the 2012 National High School Finals Rodeo, when he was a freshman. The brothers had done some mental training, with one of the pieces of advice being that they should visualize the best thing that could happen and the worst thing that could happen. It worked; he and Brady finished as reserve team roping champions that year.
So Riley applied the same concept to the Cinch TEC. He knew, if he failed, that he’d still have family and friends who still cared about him, and he could still have the chance of being invited to compete at next year’s Cinch TEC. “After I looked failure dead in the eyes,” he said on a Facebook post, “the rest of the Cinch TEC was pretty smooth sailing.”
He grew up on the family ranch south of O’Neill, in the Sandhills of Nebraska, with a dad who was a pro steer wrestler and roper.
When family friends came over to the Wakefields to rope, it was Brady and Riley running the chutes, and looking up with respect to the men who practiced with their dad.
“It was an honor to ride their horses around after practice.”
Like many young cowboys, they fell in love with the sport. Jim and Susan hauled their boys to Little Britches Rodeos and youth events all over the region.
The brothers loved it, Riley said. “We took a liking to it and got small successes along the way, that keep you going, and sooner or later, you get bigger successes, then bigger and bigger, and by that time, we were hooked.”
In junior high, Riley wanted to be a bull rider. He followed the PBR faithfully and got on roping steers at home. But in eighth grade, he realized the timed events were more his thing.
In high school, he qualified for state finals and the National High School Finals all four years, competing at Nationals four times in the team roping and once in the steer wrestling.
In college at Gillette (Wyo.) College, he made it to the College National Finals Rodeo in 2017 in three events, then two years later, won the tie-down in the Central Plains Region while a student at Northwestern Oklahoma State.
Riley rode his horse Gator for the tie-down roping and his horse William for the heeling, borrowing horses for the other three events. Gator has been a long-time project for the cowboy. When Riley’s horse died of colic three years ago, friend Austin Barstow suggested that Riley borrow Gator, who showed potential but was really green. “I knew from the start that Gator had tremendous ability and athleticism,” he said. “But he is extremely playful. He is difficult to catch, he messes around, and he sees how much he can get away with. That’s been the struggle, to get the business attitude out of him.”
At a rodeo in 2021, after Riley roped a calf, Gator misbehaved, stepping away from him as he tried to re-mount. “It took me a full minute to get on him. He was inching away from me in a circle. He wasn’t dragging the calf, but he was moving away.” A few weeks after that, Riley took him to the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo, where he worried how the horse would respond to an indoor arena with noise and lots of activity. “I was nervous and had no idea what he would do, but the circuit finals was a turning point. He worked better than he ever had, in a loud and pressure-filled environment.” The twelve-year-old bay has improved. “He’s more business-like now, and I think we’ve both grown up together. I’ve learned how to train one and ride one correctly, and that’s more important than a lot of people understand. A horse is sometimes only as good as his rider.”
For the steer tripping, he rode Todd Eberle’s horse Mississippi, and for the heading, he rode Danielle Wray’s horse, Peanut. Danielle was instrumental in helping him in 2021 when he qualified for the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo in three events, and at the Cinch TEC as well. “I couldn’t have done either without her.”
Riley, at age 26, is working at making rodeo his fulltime job. It’s not easy. Last year, he competed across the nation, at times broke and trying to prove himself, not only to the rodeo world, but to himself. “I went through some hard times, really low times,” he said. “I questioned why the heck I was doing this. I have my (college) degree, why am I not at home, working, making for-sure money.” He remembers tough times last summer, traveling in a small trailer with a shower, no bathroom, and two bunk beds, and the time in Caldwell when his traveling partner headed to another rodeo but Riley stayed for the short round. From 6 am, when his buddy got on the road, till 4 pm, when a friend arrived, he sat on the grounds with his lawn chair and phone, while Gator grazed, “taking it all in.”
Rodeoing isn’t cheap, either, with entry fees and fuel bills. “You pull the trigger anyways,” he said. “You can’t be emotional about (spending) the money. You have to trust your talent. If you worry about the money, you’re going to be worried all the time.” During the hard times, he talked to his dad, telling him he was ready to come home. “I remember calling my dad, and he said, ‘you chose to do this, you’re going to stay on the road.”
It can be a game of confidence, Riley said. “When you’re new on the trail, you feel like you have something to prove. You feel like you’re not trying to lose, instead of trying to win, not looking like an idiot, instead of going out there and wining first.
The fourth place finish at the Cinch TEC has boosted his confidence. Now, when backing into the box, “I’m thinking about how fast I can be instead of how not to mess up. I’m thinking of what can go right instead of what can go wrong.”
His parents are behind him one hundred percent. “If I didn’t have my parents helping me out, I would be working a nine-to-five,” he said. “My wins are just as much theirs as they are mine. We’re a team.”
This summer, he will rodeo full time, competing at 80 rodeos, heading to California in April, with a bounce in his step and more confidence under the cowboy hat.
Rodeo hasn’t always come easy to him. “I wasn’t one of those guys that was consistently winning,” he said. “It took some things I needed to work through.”
There were several times he could have quit, but he didn’t. “To me, it’s the fact that I put all the work in and I didn’t want to waste it. I wanted it to pay off somehow.”
“I felt like I could have decided to teach school, forget about rodeo and make some money. I could have, and I’ve had ended up OK. But I had the opportunity (to rodeo) and I have so many people behind me, and it’s what I love to do and what I’ve worked for, so why not let it pay off? And if it doesn’t, that’s fine, but I want to give it the chance.”
His hard work and perseverance is yielding a profit. “I’m so glad it’s paying off now. There’s nothing better than hard work paying off.”
Riley credits his sponsors with helping him stay on the rodeo road. They are Rattler, Wrangler, Wakefield Insurance Agency, Pritchett Twine and Net Wrap, Laursen Chiropractic, Twin Creek Ranches, and Make An Impact.
Cody Doescher won the 2023 Cinch TEC with a time of 312.7 seconds (total on 25 head); Russell Cardoza was second (321.7 seconds); Lane Karney was third (355.3 seconds.)

Similar to Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, a pair of ruby red shoes were hard to remove from Tru Most’s feet. These, however, were glittering cowgirl boots that accompanied Tru everywhere from the time she was 2 years old until the shoes were no longer sold. They were part of the outfit that brought Tru’s favorite Toy Story character, Jessie, to life. “She was obsessed with those boots and wore them until all the glitter fell off,” said Tru’s mom, Nichole Most. “I probably replaced those boots three times before I couldn’t find them anymore. Tru wanted to be a cowgirl like Jessie, so she had a rope and would chase our English bulldog around the house trying to catch him.” Tru’s older sister, Alivia, took an interest in horses first. At the end of her sister’s riding lessons, Tru found her way into the saddle for a few minutes. It was enough to appease the brewing horse craze, but in a few years that passion would explode and take her family on a wild ride. “My brother [Michael Paulsen] got married and they lived on a ranch with horses,” Nichole explained. “Tru was probably 7 at the time and she’s been hooked [on horses] ever since.”

The Tornado
“We didn’t grow up with horses, but there was no stopping Tru,” said her dad, Josh Most. “When she has a goal in mind, she’s relentless and there’s no stopping her so you might as well get on board.” The Longview, Washington, cowgirl is a tornado, personified. She’s the only type of natural disaster that can be classified as good. Those first few years of lessons were on western pleasure horses. And while Tru loved horses of any discipline, she knew speed was in her future. “We found ourselves in my hometown at the 4-H fair horse show when Tru saw barrels for the first time and that’s all she wanted to do from then on out,” Nichole said.
Diving in with both feet, Josh and Nichole bought Tru a barrel horse. The seller disclosed that the horse, Cash, was herd bound, but that didn’t resonate until they got him home. “We just didn’t know what that meant, so we eventually had to get a pony [Flo] to even get Cash on the trailer,” Nichole said. “For a long time it was Flo and I in the arena while Tru and Cash ran their barrels.” He was a strong, powerful horse that didn’t actually enjoy his job running around the barrels. He loved his little girl and would do anything for her, but their story didn’t begin that way.
“I was scared of him at first and even hated him because of that. Probably because I was used to lesson ponies who listened to me,” Tru said. “We had some family stuff going on at the time and I found my comfort in Cash. He became my best friend, and we formed a bond on the ground. After that we worked a lot better together in the saddle.” That transformation took about six months. Even though Tru trusted Cash, every ride was a little more about survival than anything else according to her dad. He was a lot of horse for Tru, but he’s very likely one of the reasons Tru found success at the 2022 Junior World Finals.

A Step Up Mount
“Knowing what I know now, I would have never put my little girl on Cash, but we just had no idea at the time,” Nichole said. “We took him to a clinic put on by Ryan Lovendahl and KC Groves hoping they could fix him.” Ryan and KC fixed Cash’s problem, but not in the way Tru or her parents expected. “Ryan came up to me and said quietly: ‘I’ve seen thousands of horses and only said this to one other person, your daughter is not safe on that horse. He takes care of her, but he hates his job and he’s fighting everything,’” Josh explained of Cash’s immediate retirement. “Ryan and KC got us on the path we’re on now with Tru; from running barrels as a hobby to executing the plan Tru always had in her head.” Leo was one of Ryan and KC’s horses who became Tru’s next barrel mount. He was the type of horse who ran the same pattern every time. Where Cash made Tru fearless, Leo kept her honest and developed her horsemanship as a jockey.
“She’s always been a great rider, but Leo helped Tru get comfortable so she could work on her skills,” Josh said. “He taught her how a barrel turn should feel but he was also the kind of horse who would hit the barrel if she gave him too much rein. It was such a great experience for her.” It only took a year before Tru was ready for her next step up in horsepower. Since Cash always had a home with the Most family, Leo had to move on down the road to make room for Tru’s next mount. “It was really hard for Tru to make that decision, but also for me,” Nichole said. “I looked that horse in the eyes and told him to take care of my little girl. And then we all bonded with him and loved him, and it was hard to let him go.” The Most’s were reunited with Leo in Vegas where he carried his new little girl through the pole pattern. He’s thriving with his new family, just like Tru is with his replacement.

The Rocket
Firewater Requests, Rockette for short, comes by her name honestly. The 9-year-old palomino is everything Tru needed in a barrel horse and much more. “We actually bought Rockette two months before I ever rode her,” Tru said. “There was a jackpot nearby when we came to pick her up in Utah. It was a KK qualifier. I had only run her once before we entered up. I was just test running her before we took her home, but we won the qualifier. I was shocked because I didn’t know what to expect from her.” Their honesty about Cash poured the foundation of trust that’s built a strong friendship between Ryan and KC and the Mosts. The fruit of that trust was picked in Vegas when Tru not only won the Junior World Finals in the senior barrels but also took home the youth championship at the All In Barrel Race as well as ninth in the open average.
From the outside, Tru’s success looked easy. Even though Tru and Rockette clicked instantly, their climb to the top in less than a year as a team was anything but. “As Tru finished out junior high last spring, she just swept everything she entered,” Josh said. “By the time summer hit, Rockette started declining; and by that, I mean she wasn’t winning every race she entered anymore. We didn’t know that her hocks could get sore or that she might get ulcers being hauled a lot.” After getting Rockette back to peak condition, Tru had some work to do as a rider. But the pair also had to figure out how to get all 16 hands of Rockette around the NFR-sized pattern, something neither had much experience with at that point.
“We had about four months to really train for Vegas, and all of our high school rodeos were in big outdoor pens,” Tru said. “We ended up going to a local jackpot – Rocky Top – almost every week this fall because the pattern was only 12 feet off what we’d do in Vegas. It was rough at first because I wasn’t sure how to set up such a big horse in a small pen.” Through the trials and tribulations that indoor pen presented, Tru never wanted to throw in the towel. It’s this relentless determination that her parents are most proud of, more than anything Tru’s ever won. “She could’ve walked out of there and said she never wanted to go back, but she didn’t,” Josh said. “She never gave up. By the end of that series, she finished third against some top riders who consistently put up times that were tough to beat. Tru needed to see that she wouldn’t win every time she got on that horse, that she had to work for it. That’s when I knew they were ready for Vegas.” As a push-style horse, Rockette was nothing like other horses Tru had ridden before, with the exception of Cash, who shared one similarity.

Fearless Freshman
“When Tru first ran Rockette, Ryan turned to me and said: ‘Because of Cash, she has no idea that she’s riding a literal rocket,’” Josh said. “At 10 years old, Tru learned how to handle a beast and then every other horse out there is nothing by comparison. Her only game plan is to ride well, and it never crosses her mind to be scared to go fast.” It’s this fearless approach that fuels Tru’s confidence. She gets nerves and even entertains occasional doubts much like her peers, but Tru doesn’t let it take hold of what she knows to be true: she’s a skilled horsewoman riding one of the fastest rockets out there.
“Tru went to the world finals never thinking anything less than she could win it,” Josh said.
Taking her turns a bit wide was a safe gamble in the first two rounds of Vegas. Tru knew Rockette had the speed to get them to the finals if they could stay clean. Once in the finals, Tru left it all out in the arena. She pushed Rockette harder simply because she was proud of the fact they even made the short round. Anything after that feat was just extra for Tru. “The whole experience in Vegas was better than I could have ever imagined it to be,” Tru said. “We’ve joked that we won’t be able to top it.”
While outdoing 2022 will be tough, Tru has the determination, work ethic and the horsepower to accomplish anything she sets her mind to.
Tru’s cheering section in Vegas is the perfect illustration of the community surrounding her in this endeavor. “We probably had 15 people fly in from Washington and California to watch her in the short round,” Nichole said. “We’ve all fallen in love with the sport and the people. We get to spend so much time together as a family because of rodeo and that’s been such a blessing.” At 18, Tru’s older sister didn’t pursue horses after hitting the dirt during a riding lesson. “Alivia was a beautiful dancer and later did voice lessons and theater in high school, she just didn’t have any interest in horses like Tru did,” Nichole said. “She’s literally the exact opposite of a cowgirl; like picks up a pitchfork with two fingers.”
Regardless of their divided interests, Alivia is at every one of her sister’s events.
For a family that knew nothing about rodeo only eight years ago, they’ve come a long way together. “Being so big, horses seem like they should be really dangerous but they’re so docile,” Nichole said. “It’s so therapeutic to go out and just brush a horse or clean their stall. I think riding horses makes Tru feel like she’s part of something bigger than herself. She’s a lot more spiritual than anyone else in our family and I think it’s cool that horses brought her closer to God.” Perhaps qualifying for the Junior World Finals was the happiest accident of Tru’s life so far. Or maybe it’s just the very beginning of her story as a barrel racer. “Anyone can be like Tru; yes, it will cost money and be a lot of work, but anyone can make it big,” Josh said. “There are so many kids out there who don’t have anyone propelling them to the next level, but they should all know that it’s within their reach if they work hard.”

“Cowboys don’t know what pen to put her in,” said 4x World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider, Clint Johnson, about Killer Bee. “She is probably the greatest in this generation. She’s been a little bit of an exception all along. She is an outstanding bronc – one of those horses that comes along once in a lifetime – like Secretariat, Scamper, and a handful of others that were exceptional in their discipline.”
Killer Bee is the daughter of Commotion and Molly Bee. “Molly Bee had been to the finals four or five times and we bred her to Commotion as we retired him. That mare colicked when we were in Nebraska and she didn’t survive the surgery,” said Bennie Beutler. “Killer Bee was two months old, and we raised her on a bottle. She never got real gentle.”
She bucked her first time as a four-year-old, at a college rodeo. “We eased her along to some of the smaller rodeos,” continued Bennie. “We knew we had something – she was rank in the bareback.” Cowboys couldn’t mark her high enough, so she was switched to bronc riding. The Wrights got on her – that was in 2015 – the bronc riders wouldn’t get on her because they couldn’t ride her. When cowboys could ride her, they, they were in the 90s and same in the bronc riders. “She’s just as rank one way as the other.”
At 17, Killer Bee went out on top – Dawson Hay scoring a 92 point ride in Round 9 of the 2022 WNFR. Among her other accolades Killer Bee was the 2020 Wrangler NFR top bareback horse. She was the 2019 PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year and voted top bareback horse of Round 3 of the 2019 NFR after bucking off Austin Foss. Killer Bee was also the top bareback horse of the 2018 NFR and top saddle bronc horse of the 2013 and 2014 NFRs. Her job now? Raise colts. “Now the hard part comes.”

The Beutler name has long been connected to rodeo stock and this year their ranch-raised stock took all three awards for top-scored rough stock of the Finals. Beutler & Son were awarded best bareback, bronc, and bull of the Finals. This comes from the judges scores – and with 105 in each event, winning one is an honor and winning all three has never been done.
“We were pretty fortunate.”

Killer Bee Accomplishments
2013 – Top Saddle Bronc of the NFR
2014 – Top Saddle Bronc of the NFR
2018 – Top Bareback Bronc of the NFR
2019 – PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year
2020 – Top Bareback Bronc of the NFR
2022 – Top Saddle Bronc of the NFR

Beutler & Son Accomplishments

Most Top Bucking Stock of the NFR Awards for a Single Rodeo Company – (14), six bucking bulls, four barebacks, and four saddle broncs.
Most Top Bucking Stock of the NFR Awards – Killer Bee (5), 2013, 2014 & 2022 as a saddle bronc and 2018 & 2020 as a bareback horse (Tied with Sippin’ Velvet (Bernis Johnson).
Most Top Saddle Bronc of the NFR Awards – Killer Bee (3), 2013, 2014 & 2022 (Tied with Angle Blue (Flying U), Trade Winds (Big Bend), & Trails End (Zumwalt).
First Stock Contracting Company to Win All Three Top Bucking Stock of the NFR Awards In A Single Year – 2022 with Killer Bee (saddle bronc), Ghost Town (bareback), and Smoke Stack (bull).
4th Highest Scored Bareback Ride in PRCA History (13-way tie) 93 points by Devan Reily on Beutler & Son Rodeo’s Killer Bee in Tucson, Arizona, in 2018.

Ranch Raised

The Beutler name has long been connected to rodeo stock and this year their ranch-raised stock took all three awards for top-scored rough stock of the Finals. Beutler & Son were awarded best bareback, bronc, and bull of the Finals. This comes from the judges scores – and with 105 in each event, winning one is an honor and winning all three has never been done.

Multi-talented Jackie Crawford won the 2020 WPRA (Womens Professional Rodeo Association) Breakaway Roping world title by less than $2,000. Her performance at the first ever Wrangler National Finals Breakaway Roping held in Arlington, Texas, propelled the 38-year-old to win her 20th (WPRA) World title. This isn’t her first Breakaway World Championship, she has won the WPRA title in 2016 and 2014. She is the second most decorated member of WPRA, trailing the late Wanda Harper Bush, also an inductee of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, who won 32 titles during her rodeo career. Jackie’s other titles have been in All-Around, Team Roping, Tie-Down Roping plus she also barrel raced.

The National Finals Rodeo, held in December happened to coincide with Jackie being six month pregnant with her daughter, due in March. “At first I wasn’t sure if I would compete. It was a bittersweet feeling because we have worked so hard and been on this journey to bring breakaway to this level; so to watch the inaugural year from the sidelines would have been tough. After much discussion with my family, doctor, and prayers, I told myself as long as I was comfortable, I was going to compete!”

Jackie makes her home in Stephenville, Texas, with her husband, Charly; their daughter, Kaydence, age 16; and three year old Creed. The 38 year-old said, “I cut the horn off my saddle, to protect the baby. I trust my horse, T-Boy, so much and had so much confidence in him.” She had continued to compete three years ago until she was five and a half months pregnant with her son, Creed.

The National Finals Breakaway Roping event was ten rounds, then they took the top eight into a shoot-out round, followed by the top four. Jackie managed it all. She even went back to the judges in Round 5 and admitted she had an illegal catch (the calf’s back leg in the loop) that the judges did not catch. The judges listened and changed her score to a ‘no-time’. But in spite of her honesty, winning $25,536 with two go-round wins, and placing in four rounds, she came out on top, with a total for the year of $47,185.
Jackie thought the National Finals event was an awesome time. “I was suppose to be on that journey . . . what a way to end on a high and take a break!” She and Charly have named the ‘soon to be born little girl’ Journey.

“My mom (Annette) and dad (Mark Hobbs) rodeoed in Illinois. My dad and his brother are the only two to win the National High School Finals Team Roping from Illinois.” Jackie explained that her mom cut the middle out of a foam pillow, for the saddle horn, and that is where she rode. Her mother was well known for training barrel and roping horses and she was inducted into the Murray State College Rodeo Hall of Fame. “You can’t have a cake without the ingredients – in other words, it took a good work ethic, dedication, horses, coaches, and sacrifice – you have to be willing to put it first,” said Annette, who got her work ethic from her dad.

Jackie began competing in junior rodeos in barrel racing, poles and flags. When they moved to Oklahoma she added roping. “I was drawn to it – I was meant to be a roper. I turned my barrel horse into a roping horse. I started competing my sophomore year in high school.”

Before they moved to Oklahoma her mom worked at Fairmont Park Race Track in Collinsville, Illinois. In Oklahoma she went to work for Blue Ribbon Downs, in Sallisaw, while she studied to be a radiologist. Jackie began working there cleaning stalls when she was 14. She got her pony license at 16. “To this day I have scars on by body from ponying horses. It taught me to appreciate a good minded horse and what those horses are, and what they do and how athletic they are.”

Her first team roping horse came from the track. “I team roped and barrel raced off that big impressive bay gelding,” she said. “I sold him to buy my first truck – a 1996 extended-cab Dodge. It was the coolest thing in the world to me; I got to go to college from that horse.” She had several full scholarships from colleges in her area of Oklahoma. “Wanting to be the best and being so competitive I wanted to go to the toughest place there was. I knew the southern region was the toughest region. I took a scholarship for less money to go to Vernon Regional Junior College, Texas.” As she expected the competition was something she’d never seen before. She did win the NIRA Breakaway Roping Championship which helped the Women’s Team win that year, as well. “Iron sharpens iron and that was my mentality.”

Jackie then went on to Tarleton State University, in Stephenville, TX, with her best friend in college, Tessie McMullan Doyle. They pushed each other every day to become better competitors. Their women’s team won the National title their senior year, 2005
After college she went to work for Lari Dee Guy, in Abilene, TX, riding colts training roping horses, whatever was necessary. She admits she learned a lot. In 2009 Trevor Brazile won the calf roping and team roping on Sans Diamond Shine at the World Show and the owner of the horse sent us a bunch of that stud’s colts to train. “They were all good horses and I bought T-Boy out of that group,” she said. At first they didn’t get along. “He was so quirky, and we went through a battle,” she admits. “I had the feeling there was something about him – he isn’t fancy. He was a problem and hard to get to work, but he had an ability to win.” When he was five she took him to Joe’s Boot Shop that had a five-header and he won. He has been taking her to the pay window for a decade. Today she says, “He’s just a phenomenal horse. I don’t think anyone can dispute the fact he’s probably the highest money-earning horse ever in breakaway roping. He’s just a winner.”

Jackie met Charly through the roping world. She was dating a mutual friend of his. “I thought she was a buckle bunny,” said Charly. “It turned out that wasn’t the case at all. We became friends and had a lot of things in common. One year she needed a head horse for the World Series Finale in Vegas so I let her use one of mine, and it went from there – I could tell right way it was a fit.”
Charly started roping at a young age in Canby, Oregon. He roped with his dad and made it to the National High School Finals three times. He graduated in 1996 and went to Central Arizona College for two years. “I got my PRCA permit when I was 17 but didn’t have enough horses to really compete.” He bought his PRCA card in 1998 and won the Resistol Rookie (header) of the Year in Team Roping. He’s made 10 appearances at the National Finals which included 2020, when he and his partner, Logan Medlin, won the 7th go-round. He plans to slow down and concentrate on his family, his roping schools and clinics. “I’ve gotten five heelers to the NFR so I figure I better take that talent and use it to put on schools and lessons. My daughter wants to make the UPRA anc CPRA finals this year so I want to help her as well as help Jackie however I can. I’m good with being a good dad and husband.”
Jackie graduated with a degree in Business Administration, which she admits has helped her with communication, sponsorships, and everything else that goes with rodeo. She has hired Cheyenne Britain that acts as Jackie’s ‘right hand man’. “She helps me saddle, unsaddle, drive and everything in between. “I hired an agent and a social media person,” Jackie explained. Charly and Jackie are restructuring their program so they can do the things a replacement can’t do. “Nobody can replace a mother, a dad, wife, husband or a competitive roper,” she said.

Creed has grown up in the arena. “We have huge play areas set up inside a 10×20 chain link fence; slides, jungle gyms, etc.,” said Jackie. “In between horses, we play and do what we need to do.” The plan is to keep going. “Our biggest goal as a family is not to be broke cowboys – rodeo doesn’t have a 401K.” Jackie’s initial goals were to be in the conversation of the greatest women ropers in the world and get inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Now that the doors are opening to breakaway roping opportunities, her goals are changing, but in the end she wants “to know that no matter what, I’ve accomplished the things, I’ve worked for. I did it and stamped my place in history … a sigh of relief that the first NFBR is in the books. Let’s rock on and keep this ball rolling. I’m so fortunate to do this – I get to be with my kids. Even though we are working, we are all together as a family all day. How many people get to say that.”

“My vision for myself is continuing to help put this sport in a position that when I’m too old to do it, I’m sitting in the gold buckle seats watching my daughters roping at NFR.”

CHAMPIONSHIP WINS
2020 National Finals Breakaway Roping
2016, 2014 Womens Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) Breakaway Roping
WPRA All-Around 2019, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009 & 2008
WPRA Team Roping 2016, 2014
WPRA Tie-Down Roping 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008

2003 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Breakaway Roping for Vernon Regional Junior College
2003 National Woman’s Team for Vernon Regional Junior College
2005 National Woman’s Team for Tarleton State University
2000 Oklahoma State Champion Breakaway Roper
2020 Betty Gayle Cooper Ratliff Fast-Time Award see story on pg 43
Sponsors:
American Hat, Ariat, Smarty, Hay Chix, Classic Equine, Rattler rope, Classic rope, Martin Saddlery, LubiSyn, Chute Help, Plaza Hotel and Casino, Total Feeds