Rodeo Life

Category: Archive

  • Shy-Anne Jarrett

    Shy-Anne Jarrett

    Horses run through Shy-Anne Jarrett’s life. She gets up every morning thinking about them, and goes to bed with them on her mind. The Oklahoma cowgirl was born and raised in Comanche, and grew up with parents who rodeoed and a mom who trained futurity horses. As a youngster, Shy-Anne had an exceptionally good barrel horse, Rambling Rally, who carried her to the Texas Cowboys Rodeo Association Finals four times, when she was a young teenager. “It was pretty neat  at that age to have a horse like that,” she recalls. “I wish I had a barn-full of them right now.”

    In addition to the TCRA, she also competed in the Midwest Cowboys Rodeo Association. In high school, she did all the girls events and qualified for the National High School Finals three times: twice in the barrels (riding Rambling Rally) and once in the breakaway roping. She was also an International Pro Rodeo Association member.

    After high school, she got a full scholarship to rodeo at Vernon (Texas) College, and made the College National Finals twice, both times in the barrel racing. In 2003, she helped the Vernon College Women’s team win the CNFR, the same year that the men from Vernon also won it.

    During college, Shy-Anne began riding and training outside horses, “something I swore I’d never do,” she laughs. She had always started her own horses, and eventually, she was riding for the public. “I’ve always rode green horses, and got to riding for the public a little more and a little more, and it turned into full-time.” She enjoys it and is successful at it. “It’s been good to me,” she says. “I’ve sold some really nice horses.” She focuses on horses for young people. “When I was junior and high school rodeoing, I had two really good horses, so I know how important it is for that age group” to find success. “I try to train horses that those kids can grow up on.”

    Shy-Anne trains her horses for all events. “I rope on everything I have, run barrels, start them on poles. If I think it’s going to be more of a roping horse, I’ll take a goat out and get off a few times. I think it makes a better horse if he can do it all.”

    Shy-Anne is married to the 2005 All-Around World Champion Ryan Jarrett. They met through a mutual friend, who insisted that Shy-Anne needed to meet “this guy.” “I kept thinking, ‘Oh, boy, all I need is a boyfriend.’” But finally Ryan got her number. “He called me out of the blue one day. I didn’t have a clue who he was. We struck up a conversation, and actually talked for about a month before we ever met.” That was in the fall of 2005, and they were married in 2010.

    The couple runs cattle on wheat pasture and pre-conditions calves. When Ryan is on the road, Shy-Anne is home to help with cattle and chores, although she hits the road hard herself. “Somebody’s got to stay home and keep things going.” She has been a TCRA member for about eight years.

  • Mason Lowe

    Mason Lowe

    Mason Lowe is a bull rider in the Arkansas Cowboys Association. The twenty year old cowboy began rodeoing when his dad “throwed me on (a calf) when I was three and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

    He lives in Exeter, Mo., in the southwest part of the state, and graduated from Exeter High School in 2012. He is a student at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Mo., where he also bull dogs and team ropes for the all-around points. Bull riding is his strength, however.

    In high school, Mason played baseball and was an FFA member. In college, he’s taking care of his required courses and isn’t sure what his major will be, although it will involve agriculture in some way. He loves to hunt whitetail deer and fish for trout, white bass and crappie. Mason’s grandpa, Larry Reed, cooks what he brings home, whether it’s frying the fish or processing the deer. Larry used to own a butcher shop and turns the deer into steaks, tenderloins, jerky, and summer sausage.

    Mason is in his second year of membership in the ACA. He’s been a member of the National Federation of Pro Bull Riders for six years and has been to their finals five times, winning the average and reserve year-end title last year. For his years of riding bulls, Mason hasn’t seen many injuries. He’s had stitches above his eye and in his fingers. The stitches in the fingers came when a bull reared up in the chute, his feet caught the bars, and when he came back down, his spur went through his hand.

    If he had to choose a bull that was his favorite, he’d choose 14 of Cline Hall’s. He got on 14 at the ACA Finals last year in the first go-round and was 82 points on him. He also favors a black bull of Hall’s, who he rode in the second go-round at the Finals.

    Mason has an older sister, Kayla, who is 24, and a younger step-sister, Alyssa, who is eight. He is the son of Jerry and Melissa Whisenhunt and Stacy Lowe.

  • Waylon Davis

    Waylon Davis

    Waylon Davis has been team roping competitively for only a year, but in 2013 he roped himself a chance to compete in the World Series of Team Roping Finale. The 24-year-old cowboy came home from the famous event with $130,600. For Waylon, the journey to the WSTR took hard work and smart thinking. “You’ve got to do your homework, work hard, and practice a lot,” he says. “A lot of people have helped me along the way.”

    Waylon grew up in Breckinridge, Texas with a rope in hand, but he didn’t become involved in rodeo until he was 12. “My older brother (Reece Clark) took me around with him when I was 12 and let me cowboy with him. I started riding horses and broncs and roping and shoeing.” When he was 16, Waylon started competing in ranch rodeos and ranch bronc ridings, as his serious pursuit of roping was yet to come.

    After graduating from high school, Waylon went to Ranger Junior College with a rodeo scholarship and competed on the school’s rodeo team in saddle bronc riding. Funding his schooling required working several jobs, and after a semester and a half of such a demanding schedule, Waylon decided to quit school. He began working day jobs at ranches, riding colts, and shoeing horses. “I cowboyed mainly until everyone shipped their cattle out during the drought. Then I got a chance to go to TCU (Texas Christian University) for the ranch management program. I graduated and that’s how I go to Weatherford (Texas).”

    Following his graduation from TCU, Waylon found a place to live in Weatherford where he met Slick Robison. Robison trains roping horses, and ended up being the person to help Waylon with his big start in team roping. “I was roping and riding with him every day,” says Waylon. “We’d go to jackpots around home. I started out a #4 header and heeler. I got my card and the first one (WSTR team roping) I went to I won $5,000. Then we went to Stephenville (Texas) with the same #4 card. I roped with A.P. Jones and we won $3,200 in that one. After that they finally bumped me to a 5 elite. I went to Graham and entered the #12 finale and won that and split $35,000 with my partner, Clint Johnson.”

    During this whirlwind of team roping, Waylon and a group of cowboys he knew from ranching were competing in ranch rodeos. At the Western Heritage Classic in Abilene, Texas, Waylon won Top Hand, earning him a bit and a hand tooled saddle. Not long after that, he won Top Hand at the All-Around Performance Horse Ranch Rodeo Challenge in Glenrose, Texas and came home with another saddle. At that same ranch rodeo in Glenrose, Waylon and his teammates Nathan Carter, Cody Carter, Slick Robison, and Reid McGee won the entire rodeo. Over roughly 30 days during the spring, Waylon won nearly $30,000 dollars from team roping. He is the owner of eight new saddles and more belt buckles than he can recall. Team roping has turned into his fulltime job.

    After Waylon qualified for the WSTR Finale, his main team roping horse, a six-year-old bay called Day Trash was kicked in the knee in early November. X-rays showed that it was a bone chip. Day Trash was still able to compete in Las Vegas, where he helped Waylon win the big money in the #10 roping. Waylon had been practicing with the brother-sister duo Shawn and Danielle Darnall while preparing for the WSTR in Las Vegas. Among the roping horses that Waylon drove to Las Vegas was Funny Face, a head horse that he borrowed from Danielle Darnall and her boss, Jeff Busby.. Waylon set off to Vegas with the Darnells, splitting the 20 hour trip into two days.

    Waylon’s roping partners for the WSTR were John C. Brian, Clint Johnson, Troy Brown, Bud Lowrey, and Chase Harris. Waylon competed in five ropings altogether, but ropings #10 and #13 are where he and his partners had successful runs. Waylon was heeling for John C. Brian in the #10 when they won $250,000, cutting a $125,000 check for each cowboy. He topped off his winnings with the $5,600 that he won heading with Clint Johnson in the #13. “It turned out really good for all three of us,” says Waylon. His girlfriend, Hannah Flowers, flew in to surprise him in Las Vegas, arriving just after he won the #10. When it was all over after 11 exciting yet long days away from home, Waylon was ready to put his truck into gear and head home.

    In one year, Waylon’s team roping has earned him nearly $180,000. He is greatly encouraged by his success in 2013, and in conclusion, he said, “I’m just going to keep team roping and try to qualify again (for the WSTR Finale) next year. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and try to be more successful.”

  • Bill Feddersen

    Bill Feddersen

    Bill Feddersen was the first saddle bronc rider out of the chutes at the first NFR in 1959. At the time, the NFR took place in Dallas, Tex. and $10,000 was put up as prize money for each of the five events. Bill reflected on the difference just in prize money alone between today’s NFR and the first one held in 1959. “A few years ago I was going home with a cowboy from Oklahoma after going to the NFR. We were talking, and he told me that he rode four bulls at the finals and won $53,000. I told him, ‘You got more money riding four bulls than all of the money put together for the first NFR!’. Although, we probably ended up with as much money then as they do now, since gas was only 25 cents and a hamburger was a dime.”

    Bill was born in Union City, Okla. in 1927. He had a younger brother, Don, and their family ran a farm and raised beef cattle. Bill loves to tell the story about his first “horse”. “When I was four years old, I told my mother that all I wanted in life was a horse. One day she got me a horse and I ran outside all excited. It was a stick horse and I loved that horse. I taught it to walk and trot and backup, and I even rode it to school. I tied it up with the big horses. One day I came out of school and someone had stolen my stick horse. But what bothered me the most is that I had to walk home.” In high school, Bill rode a four legged horse the four miles between home and the schoolhouse. It was in high school that Bill had his first chance to compete in rodeo. “Ed Curtis was a rodeo cowboy and he moved down by me. I rode horses and calves and cows – everything I could get on. When I was in high school, he (Ed) took me to my first rodeo in 1943.” Bill loved his first rodeo, held on a baseball field, and became further involved in the sport when he joined the Cowboys’ Turtle Association. In 1946, the association became the Rodeo Cowboys’ Association (RCA), which would later become the PRCA. Bill’s rodeo pursuits were put on hold, however, when he was drafted into the Army during WW II. He got out of the Army in 1948 and continued on with the RCA. Altogether, he was their vice president for seven years, and Bill helped start the association’s first rodeo judging school. “That was quite an experience for me. I didn’t have anything written down on how to judge. I asked a lot of questions and we had to change some rules. It was just start from scratch and we figured out how to watch the barrier and where to stand and how the calves should be tied down. I went all over the United States and Canada teaching schools. I did that for about five years.”

    Bill met his wife, Donna, in 1948 and they married soon after. It was in 1952 that Bill began rodeoing professionally, competing in the rodeos at Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden. “I rode down Fifth Avenue on horseback in New York City. They had a parade to advertise for the rodeo.” When Bill was embarking into rodeo competition, there were not many rodeo schools to attend or instructional films. “It was just learning by watching people and practicing with people,” Bill explains. Over the first few years, Bill experimented in all of the events, trying them out and seeing what he was best at. “I may hold a record in the rodeo business,” he said with a laugh, “I placed in nine different events. Bull riding, bareback, saddle bronc, team roping, bull dogging, calf roping, wild cow milking, the wild horse race, and the steer decorating up in Canada.” Bill settled in with bull dogging and saddle bronc riding and went to compete at the first NFR in both events. His brother, Don, joined him at the NFR in 1960, and they were the first brothers to compete in a timed event at the finals. They often hazed for one another. Bill says about bull dogging, “I weighed 163 pounds and I looked like a water boy to the Green Bay Packers.” He and his brother won the bull dogging at the Cow Palace three years in a row, from 1959 – 1961. Bill also won the saddle bronc riding in 1960 at the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of 98,000 people. He travelled down the road with his rodeo buddies Ed and Andy Curtis and Marty Wood, and Bill always admired Casey Tibbs when it came to rodeo idols. Bill was also travelling with his family to rodeos. “It was kind of a family affair. A lot of cowboys had their wives and kids with them.” One of the highlights for the Feddersen family was going on a free trip to Hawaii when Bill was invited to compete in a rodeo there. Another favorite memory of Bill’s is the day that Marty Wood gave him a pair of chaps and nick named him Good Times. “I always had a good time at the rodeo,” Bill remembers.

    When Bill retired from rodeo in 1962, he had ridden approximately 4,000 saddle broncs in his rodeo career and in all those rides, he never once was injured badly enough to go out in the ambulance. During his last year of rodeo, Bill went to 55 rodeos and placed 76 times. After retiring from the sport, he continued his job as a switchman for Rock Island Railroad. He had been working for the railroad since 1950, even through all of his years as a professional cowboy. “Jim Shoulders said he couldn’t believe that anyone could hold a job and go the NFR in two events. The railroad treated me real good.”

    Today, Bill lives with his wife of 65 years, Donna, in El Reno, Okla. They have two children, two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Bill and Donna are sure to go watch the WNFR every year, which for Bill, brings back memories of the years he competed there during his rodeo career. Fittingly, Bill was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2013, and he concluded, “After all those years of rodeoing, it’s an honor for me to make the Cowboy Hall of Fame.”

  • Wyatt Crowder

    Wyatt Crowder

    Wyatt Crowder is a good businessman. He knows how to work, how to see things from a different perspective, and the 18 year old cowboy is on his way to a well-established business.

    The Ft. Lupton, Colo. man found his bucking bull passion four years ago, when he and his uncle bought a cow and five bucking bulls. Wyatt had helped uncle Mike Hadley produce a bull riding futurity in Loveland, and when uncle Rick Harris offered to partner with him on the cow and bulls, he jumped at the chance. After breeding them, they sold them and Wyatt bought his most famous bull so far, The Rocker.

    Last October, as a four year old, The Rocker won the Classic at the PBR Finals in Las Vegas. The Classic is an American Bucking Bull event, where bulls are ranked coming into the PBR Finals and are scored. Bulls are scored as they are ridden by PBR Finals qualifiers, and then owners are paid, just as a bull riding event is paid out.

    The Rocker bucked off Luke Snyder in the first go-round and Kody Lostroh in the second, scoring an 86.75 and an 89.25 to win. As Classic champ, The Rocker won a gold buckle, trailer, and $200,000. Wyatt had a plan for his earnings: a new truck to replace the old one, and the rest of the money into his business.

    Wyatt bought The Rocker as a yearling, unseen. His mom watched him buck at a sale, and “she pretty much told us, go ahead and buy him and trust her, he’s that good,” Wyatt remembers. “We actually kind of stole him for as cheap as he was.” The Rocker required quite a bit of work, however. “I had to do a lot of work with him as a two year old.” Because he had so much kick, he had a tendency to fall to his knees when Wyatt put the dummy rider on him. “I had to do a lot of work teaching him not to fall down.” As a three year old, he began his first year of breeding, and it was last year that Wyatt began hauling him to Classic events.

    Prior to high school, Wyatt competed in the tie-down roping and the team roping, but he was getting burned out. “I’d won everything you could win.” That’s when The Rocker entered the picture, and “ever since then, it’s been bulls, bulls, bulls.”

    When he started in the bull business, he knew he needed to learn more. “I went down to the big guys (bull stock contractors Darrel Hargis and Dillon and H.D. Page) and learned how to do stuff, and it’s paying off.” He gives credit to Hargis and the Pages. “I got a lot of tips from them. They’ve helped me out quite a bit.” Wyatt’s Uncle Mike also offered advice and helped him get a good start in business.

    Not only has Wyatt gotten into the bull business, he’s helped create a bucking bull supplement. With his first bulls, he was feeding the liquid Performance Essential of Formula 707. He really liked it, but it was hard to administer to each bull. He approached Melanie Luark with Formula 707 with suggestions, and she asked for his help in making a bucking bull product. They combined the Performance Essential with other ingredients, and Wyatt is pleased with the result. “It really, really, really works good. I wouldn’t feed my bulls anything else. I won’t take my bulls off 707. Formula 707 bends over backwards to help me out.”

    Wyatt graduated from high school in May of 2013, and his future is in his bucking bulls. He has a herd of 50 cows and 25 bulls, and The Rocker has a set of coming two year olds who look really good, with a chance for one of them to go to futurities next summer.  He also owns The Rocker’s sire and a brother who is “possibly as good as (The Rocker) is.” He plans on turning The Rocker out on more cows next year, and hauling him to more PBR events. And whatever happens with his business, Wyatt is ready for it. “If you do something, you have to give it 100 percent, or there’s no sense in doing it.”

    Formula 707 is one of Wyatt’s sponsors, as is Estes Park Feed Store, Greeley Hat Works, and Knobbs Chiropractic. Wyatt’s parents are Robert and Missy Crowder, and his younger sister, Peyton, also owns some bucking bulls.

  • Mandy Bari

    Mandy Bari

    Mandy Bari rides a horse with a disability, but the horse has no idea that he is at a disadvantage. Her ten year old barrel horse, Forest (named after the character in the movie “Forest Gump”), is blind in one eye. Forest, whose registered name is Forest Firewater, was born ten years ago, after his dam carried him for twelve months. When he was born, his front legs wouldn’t straighten out, so he wore braces.

    As a four year old, Mandy made the Barrel Futurities of America Finals in Oklahoma City on him. When he was seven, he developed an irritation in the eye. In the process of doctoring it over a month and a half period, he scratched it while rubbing it, and an ulcer developed. The veterinarian treated the ulcer for another three weeks, but it never improved. Forest was in so much pain, that the vet advised Mandy that the eye should be removed. Mandy agreed, and Forest’s right eye was removed. Two days later, Mandy brought him home. “He was fine, he was running and playing and had no pain.”

    And Forest has no idea that he only has his left eye. As he runs the barrel pattern, he loses sight of the first barrel, but rarely knocks it over. “He runs exactly the same as if (the eye) was in there,” Mandy says. “He runs normal to me.” And the loss of the eye hasn’t changed his temperament, either. “Most horses I know that have lost an eye are skittish and you have to be careful around them. But not him. My little girl is around him all the time, and he knows right where you’re at.” Mandy speculates that the loss of his sight in the eye was gradual, so Forest never realized his vision was gone.

    Mandy has competed on Forest at three of the ten Arkansas Cowboys Association Finals Rodeos for which she has qualified. She rode him in 2010 at the Finals, just four days after his eye had been removed. In 2011, she was second in the average on him, and in 2012, she won the average.

    The Arkansas Cowboys Association member has lived in Jonesboro, Ark. her entire life. Before she had Forest, she grew up on a little gray mare, Dolly. “Everybody in the state remembers ol’ Dolly,” Mandy says. She went to the ACA Finals on Dolly three times, and after Dolly, she rode a bay mare named Hazel, who also carried her to the Finals.

    Mandy is a graduate of Westside High School in Jonesboro and Arkansas State University, where she graduated with a degree in animal science. She worked as a secretary for a construction company and as a vet tech, until May of 2012, when she had her daughter, Laura Mae. Now she is a stay at home mom.

    She and her husband Chuck married in 1999. Chuck has never competed in rodeo but loves it, “more than I do,” Mandy says. He goes with her and helps get Forest ready. This year, he’s helped babysit Laura Mae while Mandy runs. He also drives tractor to do the groundwork at some of the big barrel races, including the Lucky Dog Barrel Races.

    Mandy also competes in the International Pro Rodeo Association, the Women’s Pro Rodeo Association, and in 4Ds. Laura Mae travels with her mom and dad, unless it’s going to be a late night, and then she stays with her grandma. Mandy’s dad and brother, Randy and Cody Emerson, are also ACA members.

  • Tina Deshotels

    Tina Deshotels

    Tina Deshotels is a barrel racer in the Louisiana High School Rodeo Association. The eighteen year old cowgirl, who lives in Mamou, La., is in her third year of high school rodeo.

    She rides a thirteen year old bay gelding named Dennis the Menace, whose name fits him well. “He’s very high maintenance,” Tina says. “We make plenty of trips to the vet, chiropractor, and the dentist.” Menace, as he is nicknamed, also loves company. “He’s very much a people horse,” she says. “He’s very cuddly and in everybody’s business. He’s always hanging around.”

    The senior in high school is homeschooled, and dispels the rumor that home schooling is easy. “You don’t get to do it in your pajamas like everybody thinks.” The best part of homeschooling is that she can finish early and ride. The worst part of homeschooling is the self-discipline, “to sit down and do your work.” But being self-disciplined is beneficial, she believes. Homeschool, she believes, also helps a person mature faster. “You learn a lot more around your parents than you do in school.” She’s learned how to change a blown-out tire, for example. “You learn to grow up a little bit more. You have to be mature about it.”

    In school, her favorite subject is math, and she has enjoyed Bible class, where the class has studied not just the Bible but personal finance. When her school day is over, Tina rides and works for her dad. Her dad has a real estate business and a septic tank business, so she answers the phone, does computer work, writes receipts, and runs errands.

    Her earnings go towards payments on the Hummer H3 that she bought last summer. Even though the Hummer is new to her, she’s thinking about replacing it with a truck. The Hummer “isn’t too good on gas, not at all,” she admits, and the truck would be useful for hauling her horse.

    Tina has two older brothers, Alec, 26, and Robbie, 24, and an older sister, Valli, who is 21. She also has two nephews, Eli and Cy, who are both two years old, and love their Aunt Tina, or “Nana,” as they call her. She loves to play with them and read books to them.

    After high school, she hopes to attend college and major in a business related field. She may not college rodeo but will focus on her studies. Tina will compete in local open barrel racings, and someday, wants to join the Women’s Pro Rodeo Association to rodeo professionally. She is the daughter of Luke and Jonell Deshotels.

  • Krista Romero

    Krista Romero

    Krista Romero’s family loves it when she’s baking in the kitchen. The thirteen year old cowgirl’s specialties are cakes, cookies, and cupcakes, especially red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Everybody in her family loves her red velvet cupcakes, and sometimes she even decorates them with sprinkles or pretty patterns cut out of fondue.

    The Church Point, La. cowgirl competes in the Louisiana Junior High Rodeo Association as a barrel racer and pole bender, with barrels being her favorite event.She rides the same horse for both events, an eleven year old named Pete. Pete is really good, but really smart, and he can be a troublemaker. He sometimes gives her problems in the alleyway. At home, when she goes to catch him, he runs away. “But he still takes care of me,” she says.

    She is an eighth grade student at Richard Elementary in Church Point, and she loves the teachers at the school, who are always willing to help her out. But her favorite teacher is Miss Comeaux, her seventh grade English teacher, because “she always said how good her students are, and she encouraged us to do better in school, and she helped me a lot, too.” Krista still has her for enrichment classes at the end of the day.

    She likes to read mystery books and is currently reading “Close to Famous.” It’s about a girl who loves to bake and wants to become famous through her baking. She is a 4-H participant and plays volleyball. Krista’s mom helps her with her baking, and even though she doesn’t do much cooking yet, she enjoys her favorite meal her mom makes: chicken fettuccine. The family has two pet dogs: Max, a Shih Tzu, and Cookie, who is part rat terrier and part Shih Tzu. Cookie claims Krista as “her person,” and sleeps with her every night. She doesn’t hog the bed, but she sure hogs the pillow.

    Krista also competes in the National Barrel Horse Association, where she has qualified for the World NBHA Show two years, and has also qualified for July of this year. She qualified for the junior high state finals last summer. When she was younger, she competed in the Acadiana Youth Rodeo Association, where she’s won several buckles. When she grows up, she’d like to be a veterinarian. Her favorite animals are horses. She is the daughter of Rickey and Christy Romero.

  • Michal Robertson

    Michal Robertson

    Michal Robertson is a barrel racer and pole bender in the Kansas High School Rodeo Association. The 18 year old cowgirl lives in Garden Plain, Kan., just outside Wichita, and loves barrels more than any other event. “Chasing cans is pretty fun,” she says.

    Her barrel horse is a ten year old named Ty. He started his rodeo career as a heading horse for Michal’s dad, but Michal and her dad realized that Ty was pretty athletic and they should give him a try on barrels. So Ty went to a trainer, came back, and “he’s pretty darn good,” she says. Michal has purchased him from her dad and is making payments on him, but her dad still uses the horse occasionally for team ropings.

    Michal’s pole horse is a 19 year old sorrel named Buddy who is new to her. He was going to be her main barrel horse, but she realized “he’s a smoking good pole horse.” This is Michal’s first year to run poles, so it’s a learning experience for her, even though Buddy has run poles for years. “It’s definitely a work in progress,” she says. Buddy is not very understanding, she jokes. “He’s like, ‘what are you doing?’ He gets really impatient.”

    Michal is a senior at Garden Plain High School, where she is taking five online college classes. In her marketing management class, she is head of the marketing team for the school’s café, “The Nest.” Students bake cookies, popcorn chicken, nachos, and corn dogs, and make slushies and coffee and sell them to their classmates during the day. The class is in charge of the café’s finances, purchases, and marketing, and they gain business experience through the class. “I love it,” she says.

    She is a member of the gifted program, is on the honor roll, and is a member of the Farm Credit Academic Team for the Kansas High School Rodeo Association. She is the event director for the tie-down roping.

    Her unusual name is pronounced “Michael,” and comes from the Bible. David’s first wife was named Michal, and her mom and dad thought it flowed well with her older sister’s name, Morgan. She’s thankful her last name is easy to pronounce. Announcers struggle with “Michal.” “When they have this dramatic pause before they say my (first) name, and then they say Robertson, I know it’s me,” she laughs.

    After high school, Michal plans to attend junior college, compete in collegiate rodeo, and then go on to finish her bachelor’s at a four year college. She’d like to get her Women’s Pro Rodeo Association card. She has a five year old horse coming who is doing very well in the barrels. “She’s very, very good,” she says. “She’s green. We’re taking it easy so I can run her in a couple years, so she is sound, and sound-minded.” For the last two years, Michal has finished in the top fifteen at the state level in the barrels.

    Her older sister, Morgan, is 25 and played basketball at La Salle University in Philadelphia and pro ball in Europe. She is the daughter of Bill and Lita Robertson.

  • Haylee Naylor

    Haylee Naylor

    Haylee Naylor is a contestant in the Kansas Junior High Rodeo Association. The thirteen year old cowgirl competes in the pole bending, barrel racing, goat tying, and is a runner for Cade Pearson in the ribbon roping.

    Of all her events, pole bending is her favorite, in part because of her horse, Lacy. “We just seem to be in sync, and we get along really good,” Haylee says. Lacy, who is a 24 year old sorrel, is also her goat tying horse and was ridden by Haylee’s aunt in high school and college rodeo. Because of her age, Haylee will probably retire her after this year of rodeo. Lacy is very calm, and even follows Haylee without a lead rope.

    For the barrel racing, she rides a sixteen year old horse named Demmy who is new to the family. Both of her horses are spoiled; Haylee loves spending money on them and makes sure their tack is color-coordinated (pink zebra). They have rhinestone headstalls, pink boots, pink blankets, and zebra fly masks. “They’re pretty girlie.”

    Haylee is an eighth grade student at Olpe Junior High School, and she loves sports and hanging out with her friends. The best part of the school day is the practices at the end of the day, and the worst part is math class. Her favorite teacher is Mr. Robert, her science teacher.

    She is a cheerleader and plays volleyball and basketball. This year her volleyball team went undefeated. She also participates in 4-H, where she showed two steers (named Willie and Si), and pigs, which she chooses not to name because she doesn’t want to get  too attached to them. Her theme for this year’s fair was Duck Dynasty: her show box and name tags were all camouflage, and her friend’s steers, who were next door to hers, were named Jase and Jep. Willie won Haylee some premium money, and Si became the family’s beef for the freezer.

    Haylee also competes in local Show-deos in Olpe and in the winter series for the Heartland Youth Rodeo Association. Over her rodeo career, she’s won money and 26 buckles. All of her earnings go into savings or to her mom, “so my mom doesn’t have to pay for so much.” When she grows up, she’d like to be a sonogram technician and work in the medical field, like her mom.

    She has a younger brother, Logan, who is six years old. Haylee is teaching him how to ride, and is proud that he has already won money and buckles. She is the daughter of Cassie Naylor, and credits her mom’s boyfriend, Rope Hammond, with helping her out.

  • Jill Oatman

    Jill Oatman

    Jill Oatman is one busy girl.The eighteen year old cowgirl successfully juggles a strong academic schedule, extracurricular activities, a job, and participation in the Nebraska High School Rodeo Association.

    She competes in the goat tying, breakaway roping, and team roping (heading for Lindy Woita of Atkinson), and is having her best year of high school rodeo. “It didn’t start clicking till this year,” she said. “This year, I’ve made a lot of accomplishments. I’ve set a goal of placing every weekend. I want to make it to state in breakaway and team roping (in addition to goat tying).” (She’s qualified her sophomore and junior years in goat tying.) “Finding what works for you and your horse and your style” is what’s helped her this year, she believes. “I’ve enjoyed it a lot, working my way up to this point.”

    The Broken Bow, Neb. cowgirl is a senior at Broken Bow High School, where her classes include statistics, political behavior, Spanish IV, anatomy, physics, and research writing. Her favorite class is anatomy, because the teacher makes it fun to learn. Statistics class can be boring: “it’s very, very wordy and not in plain terms. It’s a lot of reading but not interesting reading.” Jill didn’t have to take a math class as a senior, but decided she’d take one to gain more knowledge before college.

    She loves to read in her spare time, and finds most of her leisure time in the truck going from rodeo to rodeo. The last book she read for fun was Water for Elephants. She enjoyed the book, and saw the movie. For her extracurricular activities, Jill is in golf, 4-H, FFA (as treasurer), Spanish Club, National Honor Society, Spirit Squad, and Tri-M Honor Music Society. She plays the trumpet in band, and her team roping partner gave her a guitar for her birthday that hasn’t been played yet, but Jill hopes to take lessons some day.

    Every afternoon after school, she makes her way to the Grassland Veterinary Hospital in Broken Bow where she works. Her goal is to be a veterinarian someday, and she plans on attending the University of Nebraska and then going to Iowa State, where she will earn her vet degree.

    For the goat tying and team roping, she rides a 23 year old horse named Quigley who is “golden.” For the breakaway, she rides an eleven year old horse named Joey. She and Joey don’t always see eye to eye: “We’re both really stubborn and set in our ways. We clash a bit.”

    Jill has an older brother, Lance, who competed in high school rodeo and now is a welder for their father’s business, V Bar Trailer Sales. She is the daughter of Kem and Kimberly Oatman.

  • Bill Martinelli

    Bill Martinelli

    Bill Martinelli was born in 1935, in Glendale, California and grew up in Playa del Rey. His dad was a high school football coach and referred pro football games. Bill was the only one of his family to take a liking to rodeo. He began his rodeo career when he was in the seventh grade, riding bucking horses. That auspicious beginning continued into adulthood, with Bill traveling throughout most of the United States.

    He went Cal Poly and took a horse shoeing class – his desire was to rodeo.

    “In 1954, I went to Idaho with Bill Stroud, and rodeo’d all summer up there. In 1955, I went to Denver with John Hawkins on the train. I went to all the winter rodeos, and then started traveling with Alvin Nelson and the Teschers,” he recalled at the 9thAnnual Cowboy Museum Dinner Auction held at the Oakdale Cowboy Museum in Oakdale, Calif., September 16, 2006.

    After spending quite a bit of time in the Dakotas, Bill and his rodeo companions came back to California, where he met up with Jim Charles. Bill and Jim started hauling a bulldogging team for Harley May. Those trips took them to New York, Boston, and then back to San Francisco and the Cow Palace. When they weren’t traveling, they called Harley’s place home, dubbing it the ‘Rodeo Rancho.’

    Like a host of young men, Bill was drafted into the army, and served two years, from 1958 through 1960, with some of that time spent in Korea. After he was discharged, he came back to Oakdale, moving into the Live Oak Hotel with Jim. In those days, a room was 50 cents a day, with a bathroom down the hall. But, it was home. When he returned from the Army, he went right back to rodeoing, He met Kay in 1971 and they were married in 1972. “He was a 37-year-old bachelor,” said Kay. “We had a motorhome and took off rodeoing. My mother thought we lived like gypsies.”

    Bill’s rodeo exploits found him winning numerous awards. Of local notability, he won the all-round title at the Oakdale Rodeo in 1957, with his name being inscribed on the John Bowman trophy. He won the bareback competition at the Los Angeles Coliseum twice, and the bronc riding in Fort Worth. He won at San Antonio twice, and also at Phoenix. Three times, Salinas proved to be no problem, and he went on to add a notch for the Cow Palace to his winner‘s belt. He had five wins at Puyallup, Wash. He also won at Red Bluff, Long Beach, and Inglewood, all California rodeos. “I placed at all the other big rodeos, placing second at most of them.”

    He spent three months riding broncs in Europe for Rodeo Far West, a traveling Wild West show owned by Buster Ivory. The show traveled to Europe by freighter, taking 28 days to get there. When asked if that ocean trip reminded him of his trip to Korea, Bill wryly commented, “No. When I went to Korea, they got us there fast!”

    Over the course of his rodeo career, Bill went to the National Finals eight times, winning the average once, and placing all the other times. When not competing in rodeo, Bill earned a living by shoeing horses and all-around cowboy work, working for various ranchers in the Oakdale area. He also was the Winston Man – driving the Winston scoreboard around to the all PRCA rodeos. That became a family event, with his wife and kids traveling with him.

    When Bill reminisced, he has a twinkle in his eye and a laugh that comes from down deep as he told stories from days gone by. “When he told a story, one led to another,” said Kay.

    Bill is married to the former Kay Peterson. They make their home in Knights Ferry, and have raised four daughters, Mickey, Angie, Megan, and Tasha. They have twelve grandchildren.   Daughter Angie is serving in the United States Army and is stationed in Germany. “She makes her home in Switzerland and we have been there six times,” said Kay.

    Angie loved to rodeo with her dad. “One of my favorite times with dad was in Santa Maria ’96. I was entered in the barrel racing and dad in the gold card team roping. This was the first ever rodeo we had entered and traveled to together. We were both up in slack Saturday morning and Friday night I had gone out and had a pretty good time. I was moving really slow and late that morning and dad beat me to the arena. When I showed up, the barrel racing had already started and I was expecting a lecture, but instead I found my horse fed, saddled, and ready to go. We made a smokin run and placed in the go round. Dad just hugged me and said “nice photo finish”.”

    Bill quit competing in 1978 at the Cow Palace. “You couldn’t keep me away from rodeo. I don’t care if I wasn’t even entered, I was there. I’d watch it. That’s all I ever wanted to do. But when it was all over, it was all over, all done. I remember at the Cow Palace, I had a horse that was mediocre, and I thought, ‘if I ride him pretty well, I’m going to keep riding them, and if I don’t ride very well, I’m going to chuck it’ I was riding him pretty well, just giving it to him, and I thought ‘Well, shoot, I don’t have to quit.’ Then all of a sudden, I looked toward the ground, and I just pulled that rein across his neck and stepped off. And I thought, ‘Well that’s it. I’m supposed to quit riding them.’ And I did, I never got on another one”

    His love of rodeo continued as he took the scoreboard. When that stopped, he started running the side gate for the NFR, a job he did for ten years. “Bill was a good guy to have on the NFR crew as he was entertaining but was serious about his job,” recalled Shawn Davis, Wrangler NFR General Manager, who hired him to work the gate. “He kept everyone uplifted.” He worked his last NFR in 2005. He also went into the ranching and cattle business when his rodeo career ended. Bill suffered a stroke two days after his induction at the Oakdale Cowboy Museum in September of 2006 that left him unable to speak or work. His wife of 42 years, Kay, has been his voice ever since.

    “Dad is an amazing man,” said Angie. “He had mentored so many guys throughout the years. He and mom have always had an open door policy for our rodeo family. We never knew who would be camped out on our lawn. It was a great way to grow up.” When anyone mentions rodeo, Bill still gets a twinkle in his eye and for a brief period, he can focus on his life – and rodeo remains at the top of the list of his accomplishments.