Rodeo Life

Category: Archive

  • Truly Living

    Truly Living

    Our cattle working pens are built for big ole’ full grown mama cows. Any of our handsome herd below 700 lbs. can get hurt and the cowboys can get frustrated if we run them through. As it turns out, we let a few calves get pretty big before we finally got to tag, brand, spray, give shots and make the bulls into steers.

    As you might guess…we had to ‘drag’ to the branding. Now, on another day we might have snugged them up in the chutes, but on this day, we had a couple of cowboys and a herd of enthusiastic visitors. It was bound to get Western.

    The cowboy on horseback roped the hind legs and the rest of us bum-rushed the now feisty bovines. My job was to get the head and hold on. Keep in mind I weigh a “buck ’90” and a few months past 65 yrs old. Clearly this is not the ideal situation for this non-cowboy mountain climber. But no way was I going to miss this action! No giving shots or standing clear with the fly spray. Nope. Live large and get in the fight. Perfect. Rolled my sleeves up and spit on my hands. Let’s get this rodeo going!

    Cracked ribs are not something I like having. Breathing is a bit of a problem, and the soreness keeps me awake if I try to sleep on that side.

    Anyway, we got it done. Understand now, that I’m on my fourth lifetime at this point and I fully intend on squeezing in a few more. So this cracked rib situation prompted a few thoughts:

    1. Each life has looked different than the one before. Each has taught the next a few bits of wisdom and left a few scars.
    2. Each step has mistakes, grace, shame, beauty, fear and courage. Yep.
    3. Each iteration has redemption, joy, growth and humbling. Done them all.
    4. Each day has opportunities to make a situation better or worse. I have chosen both.
    5. Each window of time has a ripple effect in others’ lives. Most I am proud of and some I am not.

    It has been said that we only live once. A truer saying is that we only die once…we live every day. So many my age, and decades younger even, are busy dying every day instead of living. They, unconsciously or otherwise, have taken their foot off the gas and are beginning to pay homage to the seduction of ease and comfort. I do not want to be among them. See if my thoughts below resonate with you:

    1. I do not fear death. What I fear is not living.
    2. I want to go as hard as I can healthily sustain, for as long as I can, do as much good as I can, for as many as I can.
    3. I want to learn how to gracefully go into the next stage with as much dignity as I can muster.
    4. I want to be authentically peaceful, with no subterranean traces of youthful rage, competition and ego posturing.
    5. I want to be awake and not sleepwalk through my days.
    6. I hope to live fully connected with each of my children with nothing left to say and nothing left undone.
    7. I hope to keep the adventures going and if I crack a few ribs along the way so be it. The photos will not have me in a “lazy boy” until the very end or sickness takes me there.
    8. I hope my fights will be more for the hearts of my loved ones and less for the shallow satiation of my small pride.
    9. I want to talk less and say more.
    10. I want Susie to feel loved way beyond what her adolescent dreams imagined.
    11. I want to not play-it-safe with her or with life. But rather to risk and be all in.

    There will be ‘cracked ribs’ along the way. They will speak not about the scars of false glory. But hopefully about the bonding with friends, the solid conversations about real things, the chance to encourage others, the opportunity to love wildly and to walk with God in a deep abiding faith.

    So, I make this pledge to my good readers: I will do my rib-cracking best to live up to the words above.

    “Every man dies, not every man truly lives.” William Wallace from the movie “Braveheart.”

    “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Hellen Keller

    “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if you were working for the Lord…” Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

  • Featured Athlete: Jimmie Smith

    Jimmie Smith breakaway roping. – Sam-Sin Photography

    Jimmie Smith is just glad to be alive, literally.
    In late June of this year, she was in a bad vehicle accident on Interstate 80 in Wyoming.
    Her trailer, loaded with horses, was hit by a semi-truck and trailer, which nearly pushed it through the back of the truck. One of her horses died, with the others being injured.
    But the Elgin, Texas cowgirl determined to not dwell on it, and even with having to connect with new horses, she finished in the top 20 in the WPRA world standings.
    A member of the 5 Star Equine team, Jimmie exclusively uses 5 Star saddle pads. As a barrel racer and a breakaway roper, the pads are on both her rope and barrel horses.
    “I really like them because they keep my horses sound and happy and they never have sore backs,” she said. “I can also customize them, exactly how I want them to match each horse.” She uses a 7/8 inch barrel pad and a 1 inch pad for her breakaway horses.
    She confesses that she doesn’t clean the pads often, but even then, they are easy to maintain and stay “super, super nice.”
    Jimmie also uses the breast collars and loves the variety 5 Star Equine offers. At the 2020 Wrangler NFR, she used several that she was able to match with her outfits and saddle pads. “I really like the bright colors,” she said, “the pink, turquoise, and purple.”
    A graduate of Texas A&M University, she competed at the College National Finals Rodeo three years in the breakaway, goat tying and barrel racing.
    She was aboard her horse Lena, and after college graduation in 2018, got her card and rodeoed on the palomino. Lena carried Jimmie to the Rookie of the Year title that year, and two years later, to the Wrangler NFR.

    Jimmie Smith barrel racing. -Thomas Duncan

    She ran Lena and her other barrel horse, Minnie, and breakaway roped, too.
    But the accident changed that.
    “It was not good,” she said. “It was very stressful.” Not only did a horse pass away and the others were injured, but she had to find a new truck and trailer and all the things that go in it.
    “It was a lot of regrouping,” she said. But she was determined to go on. “It was difficult, but I did not ever go home. I didn’t think going home to sit on it and think about it and dwell on it was the best choice, so I stayed” on the road.
    To replace her horses, she borrowed some mounts while her mom took horses home to recuperate.
    One of the barrel horses she borrowed is Manny Dot Com, “Viper,” owned by Lance Robinson and Keith Nellesen. Viper has done well, substituting for Lena, and winning second at Colorado Springs, third at Nampa, Idaho, and her set in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
    She is also on A Valiant Nicky, a horse owned by Kyle and Deda Potter, and one she rode last winter.
    Having to borrow horses was difficult, but a blessing, she said. “It’s opened a lot of amazing doors, and I’ve met some incredible people. The horses I have out here are absolutely phenomenal.”
    This year, Tess Wyley has traveled with her, and the two enjoy coffee and any kind of music, to get through the long miles of travel. Jimmie likes her coffee sweet and her music loud.
    She also enjoys sushi and trying out new sushi restaurants. Austin, Texas, near her hometown, has several good places, but she’s found excellent sushi in Seattle and at Dave’s Sushi in Bozeman, Montana. She’ll eat raw fish but not cooked fish. “It’s weird, but I don’t really like cooked fish.”
    She has also worked as a stunt double in the AMC TV series “The Sun”. Filmed in central Texas and the Boerne/San Antonio area, she was on horseback for some of the scenes. Jimmie was asked to double for the part of a 12-year-old, because of her youthful looks.
    She may not have made the 2021 National Finals, but she’s content with how well she did this year, having a major accident and changing horses in mid-stream.
    A friend reminded her she was fortunate to be alive. “It’s a blessing that I’ve done as well as I have,” she said.
    Jimmie’s mother is Dawn Smith; Dawn’s fiancé is Jonathan Hochman.

  • Back When They Bucked with LaTonne Sewalt Enright

    LaTonne Sewalt in Houston, 1951
    LaTonne Sewalt in Houston, 1951 – J.B. Harris

    LaTonne Sewalt remembers the first barrel race she was in at Comanche, Texas. She was 9 years old and was riding her horse, Little Joe, just for fun, on a trick-riding saddle her folks had given her. She wasn’t even in western clothes, she was wearing shorts! The barrel race was about to start when her dad, Royce Sewalt, said, “OK, LaTonne, you’re next,” as he pointed at the arena gate that was opening. She was off and running. Little Joe was completely spooked when he saw the bright silver barrels they were headed for. He’d never seen bright shiny barrels before and he purposely stayed way far away. They didn’t score very well.
    LaTonne and her dad, a top-rated calf roper, trained Little Joe, a half-thoroughbred and half-Quarter horse, in the roping pen at home. They were using three old rusty barrels. Little Joe wasn’t quite ready for those ‘strange’ looking barrels. When they got home LaTonne’s dad painted those old rusty barrels bright colors, and in short time Little Joe never gave the color of the barrels another thought. He got better and faster.
    LaTonne went with her calf-roping dad to most all of his rodeos. Some rodeos didn’t have a barrel racing yet and when they did it was often called a “sponsor” event. If they did have barrel racing, her dad entered LaTonne and Little Joe.
    In early 1950 the Houston Rodeo had barrel racing for the first time. LaTonne and Little Joe won. She rode her bay horse around the clover leaf six times to outride her older and more experienced competitors. She was only 11 years old. She received $695 for winning, plus a buckle. Roy Rogers, the cowboy movie star featured at that rodeo, was appalled when he saw that the buckle little LaTonne received had a bucking horse on it. Rogers told her he would have a second buckle made for her. He also gave LaTonne a kiss as she received her winnings.
    Rogers got a photograph of LaTonne and Little Joe taken by a photographer at Houston and gave it to the Nelson Silvia Buckle Company, which had provided the buckles for the Houston rodeos. When LaTonne received the buckle there she and Little Joe were emblazoned on the buckle. In fact, that design was used extensively for years by Nelson Silvia on buckles being made for barrel racing events.
    LaTonne went to eight rodeos in a row and won all the go-rounds and averages: Childress, Jacksboro, and Texarkana, Texas; Memphis, Tenn.; Little Rock, Ark.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Burwell, NE and an all-girl rodeo at Tulsa, Okla. for a total of $3,997. Her competitors were adult women, including Billie McBride, Florence Youree, Wanda Harper Bush, Margaret Owens, Amy McGilvray and Sherry Combs. “I’m sure they hated to see me enter,” said LaTonne. She won the 1950 World Champion Barrel Racing title at the Tulsa Pavilion, which was indoors, at the All Girl Rodeo Finals. LaTonne, still only 11, won $4,665.82 that year, and had 316 points higher than her nearest opponent Margaret Montgomery. The Girls Rodeo Association had only been in business since February of 1948 and this was their very first Finals.
    LaTonne Sewalt was born January 23, 1939 to Royce and Myra Sewalt in Brownwood, Texas. Royce was a calf roper and competed in rodeos because he was good enough to make a living at it. He used the money to buy cattle, which he would raise and then sell. He won the RCA World Champion Calf Roping title in 1946. LaTonne always wanted to be with her dad, whether he was just outside around the horses and cows, or at a rodeo. “It was a lot more fun than being in the house”, said LaTonne.

    Once she started to barrel race, LaTonne’s mother made all her outfits. LaTonne had a fascination with trick riders and her mother designed the clothes for her daughter similar to what the trick riders wore, which were very beautifully designed. Her younger brother, Ronnye, also roped calves, like her dad. “Mom was our biggest cheerleader,” said LaTonne, “She built our confidence and deserved a lot of the credit for our success.”
    LaTonne also won the GRA Barrel Racing World Championship again in 1954. She truly feels that her horse, Little Joe, never got the credit he deserved for being such a versatile and great horse. On occasion, she let some of the other barrel racers use Little Joe, and he always gave them all he had. Often they would be in the money, too. “He seldom knocked over a barrel or lost to another horse,” LaTonne remembered. In addition to his barrel racing talents, her dad also used the little bay gelding in calf roping and as a hazing horse. Little Joe died in 1958 due to a twisted intestine. Although she tried competing on a couple of other horses they just never could do what Little Joe had done.
    LaTonne graduated from Afton (Okla.) High School as valedictorian of her class in 1957. She continued to compete in barrel racing until 1960, but didn’t rodeo full time. But she always took time off from school to compete at the Fort Worth and Houston rodeos. The WPRA Reference Guide showed her in fifth place in 1958 and in 13th place in the barrel racing event in 1959. Until 1968, LaTonne was the youngest girl to ever win the Barrel Racing World Championship. That year, 10-year-old Ann Lewis, of Sulphur, Okla., won the title.
    LaTonne married Joe Green, a bull rider, in 1958. They had one daughter, Kellye Ann. They divorced later. Fred Enright became her husband in 1962, who was a former football and track coach who had moved into sales. They had daughter, Rene Michelle. LaTonne graduated from college cum laude in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration and a Masters Degree in Business Education.
    LaTonne was inducted to the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2004. Her dad, Royce Sewalt was inducted in 2002, and brother Ronnye, in 2001.

    LaTonne today – Courtesy

    LaTonne taught accounting and typing, now called keyboarding, for 35 years at Paschal High School in Fort Worth. She retired from teaching in 2003. She moved to Decatur, Texas, to be near her daughter, Rene Fuller, when her husband became ill. He died in 2016. Today she is enjoying her five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. She says they are all within a short distance so she gets to see them often.

  • On The Trail with Creek Young

    On The Trail with Creek Young

    A framed $25 check for winning the first mutton bustin’ he entered at only two-and-a-half years old hung on Creek Young’s wall for years.

    As a kid, Creek’s grandma, Lois Porter, would read to him from Gary Paulsen’s series, “Tucket’s Travels,” about a boy in the mid-19th century and his adventures in the American West.

    Now, the cowboy from Rogersville, Mo., is living a 21st century version of those tales with a bull riding twist that’s taking him to the 2021 National Finals Rodeo.

    “He’s kind of an old soul so that’s where the nickname Old Man River comes into it,” said Creek’s friend and mentor, Denton Fugate, referring to Creek being a fan of Lil Wayne. “It’s not as modern as it was a few years ago I guess.”
    His aunt, Michelle Porter, didn’t know about the nickname yet her description of Creek was identical, but for very different reasons.

    “When he was little, he’d ask very deep questions and he was like an old man in a young man’s body,” Michelle said. “He loves his quiet time and is contemplated and focused. He has a strong moral compass and has this wisdom about him that’s like an old man. It’s impressive.”

    Creek blew the competition out of the water in the race for PRCA Rookie of the Year with $143,511 and finished No. 4 in the PRCA’s world standings.

    “Last year, I left the house with $10,000 and hoped I’d win enough to keep going,” Creek said. “By the middle of the summer run, the dollars were stacking up. Breaking $100,000 was pretty cool.”
    Denton watched Creek progress through the Missouri Family Rodeo Association and the Junior Pro Bull Riders-Missouri.

    “He has a really strong mental game but it took him a little longer to get the basics down because he’s always been taller than the average kid; but that’s hard for me to judge because I’m 5-6,” Denton said.

    At 6 feet tall and 150 pounds, Creek is taller than most of the 2021 NFR bull riding roster.
    “I don’t feel like I’ve ever had a problem or rode different because I’m taller,” Creek said. “I have more arm to give on the bulls and that makes it easier.”

    His journey on the other hand, has been anything but easy.

    Creek was born to Randy Young and Raneé Porter-Young on Nov. 15, 2000. Randy was a bull rider and bullfighter, but he died when Creek was a toddler.

    “I love bull riding for my own reasons,” Creek said. “I never connected it with him because I was so young. I love it for my own reasons because I had to find my own way.”
    His mom passed when he was 11 years old. But, every cloud has a silver lining and Creek’s was arguably better than gold.

    His aunt Michelle finished raising him while his rodeo family continued to grow. Michelle didn’t know anything about rodeo, but was determined to support her nephew’s dream.

    He also has two half-sisters and a half-brother who are several years older than him, Najee Donson, Derrion Donson, and Bailey Young.

    “I have an extended family, a rodeo family,” Creek said. “When my mom passed, people stepped up and made me feel better.”

    He listed Mollie Howard and her grandson, Josh Steele, both of his grandmas, Lois Porter and Barbara Young, his aunt and uncle, and a long list of friends and family including Charlie and Shanna McDonald family.

     

    Charlie and Shanna McDonald family – Creek 13 years old is back row on the right with his friends Kelly McDonald and Quincey McDonald – Shelby Chante’ Photography

    “I don’t know if everyone understands how it (rodeo family) works, but I feel like it’s more common here than people think,” Creek said. “Maybe that’s because I’ve always done it.”

    While growing up, Michelle encouraged Creek to participate in football, basketball and track. Although he did well, it was clear that he wasn’t passionate about it.

    “I could tell he did not light up the way he does at his rodeos,” Michelle said. “It was so clear to me that I decided by sophomore year this isn’t that important. He knows where he is going and has strong friendships and is a well-rounded 15-year-old. So, I let it go and we shifted gears to ‘let’s make it happen,’ and he did.”

    Getting better and seeing his hard work pay off helped him grow into the bull riding powerhouse fans know today.

    “I wasn’t very good as a freshman and struggled with staying on,” Creek laughed. “I was always a little hesitant and scared when I was younger, and I did it anyway.”

    His fear faded over time and changed into a craving.

    “It got to where I always wanted to do it so I practiced all the time,” Creek said. “That was a turning point in my young career and that’s when I took it seriously.”

    He would get on practice bulls every Sunday and Wednesday with Quentin Vaught in Crane, Mo.
    Creek believes sophomore year is when he started to get serious and that’s about when Denton noticed something was different about Creek.

    Denton realized Creek has what it takes to go pro.

    Creek qualified for National High School Finals Rodeo his freshman and sophomore years of high school.

    “It was a cool experience and I made a lot of friends,” Creek said.
    Making friends and expanding his “rodeo family” has been a key component to his growth and success.
    He competed with the IPRA, and won the year-end and the rookie of the year titles with the ACRA in 2018.

    “I went to as much as I could for amateur rodeo,” Creek said.

    As his 18th birthday approached, Creek and Michelle sat down and discussed his plans.

    “I told him, ‘you know you want to be a bull rider and you live and breathe bull riding, so why wait until the spring to be riding if you can graduate in December and get started,’” Michelle said.
    His brilliant mind helped propel him onto the ProRodeo scene by graduating half a year early from Logan-Rogersville (Mo.) High School.

    “I doubled up pretty good on classes,” Creek said. “I just wanted to get out and be able to rodeo on my permit. There were some spring rodeos I wanted to go to and I didn’t want high school to interfere.”
    Creek made his ProRodeo debut by tying for fourth at the Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa, Texas, in early January 2019.

    “I remember vividly that it was a different feeling,” Creek said. “I was super excited, and just being a young kid at a ProRodeo was pretty exciting. I did well at it, so that was even better.”
    Creek moved to Fort Scott, Kan., to live with his friends while on his permit.
    “I was never broke, but I wasn’t living on a lot during my permit seasons,” Creek said.
    This year was a different story.

    Michelle speculates that COVID-19 putting a pause on his ProRodeo endeavors only fueled the fire.
    “Being able to get back out there and really do as much as he could possibly do without restrictions was exhilarating for him,” Michelle said.

    The 2021 season started slow by Creek’s standards, placing second at the RAM Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo for $1,475 in mid-October 2020 followed by a few hundred dollars at the Brawley (Calif.) Cattle Call Rodeo a month later.

    In November 2020, he scored his first big win at The Egg Xtreme Bull Riding Event in Oxford, Miss., for $4,004.

    “That was the first X Bulls I ever won and was my biggest win at the time,” Creek said. “I went to the Finals (NFR) and watched one perf and that was really cool, and that’s when I noticed I was serious about making it and not wasting my rookie year.”

    Creek hooked up with Trey Kimzey over an online game of “Fortnite,” and the two decided to travel together for the 2021 season, starting in San Angelo, Texas.
    Bigger wins followed, such as $15,000 at the Tri-State Rodeo in Fort Madison, Iowa, in September.
    “I watch him on the Cowboy Channel and read the articles and it’s just mind-blowing,” Michelle said. “It feels a little surreal that this is happening and I’m just so excited for him. He’s worked hard to get here.”
    Creek nailed a 90.5-point ride on Bar T Rodeo’s Exit Strategy to win the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove, Utah, in mid-June.

    “I wanted to be sitting good enough at the end of the year to not stress about having a perfect Finals,” Creek said.

    He was no longer the same bull rider who finished third in the permit standings with $24,584 in 2020 and 13th with $17,025 in 2019.

    “I felt like I went pretty hard both years on my permit, but not really since I just stayed close to the house,” Creek said. “I started taking it seriously since I knew I couldn’t get my rookie year back if I messed around.”

    Messing around simply isn’t in Creek’s character.

    As a young child, Creek would repeatedly watch and study his old VHS tapes of Lane Frost and Tuff Hedeman.

    “I know little about the rodeo world, but Creek is so calculated and has thought it out and you can see it in his riding,” Michelle said. “That gives me peace and confidence in his abilities.”

    Creek was one of only a handful of bull riders to qualify for the 2021 ProRodeo Tour Finale in Salinas, Calif., where he raked in $12,316 to finish his rookie season with an exclamation point.
    Most of his earnings were invested back into rodeo, but he saved quite a bit of it. Now his goal is to keep improving.

    “I’m fourth this year, so then I want to be in the top three next year,” Creek said. “I feel inspired by what I could achieve. That’s what inspires me to keep going and try hard. I have a good start to what could be a good story eventually.”

  • Leap of Faith

    Leap of Faith

    What does it mean to take a leap of faith? Why is it important to take the leap? Throughout God’s word we read to trust in the Lord with all our hearts (Prov. 3:5-6), commit our ways to the Lord and trust in him (Ps. 37:4-5), and to trust in the Lord for he will bless us (Jer. 17:7). We read that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6), with faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains (Matt. 17:20), and if we have faith and believe, anything is possible (Mark 9:23). But, what does it mean to take a real leap of faith, and why is it important?
    Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” Faith is having complete trust and confidence in something or someone. When we have faith, we have complete confidence that what we are hoping for we will receive. Whether it be that promotion you’ve been hoping for, that new house, that financial breakthrough, the healing on your sick relative, or those new shoes. Maybe its to lose weight, pass your final exams, your kids to make the right decisions on an overnight school trip, or like me, to one day walk again! Whatever it may be, if you want something that isn’t there yet, it first requires faith before it will come to fruition.
    The definition of wish is to feel or express a strong desire or to hope for something this is not easily attainable. We can wish for all the things mentioned above but wishes easily run out of steam. When you wish for something, you strongly want it but when you don’t receive it or see it happen that wish gets buried and often forgotten. When we have faith, we have a strong confidence that it will happen. When we have faith, no matter how long it takes, no matter what obstacles try to stop it, faith holds strong. But, like a wish; faith without actions is useless.
    “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?” James 2:14. “So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” James 2:17.
    The first and most important thing about faith is this; it is what allows us to spend eternity with our father. Having faith in God is what gets us to heaven.
    “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” Romans 10:9-10
    I wasn’t there when Jesus hung on the cross for my sins. I didn’t see him get mocked and spat on. I didn’t see with my own eyes the eternal sacrifice that God gave us so that he could spend eternity with us in his glory, but I’ve heard about it, read about it in the Bible, and choose to believe in my heart that these events took place for you and me alike. I have faith that Jesus came, died, and rose again for my salvation even though I didn’t see it. This faith gives me confidence that my best days are still in front of me. This faith gives me hope, that no matter what happens on this earth I will spend eternity in an even better place than I am now.
    Once we have faith in Jesus, it unlocks a whole new strength for our desires. You see, God is the God of the supernatural. So, when we go to him in prayer with a request, if we have faith and believe that we will receive it, it will happen (Matt. 7:7). Putting our trust and faith in God keeps us believing when it takes longer than expected. It keeps us hoping when we don’t see it happening. It keeps us trying when our mind and body gets tired. Putting our hope and faith in God here in the natural, allows him to do the supernatural.
    But, as I pointed out earlier, faith by itself is dead and useless. Without action, faith is not enough. You can have faith that you will lose fifty pounds, but if you keep sitting on the couch, watching tv and eating potato chips it probably won’t happen right? You can have faith that you will get that promotion, but if you keep showing up late, arguing with your coworkers, and slacking on your job tasks, it probably won’t happen. You can have faith that you’ll get that financial breakthrough, but without budgeting, money saving, and saying no to unnecessary purchases, it probably won’t happen. I can have faith that I will walk again, but without rehabbing, meditating, working out, trying to move my legs every day, never giving it up, and God’s divine miracle it probably won’t happen right? God can perform miracles. He is able to change our situation in the blink of an eye but he wants us to take a leap of faith so he can perform them for his glory.
    When we put action to our faith, it allows God to intervene and bless us. When you pray that God will help you shed those fifty pounds, start eating healthier and exercising, the weight comes off. When you pray for that promotion, start putting in more effort at your work, God sees that and will bless you for it. When you pray for a finical breakthrough, get a job, start saving your money, living within your means, and letting God direct your spending habits, you will have money in your bank account. When I pray to walk again, keep working out, keep rehabbing, keep trying to move my legs, and never give up, I will walk again.
    Joshua 3 tells us the story of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River. Moses had led them out of Egypt towards the land that God had promised them. They had been wandering through the wilderness for forty years. Just imagine it, a guy tells them he is going to lead them out of slavery to a land filled with “milk and honey”, and forty years later they haven’t reached it yet. I’m sure there was plenty of doubt among the group. I’m sure they were physically tired and mentally exhausted. I’m sure there were plenty of them that thought the whole thing was a hoax and that they were just on a life long scenic journey. Then, he dies, and the next guy takes over and tells them the same thing. I’m sure plenty of them said “yea right”. I’m sure plenty thought “This guy is a whack job just like the last. Why are we still following along?” But, because of good leadership, faith in God, and taking a step of faith, they cross the Jordan River into the promised land.
    In verse 7 and 8 we read, “The Lord told Joshua,” Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses. Give this command to the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant: ‘When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the river and stop there.’”
    Verse 13 tells us “The priests will carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”
    Verse 15-17 says “It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho. Meanwhile, the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant stood on dry ground in the middle of the riverbed as the people passed by. They waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground.”
    This act of courage, leadership and faith allowed over a million people to cross the river on dry ground. It allowed them to reach the promise God had for their lives. Their leap of faith allowed them into the promised land. We see the people react to God calling them to take a step of faith. To take a few steps into the river and stop there. When God lays something on your heart, he’s calling you to action and to be patient. He’s calling you to act and let him do his work. Maybe he has a plan to affect more people than just you. Don’t get in a hurry. Don’t rush it. Take the step and wait on him.
    Then, we see that when we take the step, he has a plan and will do the supernatural. When we get our feet wet, he can perform his miracles. Even when the river is flooding. Even when it looks like there is no way. Even when it seems humanly crazy, when we take that step and remain patient, God will do what only he can do. First, we must have the courage to believe and have faith. Then, we must take the leap of faith and put our faith into action. Trust in God’s timing. Trust in God’s plan. Have faith and get your feet wet!

  • What is Your Calling

    What is Your Calling

    What is your calling? If you are like me this is a question you may have pondered on periodically throughout your life. Am I doing what I’ve been called to do? I am using my tools, talents, and gifts that God have given me correctly? Am I reaching the right people? Am I reaching enough people? Do you want me to sell everything and go be a missionary in Africa, or what do you want me to do? We are often confused on what God’s calling for our lives is.
    Often while I was rodeoing, I questioned myself if I was doing all that I was called to do. Was I doing enough? Was I walking in God’s will for my life? The closer I grew to God the more I wondered. The more I read my bible the more I questioned if I needed to sell all my stuff at home and go be a missionary in Africa or start a church and become a preacher. Many times, I wondered if I was doing enough for the kingdom and always felt like I should be doing something more for the Lord.
    After my wreck in 2018, I started questioning again. What do you want me to do Lord? What is your will for my life? What are you calling me to do? I continued to struggle. My passions and desires have been the same my whole life. The way I make a living has shifted from time to time, but my passions and desires have been in the ranching and rodeo industry. I desire to receive the “job well done my good and faithful servant” from the Lord the day I go to heaven. My passions have always revolved around horses and cattle. I live for it. I love every aspect of being a horse trainer. I love raising colts. I love raising cattle. I love trading cattle. I love the sport of rodeo and enjoyed riding bucking horses. I love everything about the ranching and rodeo lifestyle. I love being a cowboy and a horseman. I don’t even mind the part where you don’t get rich doing it. I just love working, and especially working in the horse and cattle industry and I was told young its better to be broke doing what you love every day, then be rich and hate your job and so far in my life I agree.
    Since becoming a father two years ago, I have a desire to raise my kid and kids to come with the morals I believe in. I have a passion to love my children unconditionally, discipline them when needed, show them who the Lord is, and show them the importance of having a relationship with Jesus. I love showing my kid how to saddle his horse, rope, ride, and work hard. I love showing my child how to use his brain and think through situations. I have a passion to be the best parent I can be and give my kid every opportunity to be whatever he wants to be. Whether it be a cowboy or a toothbrush salesman I just want to teach my children to work hard, chase their dreams, be the best at what they’re doing, and be able to give them every opportunity possible to be the best at whatever they want to be. I have a passion to love and provide for my wife. We have the same struggles and arguments that every married couple has, but I have a desire to love my wife and be the best husband I can be. I have a passion to take care of and treat well, the gift that the Lord gave me, my queen, to the best of my ability.
    I have a passion to help people out. Whether it be giving a young kid a rigging who has a passion to be a bareback rider, teaching the beginners the ropes of rodeoing, or paying a young kids entry fees who doesn’t have the means. I love paying it forward. I like to help people out in the ranching industry, finding people the best prices in the cattle market and connecting ranchers to buyers. I love just giving a helping hand, branding, gathering, shipping, even fencing, whatever it may be. I enjoy helping people who are having horse problems and need help connecting with their horses. I love helping people who are struggling to get by for the year financially. I like to help buy winter feed, water tanks, tires for vehicles or whatever it is that helps them out. Whether it be through encouragement, finances, advice, or using my story and testimonies to point people to Jesus who have walked in the same shoes as me. I just love helping people. That is my desire. The Bible tells us in Psalms 37, that if we take delight in the Lord, he will give us our hearts desires. If we commit everything we do to the Lord and trust him, he will help us out (Psalms 37:3-5).
    If you are loving the Lord, putting your faith and trust in his plan and timing, are seeking his will and are aligning your human will with God’s will for your life, he will give us our hearts desires. If these are the passions and desires from the Lord that I have for my life, why then do I question myself if I’m doing enough for the Lord? If I’m reaching enough people? If I’m walking in my calling? If I am fulfilling my will? Well, I along with many other saved Christians, have been confused with what God’s calling is. I recently did a Bible study, “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers that helped clear the question up.
    That devotional taught me what the call of the natural life is. The call of God is not a call to serve Him in any particular way. My relationship with God and my contact with the Holy Spirit will shape my understanding of His call and will for my life. My contact with God will help me realize what I truly desire to do for him. The call of God is an expression of his nature. The service which results from that calling is an expression of my nature. The call of the natural life was stated by the apostle Paul in Galatians 1:15-16; “But before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.”
    You see, God calls each one of us to him. The righteous and lost alike are called to God. Before we are even born God equips us with gifts, tools, talents, passions, and desires. God wants us all to be saved, spend eternity in heaven, and be used by him on our walk through this life to point people to Jesus. God calls us to accept his grace and mercy, humble ourselves in repentance, trust him, and accept his sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as our salvation. It’s his free gift to us. No good deed earns it, and no sin is too great to deny us from it. The only thing that keeps us from receiving the gift of salvation is denying God and not accepting his gift of salvation. Denying his calling. The call of God is that simple. It is a call to an intimate relationship with our father. Just as I want to be the best parent and provide for my children, God wants to do the same thing for us, except he is perfect at it and I am definitely not.
    When we accept this calling of the natural life and build an intimate relationship with Christ, the works I do, deeds I perform, and services I provide are the overflow which pours out form a life filled with love and devotion. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identity with the nature of God. Service becomes a natural part of my life. God brings me into the proper relationship with Himself so that I can understand his call, and then I serve Him on my own out of a motivation and obedience of absolute love. Service is an expression of my nature, and God’s call is an expression of his nature.
    God loves every single one of us. He loves us right where we are. Whether we are righteous, saved and have drifted away, are a drug addict, alcoholic, or a murderer who is unsaved. Whether we are rich or poor, a good parent or bad parent, married or divorced, God loves us all! He calls us all to a relationship with him. When we accept his call, make him our savior, he sends his spirit to live in us. He has already equipped us with tools, talents, gifts, passions, and desires. The more time we spend building that relationship and become more intimate with God by, spending time reading our bibles, studying the nature of God who lives in us through the Holy Spirit, spending time in prayer seeking wisdom, guidance, and counsel, the more I will understand my passions and true desires. The more time I spend with God the more he is going to show me what I am good at. The more time I spend with God will result in more opportunities for God to use me. The more time I spend with God the more I can focus on what he desires me to be good at, and the more I will be made usable. The more time I spend with God, the more I will hear his voice and know where he wants me to go and what he wants me to do. We all can spend a little more time working on our relationship with God. I, along with everyone reading this, can spend more time reading my bible, more time in prayer, more time seeking him first in everything I do. We can all put out a little more effort to be in a better relationship with God. The more we do it the more it becomes a habit and becomes a natural part of our lives. That is our calling from God.
    As we spend more time working on our relationship with God, he is going to call some of us to give an uncomfortable amount of money, pray in a public place, pray for a stranger, help someone out that we don’t like. He’s going to call some of us to pack up and head to a different country to be a missionary. He’s going to call someone to start a church and be a pastor. He’s going to call us into uncomfortable situations to grow our character. He’s also going to use some of us right where we are at in our workplace, on our ranch, on the rodeo trail, or in our communities to be the light and spread the Good News to the people we live with when the opportunity prevails. God’s calling each and everyone of us to serve him, it is our job to have the ear to hear when God calls “I need somebody”, and having the obedience to say “here I am, send me.”

  • On The Trail with 2021 ProRodeo Hall of Fame Inductees

    story by PRCA & Siri Stevens PHOTOS COURTESY OF PRCA, Jackie Jensen & Rodeo News

    CODY OHL
    Tie-Down Roper
    Inducted 2020

    Cody Ohl blazed into the ProRodeo ranks in 1994 by winning Rookie of the Year and his first trip to the National Finals Rodeo. The young Texas roper had been planning his career since he was 15 and winning National High School Rodeo awards.

    It would take Ohl a few years to win his first gold buckle. He edged out Fred Whitfield to capture the 1997 Tie-Down World Title by $5,031. To prove that first win was no fluke, Ohl roared through 1998 and captured a second title.

    Ohl had another record-setting year in 2001 as he added steer roping and team roping to his agenda in order to compete for the All-Around title. In the ninth round of the Finals, Ohl missed his calf on the first loop. A second loop caught the calf by the hind legs. As Ohl dismounted, he twisted his knee, tearing two major ligaments. He managed to crawl to the calf, cut the rope, stand and flank the calf, and finish the tie with a time of 40.3 seconds. Ohl had to be carried from the arena by the Justin Sports Medicine Team. However, he had amassed enough money earlier in the week to secure both the tie-down title and the All-Around title. He accepted both buckles from crutches on the 10th night.

    Not one to stay inactive, Ohl battled through rehab and was back on the rodeo trail late in 2002. He continued to win and qualify for National Finals Rodeos, capturing his fifth and sixth tie-down roping titles in 2003 and 2006. He only missed one Finals appearance between 1994 and 2014. He entered an elite group when he passed the $3 million earnings mark in 2012.

    World Championships: 6 (tie-down 1997-98, 2001, 2003, 2006; all-around 2001)
    Born September 21, 1973 in Rosenburg, Texas.
    From the Induction:
    Due to a staph infection in his leg, he was represented by Kendra Santos. Cody roped at 20 National Finals Rodeos, earning 2 of his six buckles after obliterating his knee in the ninth round of the 2001 NFR. It took the better part of the year to recover from that and he came back and won two more titles. In his 20 plus years, his earnings of $3.5 million, second only to Trevor Brazile, makes him the highest money maker in calf roping history. He has taken home 55 National Finals go round buckles.

    SUNNI
    DEB BACKSTROM
    Contract Personnel
    Inducted 2020

    Sunni Deb Backstrom grew up with a stopwatch in her hand. No doubt encouraged by her mother Ellen, a three-time National Finals Rodeo Secretary and first woman to sit on the PRCA Board of Directors. At age 13, Backstrom made her debut as a rodeo secretary in Augusta, Montana. Since she did not have an RCA card, she had to receive special permission from RCA President Bob Ragsdale to work the event.

    Backstrom joined the RCA in 1968 as a timer while she was still in high school. After graduation in 1971, she was issued a secretary, timer, and contract act card. Backstrom quickly rose to become one of the best in the business. She has worked for many rodeo companies over the years including Flying U; Kesler, Ltd.; Rafter G; Jim Shoulders Rodeo Company; Bad Company; Linger Company; and B Bar J Rodeo. She joined the Cervi Championship Rodeo Company fulltime in 1979. In the course of a year, Backstrom works about 120 performances across the country at some of the most prestigious rodeos including Denver, San Antonio, Houston, Nampa, and Waco.

    Backstrom is the most decorated rodeo secretary in ProRodeo history. She has won PRCA Secretary of the Year 10 times and WPRA Secretary of the Year twice. She has also worked the National Finals Rodeo 17 years as secretary, three years as timer, and one year as the office manager. She has also worked four PRCA Tour Finales.

    Backstrom has dedicated her life to the betterment of the sport of rodeo.
    Born May 11, 1953 in Butte, Montana.

    From the Induction:
    “I’m not good at this, I’m used to being in the background. 26 years ago I stood up here and accepted this award for my mom, never thought I’d be here again. Things that are important to me are important to me. My dad bought his RCA card in 1948. Mom bought her timers card in 1960. Dad picked mom up from the hospital when I was 3 days old and off we went to Miles City Bucking horse sale. On my birth certificate, it has a spot for occupation of the father, he was a professional cowboy.

    Mom would give me a stop watch and a day sheet, I would time the rodeos when I was 6. By ten, I was in the saddle on a big black horse carrying the American flag in the grand entry. At 13, I secretaried my first rodeo – most rodeo offices were temporary, many in Montana were in bars. I took entries and drew stock in a bar at 13 years old.
    I did everything from carrying flags, taking care of the saddle horses, secretarying rodeos and even driving a load of bulls through Montana. I ran the roping chutes, picked up, flanked in flip flops, ran barrels, and team roped. I was one of two in the production department at the first NFR.
    That’s what rodeo gave me – my friends and my family.”

     

    RANDY WITTE
    Notable
    Inducted 2020

    Randy Witte always had an affinity for rodeo but didn’t get a chance to participate in the sport till he went to Colorado State University, where he majored in technical journalism and found the CSU rodeo club. He was befriended by Jerome Robinson, a sophomore who was “majoring” in bull riding, and before long Robinson was tying Witte onto bulls, offering instruction and encouragement.

    Witte enjoyed his days of competition in college rodeo, and in the Rodeo Cowboys Association, but he knew early on his future was as a rodeo writer, rather than rider. He sold his first magazine article to Western Horseman in 1968. “Judging Rodeo’s Bucking Events” was based on interviews he did with saddle bronc rider Jim Wise, World Champion Bull Rider Freckles Brown, and World Champion Bareback Rider Jim Houston.

    While still in college he worked a couple summers as a cub reporter for the Denver Post, and got the plum assignment to cover Cheyenne Frontier Days for the paper in 1968. Witte was offered the job as director of the R.C.A.’s Rodeo News Bureau when he graduated college in 1970, and for the next seven years he enjoyed publicizing ProRodeo with news releases, press kits and recorded radio programs. There was a need for an editor of Rodeo Sports News in early 1976, and Witte was able to also get out the association’s paper for the next two years.

    In late 1977, Western Horseman magazine offered him a job — they needed someone who could write knowledgeably about rodeo. He accepted the offer with one condition — that the PRCA not be left in a bind when he left. This was easily granted, and Witte transitioned gradually from one office to the other. By then, the R.C.A. had become the PRCA and Rodeo Sports News had become ProRodeo Sports News. Witte continued to write about rodeo for the next 29 years. During that time he served as editor, and later, as publisher of the magazine.

    Born January 28, 1948 in Denver, Colorado.
    From the Induction:
    “I have many good memories working in a little red brick building in Denver 50 years ago. I had a job as soon as I graduated from college. Our biggest day of the week was Monday; rodeo secretaries would phone me at home Sunday nightand I would record the results and I’d go to the office and I’d bat out a little news release. When the news release was done, we’d stuff them in envelopes and send them all over the country. I had to get the sacks of mail down to the train station before five. I never missed a deadline. I covered the groundbreaking celebration of the PRCA hall of fame. At the time this was the first building that went up in this area of Colorado Springs.”

    BUTCH KIRBY
    Bull Rider
    Inducted 2020

    Gary William Kirby, better known as Butch, started his rodeo career at age four when he joined his brothers in a trick riding troupe led by his mother, Mildred. By 16, he had changed his specialty to bull riding. Kirby credits the agility and balance of trick riding as helping with his transition to rodeo’s roughest event.

    In 1973, Kirby earned his first trip to the National Finals Rodeo at age 18. (At the time, the youngest qualifier in any roughstock event.) It would take a few more trips to the Finals before Kirby earned his world title. In 1975, Kirby and his brothers, Sandy and Kaye, became the first three brothers to qualify for a National Finals Rodeo in the same year. Kirby finally won his title in 1978 in a battle against reigning champion Don Gay. He won $15,000 at that Finals, placing him in the top spot. (In 1978, World Championships were determined by money won at the National Finals Rodeo.)

    Kirby would make three more trips to the National Finals Rodeo before transitioning to his third career in rodeo. Kirby began judging rodeos to earn money while recovering from an injury in 1987. He became a Pro Official in 1993 and has served in that capacity at many of the major rodeos in the country. He has been a National Finals Rodeo Official for 30 years.

    Through this long and decorated career, Kirby has participated in every major rodeo as either a contract act, bull rider, or judge.

    World Championships: 1 (1978)
    Born April 24, 1955 in Woodstown, New Jersey.

    From the Induction:
    My heroes have always been cowboys, and all my heroes are here in the Hall of Fame. Mom didn’t realize she was training me to be a bull rider. I don’t even know if I was shaving at my first NFR. Neal and Miss Kay helped me get on some practice bulls in Mesquite. Neal nodded for me because he knew I wasn’t going to nod. I got on a lot of practice bulls that day.

    Mom gave me $50 to go to San Antonio – ended up third in the world when I left Houston. By May, I dropped to 14th, and realized it was hard. Bobby Steiner got me to the NFR – you’re only as good as the company you keep. Bobby was great to me.

     

    G-65 GRATED COCONUT
    Livestock
    Inducted 2020


    G-65 Grated Coconut is a testament to the Born to Buck Breeding program of the Calgary Stampede Ranch. His mother, Coconut Roll, was a ten-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier. His sire, Wyatt Earp of Northcott Rodeo, was voted Saddle Bronc Horse of the National Finals Rodeo in 1997 and 1998.
    Grated Coconut became a dominant force during his career. Of his 114 outings, 37 cowboys hit the dirt, 25 scored in first place, and 29 finished in the money. If a cowboy was lucky enough to stay aboard for eight seconds, he usually won money. His prowess in the arena earned him six Bareback Horse of the Year titles (2003-04 and 2006-09), tying with the great Descent. He also earned six Canadian Champion Bareback Horse titles (2003-05 and 2007-09).

    Retired at the top of his game in 2010, Grated Coconut is continuing the Calgary Stampede Ranch Born to Buck program. Of his children, at least 45 are competing at the top level of rodeo athletes with several qualifying for both the National Finals Rodeo and the Canadian Finals Rodeo.

    For a horse feared by many cowboys, Grated Coconut was very social and gentle outside the arena. He enjoyed scratches from the cowboys before competition and has even let toddlers sit on his back. Grated Coconut became a top rodeo animal ambassador. Visitors to the Calgary Stampede Ranch were able to socialize with him before watching him explode into a rodeo arena. The pairing of his power and intelligence truly made him one of the great rodeo athletes.
    Born 1997 in Hanna, Alberta.

     

    JIM SUTTON, JR.
    Stock Contractor
    Inducted 2020

     

    James Sutton, Jr. could have chosen a very different path at the end of his college career. The young South Dakotan was drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers and he attended their preseason training camp. However, he believed following his father and grandfather in the ranching and stock contracting business made more financial sense than a basketball career. In 1968, Sutton joined his father in creating the Sutton Rodeo Company. They supplied stock from their Onida, S.D., ranch to rodeos across South Dakota and the Northwest. By the late 1970s, Sutton was raising more than 90% of his own bucking stock and developed a breeding program that is one of the best in the business. The program has produced three PRCA Horse of the Year winners: saddle bronc horse Deep Water (1979), bareback horse Big Bud (1985), and saddle bronc horse Chuckulator (2012). Chuckulator also won Top Saddle Bronc Horse of the National Finals Rodeo in 2012. Their horses and bulls won all three categories at the Badlands Circuit Finals Livestock of the Year Awards in 2011. The program has also earned Sutton four nominations for PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year.

    In 1978, Sutton started the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo. It has been nominated as Indoor Rodeo of the Year 15 times and won the award twice, 2002 and 2003. To draw attendance to the rodeo, Sutton created the Wrangler Bull Fights, the Bailey Bail-Off, World Championship Wild Horse Race, Bull Poker, and Teeter-Totter. Sutton’s pageantry and showmanship earned him National Finals Rodeo Opening Ceremony credits in 1995 and 1996.
    Sutton and his wife Julie won the PRCA Donita Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
    Born April 20, 1935 in Onida, South Dakota.

    From the Induction:
    “It all started with my granddad with a rodeo on the ranch in 1927. We had 60 palomino horses and ¾ of them bucked the cowboys off. The whole operation is a family operation – there are three grandsons and a granddaughter putting on a rodeo while we are here. Julie couldn’t make the trip and I’d ask for you to say a prayer for her.”

     

    ELLENSBURG RODEO
    Rodeo Committee
    Inducted 2020

    Nestled in the center of Washington State in the Kittitas Valley (land of plenty and no fighting), Ellensburg – called ‘the rodeo city’ – has become one of the top destinations for cowboys and cowgirls near the end of the regular PRCA season. The rodeo started in 1923 when local businessmen, farmers, ranchers, and townsmen began to feel the tug of nostalgia as airplanes, moving pictures, and automobiles started replacing the Western lifestyle. The Valley was settled in the 1870s – the rodeo came out of the local competition. At the time there were 50,000 head of cattle in the county. The rodeo will celebrate 100 years next year – they missed three years, two due to WWII and last year.

    Held over Labor Day Weekend each year, the Ellensburg Rodeo is an important stop in the series of Northwest rodeos, hosting around 400 contestants.

    The Ellensburg Rodeo is held on the historic rodeo grounds at the base of Craig’s Hill, and the Yakima Indian Nation has always participated. With a fulltime population of 21,000, this “Rodeo City” hosts one of the highest paying regular season rodeos, paying out more than $486,000 two years ago. Since 2009, Ellensburg has served as the finale for the PRCA Xtreme Bulls Tour.

    “We started the first PRCA stand alone single event in 2001(Xtreme Bulls),” said Rick Cole, the longest serving board member and arena director. There are 17 people on the committee and three to four hundred volunteers. “This in an honor for the community – without the selfless dedication of all, this event could not occur.”
    The committee has had three Justin Committeeman of the Year Awards: Ken MacRae (1998), Joel Smith (2007), Steve Alder (2013). These awards highlight the commitment of the 100% volunteer-run organization. In 1997, the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association was founded to preserve the history and traditions of this nationally renowned rodeo.

    “Being named into the pro rodeo Hall of Fame is really humbling and a huge honor. It’s a dream come true. We believe we put on the best rodeo,” said Jerry Doolin, the president of the committee, who has been a volunteer for more than 20 years.

     

    MARTHA JOSEY
    WPRA Barrel Racer
    Inducted 2020

    Martha Josey qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 11 times on six different horses across four consecutive decades. She won the WPRA barrel racing world title in 1980 on Sonny Bit O’ Both, the same year the duo also won the AQHA World Championship, a feat unmatched at the time of induction.

    A highlight of her career was competing in the rodeo exhibition during the Cultural Olympiad at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta, that pitted the United States against Canada. Josey would ride away with an individual bronze medal and helped Team USA win the team title.

    Josey was a true all-around cowgirl riding bulls, broncs, cutting horses, tying goats and roping calves while competing in all-girl rodeos. In 1969, Josey won the reserve All-Around World Championship Title in the Girls Rodeo Association.

    Not only did she make a name for herself in the arena but also gave back to the sport through her countless clinics. She and husband, R.E. Josey, started conducting barrel racing clinics in 1967 at their ranch in Texas and in 1981 began producing an all youth barrel race aptly named the Josey Jr. World Championship. Many of WPRA’s world champions credit Martha Josey with helping them achieve their goals. Her clinics grew to average over 2,000 students annually with students ranging in age from five to 80 and many returned yearly to participate in the annual Josey Reunion Barrel Race.

    In addition, Martha and R.E. were involved in creating new and innovative barrel racing saddles, pads, protective boots, knot reins, and combination bits. The result has been increased safety and barrel racing skills for all barrel racers throughout the World. No doubt Josey made a big impact on the sport of barrel racing.

    World Championships: 1 (1980)
    Born March 11, 1938 in Longview, Texas.

    From the Induction: “Rodeo is making America great again – such a great honor.

    When I was a little bitty girl, my first word was I want a horse. My dad was one of the first four directors of AQHA, he brought 36 mare to Texas. He passed away when I was 10 and mother had to sell all the horses except one old stallion. I went to a rodeo in Shreveport – saw the American flag come out and I watched the barrel racing and knew then that I belonged in the arena. I wanted to be a barrel racer. I went home and got on my dad’s old roping saddle and that stallion and went to the field to run barrels.

    I was trying for my fifth decade of running at the NFR, when the gateman shut the gate in front of me. I had a collapsed lung and other serious injuries and was in the hospital for three weeks – said I would never walk or ride again. That was in March, and I made the short go in Greeley in July.

  • God’s Love is for Everyone

    God’s Love is for Everyone

    God’s love is for everyone! He doesn’t pick certain people to love more than others. He doesn’t pick people who have done better deeds and sinned less to love more. He is just in every situation. He loves every single person, even those who aren’t born yet. God loves us so much that he sent Jesus, his own son, to be sacrificed for our sins. All those years ago, he still chose us. Nothing we do can earn this gift. It is the free gift from God, for all who call on his name. The significance of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is often overlooked. The easiness of being forgiven is often looked at as “to good to be true”. But it is true. It is that easy. No gimmicks. Ask for forgiveness and you will receive it. Anyone, anytime, anywhere, it is available because of what Jesus did for us.
    “Why then, does it look like God love’s others more than me?” you might ask. Or “God won’t love me because I don’t go to church or read a bible.” While we should fellowship with other Christian believers and we should spend more time in God’s word and prayer, it doesn’t make God love us more or less. Why do they have a fancier house and faster car than me? Why does she get splendid gifts from her husband, and all I get are messes to clean up, laundry to do, and a lazy slob that doesn’t help do the dishes? Why did my dad get terminal cancer, and theirs lived a full life with no health problems? Why did he get that promotion at work and I didn’t? Why does she get that new barrel horse and I don’t? Why did my house burn down? Why did my marriage end in divorce? Why was my car crash fatal, but the drunk driver’s crash ended in mere scrapes and bruises? Why did my horse wreck lead to paralysis but his didn’t? The list can go on and on. The truth is these things happen. Other people’s blessings might make it seem like God loves them more than you. Or worse yet, your struggles and hardships might make it seem like God has abandoned you and doesn’t love you at all. This could not be farther from the truth!
    Scriptures tell us “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9. The fact of life is, on this earth we are going to go through some things. Storms are going to come and rattle our lives. We are going to face hardships and struggles. But God’s ears are ready to hear our cry. His arms are open ready to hold us when we run his way. No struggle, hardship, or sin will ever keep God from loving us or holding his forgiveness back from us. If God is for us, who can ever be against us? (Romans 8:31)
    “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow-not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below-indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39.
    Adam and Eve, while in the Garden of Eden, made a choice to disobey God. The result of that choice was death. They were tempted and fell into the sin which lead to death for all humans. All our lives end in death because of the choice they made thousands of years ago. God’s creation of mankind became so corrupt that he sent a flood to wipe out the race and begin again by saving Noah and his family on the ark with the animals. After Noah, as the earth began to fill up with people again, God called Abram later known as Abraham, away from his homeland. God told Abraham to leave his native country and to go to the promised land. So, he began on his way. Humans remained human and still made unrighteous decisions leading them to Egypt where they became slaves. Then, came Moses, a Hebrew boy raised in the Pharaoh’s house by Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses was called by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt. With over a million people following him and God leading them, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt towards the land God promised to his people.
    While traveling towards the promised land, the people questioned Moses. They acted against God and did what was right in their own sight. God gave Moses precise instructions on the rules to give to the people. God used Moses to give the standard to live by. What we know as “The Law” came during that time. It was God’s law, Moses gave to the people, which made them righteous in God’s sight. Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t murder, respect your parents, clear down to what to do if someone is accidentally killed in a work accident. Moses governed the people with God’s own law. God created humans in his own image when he created Adam and Eve and he was happy with his creation. He wants all mankind to be saved and to go to heaven. Our human nature, the nature to do what is wrong instead of right, our sinful nature, is what the “The Law” saved us from. The law was God’s way for us to live by that kept humans righteous and gave them eternity with God. By offering burnt offerings to the Lord, humans were made right for their wrong doings. While Moses led God’s chosen people, they rebelled, they whined, and wanted to go back to Egypt. Even after all that God had done for them, all he had led them through, and all he promised them, they still disobeyed God and did what was wrong.
    After Moses, came years and years of leaders, judges, and kings that ruled God’s chosen people. A lot of the leaders wanted to do right by God’s standard. Some of them didn’t care and led the people farther in sin and the worshipping of other gods and idols. For years and years, we failed! For over a thousand years we couldn’t do it. We fell short. We couldn’t live up to the standard that God had laid in front of them. So, instead of giving up on us. Instead of starting over. God sent Jesus. His own son. Born of the virgin Mary. As the perfect example and eternal sacrifice. Once and for all the problem was taken care of. God sent his very own sacrifice, as the eternal blood offering, for our forgiveness. Jesus’ blood covers our sins against God! And it is not by obeying the law that we are saved, but rather believing that Jesus came as our savior. It is not earned. We do not deserve it, yet God did it anyways. John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him, will not perish but have eternal life.”
    Romans 3:28 “So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.” This doesn’t mean we should go and live destructive sinful lives. But what it does mean is that we can come as we are, broken, sinful, and shamed. No matter what we have done in the past. No matter how big of a sin we have committed. We can come to God in prayer and ask for forgiveness and it will be granted. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 8:23. But, because of Jesus we are forgiven!
    So, no matter what struggle you are in. No matter what storm has come your way. No matter what mountain you face. No matter what heartbreak you have. No matter what sin you have committed. No matter what your past looks like. All we must do is have faith and believe Jesus came, died, and rose again. Ask for forgiveness, and we will be forgiven and spend eternity in heaven.
    Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” You will be SAVED!!
    Saved from heartache, sin, depression, shortcomings, failure, poverty, depression. ALL OF IT! We are saved from it all. Every single one of us has this opportunity. God wants us to accept his gift, his salvation, his grace and mercy. He wants to give it to us for free. All we must do is accept the gift, say it with our mouth, and believe it with our heart and we will receive. So, no matter what obstacle you face. No matter what struggle you are in. No matter how far away from God, you think you are. No matter if you think they are more loved than you. All you have to do, is turn to God, talk to him, tell him what you need, and thank him for all he has done. You are loved and he wants to bless you!
    “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” Lamentations 3:22-23
    “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8

  • Back When They Bucked with Sherry Price Johnson

    Back When They Bucked with Sherry Price Johnson

    As a young girl, Sherry Price Combs Johnson spent her days on horseback, riding bareback, playing “cowboys and Indians” or “bad guys,” with her bb gun on her family’s ranch near Addington, Oklahoma.
    Little did she know the hours spent on horseback would spill over into thousands of hours in her adult life, on horses in rodeo arenas around the nation.
    The second and last daughter of John Henry and Lena Price, she was born four years after her sister, Florence Price Youree, in 1938.
    The girls were their dad’s right hand men, helping him around the ranch. “It was expected,” Sherry remembers, of helping her dad. He also demanded that his girls do the job right. “He expected us to do it correctly, and if he ever told you something once, you were to remember it.” When they cut cattle out of the herd, he wouldn’t always tell his girls what he was cutting out, “because the first one that was cut out, you were supposed to know by then what was supposed to be cut,” Sherry remembered.
    By the time she was fourteen, she was rodeoing in the American Junior Rodeo Association, traveling with Florence and her husband Dale. The girls rode the same horse, with Dale changing saddles for them. Sherry would ask to be up last; Florence would run, Dale would switch out saddles, and Sherry would compete.
    In the AJRA, Sherry won five barrel racing championships and two all-arounds, competing not only in the barrels but in the pole bending and flag race.
    In high school rodeo in 1955, she won enough points for Oklahoma that they won the national title that year. Sherry won the barrels, the breakaway roping and placed second in the poles to win the all-around on a mare named Pokey.

    She remembers that her grandfather, an old-time rancher, did not approve of mares being used on the ranch. “In his day,” she said, “they sold the mares and kept the geldings for ranch horses.” But she fell in love with a pretty little flax maned mare, and told her daddy she wanted that colt. He told her to ask “Big Tree,” her grandfather’s nickname. “I was scared to death,” to ask, she said. But he agreed. “I was the first one allowed a mare on the place. It was such a big deal for me to get her.” Her mare’s name was Pokey, and that horse carried Sherry to her junior and high school rodeo wins, and her daughter Becky later on.
    Her dad might have been the prince in Sherry’s life, but her mom was the queen. In addition to her sister, her mom also hauled her to rodeos across the country, doing all the driving before Sherry was 16. “My mother hauled me all over the world. Daddy saw that the car and trailer were ready, and mother took me.”
    Her mother was made of steel, but a sweetheart. “Mother was the sweetest person in the world,” Sherry said. “She never raised her voice. She could sit down and talk to you, and it was worse than a spanking. You were sorry if you had messed up.” Lena raised her daughters to be ladies. “She told me, you can do or be anything you want to be, but you will be a lady, doing it. How many times have I thought of that memory?” Sherry reminisced.
    After high school graduation in 1956, she headed to Oklahoma State. She competed in one college rodeo, piling into a car with a bunch of other girls and two horses. They headed to Austin, Texas, where she placed in the barrels.
    It wasn’t convenient for her to keep a horse in Stillwater, so she didn’t. “I was in a sorority and I was busy being a girl,” she said.
    After one year of college, she met the 1955 world champion steer wrestler Benny Combs and married him in 1957. He was rodeoing and she had a condition for their marriage: that she would rodeo with him. At the time, women didn’t travel with their husbands. He concurred, and they traveled together, making Checotah, Oklahoma their home base.
    It was while married to Benny that Sherry rode a PRCA Hall of Fame horse and one that carried her to a world title.
    Benny and Willard Combs, his brother, bought a horse from the same fellow who had sold the famed steer wrestling mount Baby Doll to the brothers. They bought Star Plaudit, “Red,” for $400, training him in the steer wrestling. When Red was done with his dogging practice, Sherry would work him. He just didn’t train well, she said. “His feet were in the wrong place and he was just clumsy as all get out.”
    Sherry had no other mount, so she planned on riding him in Denver. It was the wildest run of her life, she said. The barrels always followed the steer wrestling, so when the steer wrestling was over, they changed saddles and Sherry got on him. “Red came flying out of that alley, and I knew what run was, right then,” she said. “I just picked him up on the right, he saw that barrel, and turned.”
    Red won Denver for Bob Maynard, who also rode him in Ft. Worth, as did other bulldoggers. When Bob paid his mount money to Benny, Sherry remembers that he pulled out a $1000 bill, which seemed like all the money in the world. Red was a good financial investment for Benny and Sherry. “With me running barrels, Benny bulldogging, and the mount money, we had a three-way shot (at earning), which was good.”
    It wasn’t long and Benny and Sherry bought Willard’s half of Red and owned him outright.
    Oftentimes the bulldoggers would gather at the arena fence during the barrel racing, to see what their bulldogging horse was doing, “if I was messing him up,” she said. “And I took care of him. It was my pleasure.” Red preferred women over men, especially Sherry. Benny couldn’t catch him; he’d always ask her to do it. And Sherry recalls a time at Ft. Worth when she asked sister Florence to feed him. Florence stepped in the stall, left the stall door open, put the hay down and Red “politely booted her out of the stall. He didn’t kick her or it would have hurt. He just booted her out. My space,” he was telling her.
    Red, inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2017, holds a record that probably won’t ever be duplicated. In 1962, he won two world titles (and helped with a third) for his riders: Sherry as world champion barrel racer, and family friend Tom Nesmith as world champion steer wrestler and all-around champ.
    Sherry, the 1962 world champion, had twelve qualifications to the National Finals Rodeo, the most of any cowgirl till Charmayne James came along. She has the distinction of qualifying for the WPRA’s barrel racing world championships in six of the seven cities in which it has been held. Her first qualification was in 1959, at Clayton, New Mexico. She also qualified when it was held in Scottsdale (1960), Santa Maria, Calif. (1961), Ft. Worth (1962-66), and when it was included with the PRCA’s world championship in Oklahoma City (’67-68, 70); and in Las Vegas, her last year to compete (1991). The only location she didn’t compete at was in Arlington, Texas last year. She didn’t compete every year she qualified; sometimes the added money was too low to justify traveling so far.
    And barrel racing wasn’t her only rodeo activity. She was part of the group of women with the Girls Rodeo Association (forerunner to the Women’s Pro Rodeo Association) that re-wrote part of the rulebook and asked for ten percent of purse money. At the time, in the early 1960s, committees did not provide equal purse money in the barrel racing. Ten percent “was not equal money but it was a start,” she said.

    She and Benny had a daughter, Becky, in 1958. About ten years later, she and Becky moved back to Addington. A house next door to John Henry and Lena was for rent, and Sherry began working for her dad. She would drop Becky off at school, and go to work, with Lena picking up Becky after school and helping with homework.
    It was while in Addington that Sherry connected with her high school sweetheart, Sid Johnson. Sid had lent her $10 to become a GRA member at a rodeo years before, and the two had gone to prom together in high school. After talking on the phone and seeing each other long distance, one day Sid was in Addington. The couple had obtained a marriage license and had planned on marrying, just hadn’t chosen a date. One day Sherry said, “let’s get married. My hair looks good,” she laughed. He replied, “Ok, that’s fine with me.” Sherry called Florence, asking her and Dale to stand up for them. Florence replied, “I’m cooking fish,” to which Sherry said, “cook faster.” The preacher agreed to marry them, if they would help him set up chairs for the next day’s speaker.
    “It wasn’t romantic, and I don’t think anybody took pictures, but my hair looked good,” she laughed.
    They were married in 1980, until Sid’s death in 2007. “It was the best 28 years of my life. We never argued.”
    They lived near Snyder, Texas, until Sid was diagnosed with cancer. He was always looking out for his bride; he insisted they move back to Addington after his diagnosis, so she would be near her sister after his passing. She refused to take him from his home, saying it was her home, too. He told her, “I’ll be packed and gone so you can decide if you’re going to follow me or not.”
    Now she and Florence live three miles apart as the crow flies, and talk several times a day. Daughter Becky Bradley lives with Sherry and together they manage the ranch. Sherry doesn’t ride anymore; her back won’t allow it. But she still loves her horses.
    Sherry was the 1961 WPRA all-around champ, competing in the barrels on Red, and doing the flag race, breakaway and cutting. In 1997, she was the WPRA’s Coca-Cola Woman of the Year. In 2005, she was inducted into the National Rodeo Cowboy and Western Heritage Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Five years later, she was inducted into the Pecos (Texas) Rodeo Hall of Fame, and in 2015, she was the RAM Prairie Circuit Living Legend winner. The next year, she and Red were inducted into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame. She helped design a Sherry Combs saddle, as well, benefitting from its sales.
    “She could outride me,” Florence said. “She was a natural on a horse, and that’s what my daddy and husband thought. She was a hand.”
    She is grateful for the good horses that have been in her life. “I have been blessed with so many good horses, and I thank God for that,” she said. “I tried to take care of them like He would want me to.”
    She loved working with horses; it was her life. “Riding and training was never a job for me. It was something I liked to do. I just plain loved to ride, all my life. Riding was my passion, and when you can make a living at what you love, you’re blessed.”

  • On The Trail with Jim Boy Hash

    On The Trail with Jim Boy Hash

    The Hash family refers to themselves as weekend warriors on the rodeo trail. But Jim Boy, his wife Jessica, and their teenage sons Jaylyn and Jaytyn, are one of the driving forces behind the rodeo world in the Midwest. Through coaching, competing, training horses, raising goats and WNFR-bound broncs, and driving hundreds of miles a year, they give back to the sport that has given them a lifestyle they love.

    Kendall, Kansas, is home base for the Hash family, but they are equally at home at NIRA, KPRA, and NLBRA rodeos. Jessica’s grandparents, Otis and Shirley Jennings, started J&J Rodeo Company in 1978, and Jessica and her three younger brothers grew up helping fill any need at the KPRA, Little Britches, high school, and ranch rodeos their family produced. “My mom was in charge of cooking the meals and taking care of the kiddos,” says Jessica. “My brothers and I did a lot of the preparing the cattle beforehand. When Granddad got a new set of cattle, we’d track them through and rope them.” Jessica competed in the NLBRA in all the girl’s events and though she jokes she was primarily added money for the other goat tyers, she excelled in trail course and breakaway roping on a horse her grandpa purchased as a bucking horse. She and Jim Boy met through Little Britches and saw more of each other at KPRA, amateur, and college rodeos, where they started dating. “I went to Colby for my first two years of college and then followed my boyfriend to Panhandle State. Our joke is that Jim Boy was from Texas, so I thought he had money.”

     

    Jim Boy grew up in Canadian, Texas, and went to the Texas High School State Finals in steer wrestling and saddle bronc riding. He competed in the NHSFR in steer wrestling in 1990, and began his college rodeo career at Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, that fall. Afterward, he transferred to Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, where he won the steer wrestling in the Central Plains region in 1993 and 1994, and qualified for the CNFR from 1993—1995. His team finished second in the nation in 1993 and third in the nation in 1994. Jim Boy also competed on the PRCA Prairie Circuit, and he was asked by his rodeo coach at OPSU, Dr. R. Lynn “Doc” Gardner, to stay on as the assistant coach after Jim Boy graduated in 1995. When Doc passed away in 1996, Jim Boy took the assistant coach position at Cochise College in Douglas, Arizona, where the women’s team qualified for the CNFR in 1997.

    Jim Boy packed his bags again, this time bound for Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kansas, in 1998. He started as the assistant coach and has remained there since, becoming the head coach in 2003. Covid shut down most of their season in 2020 and Jim Boy took the opportunity to spend more time with his family. There are 11 students on his team this season and he’s excited about some new changes at GCCC. “This will be huge for us—we are revamping our stalls and can accommodate more horses, and increasing our scholarship budget. We have a few more kids lined up for next year and that will be a huge bonus to us.”

    “He cares a lot for the kids,” adds Brock Baker, the assistant rodeo coach at GCCC since 2008. “It’s important to Jim Boy to have good kids and for them to take care of business and get through school, and to leave a better person than they came. That’s something he’s always cared about is that they get a good start in life. Rodeo is important but life is more important.” Several GCCC alumni that Jim Boy coached have gone on to the WNFR, including Emily Miller, Cort Scheer, and Casey Colletti. “From Garden City, those kids have gone on to every major university,” says Bronc Rumford, the head rodeo coach at Fort Hays State University. “Jim Boy’s touched a big part of the rodeo world during his career. He does the bucking horses as a hobby and he’s raised some NFR horses. He’s had his hand in all aspects of the rodeo world. Anybody knows that when you go to a rodeo that has his goats, there’s going to be an even pen.”

    Jim Boy’s oldest son, Jaylyn (19), joined the Broncbuster nation at GCCC this rodeo season as a freshman, competing in steer wrestling, team roping, and tie-down roping. “I’m used to my dad being at practices because he was always at the house with us,” says Jaylyn. “He’s been pretty patient with me and wants me to live like a college student athlete on the rodeo team.” Jim Boy even invested in some property near the college recently, which has several barns, stalls, and runs. Jaylyn is staying there with his horses, camping in his grandma’s trailer. Rodeoing and his recent trip to the 2021 Cinch Jr. Ironman keep him on the road most weekends, however.

     

    It was Jaylyn’s first time to be invited to the Jr. Ironman, where he ultimately finished as the reserve champion by .8 seconds. He competed with nine other contestants in three rounds of steer wrestling, tie-down roping, heading, and heeling. Jaylyn felt his runs met with varying degrees of success—he tied for first place in the third round of tie-down roping with an 11.1 after switching horses—and went into the final day aiming for second place. “I was trying to do the math in my head and saw that Briar (Teague) was five seconds ahead. After the bulldogging I was too long, but I never would’ve known I’d come so close to winning by .8 seconds.” Jaylyn’s 22-year-old steer wrestling horse, Cooper, also won the Lone Star Ropes Top Horse Award during the event. “My girlfriend’s family came down, and I hung out with my team roping partner, Jordan Lovins. That was the first time we roped together, and he was great. My dad, brother, mom, and uncle Daylin came and watched, and my other family watched it on the Cowboy Channel.”

    Jaylyn went to his second college rodeo in Fort Scott, Kansas, immediately following the Jr. Ironman, and by his third rodeo in Durant, Oklahoma, accomplished one of his goals by making the short round in steer wrestling. “The very first goal I set was to at least make one short round my freshman year. Another goal was to beat my dad, who made it to his first short round in his fourth college rodeo. I made it to my first short round at my third rodeo.”
    Along with college rodeo, Jaylyn is competing in his last year of Little Britches and plans to enter KPRA rodeos. He’s also pursuing a career of more guaranteed money in bullfighting, which he started working as a freshman in high school, taking after several of his uncles. Jaylyn works for his family’s J&J Rodeo Company and Medicine River Rodeo Company, working about 20 rodeos a summer. In 2020, he was awarded KPRA Bullfighter of the Year. “That’s where my heart is now. Ever since me and my brother were young, we’d go to Tractor Supply and buy bulls and horses and toy semitrucks, and we’d put marks on them and pretend we were stock contractors. We would like to do that someday; we’ll see what happens. I’m going to major in athletic training. Once I’m retired from bullfighting, if I want another job, I can go into the Justin Sports Medicine and stay around rodeo.”

    “I’m very thankful my boys rodeo,” says Jessica. “I feel like kids learn so much responsibility and gain so many friendships. They learn to be patient and how to be a caregiver to their animals, or a teacher. When we first started this venture of children, Jaylyn did not want to ride horses or rodeo. We decided then as parents we need to support them in whatever they love to do. Jaytyn on the other hand had a rope in his car seat at all times—that was his binky. Rodeo was it from the beginning for him.”

    Jaytyn (15) is a freshman, competing in KHSRA, Little Britches, and the Young Guns Timed Event series. He does tie-down roping and ribbon roping, while team roping is his favorite. “My brother is really pushing for me to steer wrestle,” Jaytyn adds. Like his older brother, he plays basketball, football, and baseball in high school. He took a break from basketball this year and enjoyed roping at the college with his dad’s team and helping pick up broncs. Jaytyn likes to train horses, and says he noticed horse prices were on the rise and decided to start training horses, selling them to make money for college and the jackpots he wants to enter. One of his current project horses is part Arabian. “Somebody just dropped him

  • On The Trail with Colten Fritzlan

    On The Trail with Colten Fritzlan

    The 20 year old just won RFD TV the American in the bull riding with a show-stopper ride aboard Chad Berger’s Safety Meeting. “He had me bucked off a couple times and you ask yourself how bad do you want to win and I’m glad it worked out.” Colten now lives in Lipan, Texas. “I’ve lived in Texas for the past three years; there’s more opportunities for me down here and I wanted to be around it as much as I could.”

    Winning the American was a dream come true for Colten. “When the American started I was in high school and it’s always stuck out to me as somewhere I’d be and to win it was always something I wanted. To put it all together and come out on top – I was blessed to get it done. The Lord put that in my path to win and I’m glad he did and looking forward to weekends to come.”

    The win put $50,000 towards the PRCA standings and $100,000 in his pocket. “I’m savoring how to spend it I’ll put some toward my place or just whatever I need.”

    Colten grew up in Rifle, Colorado, learning to ride at a young age. When Colten’s interest in roughstock turned serious as a seven-year-old, the Fritzlans delved into buying and selling mini bulls, steers, and bulls.

     

    He competed in the National Little Britches, placing the first year he went. He made the short round in the team roping the other two years. The most instrumental for his bull riding comes from his mom, Velvet, who has been known to pull his bull rope, and his Dad, “I was blessed; whatever I needed I had, along with the responsibilities. Really a person I look up to is Kody Lostroh. I got around him at a young age. We had a rodeo Bible camp every year – He’s a world champion and one of the best guys I’ve met – and always wanted to be like him.”

    Kody taught rodeo Bible camps throughout his career and spent times with Colten at those camps. “I know that Colten is one of those kids that never missed an opportunity to practice so whenever we were bucking bulls he was there,” said the 2009 PBR World Champion Kody Lostroh. “The great athletes that have gone before me have always been my heroes and that inspired me – Colten grew up watching me and I was always around to help him.” Kody resides with his family, Candace, and two daughters, Sheridan and Odessa, in Ault, Colorado, raising bucking bulls and he has a small metal fabrication business. He also guides hunters in the winter – Comanche Wilderness Outfitters, where he is the mountain lion guide. “I’m so proud of the work he’s put in to get to where he’s at. He didn’t get where he is by luck, he’s put the work into it. I’m happy for him and his future.”

    Colten attended college at Western Texas College in Snyder. “It’s a great fit for me,” he said. “That school took care of me really well.” He went there for two years and under the guidance of coach Greg Rhodess, he learned how to take the sport of rodeo as a business. “He taught us how to be strong on the mental side. You get around guys like that – get the job done until it’s done – it ups your confidence and determination.”

    “Individuals like Colten separate themselves from the rest of the pack,” said Greg, who has been coaching for 24 years at Western Texas College. “It didn’t matter what needed to be accomplished he was all in. I don’t think he did any pick up duties before he showed up here and by the end of the first semester, he became handy at it. No matter if it was school or practice, he was all there. He never had to be told something twice – once he decides to nod his head it’s to get the job done.”

    On the physical side of things, Colten hits the gym every once in awhile, but he stays busy. “I don’t slow down at all. I ride horses, pick up bucking horses, and rope. I’ll do drills around the house.” Colten was always better at bull riding because he’s worked at it the most. “Bull riding is my favorite since I’ve been doing it the longest, but I also like that you’re not just competing against the animal or another competitor, but you’re bringing those forces together and seeing how it comes out when you make eight.”

     

    He admits to doing the other events to stay busy. “I don’t like standing around; I wanted to be a cowboy, just not a bull rider. Riding broncs and roping kept me from sitting around all day waiting to get on.” He competed as a wrestler until he was a freshman in high school. “I had a bad elbow injury and I had to get serious about my bull riding. I could wrestle for four years, or get it healed now and rodeo for the rest of my life.” Colten has had four surgeries on his elbow.
    Last year was his first trip to the NFR, placing 10th, riding 7 out of ten; and winning the average as well as Resistol Rookie of the Year. “I just knew I belonged there and I didn’t want to blow up anything – keep it as simple as I could, knowing my job at hand and that’s it – do my job and win. I’m glad it all worked out.”

    When Covid hit last year, Colten was trying for Houston. “I was 16th in the world. We were out of rodeo for a month or two. It drove me nuts – I didn’t want to be there or liked being there. I stayed in the gym and kept going to the practice pen. I knew when there was a rodeo to be at, I would be.” Cave Creek was his first rodeo back and he won second and it continued from there. He broke his jaw in July and the injury took him out of some of the summer rodeos. “I got jerked down and broke my jaw on both sides – they put plates and screws in my mouth. It wasn’t fun, but what I did during that time is hang out at the house, rode my colts and horses, and worked on my ranch pickup.”

    His win at the American will help keep him in the lead heading into summer. “I want to win a world title,” he concluded. “I didn’t get my bulls rode last year – they give you ten head and I fell short of riding all ten.
    The long term plan for Colten includes “a big old ranch with a bunch of horses and cows. I’d like to have some good pick up horses as well as a set of bulls for kids around to learn off of.”

    In the meantime, his advice to the younger generation coming up is to work at it every day. “It gets you down, and that’s when you get up and try harder. Don’t quit and keep going.” Colten knows that first hand. He was plagued with injuries at a younger age. “I couldn’t ride anything or anywhere. It was rough. I knew it was for a bigger reason and I got a hold of some different people to change my mentality and here we are.”

  • Featured Athlete: Jersey Thompson

    Featured Athlete: Jersey Thompson

    It was a trail ride that inspired Jersey Thompson to run barrels.
    The Westminster, Colo., cowgirl, who is twelve years old, was under the tutelage of her trainer, Marie Stephenson, a barrel racer, when Marie suggested the girl try barrels.
    So she did, and at the age of five, began her career. She is the first in her family to rodeo.
    Now, seven years later, she’s a member of the Mile Hi Barrel Horse Association, True West Productions, Dinero Dash Barrel Racing, BetterBarrelRaces, the Northwest Barrel Racing Association and the KK Run for Vegas. She has qualified for the Jr. American as well.
    A member of the 5 Star Equine team, their products enhance her competition and keep her horses safe.
    Jersey loves the saddle pads. “I really like how they absorb the sweat,” she said. “It lets the sweat dry in all the right places. And if you take care of them, they’ll last a really long time.” The pads don’t shift on the horses, and “they keep my horses from getting sore.”
    She loves the colors, too, and “how you can customize them, and the cool prints and patterns.” She owns a black saddle pad with a turquoise scroll on the leather, a black pad with pink and black crocodile leather, and a third pad that is purple with turquoise leather.
    Jersey also loves the 5 Star Equine boots. One reason she uses them is they do a good job of keeping out rocks. They also give her horses joint and leg support while they’re running. And, like the saddle pads, “you can customize the colors.” Her horses’ boots match their saddle pad colors.
    The cowgirl has two horses, a paint and a palomino. The paint, named Priscilla, is ten years old. She’s been riding Priscilla for the last five years. The palomino, Magic, is seven. Priscilla is the boss horse, she said. “She’s pretty bossy and sassy but she does her job well.” Magic also likes her job, but she’s quieter and more gentle.
    A sixth grade student at Moore Middle School in Westminster, Jersey is doing school remotely. She loves the subject of history and studying World War II, and science, due to a teacher she admires, who makes it enjoyable.
    She also loves to draw, using any kind of medium. Her favorite subjects are people and horses, and her artwork is displayed across the Thompson home and in her mom’s office. Her mom has been bugging her for more artwork, to decorate her work space.
    Skateboarding is another of her leisure activities.
    The best trip Jersey has taken was to San Diego, Calif., three years ago. The family went to the beach, to the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and whale watching, where they spotted a dolphin and sea turtles.
    The best meal her mom makes, in her opinion, is Texas hash, and the cowgirl is crazy for ice cream: brownie batter, mint chocolate chip, cookies and cream, and cookie dough types.
    The family has two pet dogs, Teddy and Harley, who are Rottweilers, four cats, and a bunny.
    Jersey has qualified for the Legends Shootout (the finals for the Mile Hi), and has competed at the 2020 Junior World Finals and the Jr. American. She won second in the 1D Dream Catcher slot race finals for the 2020 Mile Hi season.
    When she grows up, she would like to be a professional barrel racer.
    She is the daughter of Marc and Angela Thompson.