Category: ProFiles

Jeremy Sparks was a familiar face in the rodeo world for more than a decade. The bullfighter from Arkansas retired in 2010 and took a corporate job back in Arkansas where he lives with his wife, Jamie, and their six year old twin boys, Jett and Jude. Elevate Publishing has recently debuted a book about his life entitled Go West, 10 Principles That Guided My Cowboy Journey. “I kept a journal since I was little bitty and did that too as a bull fighter. Leveraging the journals and news clippings that I collected helped me put this together,” said the 39 year old, who is the only pro bullfighter ever endorsed by the Pentagon. Jeremy fought bulls while being part of the Air Force active duty and is still a part of the National Guard.
“When I first had the idea about this book and got serious writing it, I wanted to share a few principles, like faith, courage, and integrity. I thought about telling stories to the principles but when I asked God to help me, it just started flowing.” Go West has been number one on the Amazon best seller list. “It had a really good showing out of the gate.” His original idea of telling stories became intertwined with how God used him throughout his career. His honesty with sharing his failures and triumphs makes Go West a must read. He tells about his divorce and subsequent move of his ex-wife and their son, Jas, to Hungary. “I wanted to leave my sons something to remember my life by, and this book was a great way to do that.”
Jeremy has a Go West Study Guide that is in production now and he envisions cowboys on the road reading the book and doing the study guide together. “Resources geared towards the western lifestyle and rodeo athletes are few. My desire is to provide a unique offering that helps cowboys and cowgirls pursue their calling. Each section is interactive and full of practical life application.”
His next goals include getting out and speaking. “Jamie and I want to share our story and offer inspiration to all the people. I’m living proof that if God can use me, He can use anyone.”

“Hi. I’m Moe and I’m more famous than John Payne. Or maybe not, but I’d like to think I am.
You might know John Payne, but you might know him by his other name. The One Arm Bandit. I’d like to brag that I’m the one who made him lose an arm, but it wasn’t me.
I came into John’s life ten years ago, when I was eight.
He was sitting at a sale, chewing the cud with all the other cowboys…. Well, actually, I’ll let John tell the story…

Hello, I’m John Payne, the One Arm Bandit, and one day, I was sitting at a mule sale in Ada, Oklahoma. I had a bullfight to work that night, and the mule sale was at the same place as the bullfight, or I’d have never been there and I’d have never bought him.
He’s a man killer, Moe is. He had six problems: you couldn’t catch him, you couldn’t bridle him, you couldn’t saddle him, you couldn’t get on him, and you couldn’t ride him. And he’d run off with you if you tried, even leading him.
But Moe and I, after I’ve pulled a lot of wet saddle blankets off of him, have come to an understanding.  I ride him, he does what he’s supposed to, and we both get paid.
Part of my act is driving my trained buffalo or Watusi longhorns to the top of my trailer, following them up, and spinning my mule on the top of the trailer while cracking a bullwhip. All with one arm.
I used a horse for twenty years. I was the cowboy who said, when all the horses die, and I get tired of walking then I’ll use a mule.
But after I’ve had Moe, I sure do like how he works. He’s surefooted on the ramp. If it rains and it’s muddy and that ol’ ramp is wet and slick, he is really good at keeping his feet under him.
I’ve trained a lot of animals in my life. Horses, mules, zedonks, zorses, zebras, watusi cross longhorns, Corrientes, quarter horses, and mustangs, not to mention buffalo. And a chicken hawk. This hawk, I found it under a tree when it was a baby. I took it home, and fed it till it grew up. I’d whistle and he’d land on my arm. He loved mountain oysters and hamburger meat. When we was working cattle, he’d fly around and hang around us all the time.
Once I trained a woman …… to do whatever she wanted to do.
Buffalo is the meanest critter in North America. Buffalo tried to kill me almost every day for two years, and they’ve hooked me off the top of the trailer, twice, horse and all.
But back to Moe.  Moe wasn’t harder to train than buffalo. He was a jerk, pulling back, making it hard on you every darn day, but he was not dangerous all the time. He was not hardheaded.  He is very firm in his convictions.
He was worth it. Well, I had a lot of nice compliments on him and I’ve been offered $20,000 for him. But nobody could handle him but me.  He’s the best looking mule in the world. He’s built great, stout, strong, durable, sure-footed, and trustworthy. I do parades on him when I jump off the trailer onto asphalt, and he slides on all four. A horse would be straddle-legged.
He’ll outwork two horses, but he’ll also outwork two horses trying to get out of work and being a little pillbox.
I can walk out there and say, ‘Moe,’ and he’ll come to me. Something else this mule can do, is I can stand on top of my trailer and pop a whip and he jumps out of the trailer and onto the pickup and up the ramp and come right to me.”
He’s the most famous mule in the world.

Moe: Well, I love you, too, John Payne, but I’m always keeping score and I’m not going to love you anymore than you love me.

story by Skylar Wright

Lerin Thomas, 21, has her eyes set on the bright lights of Las Vegas to sing the National Anthem during the National Finals Rodeo set for Dec. 1 through Dec. 10.
Growing up in Newkirk, Okla., Lerin started singing when she was 9 years old and learned by listening to others. The young talent never took singing lessons but knew she wanted to learn the National Anthem.
“I would listen to it over and over and I got to where I could add my own flair to it after many hours of practice,” she said.
While Lerin did not rodeo much herself, she said her dad, Jim Thomas, is the one who got her interested in the sport. She attended her first rodeo with her dad at 6 weeks old and has loved it ever since.
The NFR’s National Anthem contest consists of an open category and a youth category. The first round of voting was Sept. 1-14. The contest committee then announced the top six contestants, with the next round of voting set for Sept. 26 through Oct. 6.
“The contest isn’t something a lot of people know about unless you follow the NFR Facebook page or you are involved in rodeo personally and I would like to change that,” Lerin said. “It is an amazing opportunity and I would love to get more people involved each year.”
This is Lerin’s second time to go through the contest process. In 2015, she made it to the top ten but came up short in the next round of voting to continue on.
This year is a different story. She is packing her bags and preparing to sing on rodeo’s biggest stage.
There are three winners of the open category out of 130 total entries and one youth.
“I have always wanted to sing at the NFR, it has been my goal since I started singing at 9 years old so when I got that call saying I had won, I was overwhelmed with excitement,” Lerin said.
She will sing in front of thousands at the Thomas and Mack Center but that does not seem to bother her nerves. She has sung for different professional events numerous times and loves the feeling it brings to her.
“We are all so different as people but for those 2 minutes of the National Anthem, we share a connection and I love that feeling,” she said.
Aside from singing, she is an Oklahoma State University strategic communications senior.
“OSU has been the best time of my life,” she said. “I’ve made so many friends and I’ve been introduced to many new things. Being apart of the OSU cowboy family means a lot to me.”
She said she would like to work for the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association doing social media work and public relations.
Recently Lerin has had the opportunity to be apart of the backstage crews that help put on a rodeo. She is the social media director and founder for the 101 Wild West PRCA rodeo board. With that, She put together her first social media team for the 2016 Woodward Elks rodeo and plans to continue that each year.
With her spare time she likes to volunteer for the Miss Rodeo Oklahoma Pageant. “I’m passionate about rodeo and being a small part of something people love so much makes it all worth while,” she said.
She would like to thank all of her friends and family that have supported this dream and for those who voted for her.

Bull rider Layne Ward won the NIRA’s Southwest Region in 2015 competing in just five rodeos – half of a college rodeo season. This year, he’s sitting second in the region with plans to defend his title and represent Odessa College a second time at the CNFR. “This year is going good – I won the first rodeo of the season and placed in the second,” says the 22 year old from Almo, Idaho. He attended Utah State University for a semester in 2014 but competed in a full season of rodeo. When he arrived at Odessa College, he needed 24 previous credits before he was eligible for a second season of college rodeo, giving him just the spring of 2015 to qualify for the CNFR, which he accomplished by winning three rodeos and placing second in another. “College finals was rough – I’d separated my shoulder the week before in an accident and then went to two pro rodeos before the CNFR, so it was a hard week. But the experience was great and it’s a really fun rodeo to be a part of – it makes me hungry to do good this year and get back there!”
Odessa College came onto Layne’s radar when several of his friends, including a cousin, chose to attend school there. “C.J. Aragon, our rodeo coach, recruited my cousin, and I thought it would be pretty awesome to rodeo here,” Layne recalls. “C.J. put a scholarship together for me, and this is my second year here now. I love it here – the college and their rodeo program are great, and so is C.J. He’s always encouraging me, and any time I’m down, he’ll give me a boost. If I’m ever going through a rough time and have to ask myself why I’m doing this (rodeo), I’m reminded that I’m doing it to win titles, but I mainly want to push myself to see how great I can be. If I’m not at that point, then I need to keep working, and my coach and my parents do a great job of keeping me going. It’s always good to have those outside sources, but if you don’t have the internal drive to push yourself each day, it can be pretty tough.”
Growing up on a ranch in southeast Idaho gave Layne the foundation for the self-motivation and hard work bull riding requires. His parents, Steve and Tonya Ward, took him to gymkhanas where he rode sheep and calves before he competed in a year of junior high rodeo, while his brother and two sisters also compete. “I stick to the thrill side of things – I’m usually the one up for doing the scariest stuff,” Layne says with a laugh. “I try to take anything to the next level, whether it’s boating or riding my dirt bike.” In high school, he competed in amateur rodeos in the area, but after graduating, made a difficult choice to pause his rodeo career and serve a two year LDS mission in Mesa, Arizona. “Right as you graduate high school, it’s an important time in a rodeo career as you transition and practice for the college and pro level. It was a tough decision and I had to leave everything – I couldn’t ride bulls or horses or go to a rodeo for two years, but I don’t think I’d be as good as I am today if I hadn’t gone on that mission. I was able to heal up and work out, and let my body grow. But it was also a mental break that helped me forget about rodeo for a while and serve other people. It helped me grow up and mature, and put a lot of things into perspective.”
Returning to the chutes two years later wasn’t as challenging as Layne expected, but he admits it was still rough. “It was frustrating to re-learn some things, but I’d also forgotten some bad habits, and once it clicked, I knew how it should feel again,” he says. “Rodeo down here in Texas is a different level. It’s not better than anywhere else, but everybody here is ready to do well and help everyone else do the same. They step up the game and make rodeo what it is.”
Layne filled his PRCA permit this year and plans to ride on his card starting with the 2017 season. He’ll graduate in the spring with degrees in business administration and general studies. “I couldn’t have done a lot of this without the help of my sponsor, Brahma Lending and Leasing,” he finishes. “I’d like to win the college region here again and win the CNFR. I want to rodeo as hard as I can and see how far I go, but the aim is to make the NFR and win a gold buckle. I plan on going all the way!”

Alex Phelps – Bravane Shandon Alexander Phelps – is the National Student President of the NIRA. “It is voted on by the board,” said the 22-year-old from Ulysses, Kansas. “I think it’s a good opportunity for me to be part of something larger than me so I can go and promote college rodeo.” Alex recognizes that college rodeo is a stepping stone to the PRCA. “College rodeo has been good to me and I’ve enjoyed my time so far.” His goal as both National President and Central Plains Regional Director is to help educate elementary school kids about rodeo. “One of our jobs as regional directors is to talk to third and fourth graders – it was funded by a grant under Western Heritage Program.” Alex also received the 2016 Walt Garrison Scholarship Award, honoring one student director a year.
Alex’s mom passed away when he was 8 and he and his brother and sister were raised by his grandparents, Don and Peggy Phelps. “My grandpa farmed and worked in feed yards and he used to rodeo and rope and I’ve roped since I was little. Team roping is what I’ve done the longest, but I started roping calves when I was in junior high, added steer wrestling in high school.” Alex stepped in front of his first bull when he was in seventh grade. “I tried riding a bull, but it didn’t go my way and Wacey Munsell is a close family friend, so he asked me if I wanted to start fighting bulls and I did.” Alex has cattle sense from growing up doing real cowboy work for his neighbors. He also got to attend Rex Dunn’s last school. He watches videos and studies the action and timing. Now he fights bulls at six of the college rodeos and worked 8 pro rodeos last year. None of what he has accomplished would be possible without the help and support of his family. “I wouldn’t be here without them.”
He competes in all three events at the college rodeos, making time management a priority; especially when he’s up in the short round. “There’s only one event between team roping and bull riding, so it’s hard to get the horse taken care of and hustle around to get changed.” As the Regional Director, he is also responsible for the banners at every rodeo. “I’m the first one there and the last to leave. I’m there to hang the banners and take them down. Time is money – that’s what they say in rodeo production.”
He spends five hours a day in the practice pen, working on his events. “We rope a lot, and that’s one thing I try to stay sharp on. But we chute dog a lot too.” He works on consistency in all of his events. “I do my best to have a short memory, so if I have a bad day, I work on that the next day, and then I go from there.” He is heading towards a degree in marketing and loves his classes. “My plan is to get my degrees and have that as a backup plan. I want to rodeo, fight bulls, and auctioneer and see if I can make that work. I’ve sold everything from horses to pigs to tack.”
Alex recently lost his little sister and has put life in perspective. “Life is short, you can’t take anything for granted and you need to tell the ones you love that you love them. Be kind to one another because you don’t know what the other person is going through. Things can change in an instant, so be happy and let others know that you love them.”

From the time Lindsay Davis entered her first rodeo astride a Shetland pony, she’s had college rodeo on her mind. Working through the ranks of junior and high school competition alongside her sisters, Jana and Kiley, the 23 year old from Malad, Idaho, achieved her goal of college rodeoing. She qualified for the CNFR in the breakaway roping her freshman year, and recently accepted the assistant rodeo coach position at Colorado Northwestern Community College (CNCC). But like many a trek down the rodeo trail, her journey isn’t without its share of detours – and surprises.
One of the greatest surprises – more so to her family than herself – was the opportunity for Lindsay to haze for several of the College of Southern Idaho’s steer wrestlers, from practice all the way to the CNFR. Her uncles, Kenny and Tom Holland, greatly influenced her interest in hazing when Lindsay was ten. They started an annual spring steer wrestling school in Montana, and when Lindsay’s dad drove a handful of steer wrestlers north for the school, Lindsay tagged along. “She was paying more attention than I thought, and when she got to college, one of her steer wrestling friends needed a hazer,” says her dad, Kelly Davis, a roper and steer wrestler himself who introduced Lindsay to rodeo. Lindsay hazed several steers for her friend and called home to ask about bringing back one of her dad’s hazing horses to school. Knowing the hazards of hazing, her mom, Mary Jo Davis, was far from being in favor of the idea. Lindsay’s determination found a way, however, and unbeknownst to her mom on a visit home, snuck the horse into the trailer with her dad’s help.
Having watched more steer wrestling than any TV show, Lindsay took to hazing naturally. By fall of 2015, her senior year, she was hazing for eight of the steer wrestlers, and hazed for several of them at the CNFR two years in a row. “I’ve chute dogged a few times, but never gotten off a horse. But if I could bulldog, I definitely would,” says Lindsay. “The guys will come ask me which are the stronger steers and how the last guy did on the one they drew. I pay attention, not just for them, but for myself so I know what moves the steers make and how to make the best haze. I was the only girl hazing in CSI, but there’s another girl in Rocky Mountain region who started doing it as well.”
Over the years, Lindsay has competed in nearly every girls event except barrel racing, and focused on breakaway roping, team roping, and goat tying in college. “I really enjoyed college rodeo – it was that step above everything else I’d done before, and I had to be more competitive. Not only are you riding and doing what you love, but you’re getting an education. Being a student athlete, there’s that drive to keep up your grades so you can rodeo and help your teammates and your coach.” She was also a talented softball player in high school, but chose to pursue a rodeo scholarship. “I told Lindsay that the sport of rodeo is where you go and help everybody,” says Kelly. “It’s not you against the next girl, it’s you against the stock you draw. Through that, she’s made good friends, and the coaches know her as a person who helps.”
Lindsay’s dedication to rodeo didn’t go unnoticed. Another surprise on the rodeo trail came when CNCC in Rangely, Colo., offered her the assistant rodeo coach position. “They’d had another girl coaching, and I told the head coach Jed Moore in passing that she had an awesome job,” Lindsay recalls. “I love coaching kids. A while later at a college rodeo, Jed asked me if I was serious about the job, and he offered it to me right there. It wasn’t in my plans, but it is now, and I’ll see where it takes me!” She starts her work with recruiting this July, and she’ll move to Rangely in August.
She’s also working to start her own business since graduating this spring with degrees in equine studies and business management. “I’m interested in chiropractic work and equine dentistry. Growing up, we’d take trailers full of horses to a guy who came through here specializing in those areas. People are always asking who they can call for those services, and that’s what gave me the idea for my business.”
While she’s also helping her family with ranching and farming this summer in southeast Idaho, Lindsay sets aside time for rodeoing with the RMPRA in both the team roping and breakaway. “I do both ends team roping, but I’d say I like breakaway a lot more,” she says. “I had a bad horse accident team roping right before my freshman year of college, so it took me a while to even want to team rope after that.” Lindsay doesn’t remember much of the accident, but her dad, who was watching, says she was roping a steer when her horse stepped into her curl and sent the pair tumbling head first. “She had a concussion, and she had a tough time for a year and a half being able to remember short term things,” says Kelly. “We went to Utah State University, which specializes in researching concussions and learned that Lindsay needed to teach her brain it could still learn new things. She started beading projects like belts, and working with her hands and creating patterns has really helped her mind heal itself.”
On the rodeo side, Lindsay missed her first regional college rodeo of the season, but she was released to compete shortly after and won the all-around in her first college rodeo, placing in both the breakaway and the team roping in Pocatello, Idaho, on her yellow mare, Piggy. “I probably wouldn’t still be team roping without the help of my friend Trasen Jones, and Cody DeMers, who was the assistant rodeo coach at CSI,” says Lindsay. “He really helped me get back into things mentally, and my dad helped me with the roping. Dad’s always been my go-to guy – I don’t know what I’d do without him. He and my mom are my biggest supporters, and I can always count on them being there.
“My biggest goal for the future is getting my business started up, and rodeo wise, I want to stay on top of my game and keep making the finals. I also want to get married someday and start a family and get them into rodeo. Rodeo is a family thing, and we’ve never let it die. I knew every summer I’d be living out of the truck and trailer. It’s part of my life, so I come back to it all the time.”

Cole Bailey stepped into the Silver Spurs Arena, home of the 2016 RNCFR, for the first time this spring. The 27-year-old tie-down roper from Okmulgee, Okla., has been competing on the PRCA Prairie Circuit for eight years, winning the average at the 2015 Prairie Circuit Finals with 26.5 seconds on three runs. His debut at the RNCFR was a highlight of his career, placing first in the semi-finals with nearly $7,500. “It was awesome! The facility was unbelievably nice, and it was cold and rainy at home, so it was nice to go to Florida – it was my first time rodeoing there,” says Cole. “It was pretty exciting to be at that big of a venue – there’s not many times in a year that I rope for that much money. I stayed pretty booked up with the rodeo, but my wife and I had a chance to check out some restaurants and go down to the beach.”
Another highlight for Cole was competing in The American in 2015, finishing fourth in the finals, while he advanced to The American Semifinals this year. “The competition is just amazing when you get to rope against the caliber of guys like Tyson Durfey who are out there going full time,” says Cole. He grew up on the coaching of his dad, Mike Bailey, and world champion ropers like Joe Beaver, who stopped in and roped at the Bailey’s arena. “I started junior rodeoing when I was seven, and that’s all I’ve known to do with my spare time the last 20 years! Clint Carpenter is one of my friends I’ve been roping with since I was eight. We’ve always been competitive with each other, and to this day, he still ropes with me and helps me critique my roping. Growing up, our arena was set up for roping calves, and we always had good calf horses, so it was easy to pick up that event.”
Cole added steer wrestling and team roping to his résumé when he college rodeoed for Southeastern Oklahoma State University, qualifying for the CNFR twice. He continues to team rope with his dad on occasion, but quit steer wrestling several years ago. Soon after college, he was invited to church by a rodeo buddy, where he met his wife, Brittany, a barrel racer. Their two-year-old son, Brody, feels no day is complete without riding and helping his family check cows. He rides his dad’s rope horse, Baboo. “Baboo started out as Baldy, but Brody was having a hard time saying his name,” Cole explains with a laugh. “I’ve been hauling Baboo for about three years now. He was born and raised on my family’s place, and we have the growing pains to prove it! Brittany ran barrels on him and got him rode down, and then I started riding him more. He’s 12, and now it’s smooth sailing for us. I was confident going into the RNCFR because I have a lot of confidence in my horse. Baboo’s super talented and always gives me a shot, even if the calves are running hard or being wild. He’s been a blessing to my family.” Baboo has also carried Cole to several major ropings, including the Windy Ryon Memorial Roping, Spicer Gripp Memorial Roping, and Mike Johnson’s World’s Richest Calf Roping.
When the truck is in park, Cole and Brittany are working cattle on their ranch outside of Okmulgee. “We run close to 300 head. It started out as a hobby, but it’s not much of a hobby anymore,” says Cole. “I start out my day selling trucks at my family’s car dealership, then come home and take care of cattle. I have a guy that helps me with them, but there’s not much free time. We like to hunt and fish, and Brittany teaches Sunday School, but with whatever time is left, we’re homebodies.”
During the summer, the Bailey’s home is often on the road, blending rodeoing with vacation. They’re planning a trip back to Florida for all things Disney World this fall, but otherwise meld rodeo and vacation together. “I’m pretty fortunate that my wife enjoys being gone for a week or two at a time. Last year, we left the Colorado Springs Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo and went to Cheyenne Frontier Days after visiting some water parks and riding bicycles. I’d been to Cheyenne before, and it went pretty good! I had some luck last year, and this year I’m rodeoing a bit more and seeing how it goes. I’m going to Reno this month, and if things are going good, I’ll stay out longer doing PRCA rodeos. Otherwise, I’ll stay close to home and circuit rodeo. But I feel I have a pretty good horse that will let me win, and I’d like to try it!