Category: ProFiles

Bubba Paschal was raised in LaPorte, Texas – Southeast of Houston. “My family was involved in rodeo – they always enjoyed horses and my dad (Chuck) rodeoed in high school and bulldogged when I was growing up.  He taught us how to bulldog and hazed for me and my brother for the first several years we prorodeoed. My Mom (Cecile) ran barrels and supported us through everything. Shane, my brother, bulldogged and team ropes.  We travelled together a lot starting off, he won San Antonio one year but never really went hard enough to make the finals.”
Bubba started off calf roping, adding steer wrestling when he got into high school. “I played around team roping and never did it a lot until recently. I won the PRCA Rookie of the Year in the bulldogging and the All Around in 1995 and made the Finals in calf roping in 1998.” He realized that in order to rope and be competitive, he had to travel and keep up with his horses. “I made the Finals after I started the business (P & P Trailer Sales), but it wasn’t in my heart to stay out there and pound the pavement.” He went just enough to make Houston and go to the big rodeos. “2010 was the last year I roped calves and just went to some local jackpots.  Since then I have changed my focus to team roping.  They have become the place of old calf roper reunions.”
“I’ve always been somewhat of an entrepreneur. I was always looking how to make and save money. I always knew I wanted to be in business for myself.  I started with a load of utility trailers and I was pulling a trailer when I won Rookie, trying to promote and sell them for a new dealer in the Houston area. I was still finishing up college. I refinanced my truck to get the money to buy the first load of trailers. We had a hay pasture with a portable building, and we set that up and I still rodeoed to pay the bills.”
From that hay pasture 18 years ago, P & P Trailer Sales now has five locations in Texas and Oklahoma to serve the needs of their customers. The latest one is in Hockley Texas, northwest of Houston “Every dealership we’ve added has been because of a person, not a place. If the right opportunity comes up, we’ll take advantage of it.” He believes the key to any business is good people. “I’m fortunate to have really good people at every location that are willing to show up and work hard and believe in what we’re selling. When they become part of something they enjoy, they stay. I’ve got several employees that have been with me more than 15 years.” The masthead of his business model is to treat people the way you want to be treated. “That’s how we treat anybody that comes to any of our stores. That’s the mindset that I portray to all our people. You encounter difficult people and all you can do is what you feel is the right thing.” He considers all of his locations and employees as one big family. “Both my grandfathers had tremendous work ethic, and believed to do things right the first time and always do the right thing.  I hope I can carry this with me in everything I do.”
“I only get to practice a couple times a week right now, but that’s going to change when my arena is done.” He and his wife Sherry have two children, Cane (7) and Cade (14). Cade is involved in football, baseball, golf and other activities in school. Cane is into soccer and baseball. “I didn’t rodeo until I was in high school so there is no pressure for them to rodeo. Once I get my arena, they will be involved more, but I’ve let them do what they want to do.”
His plans for the future are to keep doing family things, work, and rope. “I’m going to keep looking for opportunities and take them as they come.”

Sometimes in life, it’s a matter of finding out what you’re good at, and then doing it.
That was the case for a thirteen-year-old buckskin named Chuck.
Chuck was no good at ranch work, and he didn’t really care about the tie-down roping, but when it came to steer wrestling, he loved it.
Chuck was purchased by a Nebraska Sandhills ranch family as a weanling from the Ft. Pierre, S.D. sale barn. The family brought him to their neighbor, professional cowboy Kyle Whitaker, to break. Kyle could tell from the beginning that Chuck wasn’t an easy horse. “He was pretty rank,” he said. “He liked to buck all the time.” The horse wasn’t a bad one, but he wasn’t rider friendly, either, and Kyle knew his neighbors didn’t ride often and Chuck would require a lot of riding. So they agreed to sell him to Kyle.
Chuck had a couple of vices. He liked to run, and he liked to kick. Kyle started him in the tie-down roping, but that didn’t work well. “The first three calves I’d run, I’d be holding him back, trying not to run over the calves.”
And a person had to be careful around him. He kicked when someone walked around him.
Kyle, a seven time Linderman Award winner, would have started him earlier in the steer wrestling, but he was afraid of being kicked. He finally got brave enough to try the gelding, wearing a football helmet the first time he steer wrestled on him.
It only took a few runs for him to realize that Chuck loved steer wrestling. In 2013, he took him to a few amateur rodeos and the next summer, he tried him at a pro rodeo in Hamel, Minn. Kyle won the first round on Chuck with a time of 3.5 seconds.
Now, nearly two years later, Chuck excels at his job. At rodeos, it’s not uncommon for steer wrestlers to share horses, and Kyle often mounts out up to four steer wrestlers on Chuck at a performance. Fellow bulldogger Nick Guy has ridden Chuck a lot in the last six months. Since the week after the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR), Nick has won $70,000 on him.  He’s won checks at the American qualifier in Rapid City, Tucson, Ariz., the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, and San Angelo, Texas. “It seems like every time I ride him, I win,” Guy said.

Guy, a three-time WNFR qualifier, loves riding him. “He gives you the same trip every time,” he said. In the box, “he stands there, and doesn’t mess around.”
Kyle, who hazes for Nick and also steer wrestles, warms Chuck up. “He’s not the funnest horse to lope and warm up,” Nick said. Kyle “rides him in one of the most severe calf roping bits you can be in, because Chuck runs. Chuck wants to go, and you have to have him bitted up. If you put a snaffle in there, he’ll just run off with you.” If the bulldoggers must ride through the arena on the way to the timed event box, Chuck might “blow through there and take out a judge, or whatever else is in his path.”   Kyle also rides Chuck to steer wrestle, and Chuck doesn’t change his ways for either cowboy. “It doesn’t seem to affect the way he works for me or Kyle,” Nick said. “It’s one thing if you mount a guy out and you’re winning a bunch of money, and the horse isn’t working for the other cowboy. Chuck still works great for Kyle, and Kyle’s winning.”
When a steer wrestler rides another person’s horse, and wins money, he pays the horse’s owner “mount money.” The typical amount is 25% of what the cowboy earned for the run, and Nick’s been writing checks to Kyle all winter. “I’ve paid Kyle good this winter,” Nick quipped. “If you take twenty-five percent of $70,000, that’s pretty good money, that’s big money for him and for me.”
Nick, who grew up in Wisconsin but now lives near Denver, is excited for the summer rodeo run. He and Kyle, who was one of his early mentors in pro rodeo, will travel together this summer. Kyle hazed for Nick at his first WNFR in 2010. “It’d be cool to make (the WNFR) on his horse, and for him to make it. It’s cool that it’s come full circle, and we’re traveling together, and I’m able to win on this horse.”
And Kyle and Nick are glad that Chuck found his niche. He “wasn’t very fun to ranch on, and he’s not a real great calf (roping) horse,” Kyle said. “It was a matter of finding out what he liked to do and what he was made for.” And Chuck was made to steer wrestle.

John English was born in Deming, New Mexico, in the southern part of the state. He had a rope is his hand as soon as he could hold one and grew up helping his dad produce ropings, shoe, and trade horses. “He taught me how to shoe horses and that’s how I made my living while I was going to college,” said the 6+ header. He made the High School Finals one year, traveling to Douglas, Wyo., and then went to Cochise College in Douglas Arizona, making the college finals three years in a row.  “I couldn’t figure out what I was going to major in and figured I was wasting my mom and dad’s money, so I came home.”
He picked up where he left off, helping his dad. He worked for my brother inlaw selling furniture. “I  met Connie (Coffey) and moved to Belen, New Mexico, where I started out selling cars. I lasted a month, that is the only job I had that I can honestly say I hated,”  he said. “Connie’s dad and I started putting on ropings and I went back to the same life I had, roping, shoeing, and trading horses.” His life changed forever when he met Denny Gentry and went to work for him in 1992. “I was the liaison from his office to the classification office in California. I learned about production, from set up to tear down, and in general, I learned how to get along and solve problems.” He got married in 1994 and in 1996 the couple moved to California to take care of a ranch for Kiefer Sutherland. “I got to be good friends with after doubling for him in the movie The Cowboy Way. While in California, I got to rope and rodeo with 19 X NFR Qualifier Denny Watkins, what a great experience that was. Not ony did I get to head for Denny but I got to listen to all of the great stories of Denny’s career.”
They came back in 1999 and went back to work for Denny at the USTRC. “That was right about the time of the the sell to EquiBrand, which moved the company to Texas. I didn’t want to move, so I stuck around here for six months, and ended up at Super Looper Magazine,” he explained. “Connie was selling ads for the radio and I went to meet with Robin Davis to see about getting a job for her there and Connie and I decided that I would be a better fit, so I got that job and went to work for Super Looper. I was good at it – I knew all the producers and it came natural to me – I’m pretty social and get along with people pretty well.”
John and Connie have two sons, Sterlin is 13 and loves to rope and hopes to make it to the NFR someday; Stran is 8 and prefers baseballs to ropes. “The only think he likes to rope is goats, he’s got big dreams of being a professional baseball player.”
Connie suffered a stroke after the birth of Stran, which left her paralyzed on her right side. “We thought we were going to lose her, but she made it through and we spent six months in rehab. We got her home and we spent two years in out-patient rehab. She’s riding and trying to rope again – something she has to learn all over again.” Raising a brand new baby and a five-year-old, plus running the house and keeping his job gave John an added appreciation for his wife.
“In the fall of 2014, I got a call from Denny asking if I’d come to work for him. I was happy where I was, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, I loved working for Denny and Connie before.” As the Event Coordinator, he schedules the events and takes care of the contractors. “All of the  things I learned from my time at USTRC with Denny and Super Looper Magazine had me well prepared for my job at World Series.” He travels to the local ones and every once in a while he pops in on the producers to see how the events are going. Working for Denny and Connie has allowed John to attend his son’s functions and allows him the flexibility to rope as well as produce a few ropings. “Gabe Trujillo and I are producing a few this spring and hopefully they will be successful.” John has no plans of changing what’s going on with his life. He is able to rope with his oldest boy (who he won the #11 Shoot Out with at the USTRC  National Finals last fall) and attend baseball games with his youngest and still have date night on Tuesday with his wife Connie.

The Black Hills Stock Show celebrates its 39th anniversary this February, and for Amy (Sutton) Muller of Agar, S.D., the show is not only the brainchild of her family, but a showcase of the rodeo talent which runs thick through all six generations of Suttons.
The history of the Suttons starts even before South Dakota became a state. Amy’s great-great grandfather, Edwin Sutton, homesteaded the family’s ranch in 1883, set in the hills near the Missouri River. He started putting on rodeos Sunday after church for the township using his ranch stock. By the late 1920s, he and his sons were producing three-day rodeos on their ranch, where a young Lawrence Welk from North Dakota occasionally stopped to contribute his sparkling music. Edwin’s son, James, ushered the rodeo company into the next generation by becoming a member of the PRCA. He later became the first stock contractor to be inducted into the PRCA’s Hall of Champions in 1982. James and his son, Jim, focused in on the breeding of the rodeo company’s livestock, particularly the bucking horses, which earned them several first runners up and three winners of the PRCA Horse of the Year. In the late ‘70s, Amy’s dad, Steve, who has picked up the WNFR five times, took over the ranch management. Amy was born soon after, going to her first rodeo at ten days old.

Her own history in rodeo includes competing through college, carrying the American flag in the 1995 WNFR, and most recently, timing during the 2015 WNFR. But the Black Hills Stock Show Rodeo holds a special place in Amy’s memories. “The show is second nature since it’s been there every year of my life, but I first remember being four years old and carrying the American flag,” she says. “Working alongside all those queens who were in their early 20,s and hanging out with the contestants’ kids made the whole thing feel like one big fun family celebration!”
Amy carried flags and chased cattle out of the arena until she was 18 and off to college at South Dakota State University like her grandfather and father before her. She studied animal science and competed on the college team in breakaway roping and barrel racing. Her brothers, Brent and Brice, following suit a few years later. “When I was halfway through school, Dad and Grandpa told me and my brothers that they would like for us to come back and join the company as partners,” Amy recalls. “Just like when I was a kid, I stayed very active with the livestock. From the time we were old enough, we’d hop in the truck and do our part with feeding, haying, fixing fence, and whatever else needed done.”
Within the last several years, however, Amy’s job description changed after the family’s bookkeeper of 21 years retired. “I took over the bookkeeping about the time I had my son, Shaden,” says Amy. “We work rodeos where we are the contractor for a committee, as well as producing rodeos as the committee and contractor ourselves. My day is filled with working on both of those types of rodeo events, as well as sponsorships, marketing, advertising, social media, and our Sutton Rodeo merchandising. I also keep the financial books and the livestock records. About three years ago, Dad started a cross breeding program and brought in outside stock contractors. Those colts are just getting to bucking age, so we’re very excited to see how the offspring from this program turns out.”
In addition to her office work, Amy continues to time about 12 of the 20 to 30 rodeos Sutton Rodeo produces each year. She obtained her PRCA card when she was 19 and took over timing when her grandmother, Julie, retired. Both Julie and Amy’s mom, Kim, have timed the WNFR, and in 2015, Amy was given the opportunity to do the same. “There’s no feeling I’ve ever experienced like working that rodeo,” says Amy. “The tenth round in that room was electric – so much could happen, you could feel the excitement buzzing, from the contestants, to the personnel and all the fans! Working with Tammy Braden and Jessi Franzen was extremely rewarding. They made working the NFR such a positive experience – they are wonderful ladies, and they’ll be lifelong friends!”
Alerted ahead of time by her mother and grandmother on how quickly the rodeo would move, Amy was prepared. “You don’t ever want to take your eyes off the arena for fear of missing anything, but you still have to record the times and penalties,” she explains. “One timer wears a headset that goes to the office, which puts out the official time for the record as the rodeo is running.” Along with timing, Amy and the other timers worked afternoons and evenings in the office putting together information such as the official stock draw and buck order, as well as updating the posted rodeo results, standings, and money. “Ultimately, it was one of the most interesting and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had!” says Amy.

Fortunately, timing and Sutton Rodeo also tie in to Amy’s role as a wife and mother. She and her husband, Steven, have a two-year-old son, Shaden, as well as running their own cattle herd and operating a cattle carcass ultrasound business, Midwest Sonatech.  A seasonal job that runs from December to May, Steven and hired friends and family travel around South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska, booking one or even two clients a day depending on the number of head to ultrasound. Amy does all the computer and bookwork while Steven does the imaging. “Steven and I travelled together exclusively for about five years until we had Shaden,” says Amy. “We ultra sounded until just a few hours before the c-section we’d scheduled for Shaden, and then went from the hospital to Rapid City to work the Black Hills Stock Show Rodeo!”
With just eight of them to produce all rodeo events held during the Stock Show, Amy and her family – who all live within a few miles of each other on the family ranch – know how to divide and conquer. “We start planning the next stock show in April,” says Amy. “Most of the rodeos that land in the same category as us – large indoor rodeo of the year – have hundreds to thousands of volunteers. We joke that we’re still looking for our first volunteer.” The Suttons’ events include the PRCA Rodeo, Sutton Ranch Rodeo, Girls in Spurs, Wrangler Champions Challenge, Bucking Horse Sale, and the PRCA Xtreme Bulls Tour, while the SDHSRA 20X Extreme Showcase is especially important to Steve Sutton. “Dad is always looking to give back to youth rodeo,” Amy explains. “We keep the numbers the same each year, but we’re always looking to give those kids more things to compete for and a bigger platform to showcase them on.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized how truly rewarding and exciting it is to work in this company and watch our animals develop and succeed,” says Amy. “You’re not going to get rich in this industry, but it’s really self-rewarding. Goal-wise, I’d love the opportunity to time the NFR again,” she adds. “And on a more personal level, I hope to keep expanding and improving our family business alongside my two brothers. Doing something like this for six generations doesn’t happen that often, and I want to keep this lifestyle going.”

Roper Kiesner is a man of many talents.
The twenty-one year old cowboy who lives in Ripley, Okla., rides saddle broncs, makes and sells knives, and is a former trick rider.
He grew up the son of a saddle bronc rider and barrel racer, and when his parents, Phillip and Julie, quit rodeo competition, they wanted to stay involved in rodeo.
By then, Roper’s older brother, Rider, had learned to trick rope. So the boys’ parents formed a specialty act, the Kiesner Family Wild West Revue.
Rider did the trick roping, Phillip did the cowboy mounted shooting, and Roper wanted to be involved in some way. “I wanted to do something,” he said, “but I’m not quite the ‘sit down and practice it’ like my brother, for hours on end. I’m more of a ‘get on and go’ person.”
The family acquired two Shetland ponies and Roper learned to roman ride, his contribution to the family’s act.
After he outgrew the Shetlands, he began trick riding. “I had fun with that,” he said. “I always liked adrenaline and going fast.”
The Kiesner Family Wild West Revue was popular, performing at some of the biggest rodeos in the U.S. They took their show across the globe, entertaining in all of the 48 contiguous states, in Lebanon, China, Japan, Dubai, France, and for the Sultan of Oman in 2006.
In 2010, when Rider, who is two years older than Roper, turned 18, the act slowly dissolved as he went out on his own.
But Roper’s involvement in rodeo didn’t end. He had ridden sheep and steers when he was younger and always wanted to ride bulls. But he felt his size was a detriment, so he tried saddle bronc riding. During the second saddle bronc ride he made, at age 17, he got bucked off and broke his arm. After sitting out six weeks to let it heal, he got on three more horses. The third one bucked him off and shattered his collarbone, requiring surgery.
Roper was deterred. “After that, I thought I’d hold off,” he laughed, but he didn’t hold off for long.
He began drinking protein shakes to “make myself more durable” and put on some weight. He went from 95 to 130 lbs, and at the age of 19, got on a few more horses. “Fortunately I didn’t break anything,” he said.
Now, two years later, he’s headed to his third Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo, going in this year in sixth place, higher than he’s ever been ranked.
Roper attributes much of his saddle bronc riding success to his trick riding abilities. “The trick riding helped a lot with balance and problem solving,” he said. “When I was roman riding, if I’d ever slip a foot down or backwards, or fall down, or lose my reins, I’d have to think on my feet really fast and get up, while the horses were going full blast, or I’d have to turf it. That’s helped me out a lot in saddle bronc riding. If I get out of position, I can get back down in the saddle.”
The cowboy is also an artist. He designs and makes pocket and fixed blade knives and sells them via Facebook and word of mouth.
It began when he needed a birthday present for his dad. He had the idea to make a knife. “I grabbed a horseshoe rasp and with a hand grinder, roughed it out and put a blade on it.” It was the beginning of his knife business. “Some people saw it and thought it was really cool, and wanted one, so I made more.”
He’s refined his business to include better tools than hand grinders. Expert knife maker Jerald Nickles from Perkins, Okla. has taken Roper under his wing, teaching him the art and letting him use his equipment.
Roper uses superior quality products for his knives, which started out as ranch and rasp knives and now are high-end. The blades are made of Swedish Damascus steel, which is folded and has layers, giving it swirls and patterns. The handles are made of mammoth, hippo and elephant ivory and exotic fossils and other bone. He estimates he’s made a couple hundred knives, and he loves it. “My whole life, I’ve loved dinking around making stuff, whatever I could think of. I’ve always liked knives. Knives are something you can go as crazy and wild as you want to with it.”
The artistic talent runs in the Kiesner family. Roper’s grandpa and uncles made bronzes and did some drawing, and making knives works well with his rodeo schedule. He has a Facebook page which shows his products.
When he has any spare time, Roper likes to hike and play the ukulele.
Roper is living the dream; rodeoing, making knives, and living out life as a rodeo cowboy. Not bad for a boy who started roman riding on Shetland ponies.

Judy Wagner is a storyteller. Growing up on a ranch in Montana nurtured her appreciation for the beauty and brevity of life, all while giving her experiences that ached to be retold over the dinner table among friends and family. Today, the wife, mother of two, and vice president of marketing for Montana Silversmiths still approaches life with the common sense that comes from her own brand of Ranch Grown Logic and her motto from Gladiola Montana: “The code of her West; use a short rope, a sweet smile, and a hot brand.”
Judy’s story began in the Big Sky State. Born in 1953 in Avon, Mont., the oldest of eight children, Judy likes to tease that she is the real Avon lady. But instead of selling cosmetics, she was saddling horses in the early morning light and loading them into the bed of her dad’s pickup to go check cattle. Judy and her brothers and sisters learned to rope from their dad and were active in 4-H, but their responsibilities doubled when their dad was killed in a tractor accident. Judy was 16 at the time, and she and her siblings took over the ranch with young but powerful determination. “We grew up fast,” says Judy. “We learned that the cows didn’t know it was Christmas Day – feeding and caring for the animals came first. We had to be responsible for our actions, and ranching taught us what it means to invest your time and money into something.”
Following high school, Judy went to Montana State University on a rodeo scholarship, as did all seven of her siblings, in either rodeo or other sports. She competed in team roping and majored in Home Economics with a minor in Child Development. “Back when I went to college, a marketing degree didn’t really exist yet,” Judy explains. “Most women went to college to become teachers or nurses. But I had 14 years of experience in 4-H and an entrepreneurial spirit!” She met her husband, Alvin, during college, and once she graduated, Judy went to work as a county extension agent for Teton County in Cheteua, Mont. Alvin was a sales representative in the western industry, and in 1988, he helped Judy as she entered into a partnership with another family to create Gator Ropes. “We met in a bar in Dillon to discuss the opportunity,” Judy recalls. “The whole thing just evolved! I didn’t have a lot of help, but I could have reached out to people. Now I realize as I mature in business how important it is to reach out. At the time my research on product development was through my family and my life experience as a roper and competitor. I didn’t focus much on our competitors at the time, because we were all young businesses then. Classic Ropes had been around a few years and Cactus Ropes was just starting. It was a fun time to be in the industry.”
Owning Gator Ropes gave Judy all the marketing experience and more that college could have provided, and the common sense she had developed as a child on the ranch came to her aid. “The first trade show I took Gator Ropes to was for the first Cowboy Christmas during the WNFR, and I had the bright idea to create a rope rack that looked like a Christmas tree. I decorated all the ropes with evergreens from the ranch and made them look like wreaths,” says Judy. “I took over 100 wreaths and I didn’t sell one of them.” So she took her rope wreaths to the parking lot and cut the evergreen boughs off, selling her ropes and chalking it up to experience.
In 1998, Judy sold Gator Ropes back to her original partners and tried her hand at freelance marketing, while she also helped establish an all-girl rodeo team in Helena and several other rodeo teams in her area. In 1990, she won the John Justin Boots Standard of the West award for the Rocky Mountain All Girl Team, a pre rodeo event for the Last Chance Stampede in Helena, Mont.
By 2000, Judy found out Montana Silversmiths was looking for a marketing director.”Other than my two years with the county extension office, that was my second job interview,” says Judy. “I started fresh – it was a new position – and our sponsorship with the PRCA was just starting, as was our line of jewelry.” Judy found a way to put her ranch background to use even with Montana Silversmiths, knowing the value of a handshake and looking someone in the eye.
When the company put up its website in 2005, it enabled Judy to share the stories of the business with an even wider audience. “Every one of our products has a story, from how it’s created by our master engravers, to how it’s packaged, or even merchandised in the catalogue,” Judy explains. “I get shivers whenever I have the opportunity to hand the buckles to rodeo champions. I know from Montana Silversmiths the talent it takes to produce that buckle, and I also know as a rodeo competitor how much went into making those rodeo champions, like parents driving all those miles for rodeos and making sure their kids have horses underneath them.”
In 2014, Judy was promoted to vice president of marketing for Montana Silversmiths. For her, an average day at the headquarters on the Yellowstone River in Columbus, Mont., might involve leading a team for product development, touching on customer service, or even helping organize an events team, such as for the PRCA.
At the end of the day, Judy makes the 20 mile drive to her home in Park City, Mont. Alvin is currently a sales representative for American Hats and Ariat boots, and both Alvin and Judy’s children inherited their parents’ entrepreneurial spirit. Their daughter, Tiffany, is a horse trainer, while their son, Ross, and his wife manage a barrel racing association, UBRC. Team roping continues to be one of Judy’s greatest pleasures, and she won the Team Roping Heading on the WPRA Montana Circuit in 2014, as well as the Team Roping Heading Rookie of the Year with the WPRA after buying her first card. She is also a member of the USTRC, and in February, she and Alvin plan to go south to Arizona to rope. Judy visits her three brothers’ ranches in Montana at every opportunity, and she has many nieces and nephews who all excel in sports. These include Ty Erickson, who is going into the WNFR sitting third in the steer wrestling, riding his horse, KR Montana Shake Em, who won 2015 AQHA Horse of the Year.
“Between the Wagners, Bignells, Ericksons, and Ayers (Judy’s brothers and sisters) there’s a lot of competitiveness and athleticism, and it all stems from ranch grown logic and the ranch life of my siblings,” says Judy. “When it’s all said and done, I hope people will say about me that I was a trail breaker. I ride for the brand in my faith, family, work on the ranch, creating the brand Gator Ropes or stewarding the brand Montana Silversmiths. Who would imagine that some girl from Avon would grow up to do this, but you can do anything if you have the desire and work toward your goals! Life is about those connections – people who empower you – and I am blessed.”

Being crowned the USTRC Cruel Champion is quite an accomplishment. And Shawn has done it twice now. The first time was in 2001, heading for Kelli Jo Shurden. This year Shawn headed for California cowgirl, Ali Bilkey. The pair bested the field with an aggregate time of 36.96 on four head, splitting $16,200 in prize money in addition to Martin saddles and a year’s supply of Cruel Girl Jeans.
Shawn can often be found in the winner’s circle, with recent wins at the Wiley Hicks roping in Amarillo, Texas. In 2013, she and Jennifer Williams were the Reserve All Girl Champs at the Wildfire Roping in Salado, Texas.
Oddly enough Shawn didn’t start team roping until college. She has been riding her entire life and started breakaway roping when she was ten. She qualified for High School National Finals more than once in both Breakaway and Goat Tying. She earned a rodeo scholarship and attended Howard College in Big Springs, Texas and Southwest Oklahoma State in Weatherford, Oklahoma. She qualified for the college finals in both Breakaway and Goat Tying. Once she started team roping, she discovered it was both enjoyable and profitable.
Shawn credits her parents for starting her roping as a kid. Her mom and dad, now retired, raise show cattle. Shawn grew up roping and stock showing. In addition to rodeo, during high school she played a variety of sports, including volleyball, basketball and track.
For the last five years Shawn has been a Petroleum Land Man where she researches titles with regard to mineral or surface rights. She also owns and operates Baby Cakes Bakery in Vernon, Texas, where she takes custom orders for cakes, cup cakes, cookies, etc.
If that’s not enough to keep her busy, she has four sons, Landon, 9, Hilton, 8, Paxton, 5, and Callon, 3. Shawn gives much credit to her family for helping out with her boys.
An ideal weekend for Shawn T. is spending time with her kids and helping her parents with their show cattle. She has recently taken up fishing and finds it very relaxing. She is very thankful to the Lord and her friends and family that have helped her accomplish her goals. She extends a special thanks to Christy, Terry, and Daniel McBroom.
COWBOY Q&A
How much do you practice?
I try to practice three or four times a week.

Do you make your own horses?
No.

Who do you respect most in the world?
My Lord.

Who has been the biggest influence in your life?
My father.

If you had a day off what would you like to do?
Relax. Maybe hunt or fish.

Favorite movie?
Steel Magnolias.

How would you describe yourself in three words?
Determined, caring, happy.

What makes you happy?
My family and my Lord.

What makes you angry?
Negativity.

If you were given 1 million dollars, how would you spend it?
Invest it.

What is your worst quality? Your best quality?
My worst is being unorganized. My best is that I’m hard working.

story by Lily Weinacht

Kay Stevens of Maquoketa, Iowa, is returning to the Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team Roping for the seventh time. The 51 year old #4 header is travelling to Oklahoma City with her Australian Cattle Dog as her co-pilot and her famous horse, Walmart, in tow. Though her husband’s saddle now sits empty since he passed away in March of 2014, Kay continues to rope in the memory of Mike Stevens and the absolute passion that the husband and wife had for the sport of team roping.
Mike was responsible for turning Kay into the avid roper she is today. The husband and wife met at a horse show in DeWitt, Iowa, and while Kay had been rodeoing since she was ten, she was chasing cans instead of steers. Born and raised in Illinois, Kay was exposed to both the racetrack and the rodeo pen at an early age. “My mom was a jockey and she’d take the racing rejects and start them on barrels,” Kay explains. “I learned good horsemanship from the racing world and rodeo. I could wrap a horse’s front legs by the time I was four. I always wanted to be a jockey, but by the time I was 13, I was already 5’6″, so I knew I was out.”
Kay focused on barrel racing instead, competing in open rodeos and barrel races, including several events put on by Wheeler Hobbs, Jackie Hobbs’ uncle. She went to a junior college in Illinois and was a member of the horse judging team before transferring to Kansas State University where Kay joined the rodeo team. She earned her degree in Animal Science and met Mike, a PRCA tie-down roper, soon after. Once they were married, the couple moved to Iowa, Mike’s home state. “I got interested in roping in the late ’90s,” Kay recalls. “I was working with our horses, and the next thing I knew, Mike was taking them and competing. Eventually I decided I should start competing and not just training!” Kay started breakaway roping but found her niche in the team roping, and began heading for Mike.
In 1993, Kay and Mike started holding roping practices for local kids at their house every Tuesday and Thursday night. “It was our way of giving back, and the kids were passionate about it,” Kay explains. “We live off of a black top road and we’d have parents droppings kids off at the road, then they’d come trotting in with a rope bag over their horn.” Many junior high, high school, and college national champions got their start in the Stevens’ weekly roping practices.
Kay and Mike retired their roping practices in 2008 after their daughter, Jyme, a barrel racer and pole bender, graduated from high school. They began pursuing the USTRC more seriously, but when Mike passed away in 2014, Kay’s motivation to rope was shaken. “I wasn’t really sure I wanted to keep roping, but I was already committed to going to the Windy Ryon roping with some girlfriends,” says Kay. “I knew I should stick with it, so I hit the road pretty hard. My daughter ran my business so I could spend the winter roping in Arizona.” Putting 36,000 miles on her odometer last year proved healing for Kay, restoring her desire to rope almost as soon as she had questioned it.
When she’s not roping, Kay is working from home in her animal cremation business, which she started in 2006. “I have a contract with vets in eastern Iowa, and I pick up animals, cremate them, return ashes, and start all over again. I wanted to do something helpful, but after I did the first one, I didn’t think I could keep going,” Kay admits. “Yet I couldn’t believe how appreciative people were, and I decided I could do it after all. I’ve taken everything from dogs and cats to horses, llamas, alpacas, ferrets, albino crows, flying squirrels, and snakes.”
After achieving a longtime goal of hunting elk in New Mexico this fall, all of Kay’s weekends have been spent at ropings, including the second annual Mike Stevens Memorial Roping held in Bethany, Mo. “Friends come and rope at my house every night,” she says. “The Priefert Automatic Chute is the only way to go, and my heeler, K.O., runs the steers down the arena and loads them. Mike taught her how to do it.” K.O. was named when Kay figured she’d get kicked out for bringing another puppy home to Mike, but he and K.O. were quick to make friends. “Now she goes with me everywhere – she’s my right hand man!” Kay says with a laugh. Likewise, she is never at a roping without Walmart, a black gelding with a strikingly long mane and tail. “He was Mike’s heel horse and last year I decided to head on him,” says Kay. “Mike named him, saying he was so lazy, you had to put a quarter in him to make him go, like the horse rides at Walmart. But I love him – he’s my main man!”
With only one USTRC roping held in Iowa, Kay travels to Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee, and Indiana, to qualify for the USTRC finals. “Rodeo is very popular here in Iowa,” says Kay. “There are lots of ropings, and we have the IRCA and MSRA rodeos.” Kay competes in all-girl rodeos and was also a member of the WPRA for several years, winning the Great Lakes Reserve Team Roping Champion title in 2011. At the close of her 15th season in the USTRC, Kay says, “A personal goal of mine is to win more money and go to some of the bigger USTRC ropings, and I’d like to get into the Cruel Girl standings. Roping is my passion. It turned into my life, and I love it!”