Rodeo Life

Category: Roper Review

  • Beau Peterson

    Beau Peterson

    Beau Peterson loves to rodeo. It’s her “absolute favorite thing to do in the world,” she says. The thirteen year old cowgirl who lives in Council Grove, Kan., and is a member of the Kansas Junior High School Rodeo Association, competes in the breakaway, goat tying, and ribbon roping, as a runner for Kian Pepper Brown. Breakaway is her favorite event.

    For the breakaway, she rides a seven year old bay named Hustler. He’s sweet and curious, and always has to get his nose into whatever’s going on. For the goat tying, she rides a ten year old horse named P.W. who is antsy and excited all the time.

    She is an eighth grade student at Council Grove Middle School. P.E. is her favorite class, and playing dodge ball is her preferred game. Reading, however, is not her favorite class. Her favorite teacher ever is her P.E. teacher, Mrs. Mahanay.

    Beau plays basketball, is on her school’s honor roll, and is a member of the Neosho Valley 4-H Club, where she shows lambs and steers. In fifth grade, she had the grand champion bucket calf at the Morris Co. Fair, and has had reserve grand champion lamb two years in a row. Her dog Roxie was part of her 4-H dog project one year, where Roxie learned agility and obedience, and did well, winning reserve (and improving her manners at home).

    Roxie, a red merle Australian shepherd, is very sweet, lovable, and spoiled (by Beau). She gets treats and gets to come into the house. “She gets the good life,” Beau says. In basketball, her team won the Flint Hills Junior League Championship and were undefeated all season!

    Beau has qualified for the state junior high finals twice, and last year, made it to the National Junior High Finals in all three of her events. Nationals were “very exciting and fun,” and she made a lot of new friends that she hopes to see this summer at Nationals.  She is also a member of the Heartland Youth Rodeo Association, where she won the breakaway this year and placed third in the goat tying. She has competed at the Rising Stars Calf Roping twice and at the Joe Beaver Junior Superstars Calf Roping last fall.

    In the summers, Beau loves to tag along with her dad on the family ranch, the Hinchman Ranch, in the Flint Hills. She helps work cattle, feed, and ride, checking for sick cattle. When she grows up, she’d like to do something involved with horse therapy. Beau has an older sister, Michaela, who is a senior in high school. She is the daughter of Matt and Dustin Peterson.

  • Riley Bowen

    Riley Bowen

    Riley Bowen is in her final year of competition in the Kansas High School Rodeo Association. The 18-year-old cowgirl lives near Sylvia, Kan., about thirty miles west of Hutchinson. She competes in the breakaway roping, team roping (she heels for Mari Kate Crouch), and the goat tying. Of all her events, goat tying is her favorite, because “I’ve done it the longest and I like the rush of it.” She also enjoys goat tying practice, in part because of her two coaches, Stacey Ellias and Shelley Meier.

    Her breakaway, heading and heeling horse is an 18-year-old palomino gelding named Haynes, and her goat tying (and backup heading horse) is an eleven year old bay mare named Foxy. Both horses are always looking to see what they can get into, she says. “They are very ornery. They’ve learned that if I don’t latch the gate when I go to feed them, they run at it and run out the gate.”

    Foxy has also gotten into trouble when they are traveling. Riley sets up pens on the side of their trailer, where the hot water heater is located. In the winter, the horse will back up to the heater, and twice she has burnt a piece of her tail on it, setting off the carbon monoxide detector in the trailer. “I always joke that my goat tying horse is trying to kill me,” she says.

    As a senior at Stafford High School, Riley enjoys weights class and her weights teacher, Mr. Sweet. Mr. Sweet used to rodeo so he is more understanding of her schedule and has respect for her sport. Math is her least favorite class; she understands it, but she’d much rather be doing something else, like taking a science class.

    Science comes easily to Riley, which is a good thing, because she’d like to be a plastic surgeon someday. She first learned about plastic surgery when a friend had a bad facial injury, with all the bones on the left side of his face broken. A plastic surgeon repaired his face to where no one can tell that any injury happened. She shadowed a plastic surgeon in Wichita a month ago who has been on numerous mission trips, and her goal is to take her surgery skills on mission trips to help children born with cleft palates and cleft lips. Learning to be a plastic surgeon will require from eight to ten years of schooling, she estimates.

    Riley is a member of the National Honor Society, was parliamentarian for the FFA last year and is secretary this year, is on her school’s honor roll, and is on track to be valedictorian for her class. She also competes in Little Britches Rodeo and is the 2013 Senior Girls Goat Tying champion. Last winter, she won the Heartland Youth Rodeo Association’s all-around title.

    For fun, she loves to go to movies. The movie theater in Stafford shows movies every other weekend, so she and her friends usually go to Hutchinson. Her favorite movie ever is Despicable Me II, and the most recent movie she’s seen is Lone Survivor. If she had her choice, her most favorite thing to do would be to tie goats with Shelley Meier in Garden City. She really enjoys Shelley, Jason, and their three sons.

    Riley will head to Garden City (Kan.) Community College this fall on a rodeo scholarship. She’d like to have horses and rodeo in her life, and someday, she’d like to make at least ten mission trips as a doctor. She doesn’t care where she goes, so long as it’s somewhere where she can help.

    She has a pet border collie, Jack, who is very intelligent. He and Riley won the American Royal novice agility competition a few years ago. Jack sleeps on the floor next to Riley, and if she gave the word, he’d be right there in the bed. She is the daughter of Stoney and Cindy Bowen.

  • Shayne Porch

    Shayne Porch

    Shayne Porch works as a pickup man in the Northwest Ranch Cowboys Association. He grew up on the family ranch outside Wanblee, S.D., the son of Ralph and Dianna Porch. He started rodeo competition when he was eight years old, competing in Little Britches Rodeo, 4-H, and high school rodeo, in the tie-down roping, team roping, and steer wrestling.

    Shayne qualified for the National High School Finals in 1993 in the tie-down roping, and graduated from Kadoka High School that same year. He began  his NRCA competition in 1993, and also joined the South Dakota Rodeo Association. He qualified for the Indian National Finals in 2002.

    After high school, Shayne focused mostly on team roping, occasionally bulldogging.  He quit competing for several years in the late 1990’s, then, while watching high school kids ride broncs, he stepped in to help. They needed a pickup man, and Shayne took on the job. He learned from observing others and plenty of experience. Now he picks up at NRCA, SDRA and high school rodeos, and hopes to add some pro rodeos this summer.

    A good pickup man needs to know horses and bulls, he says. He needs “to be able to read livestock, see what’s going to happen, and be in the right place at the right time.” A good pickup man also needs good horses. “You’ve got to be mounted. I try to make sure I’m riding pretty broke horses. If a wreck starts happening, I have to be in the right place.” He currently has eight pickup horses at his ranch, with a few more young ones that might be worked into the rotation this summer.

    Shayne is married to Heidi, and they have two little girls: Shaylee is six and Haylee is three. The girls love to rodeo with their daddy and go with him about every weekend they can get away. A couple of his pickup horses are their horses. His daughters “come with me to take care of the horses,” he says. And the horses reciprocate. “Those horses take care of those little girls. They’re good babysitters.”

    He has been selected to pick up the NRCA Finals every year since 2008, and the SDRA Finals four times in the past six years. Of all his involvement in rodeo, picking up is his favorite. It’s an adrenaline rush, he says, and the best part is “getting a thanks from a cowboy or a parent if you save their kid, or get him out of a wreck.”  Shayne and Heidi ranch on a place adjoining his parents and run a herd of commercial black cattle.

  • Anna Holland

    Anna Holland

    Anna Holland is a barrel racer and director in the Cajun Rodeo Association. The Walker, La. cowgirl was a member of the CRA when it existed years ago, and is a member again.

    She grew up in rodeo with a mom who ran barrels and team roped and a dad who team roped. She was on her first horse at six weeks of age, and by two years old, was competing in barrel races. She was a member of the Mississippi High School Rodeo Association (the farthest Mississippi rodeo was closer than the closest Louisiana rodeo), and she also competed in local and state-wide rodeo queen pageants, serving as the Livingston Parish Queen, the Tri-State Rodeo Association queen, and in 1999, as Miss Rodeo Louisiana.

    After graduating from Walker High School in 1999, she earned academic and rodeo scholarships to college, and will graduate this summer from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond with a Bachelors of Science in occupational environmental safety and health. She works for MAPP Construction, a regional company based in the southeastern U.S. Her job as corporate safety director entails ensuring project compliance with OSHA regulations and protecting worker safety.

    Anna met her husband, Lane, when he came to shoe her horses. They had grown up three miles from each other, and knew each other, but it wasn’t till 2008 when they began dating. When Lane proposed on Valentine’s Day of 2009, she accepted. The couple got out their calendars and looked at prospective wedding dates. At that time, Lane was a professional steer wrestler and she was running barrels, so it was either get married that month or wait till August. They decided to marry two weeks later, and Anna had the wedding planned within a week. Now the couple have two children, a son, Emmett, age four, and a daughter, Sarah, age two.

    In addition to her barrel racing, Anna is co-founder and president of a non-profit organization called the Christian Cowgirl Relief Fund. She and fellow co-founder Berkeleigh Cotten saw a need for an organized support system when a rodeo family or fellow barrel racer needed financial, emotional and spiritual help. “It seems like the more people we are able to help, the more readily we recognize other opportunities to provide assistance throughout the rodeo community.” The group’s motto, “Love one another,” is based on John 15:12-13. This May, a women’s conference is planned with LeAnn Hart, the wife of retired PBR bull rider J.W. Hart, as keynote speaker.

    Anna rides a seven year old gelding named Utah. Utah was a new purchase in June of 2013, and on his way to a barrel race, was involved in a minor trailer wreck. Because of his injuries, it was thirteen weeks before he could be ridden again. For the second half of last year, Anna borrowed several horses to qualify for the finals. Anna also serves on the board for the Baton Rouge Barrel Racing Association. Her husband Lane is vice-president of the CRA.

  • Tyler Jackson

    Tyler Jackson

    Tyler Jackson burns the candle at both ends. While the twenty year old cowboy, a resident of Salem, Ark., is up and in town by 6 am each day, he’s not home, with chores completed, till after dark, and with a to-do list that isn’t crossed off. He’s a competitor in the Arkansas Cowboys Association, and his main emphasis this year is heading. He’s heeled for several years, and used to bulldog and rope calves, but the team roping is the focus this year.

    He has two good heading horses. Nugget, who is twenty, has been his horse since he was a kid. Tyler can rope calves, head and heel on Nugget. “He’s pretty well my all-around horse,” Tyler says. His other horse is a ten year old gelding named Jiggy, who he has owned for a year. In his senior year of high school at Salem High, he bought a sale barn and ran it for a year. He sold it, made a little profit on it, and now works for the man who bought it from him.

    Tyler and friend Hadley Deshazo are supplying timed event cattle this summer. They have team roping and bulldogging steers, breakaway and roping calves, and goats. This summer, they’ll have livestock at one to two rodeos each weekend, all over Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee.

    And if he still didn’t have enough to do, he works two days a week at another sale barn, riding horses. Tyler has gone to ACA rodeos since he was 12, and has been an ACA member for seven years. He was the 2010 breakaway champion, the 2012 steer wrestling rookie, and he qualified in the team roping from 2010 through 2013.

    When he gets home at night, he has 30 mama cows to do chores for. They’ll calve in April. In twenty years, Tyler envisions himself with a much larger cattle herd and no debt. He plans on making his living in the cattle industry, whether it’s in sale barns, auctioneering, or with timed event cattle. He is the son of Sherry Jackson and Ronnie Jackson.

  • Casey Dupre

    Casey Dupre

    Casey Dupre is a tie-down roper in the Louisiana High School Rodeo Association. The 17 year old Lake Charles, La. resident has been roping calves for four years. He rides a ten year old mare named C.G., a sorrel with a white blaze, who is good, he says. “She does her job in the arena.” The family has owned C.G. for five years.

    As a senior at Grand Lake High School in Grand Lake, Casey loves the people, because they’re “down to earth, and nice.” His favorite subject is math. Last fall, he took a college course in math, and is now taking advanced math class. His least favorite class is English, mostly because reading and writing aren’t on his list of most enjoyable things to do. His favorite teacher is Mr. Scotty Poole, his ag teacher for his first three years of high school. Mr. Scotty loves to have fun with the kids, and is very helpful to them.

    Casey played basketball for Grand Lake as a forward. He’s a big basketball fan, and enjoys the Kentucky Wildcats and the Golden State Warriors. This fall, he will attend McNeese State University in Lake Charles, where he will work on a degree in mechanical engineering. He isn’t planning on rodeoing collegiately but instead will focus on his studies. After college, he’d like to work at a refinery.

    In his spare time, Casey helps his dad with chores and hangs out with friends at their houses or at the movies. He and his friends like to have bonfires and play video games. Casey’s favorite video game is Batman, and his favorite movie is Eight Seconds. The movie reminds him of his uncle, who was the 1970 Louisiana State High School Bull Riding champ. Casey considered riding bulls when he was young, but he prefers roping calves.

    He has qualified for state high school finals twice. When he was younger, he competed in the High Hope Riders Club, the Jeff Davis Club, and the Silver Spurs Club.

    His favorite meal is his mother’s rice with chicken and okra covered in gravy, and his favorite sweet treat is Reese’s peanut butter cups.He has two older sisters, LeAnne and Lauren, who competed in high school rodeo and who he loves to pick on. Casey is the son of Darryl and Leah Dupre.

  • Abigale Barks

    Abigale Barks

    Abigale Barks is proud to be a rodeo cowgirl, but she’s just as proud of being a Lady Panther for Starks (La.) High School. The fourteen year old cowgirl who lives in Starks, a small town close to Lake Charles where “everybody here is family,” competes in the Louisiana Junior High Rodeo Association in the barrel racing and pole bending, with poles being her favorite event.

    And in school, as an eighth grade student, she competes in junior high basketball, high school softball and track. Because of her school’s small size, she is allowed to compete with the high schoolers in two of her sports. Abigale would love to play volleyball, too, but again, because the school is small, there is no program. In track, she does the pole vault, long jump, mile relay, and 400m dash.

    The best part of school, she says, is her friends. The worst part is all the work, including science, which is not her favorite. “It’s not my thing,” she says. “I don’t get into that type of thing.” However, she loves math class and has always been a math whiz.

    Abigale is involved in more than sports at school. She’s a member of Junior Beta, 4-H, the Fellowship of Christian Students, LYFE, and the youth group at the First Baptist Church of Starks. She’s been on the honor roll pretty consistently, too.

    When Abigale’s not on the court, on the track, or in the arena, she likes to mud ride, chill while she rides her horse, hunt, fish, and hang out with friends. She loves to catch bass or catfish, but thank heavens for Paw-paw, R.T. Barnes, who cleans her catch, because she does not clean her own fish. “It grosses me out.”

    She and her friends also like to go to the movie theater, but because Starks is so small, they drive thirty miles to Orange, Texas, to the Orange Cinema. Her favorite movie is Ride Along, her favorite movie star is Kevin Costner, and her favorite comedian is Kevin Hart.

    When Abigale is out of high school, she plans on going to college, becoming a veterinarian, and continuing rodeo. After her junior high years are over, she won’t high school rodeo, so she can concentrate on her other sports. She competed at state junior high finals her sixth and seventh grade years in both events.

    Abigale has a younger brother, Cutter, who is ten and “a pest,” she says. He’s always bugging her, but she claims she does nothing to bother him! She looks up to her her parents, Patrick and Georgann Barks, because “they’re both hard working and I admire the way they encourage me and support me in my activities.”

  • Morgan Robson

    Morgan Robson

    Morgan Robson has a positive attitude, no matter what she does. The Hugoton, Kansas cowgirl knows that being cheery makes things better, and if she’s in a situation that isn’t the greatest, she works at being positive. Both of her parents have taught her, “make the best of it,” she says. “All along, have a great attitude about everything and it will end up good.”

    Morgan, who is 14, is a member of the Kansas Junior High Rodeo Association. She competes in the breakaway roping, team roping (she heads for Hunter Brunson), ribbon roping (she runs for Hunter), and the goat tying. Of all her events, goats are her favorite. “I get to fly off a horse, have fun getting off and tying fast.” Tying goats appeals to the daredevil side of her, which causes her to do “stupid things” – like mudding when she’s not supposed to, riding four-wheelers with her little brother, and “doing crazy things as much as I can.”

    For the roping, she rides a twenty year old paint named Robin. He’s “got quite the attitude,” she says. “If you make him mad, he’s going to bite you on the shoulder or anywhere he wants to. When you’re picking out his front feet, he’ll bite you on the butt.”

    For the goat tying, she trades off between Robin and an equally ornery horse, a mare named Annie. Annie is her brother’s calf roping horse, and she’s a prima donna, Morgan says. “You’ve got to have everything perfect or she won’t do it. She has to have her feed in the same spot. She’s the same way (as Robin). She’ll bite you, paw the trailer, all that fun stuff.”

    She loves being an eighth grader at Moscow School in Moscow, Kan. “School is fun for me. You can make school boring, or you can make it fun. I choose to have fun. You’ve got to have a good attitude about it.” Her favorite class is pre-algebra, because it’s easy, but life science is not on her good list. It’s too complicated: “It’s crazy how you have to have everything perfect (in science) or it won’t turn out.”

    Morgan loves basketball almost as much as she loves rodeo. Even though she’s the tallest girl in junior high, she plays guard and forward, because she has good ball handling skills. She also plays volleyball and is on the school’s Principal’s Honor Roll.

    When she goes to college, she’d like to play basketball for the Oklahoma Sooners. She loves the coach, Sherri Coale, and would like to be involved in her program. After college, she’d like to play for the WNBA or be a nurse. Her favorite WNBA team is the Atlanta Dream, and her favorite player is Elena Delle Donne, who plays for the Chicago Sky.

    Morgan has a pet mini Australian shepherd, Wrangler, who loves to cuddle with her. He’ll sleep right next to her, his head on the pillow and under the covers.

    She also competes in the Kansas Pro Rodeo Association and the Little Britches Rodeo Association. She’s qualified for state junior high finals both of the last two years, and finished seventh grade in the top fifteen in the team roping and in second place in the breakaway, going on to compete at the National Junior High Finals in Gallup, N.M.

    She has an older sister, Jackie, who is deceased, a younger brother, J.D., who is eleven, and a younger sister, Megan, who is eight. She is the daughter of Dave and Brandy Robson.

  • Craig Allen

    If you’re a spectator at the Allen family arena, you’ll get to see a cowboys and Indians battle. Craig Allen, age five and a Northeast Junior Rodeo Association member, usually plays as one of the cowboys, and his younger brother Clancy, age two, is usually an Indian.

    The boys occupy themselves by the hour with the game, says their mom, Christen Allen. (And sometimes the parents join in.) After Craig is done practicing his events, he’ll get on a little pony, and fall off when his parents or brother shoot him. And usually, somebody ends up getting tomahawked.

    When he’s not getting shot or scalped, Craig enjoys doing the pole bending, flag race, barrel racing, goat ribbons, breakaway roping, junior ranch bronc riding, and mutton bustin’. He rides Yella for his events, but the boys also have Buck, Squirrel, Gunny, Roanie, and Coldbear as other mounts.

    Craig is a kindergarten student at Sperry (Okla.) Public School, where he loves to play outside at recess time on the monkey bars and do the fun stairs. He loves to get “smileys” at school for his good behavior, and he loves math and reading.

    He has competed in rodeo since he was two, and is in his second year of NJRA competition. He is the 2013 Pole Bending Year End champ for the six and under division. Prior to the NJRA, he was a member of the Checotah Roundup Club and the Okay Roundup Club. He won four buckles in those associations.

    Christen and Cody love what rodeo does for the kids. “It’s something we all do together. We’re at rodeos to support our kids and help them, and rodeo teaches them to take care of their animals and to train them. It teaches them patience and sportsmanship with the other kids. The kids get quite a bit out of it.”

    Christen and Cody and their boys work together on the family business, Pay Window Performance Horses, so rodeo is an extension of their family time. “We spend time together in the arena and the barns. We feed together, ride together, train together, and when we’re at the rodeos, it’s the same way.” When he grows up, he’d like to be a cowboy and a roper. The family lives in Sperry, Oklahoma.

  • Kelsey Garrison

    Kelsey Garrison

    It’s April, and Kelsey Garrison is on vacation. The Channing, Texas cowboy doesn’t get away often from his business, but when he does, it usually involves rodeo. He’s spending much of the month of April in California, tie-down roping at several pro rodeos and enjoying the warm sunshine. When he returns to his home in Channing, Texas, it’ll be back to the day-to-day operations for the Texas Cowboys Rodeo Association man.

    Kelsey began his rodeo career as a youngster in Oklahoma and Texas, and in high school, competed in the Tri-State Rodeo Association in Texas. After graduating from Channing High in 2003, he went to South Plains College in Levelland, representing them at the College National Finals in 2006. After that, he attended West Texas A&M in Canyon, and graduated with his bachelor’s in general studies in 2008.

    His dream was to be a full time rodeo cowboy, but after eight months, he realized something had to change. “I planned to rope (full time professionally) but reality set in,” he said. “I want to have a successful business and be able to take care of my family real well.”

    So he began his own business. He sold a tie-down roping horse and bought a semi-truck. After driving for a while, he earned enough money to buy a second truck. Then he bought some manure spreaders, and got into the manure spreading business. The dairies he worked for asked him to cut silage for them, so he bought silage cutters, then more semis, and his business was growing.

    Now, his business has morphed into highway transport and silage cutting. He owns four trucks that make a round trip to California each week, hauling meat from the Texas panhandle to Salinas, and bringing produce back to San Antonio, Houston or Amarillo. In May and September, he’s busy in the wheat fields and corn fields, cutting wheatlage and silage. Kelsey’s business, KGMS, Inc., employs seven people, with his dad helping and his mom doing the books.

    In his spare time, Kelsey competes at TCRA rodeos, and this year, hopes to go to a few PRCA rodeos as well. He’s qualified for the TCRA Finals four times, finishing last year in third place.

    Being a successful entrepreneur can be a double-edged sword, he says. Now that he has more money, he has less time to rodeo. “I try to do more rodeoing, but it doesn’t work,” he said. “You have to be home every day, making sure your business is going right. Either you’re going to be a rodeo cowboy, or an entrepreneur. Whatever you do, you have to do it every day.”

    Kelsey enjoys playing basketball. He cheers for the Dallas Mavericks and loves to attend Texas Tech games. He has a younger sister, Haley, who is 24 and is training barrel horses. He is the son of Jed and Kelly Garrison.

  • Fort Western Whitaker Award

    Fort Western Whitaker Award

    The Nebraska High School Rodeo Association is pleased to announce the inaugural “Fort Western Whitaker Award,” sponsored by Fort Western Stores with locations in Lincoln, Nebraska City, and Columbus, Neb., and given in honor of Kyle and Chip Whitaker.

    Fort Western Stores will provide a custom trophy saddle to the cowboy excelling in at least three events, encompassing both rough stock (bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding) and timed events (steer wrestling, tie-down roping, and team roping), in coordination with the Nebraska High School Rodeo Association, and a $500 scholarship payable to the continuing education facility of the winning high school student. The award will be similar, in nature to the “Linderman Award” of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

    Kyle, 37, has won the Linderman Award six times, more than any other cowboy. He credits his dad with getting him started in his three events: tie-down roping, steer wrestling, and saddle bronc riding. “I started out doing all the events in high school rodeo, because dad was teaching me, and I wanted to try them.”

    Kyle’s dad, Chip, who won the Linderman Award four times, did the same three events as Vern Whitaker – his dad – and Kyle. “In those days,” Kyle said, referring to his grandfather’s time, “it was common for guys to work both ends of the arena. Things hadn’t been specialized. Now if you want to be good enough to make the National Finals Rodeo, you have to devote all your time to honing your skills in one event. It’s a lot tougher to be competitive in more than one event.”

    “It’s a tremendous accomplishment, what Chip and Kyle have done in the sport of rodeo, and we’re grateful to Fort Western Stores for working with us to recognize similar achievement at the high school level in Nebraska,” said Jim Wakefield, President of the NHSRA.

    Tricia Schaeffer, Nebraska’s National Director for High School Rodeo, says it’s an honor for the association to have the Fort Western Whitaker Award. “It’s great that The Fort Western has come on board. I think it’s a good way to encourage kids to give (the riding events) a try.” And the high school association can provide help. “We’re fortunate that we have people who can give kids instruction, and that’s what it takes, too.”

    “Recognizing high school students for achieving what’s considered one of the most prestigious honors at the professional level, shot from an idea to ‘we’re doing this’ in a matter of hours.” said Reed Tuttle, Fort Western Stores Special Events Coordinator.  “The Nebraska High School Rodeo Association welcomed the idea with so much enthusiasm that we knew this was something special – the students benefit from the honor and all the hard work and diligence it takes to achieve it.”

    About The Fort Western Stores:
    Fort Western Stores is a national leader in Western lifestyle apparel and merchandise. The family owned business, founded in 1972 by Carl and Shirley Wohlfarth, has grown from a 1600 square foot retail store into a multi-channel marketer with three retail store locations, extending its reach worldwide through a catalog and the web; visit www.FortWestern.com.

  • Denise Nelson

    Denise Nelson

    Denise Nelson has been a Northwest Ranch Cowboys Association member for much of her life. The Midland, S.D. cowgirl grew up around horses on her family’s ranch near Wall, S.D. She ran barrels in junior high, high school and 4-H rodeos, but it wasn’t till she married into the Nelson family that she began to rope. After graduation from Wall High School in 1983, she attended Chadron (Neb.) State College and earned a degree in ag business. She graduated from college in 1987 and married Tim Nelson in 1988.

    It was at the age of 26 that she picked up a rope. It’s a standing joke with her, that the only reason she learned to rope was so she didn’t have to be chute help. “I always make this joke,” she said. “I got tired of pushing steers for everybody else.” In 1991, she joined the NRCA and spent much of her time breakaway roping. After her children, Kaylee, age 25, and Jade, 21, were born, she added team roping to her resume.

    Rodeo was on the back burner as she and Tim attended the kids’ activities, but when Jade got old enough to compete in the NRCA, she was back in the arena. Jade often ropes with his dad, and then with Denise in the mixed team roping. Roping with her son is great, she said. “It’s a wonderful family sport. You can’t beat it. You spend your weekends together. It’s just amazing.”

    The four Nelsons are often at the same rodeos, Tim and Jade in the team roping, Denise and Jade in the mixed team roping, and Kaylee in the breakaway roping. The whole family also competes in the South Dakota Rodeo Association; Tim, Jade and Kaylee also compete in the North Dakota Rodeo Association, but Denise does not, as they do not have mixed team roping. Jade is a Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association member and has qualified for the Badlands Circuit Finals the last four years.

    The Nelsons raise most of their own horses and train them. For a while, they rode outside horses, but the demands of their own horses keeps them busy. “Trying to keep horses for your kids takes a lot of time,” she said. Roping and rodeo is her and Tim’s fun, and their hobby. “We used to go to basketball and football games when the kids were  younger. That was our fun. Now we enjoy the horses, roping and rodeo. That’s what we do on the weekends.”

    Denise was NRCA Rookie of the Year in the breakaway roping in 1991. Since then, she’s competed at the NRCA Finals and SDRA Finals about twelve times each. She considers winning the USTRC National Finals Number 8 Shoot-Out with Brian Meredith a highlight in her roping career. Last year’s NRCA Finals were extra-special, as she, Jade and Kaylee all won the year-end saddles in their respective events. The family raises black Angus cattle; calving begins this month.