Rodeo Life

Category: Roper Review

  • Michal Robertson

    Michal Robertson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Haylee Naylor

    Haylee Naylor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Jill Oatman

    Jill Oatman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Jackie Hobbs

    Jackie Hobbs

    Jackie Hobbs went to Waco with one goal in mind. “To win the All Around at the Finals and win for the year. And I did. There was a good race,” said the . “There were a couple younger girls that don’t have the cautious side that will give you a run for your money.” Jackie has been a member of WPRA for 8 years, getting her rodeo start doing speed events around her home in Illinois. “When I moved to Oklahoma, I went to the junior rodeos and all these kids were roping and that triggered something and I wanted to do it. My mom (Annette Hobbs) helped me a lot.”

    She waited to start competing until she was a sophomore in high school. “I won state my junior year and reserve my senior.” She went to college in Vernon, Texas, on a rodeo scholarship, majoring in business. “I wish I’d have paid a lot more attention, but back then I was busy rodeoing. Like any kid, my first year in college, I stepped into a different rank and I got my butt kicked all over the arena. I worked hard, but the longer scores and different set ups took some time to get used to. But I came back my second year and won the Women’s Team, won the region, and won the nation.” From there, Jackie headed to Stephenville and won the region every year for the next three years. “There’s a combination of talent, try, and people with a great mental game. When you find the combination of all those, that’s when you have your threats.” Jackie has worked hard in all three areas.

    Jackie put all three together at the 2013 WPRA Finals, taking the All Around title as well as the World Champion Tie Down Roper. She won second in the average heading and fourth in heeling. “There was a good spread in the breakaway and it came down the last round; Jackie was second high call behind Whitney DeSalvo. “I needed to win the round and win the average to win the world. She knocked me out by tieing me for that round and I lost by $90. I try not to be a bad losing. You can take things and learn from losing or you can throw a fit and have a bad attitude. Either way it doesn’t change it.”

    Jackie finds being a girl in a guys’ industry “unbelievably hard. In the horse business, and the training business, you have to be pretty thick skinned.” She quit training outside horses this year, choosing instead to put on clinics. “I’ve gone all over the nation putting on 13 clinics this year,” she said.

    She is about to make a few more changes in her life with her recent engagement to NFR Qualifier Charly Crawford. “We actually went on our first dates at Vegas last year during Finals. I rope in the World Series out there. We were acquaintances – the first time I met him I was dating one of his friends – this has been a few years back. When I go to Vegas I dress up – people don’t recognize me. He thought I was a buckle bunny and the next several times he saw me all he could do is apologize.”

    The two have become involved in some horse deals and Jackie planned some of her clinics around his rodeo schedule. Their plans for a wedding include the idea of Vegas this year followed by a reception after the Finals is over at their place in Stephenville. “ We are trying to put together a facility that has arenas that can cross over as my calf arena and for him to practice for Vegas. We are also setting it up so we can give clinics.”

    Jackie is hoping to concentrate on my team roping. “Obviously I have a great opportunity to do that.” Charly is a header. “I am getting to the end of my calf roping, but it seems like I haven’t really exhausted my avenues in team roping. That’s something I haven’t really done yet and I want to. The most challenging thing I’ve ever done is be the same number as a header and heeler.” She wants to build her arsenal of horses to be interchangeable. “I’ve got four right now of the best horses I’ve ever had. Between me and Charly we have between 10 and 15. I’m looking to get away from the pure cutting horses. I want the running blood crossed with some cow blood. That’s extremely hard to find.”

  • Devon Waters

    Devon Waters is a steady kind of guy. “You just have to keep consistent,” is his motto, and he applies it not only to his rodeo, but his education and extracurricular activities. The fourteen year old cowboy who lives near Meade, Kan., in the southwest part of the state is a member of the Kansas Junior High Rodeo Association. He competes in the dally ribbon roping (with Carlie Jones as his runner), team roping, tie-down roping, goat tying, and chute dogging. Of all his events, tie-down is his favorite.

    He rides a buckskin pony named Jet for the tie-down, goats and heeling, and a roan horse named Roanie for the dally ribbon roping and the tie-down. His header is Cinch Bullock, who lives in Campo, Colo.
    Many weekends Devon can be found practicing at his cousin Shade Etbauer’s house in Goodwell, Okla. Shade, a sophomore in college, is also a tie-down and team roper (as well as steer wrestler and saddle bronc rider), and he and Devon practice together. Shade goes to school at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, along with Cinch’s older brother Caleb, and Shade and Caleb are a great help to Devon.

    Devon is an eighth grade student at Meade Junior High, where the best part of the day is social studies. He loves his teacher, Mr. Leiker, who makes learning fun. Devon loves learning about American history, and if he could choose a person to meet from the past, he’d choose his Great-Grandpa Poteet, who was a World War II veteran and who “inspired me a bunch.” Devon faintly remembers his grandpa, who died not long after he was born, and loved him very much.

    He participates in track, where he runs the mile, the 800m, the 400m, and the 4×4 relay. He loves to read the Great Illustrated Classics, adaptations of great works by Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and others. His favorite so far is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and his favorite book ever is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

    He has been a member of Little Britches Rodeo since he was seven. Devon is in his first year as a senior in Little Britches, and competes in the team roping, tie-down, and ribbon roping. He heels for Sean Doherty of Branson, Colo., and his dally ribbon roping partner is J.D. Draper of Oakley, Kan. He made it to the Little Britches Nationals from 2008 through 2013. In 2012, he finished third in the world in the goat tying, and this year, he finished sixth.

    He has two older sisters, Kaylee, who is 25, and Shayla, who is 21, who pick on him incessantly. He is the son of J.A. and JoBeth Waters. When he grows up, he’d like to attend Panhandle State and then run a ranch in southwestern Kansas.

  • Derek Weinreis & Levi O’Keeffe

    Derek Weinreis and Levi O’Keeffe make one heck of a team, whether it’s in the rodeo arena or on the basketball court. The North Dakota cowboys are leading the team roping in the National Standings of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, and their intramural basketball team doesn’t have many losses.

    The two are in their third year of roping together and are students at Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington. Right now, they’re more than 300 points ahead of the number two team, but Derek isn’t counting his chickens yet. “We try not to look (at the standings.) We still have to rope every steer.”

    Derek will graduate next May with a degree in business, and will probably head back home to the Weinreis farm and ranch operation located about an hour south of Beach, N.D. In the summers, he helps with the family business, which involves farms and ranches in several states. He stays busy branding, haying, harvesting, and moving cattle. He also competes in the Wrangler Team Roping Championships, World Series of Team Roping, and U.S. Team Roping Championships.

    Levi will also graduate in May, with a degree in ag business. In the summers, he often helps his dad with his fuel business and putting up hay. He is a member of the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association, the Wrangler Team Roping Championships, and the USTRC. He just competed at his first PRCA Badlands Circuit Finals, finishing sixth in the year end standings.

    The two not only rope together, they’ve played intramural basketball together the past two years. Their team has done well, except for last year, when Derek and Levi had to miss the first game of the year end tournament, and they lost. Derek says basketball is a lot like team roping: “You can’t do much with one guy.”

    They have a good relationship, which makes for a great team. “We’re pretty open with each other,” Levi says. “We sit down and talk about what we need to change, and what the other person needs to change. There are no secrets between us.” For Derek, a positive attitude pervades. “Mainly, not beating ourselves is the most important thing. Whatever we draw, we try to make the best out of (the steer) and go on with it. If you have a steer to be a six on, go be six, and don’t try to be five.”

    The cowboys devote a lot of time to practice. Each man saddles four horses, and they’ll run anywhere from 30 to 100 steers nearly every day. In the first four college rodeos this year, they’ve placed second at the first one and won the next three. Last year, they won second at the College National Finals, and the previous year, won second in the Central Rocky Mountain Region.

    Derek has two older sisters and an older brother; Levi has two older sisters. Derek’s parents are George and Pam Weinreis. Levi’s parents are David and Lisa O’Keeffe.

  • Lloyd South

    Lloyd South

    Lloyd South is a veteran calf roper and team roper from the Texas Panhandle. He now lives an hour west of Ft. Worth, in the country, and has devoted the past six years to developing the 40+ Team Roping Championships. He started team roping in 1964. “When we were growing up we roped calves and started team roping when it started getting going down here.  I’ve been part of it since the beginning.” His brother, John South, former National Senior Pro Rodeo Association General Manager, is also a roper. 

    “I did a lot of research before I started this,” he said. “Half of the USTRC membership is over 40 and that age group doesn’t improve and change as much as the kids do. It’s impossible to keep up with the kids as fast as they get better at their roping. I felt there was a need for another association that met the needs of the over 40.” Lloyd started the ropings in east Texas, and has now branched throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico and has plans to move into Colorado this year. “That’s as far as I want to go – our finals are in Stephenville and I don’t want people to have to go further than that. I want to take care of what I’ve got,” he said of the continued 30% growth each year. “We had 3,061 teams at the finals last October.” The association gives saddles to the average winners and a trailer to the high point money earner at the Finals and has lower entry fees than most sanctioned ropings. 

    “It’s more about having a good time. You can still win substantial money, but you are around people that are more in your age group. We are up to 2,000 members and hope to have 3,000 by the end of the year,” he said. 

    Lloyd volunteered for the draft out of high school and went into the Army.  His unit was on standby to go to the Middle East, but he never had to go. When he got out of the military he dabbled in several careers including western retail, construction, oil rigs, and producing clinics to teach kids how to rope.   “I mostly worked in construction,” he said. He has been to every USTRC Finals since they started, as well as the World Series Finals. Now he is heavily involved in the 40+ Team Roping Championships, but still ropes in the other associations.  “I spend every weekend doing something related to the 40+. We have 70 events this year,” he said. He has help with keeping up with the points during the year from Tammy Youngblood. 

    “All I want to do is rope, so this fits me well,” he admits. Lloyd is married to Leisha and has two daughters that live in Florida.