Rodeo Life

Category: Articles

  • Lucas Camac

    Lucas Camac

    Lucas Camac proved to be no underdog in the Central Plains Rodeo Association (CePRA) as he climbed the ladder from sitting sixth in the standings to finishing out the year as the reserve champion steer wrestler. A second place in the first-go, followed by a first place finish in the second-go, found Lucas leading the average heading into the third-round of the Finals, but luck of the draw seemed to be the cause of missing his last steer. “It’s part of the game we play,” was his explanation. The unfortunate last round incident didn’t play too big of a role on the bulldogger as he took third in the aggregate race with an 8.5 on two head and brought his year-end winnings to about $400 from the top hole. “I had a pretty decent finals and was happy with the results,” he said.

    The youngest of three boys, Lucas has been a member of the CePRA for six years. “It’s a good association. The finals pay decent and the winter rodeos allow for contestants to keep going throughout the year,” he said of the organization. The five-time CePRA Finals qualifier can most often be found traveling with his steer dogging older brothers (Cole and Travis), who also compete in the association. “My brothers are always my first option to travel with and we travel together when we can, but sometimes we are going in different directions and we have to jump in with someone else,” he said. In these instances, Lucas hops in with the 2013 CePRA steer wrestling champ, Shane Henderson.

    Rodeo has been handed down through the family, starting with his grandfather (Norman Hazeleaker), who was a bull rider. From there, Lucas’ two uncles (Mike and Doug) found their love from two separate ends of the arena and while Mike rode bulls and bareback horses, Doug was a bulldogger and calf roper. The love for competition wasn’t left to the boys, as Lucas’ mother (Carol) competed in the barrel racing and showed horses. “My Granddad was a big part of rodeo and it was passed down to his kids and now all of his grandkids,“ said Lucas. Surrounded by the rodeo way of life, Lucas got his start through Norman during the summer of his eighth grade year. “Granddad let me jump my first steer in the practice pen,” he remembered. Progression in the event found Lucas competing in the National High School Rodeo Association and later getting a rodeo scholarship to Northwestern Oklahoma State University, where he was a member of the Rangers rodeo team for four years and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Health and Sports Science Education. Currently, Lucas’ associations are split between the CePRA and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), where he has been a member since 2007. “Rodeo has been a part of me for a long time and I just love the sport,” is his reason for competing.

    The Rose Hill, Kans., cowboy makes his living within the second-crop program of ADM Alliance Nutrition and is looking forward to a future with his fiancé Jacey Andrews. An all-around cowgirl, competing in the barrel racing and breakaway roping will help to carry on the family tradition as a card holder of the CePRA. The couple of set the date for May 24, 2014.

    Halfway through the 2013 season, Lucas switched his steed to his 12-year old horse (Maverick). “I’ve had him for a while and he was started as a heading horse, but he has gotten more solid and proved to be a winner,” said Lucas. Now with the horsepower under him, Lucas hopes to get in enough circuit rodeos to qualify for the Prairie Circuit Finals, within the PRCA, next season. “I would like to give it a legitimate shot,” he said of one goal. Nonetheless, his sights are still set within the CePRA and he has targeted the year-end saddle. “I would definitely like to win it,” he said.

  • Halle Johnson

    Halle Johnson

    For Halle Johnson, rodeo is not only a sport, it is also a means of bringing her family together. Her great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles come to watch, and her grandfather, parents, and siblings all love to compete in rodeo. “That’s one of the reasons I like rodeo so much – I can compete with my whole family,” says Halle. The 13-year-old has been competing in the KJRA for six years and is the association’s 2013 All-Around Champion in the 10-13 age division. “I like competing with my horse and I love animals,” says Halle. “Rodeo is something I’ve always done and I meet a lot of friends there.”

    Halle competes in barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, goat tying, ribbon roping, and team roping. This year, Halle started team roping in the KJRA with her sister, Kya. They each switch from heading to heeling for one another. Halle is coached in her events by her parents and also by Jessica McMillan. Halle’s dad, Mark Johnson, helps her with her roping events since he competes in team roping as well as tie down roping. Halle’s mom, Michelle Johnson, also team ropes in addition to barrel racing.

    The Johnson family lives in the country on 80 acres outside of Bennington, Kan. Halle is the oldest – her sister Kya is 12 and her brother Hunter is five. Both Kya and Hunter compete in the KJRA. Halle has three horses that she rodeos with. Beamer is a 14-year-old mare who Halle does barrels and poles on. Tank is her breakaway horse, and Colonel is the team roping and goat tying horse that Halle shares with her sister Kya. The Johnsons also keep Black Angus beef cattle, cowdogs, and cats, along with steers, calves, and a goat for roping.

    A student at Bennington Middle School, Halle is in the eighth grade. Her favorite subject is English. “I like to write stories and I love to read,” she says. She  enjoys reading adventure stories, and she just finished The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth. When Halle is not lost in a book, she enjoys playing guitar and clarinet. She plays clarinet in band at her school, and during the school year she also plays volleyball, runs track, and does cheerleading. Additionally, Halle is involved in 4-H, having shown sheep and dogs for the past five years. She also competes in the horse events and has won the breakaway roping at state fair for the past two years.

    Recently, Halle won her very first team roping check at a HYRA (Heartland Youth Rodeo Association) rodeo. Other highlights of her year include coming in fourth in the barrel racing and second in the breakaway roping at the American Royal Invitational Youth Rodeo. She also won the open and youth buckles in barrel racing at the Labor Day open rodeo in Brookville. In 2012, Halle and her sister Kya competed in Gallup, N.M. at the NJHFR, with Halle placing 22nd overall. One of her goals is to compete there again. “I want to make it to nationals in multiple events,” says Halle. Her other future goals include rodeoing through college and beyond, as well as becoming an orthopedic surgeon.

  • Kelli Neville

    Kelli Neville

    Kelli Neville is a barrel racer in the Kansas High School Rodeo Association. The eighteen year old Kingman, Kan. cowgirl used to run poles, but when her pole horse sold more quickly than she planned, she let him go, and now she concentrates on barrels.

    She has two barrel horses. Ace, who is 17, is a big bay quarter horse who “is the biggest sweetheart ever,” she says. “He gives me 110% every time. He always takes care of whoever is on him.” Her second horse is a little palomino mare named Ira who is new to Kelli this summer. Ira will eventually replace Ace, and the ten year old mare is not typical. “She is very mellow for a mare. She’s almost like having another gelding around. She’s not moody or cranky, but very sensitive. You can put anybody on her, but if somebody is heavy-handed or rough, she doesn’t like that.”

    Kelli is a senior at Kingman High School, where she enjoys it, but is excited for her senior year to end so she can get out and “start a whole new chapter in life.” Her younger sister, Valerie, is a freshman and plays sports, so Kelli enjoys watching her play. “She does the sports, I do the rodeo. During the week, we’re at her games, cheering her on, and on the weekends, she comes to the rodeos and cheers me on. It’s fun to watch my little sister do well at sports.”

    After school, she works as a clerk at the Kingman Drug Store. She packages and delivers medicine for the local nursing home, and loves the experience she is gaining. She is saving her earnings for college. After Kelli gets home from work, she helps out on the family farm and hog operation. She, her brother, and her dad rotate in doing hog chores each evening, so after riding horses, she does her chores, showers, homework, and heads to bed.

    Her mom and dad raise wheat and own Neville Built Trailers and a welding shop. Her dad made a deal with her. If she’d pay for the grain, he’d provide the hay from the waterways between wheat fields.

    When she’s not at school, working, riding, or doing chores, she likes to go with friends to Wichita. They like to watch movies or go to the Buckle (“that isn’t good because I like jeans”) or Shepler’s, “and that isn’t good because I like shirts. Mom doesn’t let me go to Wichita for that reason.” They like to stop at Texas Roadhouse for their delicious steaks.

    After high school, Kelli might attend Ft. Hays State University, of which her dad is an alumni. She’d like to major in sports medicine. In school, she is reporter for her FFA chapter, and is on the Eagle Honor Roll. In addition to her sister Valerie, Kelli has an older brother, Cole, who is 20. She is the daughter of Marvin and Jill, who have “done so much for me, to get me where I’m at,” she says.

  • Jake Cruzan

    Jake Cruzan

    Jake Cruzan lives in Cave Creek, Ariz., a recent transplant from Cortez, Colo. His family moved a month ago and the National High School Reserve Team Roping Header Champion is excited about the move.
        “It’s really been good for me since I’m into the cutting and there is a bigger opportunity for me here,” said the 17-year-old home schooled senior. Jake won the Colorado State High School Finals in both cutting and team roping. “This move will allow me to show our rope horses, reiners, and cow horses at the AQHA shows close to where we live.” Jake won reserve World Champion Heading at the AQHA World Show this year and he is hoping to become a professional performance horse trainer. “I’m hoping to continue to get my name out there,” he said.
        Jake has always rodeoed, beginning with the junior rodeos at the age of eight. Junior high was the next step, and he moved into the high school rodeo after that, working his way up to making Nationals for the first time in the team roping his junior year. He made it both sophomore and junior year in the cutting. Jake has shown rope horses, cutters, and other horses in the AQHA and qualified three horses this year for the first time. Arizona has given Jake another opportunity to compete against some tough competition. He’s sitting second in the All Around, second in team roping, and winning the cutting. “My goal this year is continue going after the All Around. I want to be competitive in all three of my events – cutting, team roping, and tie down roping. I have a really good partner this year, Zane Yates, from Cortez, who is going to keep living in Colorado and rodeo in Arizona.”
        Jake splits his time between school, his nine horses at home, and his full time job with a local horse trainer.  “We have quite a few show horses – they are under lights, blanketed, and exercised daily so that‘s a lot of work. I work for Brad Barkemeyer six days a week – this will be my third year working for him. I’m an assistant rope horse trainer for him and help him with whatever he needs done. He’s taught me a lot – and helped me on all levels of life from riding to being a good person,” said Jake. “Brad has a lot going for him and he his endorsement with Weaver Leather has opened up some doors for me. I’ve got some really good sponsors from his help.” He is endorsed by Bobs Custom Saddles, Anderson Bean Boots, New West Performance Horses, BetterBoots.com, and is working on a sponsorship with Twister Trailer. “The hardest part of getting sponsors is getting your name out there. I have tried hard by introducing myself to everyone I can. I have worked on getting a very clean appearance from myself to my horses. I’m one of the only kids that is endorsed by some of these companies. I work hard at keeping my record clean and everything tidy.”
        Jake’s family owns an irrigation company (Cruzan Irrigation) in Cortez and his dad (Kyle) commutes now that the family has moved to Cave Creek. They still have the house in Cortez and they spend time there in the summer. Both Jake and his brother (Brock) work at the company in the summer. They help with deliveries, as well as help take down and set up pivots and side rolls. Brock took to motorcycles instead of horses. He does a little bit of competing, but mostly rides for fun. His mother (Rickie) is the secretary of the business and devotes a lot of time helping Jake with the horses at home

  • Rusty Wright

    Rusty Wright

    ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. – The Wright family’s domination of saddle bronc riding at seemingly all levels of the sport is well documented, but 17-year-old Rusty took the first step toward some bragging rights of his own with a 74-point ride in the third performance of the 65th annual National High School Finals Rodeo on Monday evening at the Sweetwater Events Complex.

    National High School Finals Rodeo

    July 15, 2013

    Sweetwater Events Complex, Rock Springs, Wyo.

    Performance 3 Unofficial Results

    For more information, call Kyle Partain at 719-534-0330 or Email kyle@nhsra.org 

    Wright to the Lead

    The defending champion in bronc riding, Rusty is looking to become the first in his distinguished family to win back-to-back national titles in high school rodeo. The first step was just arriving in Rock Springs, which he did all of 15 minutes before check-in closed on Sunday after claiming the novice saddle bronc riding title at the Calgary (Alberta) Stampede the day before. While he competed in front of packed houses at both rodeos, the Stampede packs just a few more people into its house. Not that it matters to Rusty.

    “Everyone is just another rodeo,” Rusty said. “I look at them all the same, whether there are 10 people in the stands or 30,000. It’s just me and the horse, and me trying to ride the best I can no matter where the rodeo is.”

    Rusty’s large family of bronc riders – which includes two uncles who were NHSRA national champions – came in handy when he saw his draw for Monday night in Rock Springs.

    “My Uncle Jake was 84 on him in Corpus Christi, Texas,” Rusty said. “I just talked to him and there were a couple of guys here who said he was a nice hopper. I knew the rein and that’s about all you need to know. It’s kind of a relief to be sitting where I need to be sitting in the first round. Now, I just need to make two more good rides and hopefully take it home again.”

  • Tommy Tibbitts

    Tommy Tibbitts

    Tommy Tibbitts was born August 15, 1928, on a ranch about 25 miles south of Merriman, Neb. The ranch was called the Churn Ranch and was owned by Tom Arnold. His dad (Tom) was a straw boss as they were called in those days. Tommy had four sisters older than he and two younger. Mr. Arnold sold the ranch and the family moved to South Dakota when Tommy was a year old. He went to a country school on the Arnold Ranch through the 8th grade and went to high school in Mission, SD.
    The Arnold Ranch was so big that it took up to ten days to brand all the cattle. When Tommy was 8, he went on his first branding. His job was to herd the horses while the hands were busy branding. His next job was breaking colts, and he was paid $5.00 a colt. At that time, the men working in the hay field were getting $1.00 a day and meals. “The first year it took me all summer to break four colts to ride. The second year I broke enough colts I made more than the hands in the hay field did, so the next year Mr. Arnold put me on a hay rake.” The Arnold Ranch had about four hundred head of horses, both riding horses and work horses. They had about 3,000 head of mother cows and 12,000 head of sheep. The sheep farm and the cattle ranch were connected but apart from each other.”

    After World War II was over the US Marines Air Corp offered an enlistment for two years. Tommy was 17 years old, and in his senior year of high school when he enlisted. “I was sworn in on April 9, 1946. Since I enlisted before duration was signed, I am considered a World War II veteran.” After his time in the Marines, Tommy moved to Ft. Pierre along with a couple of friends. “We found work at the Old Horse and Mule Ranch which had been sold to Billy Barrak.” It was here that Tommy started riding saddle broncs at a few rodeos. He joined the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA now PRCA) in the spring of 1948. “My PRCA gold card number is 1198. In my beginning years of rodeo I rode bareback horses and saddle bronc. The last years of my rodeo career I just rode saddle bronc. I tried bulls but they just didn’t work for me.”

    Tommy worked local rodeos in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and North Dakota until a bareback horse bucked him off and broke his left knee which put him out of commission for a few months. “While I was healing I went to work in the oil fields at Lovington, New Mexico – that was a new experience. I worked there all winter until spring and I started to rodeo again.” While at a rodeo in Springfield, Missouri, he got an opportunity to make money and rodeo. A rodeo act called the Valkeries asked Tommy to drive their truck, hauling their horses. The act consisted of three girls standing on the back of horses and jumping hurdles. They had seven white horses to haul. “Their offer was to pay my expenses, pay my entrance fee at the rodeos plus a small wage. I accepted the job offer as it was a god send to a cowboy just getting started. “ His new position allowed Tommy to see the nation – they went to Denver, Ft. Worth, El Paso, Phoenix, Cheyenne, Chicago, New Yor,k and the Cow Palace to name a few. “The girls were like sisters to me, more or less like a family. We laughed and argued like a family but we still got along.”
    He worked with the Valkeries for three years. “They got a contract with a circus so I quit and went on my own. Later that spring at a rodeo at Tulsa Jake Beutler of the Beutler Bros. Rodeo Producers, asked me to go to work for them hauling livestock. I went to work for them and worked until I quit rodeoing in the fall of 1959.”

    He recalls his best year of rodeo – 1956. “I bucked off five horses all year and I believe I finished some where in the top 15 standings for that year. The national finals hadn’t started-yet.”
    On August 2, 1958 Tommy married Linda. “That was the best thing I did in my life time. She was not only beautiful on the outside but she is beautiful on the inside. We have had two children a girl and a boy. The girl (Sonya) is an accountant in Phoenix and the boy (Tom) does a lot of work for the department of defense. He works out of Santa Diego.” After getting married, Tommy left Beutler Bros. “I rodeoed some in 1959 but I decided to give up rodeo all together.” He got a job driving truck out of Amarillo, Texas. “I drove from there for about six years. In 1967 I changed companies and started driving for Leeway Motor Frieght out of Oklahoma City. My total time driving truck was about thirteen years. During that time I logged over 2,000,000 miles.”
    In the fall of 1974, he left trucking and moved back to South Dakota to ranch, farm, trade horses and work as a tribal ranger for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as well as in the tourism industry. “In 1995 I was named as one of the delegates, from South Dakota, to go to Washington D.C. to the conference on travel and tourism. Every state had delegates at the conference, a total of 1700 delegates, in all. That has been the only conference on tourism that has ever been held at Washington D.C.”

    In the year of 2001 John Hadley and his wife Lois talked Tommy into trying to make rodeo the official sport of South Dakota. “It took me two years before I was able to get it to the legislator for approval. Congressman Larry Rhoden and state senator Eric Bogue introduced the bill to the legislator and it passed by a land slide on February 27, 2003 The governor, Michael Rounds signed the bill into state law making it the official sport of South Dakota.”
    Tommy retired in the late 1990’s and volunteered to be a council member on a resource, conservation and development (RC&D) program. RC&D is a community development program. “The area we covered was four counties. I worked on that until the government stopped funding the program two years ago.”

    He and Linda still live on the ranch outside of Martin, SD. “We live 32 miles from town,” he said. They started going to Arizona for the winter about three years ago. “It can snow really hard and the electricity goes out for days,” said Linda. They both like the change of pace for the winter.

    They still enjoy going to rodeos and seeing people that they remember. “I like being able to walk into an arena and know everybody.” They enjoy their life now. “We didn’t get anything done, but we’re busy.”

  • Lari Dee Guy

    Lari Dee Guy

    Lari Dee Guy strives to be a role model in competing, training, and clinics. “I want to be an inspiration that helps that little girl start roping or that lady that’s 50 that thinks they want to do that. I had all kinds of opportunities – I was left handed. Everything I was taught, my dad made them teach me left handed.”

    Her multiple talents in the roping world include her latest $18,000 win at the Wildfire in February. “I won it heading and heeling,” said the 42-year-old from Abilene, Texas. “I don’t think anyone has ever done that before.” In the equine training arena she has an extensive list of references that includes Trevor Brazile. “We own three colts together – we train them together. I’ll train them and get them going and he takes them from there – he’s like my little brother.”

    As a clinician, Lari Dee has shared her knowledge of horsemanship and ropers to several world champions. Passing on her knowledge of horsemanship and roping to others began 25 years ago while she was still in college. Her abilities with a rope started when she was a little girl.

    “My dad (Larry) is the reason I’m a perfectionist and kind of became a machine as a roper. With him it was his way or no way. He taught me the right way. There was no in-between. He didn’t settle. I was to catch everything that I ran no matter what. I both respected and feared him.” Her first challenge with roping came from being left handed. Her dad knew how difficult it would be to rope left handed and refused to allow her to rope left handed.

    Even though her mom (Mary) was a barrel racer, Lari Dee had a passion for roping because of her brother (Tommy). “He was a roper and I thought anything he could do I could do better. He went to the NFR in 93 in the calf roping.” She’s run barrels all her life, but once she got into high school, “I chose the rope.”

    She was also a bit of a daredevil. Raised on a 10,000 acre ranch outside of Abilene, she managed to total five vehicles before she was 16 – the first one when she was five. “My brother and I would play hide and seek and even though there was a ten foot drop between the hay loft and the floor, I would bail out the door hit and roll. I wasn’t scared of anything when I was a kid. My brother wasn’t the daredevil, I was.”

    She perfected her roping skills on the ranch during the many cattle drives. More than once her catches resulted in the necessity of the cowboys to get her rope back. She entered her first rodeo at 8, after her dad was sure she could rope well enough. She won that first breakaway roping. Her success continued into college where she won the breakaway roping three times in the Southwest Region and the national title in 1991 and again in 1993. She went to college at Vernon Regional Junior College and graduated from Texas Tech University. Lari Dee double majored in exercise sport science and recreational therapy. “I was going to be a trainer or own a gym. Obviously I pursued roping instead. I took motor learning and kinesiology and those classes really helped me understand a lot of things in our sport.”

    She came home and worked on the ranch and roped. “I was fortunate enough to have the ranch and my family that supported me and gave the freedom to do that.” Her roping has earned her titles in several associations. She divides her time between competing, training horses, and putting on clinics. “I want to be instrumental in making our female athletes better. I’m also putting on some big ropings, one I had last year paid $6,100 to win the average.”

    She started putting on schools when she was still in college. “I love having schools – I feel you learn from everyone you have. If you would say what would I break it down to now – the thing that people have trouble is- It’s all horsemanship. I watch people rope the dummy and every one can catch and I put them on the horse and they can’t. What makes me so successful roping is that I ride my horse good every time and I give myself a high percentage chance of catching.” She does about ten schools a year and travels all over the world doing them. “I’ve been to Sweden, Australia, Hawaii, and all over the US – you name it.”

    Lari Dee has also had to overcome two back surgeries. “I struggle with back pain everyday and one of the things that helps is going to the gym – I go at least five days a week. I run and do core exercises.” She had her first surgery in 1993 and the second one in 2000. She is hoping medical research will improve enough over the next several years to help her with the scar tissue and bone spurs. “Until then, it’s mind over matter – I’m pretty tough.”

    Lari Dee is the first to admit she is living the life she loves. “I don’t feel you can ever quit learning or be your best. I strive to be better every single day. I feel I rope, teach, and ride better every day. When I feel I can’t, that’s when I’ll do something else. I’m real competitive and I like to be good. If someone’s doing something better than me, I will work harder.I’m real disciplined. If I’m going to do something, I will get it done.”

  • Terry Etzkorn

    Terry Etzkorn

    “He was one of those little tough guys that was all muscle, who rodeoed for 25 years and took everybody’s money, and never seemed to get old.”

    Those are the words Jim Korkow uses to describe Terry Etzkorn, a four-event cowboy from Pierre, S.D., who rode broncs till he was fifty years old and still, at the age of 78, helps run the family ranch.

    Born in 1934, Terry grew up along the Missouri River, in the DeGrey area, 25 miles east of Pierre on Highway 34, the son of Anton “Tony”, a full-blood German from Wisconsin, and Bernice, an Irishwoman. He jokes, “I’m Irish and Dutch and don’t amount to much.”

    But he did amount to a lot. He began riding at a very young age, and as he got older, he broke horses and “liked the action,” he said. He began riding bucking horses, and “it just materialized, and then I finally got to where I was riding real good.”

    Etzkorn competed in area rodeos and became a member of the South Dakota Rodeo Association, winning the bareback and the all-around titles in 1955.

    In the fall of 1955, he was riding well enough that he joined the Rodeo Cowboys Association. He entered the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, and rode there with Irv Korkow, a Blunt, S.D. stock contractor delivering a load of livestock. After Denver, he rode with rodeo legend Casey Tibbs to the spring rodeos: Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, and his pro career began.

    Etzkorn juggled ranch work with rodeo work, and in the early years, rodeo was his primary income. He competed in all three roughstock events, and sometimes entered the bulldogging, too. “I survived on my rodeo money for a few years. We didn’t have too much when we first started out, of course. It bought a lot of bread for the kids.”

    Rodeo helped him build up his cattle herd, and he worked with his parents, feeding cattle, haying, and even running a lumber mill on the river.

    In 1960, he bought the home place, which has been in the family for over 100 years. They ran a registered red Limousin cattle herd, and Etzkorn continued to rodeo.

    He competed in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the big shows, too: Denver, Houston, Calgary, and more. He never got too far from home, because there was cattle to feed, hay to mow, and kids to raise. He’d go hard on the weekends, and be ready to work first thing Monday.

    In 1956, he married Reita Maher, and together they raised six children. Reita and the kids often traveled with him, and he remembers a funny occasion. “We had the pickup, and we went to a rodeo, and the five kids (at that time the youngest wasn’t born), they all started rolling out of the pickup. Of course, everybody laughed.” But that was a way to get the job done. “You gotta do what you gotta do.”

    Terry competed at between thirty and forty rodeos a year, putting in long days. “Sometimes I’d come home and work all day, and all night, and take off for a rodeo.” He often traveled with other cowboys. Ken Badger, Scott Hall, Harold Alleman, and Bernard Gregg were traveling partners. “They were good hands.”

    His strength was the bareback riding, but when he was in his forties, he “kind of had a little slump, of course, I was getting up a little then.” So he quit riding barebacks but continued with the saddle bronc riding and bull riding. The last bull he got on was Korkow’s Dick, at Mobridge, S.D. Dick had a horn “an inch long, and he punched it right between my eyes, and drew a little blood,” Terry laughed. “I was struggling on bulls so I quit getting on them.”

    It wasn’t until 1984, when he was fifty years old, that he quit riding saddle broncs and rodeo altogether. His last rodeo was Ft. Pierre. He wanted to quit while he was still riding well, and he did. But his involvement with rodeo did not end. He judged rodeos in the SDRA and PRCA for many years, and became a PRCA gold card member.

    Injuries never plagued his career. A few animals took a shot at him, but nothing major. “I think I got kicked a couple three times. Getting off, you’d sometimes get off and they’d buck in a whirl and kick and get you, but I never got anything busted up bad.”

    The couple’s six children: Allen, Leon, Karrie, Lisa, Jay, and Julie, all competed in rodeo as youngsters. Allen was a bareback rider, and Leon was a saddle bronc rider and pickup man. Many of the ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren also competed in rodeo.

    Now Terry and Reita semi-retired, helping on the ranch and with the family’s commercial pheasant and goose hunting business.

    A house fire in 1980 destroyed many of his trophies, saddles, buckles, and pictures, but the memories remain. He considers that today’s bucking horses and bulls are getting better and the cowboys are tougher. “Everything changes,” he said. But they can’t be any tougher than the cowboy from DeGrey who competed in four events, rodeoing for nearly 30 years in the pro ranks.

  • Zach Curran

    Zach Curran

    Miracles happen every day and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) bareback rider, Zach Curran is absolute proof of it. Only four short years ago, Zach was told that he would never get on a bucking horse again. After undergoing neck surgery at Swedish Medical in 2010 for the fusion of the Cervical six and seven (C6 and C7) vertebrae and removing a bone spur causing a long contusion on his spinal cord, Zach’s injuries were diagnosed as a concern that he should not be walking. “We were right in the middle of all of this during our wedding. We had been to a few neurologists and there was a 50/50 chance that he had MS (Multiple Sclerosis). It was a scary time. I was at the end of my graduate program and working an internship at Swedish. I asked for a good neurosurgeion and Dr. Elliott was the one that came up. We were thrilled with him. The event brought us closer and we had to lean on each other. We were uncertain of our future, but everything worked out,” said Zach’s wife, Lindsay.

    In a remarkable turn of events, Zach was fully recovered in three months other then the contusion on the spinal cord. “The recovery wasn’t too bad, it was a month of not doing a whole lot but walk and not really lifting anything,” he said.

    Zach had injured his neck three years prior to his incident after jumping off of a horse in the middle of his ride, landing on his head at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, Colo., which is the speculation point of the beginning of his problems. For the next three years, Zach says that he had problems in his neck and began getting stringers in his riding arm that progressively got worse. Continuing to ride, Zach qualified for the Mountain States Circuit Finals in 2009. “I came out on my horse and he must of whipped my head back. My legs went completely paralyzed in the middle of my ride. When I came off my horse, I landed on my knees and was unable to move my legs or walk out of the arena. After about ten minutes, the feeling returned and I was able to walk, but I was carried out,” he remembered of his first horse.

    Originally, Zach’s doctor did not think the contusion would ever completely heal, but after a check up two-and-a-half years later, found that it was nowhere to be seen. “I missed riding, and I kept praying the whole time for God to give me a new neck. I didn’t think I would be able to ride again,” he said. In the spring of the same year, Lindsay got in touch with Dr. Tandy Freeman, who required the examination of all of Zach’s MRIs. Dr. Freeman then set Zach up with Denver Bronco neurosurgeons, who immediately cleared Zach to ride again. “I couldn’t believe it. We were actually just checking, but never thought that it would happen,” said Zach of his excitement.

    As soon as Zach learned the news of his release, he went home and got on some practice horses at JD Hamaker’s (H&H Rodeo Company). “I had figured that I wasn’t going to be able to ride, but after getting on the practice horses, I bought my [PRCA] card the next day,” he said. He went on to entering the PRCA Thermopolis rodeo, at the end of June, for his first one back and won it. He then went to Laramie and hit Estes Park for his third show, which he also won. He had gotten himself on a roll and went on to winning the Wyoming State Fair and Rodeo in Douglas, Sterling, Colo., and Afton. “Last summer was great. I started off really well. This year has been slower, but I have to get stuff rolling again,” he said. His continuous hard work allowed him to go into the 2012 Mountain States Circuit Finals and finish second behind year-end and finals champion, Casey Colletti. Currently returning home from his second Ram National Circuit Finals in Oklahoma City, Okla., Zach was able to tie with George Gillespie IV, Jessy Davis and Wes Stevenson for sixth place with a 81-point ride, but missed his horse out in the second round. “I kept praying about it and figured if that was what I was supposed to be doing. I never though about quitting after I started last summer,” he said.

    Zach is a self-made cowboy. Growing up in Aurora, Colo., where his parents never competed or got involved in the sport of rodeo. His dad (Pat) works in insurance and his mom (Joanie) is a speech pathologist. Zach’s younger brother (Nick, 26), also has nothing to do with rodeo and is currently finishing up graduate school for teaching. “I’m the black sheep of the family as far as rodeo goes, but my family is and always has been very supportive,” he said. Zach got his start in the sport from a neighbor, a stock contractor (Bob West) who lived down the road. “I got to going out there and hanging out. It soon caught my eye and I decided to get on,” Zach said. “They [West] haven’t bucked anything since I was in middle school.” At the time, he was only nine years old. Living on the west side of town, where there are plenty of people with horses, Zach grew up riding horses just for fun. After only one year, he began competing in the bull riding in the National Little Britches Rodeo Association (NLBRA) and stayed with the event until his freshman year of college. By the age of 12, Zach decided to pick up another event, so bought a riggin’ and got on his first bareback horse. “It ended up being better then bull riding – I caught on to it faster and even began winning more, so I decided to drop bulls and focus on the one event,” he said of his reasons.

    Zach clicked immediately with his new event and by 1998, was able to win his first World Championship title in the junior division of the NLBRA. He then went on to winning his second World title in 2002, in the senior division, and the National High School Rodeo Association championship the same year from Farmington, N.M. With numerous titles under his belt, Zach bought his PRCA permit at the age of 18 and filled it the same summer; buying his card in the spring of 2003.

    A cowboy of Zach’s caliber quickly caught the eye of numerous colleges. He spent his freshman year at Frank Phillips College in Borger, Tex., and then transferred to Central Wyoming College (CWC) in Riverton, Wyo., where he got an Associates Degree in general studies. “All my basic classes are done, if I ever wanted to go on,” he said. Here, Zach met his future wife, Lindsay (Bierma), who competed in the barrel racing and goat tying. “We actually didn’t get along that good when we first met, but we came around,” he admitted. Under the watchful eye of Lindsay’s uncle and head coach Rick Smith, Zach spent two years at CWC. “I really liked it up here. Rick was a great coach,” said Zach. He was able to qualify for the CNFR two separate times, finishing fourth the first year. The following year, he was unable to attend due to torn stomach muscles, which put him out of competition for six months. In 2008, Zach qualified for his first DNCFR, but was unable to make the trip to Pocatello, Idaho, but worked his way in-and-out of the top 15 in the PRCA World Standings in 2009. “I was right on the bubble, so I figure that I better give it one more chance,” he said of one of the reasons for returning to rodeo.

    Zach and Lindsay reside in Pavillion, Wyo., about 25 miles northwest of Riverton. The couple were married in 2009 at the Haythorn Ranch in Ogallala, Nebr., a connection through Lindsay’s high school rodeo days with Sage and Court.

    Lindsay grew up in Stapleton, Nebr. Her grandparents had some land and they raised a few horses. “We mostly just had our rodeo horses,” said Lindsay. Her parents have recently moved to Arkansas, but when in Stapleton, her dad drove a truck and her mom worked at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center in North Platte. “I grew up rodeoing. I always loved horses and always have,” she said. After finishing up her two years at CWC, Lindsay attended the University of Wyoming to finish up her bachelors and masters in Speech Pathology. “I knew since eighth grade that I wanted to be a speech pathologist, because I knew how hard it was. I chose a field that is very dynamic – the whole medical side is something I had no idea I would be interested in. I see patients at the hospital here in Riverton and Lander, because there is such a shortage of speech pathologists. I really love my job.”

    Zach works as a cowboy for a local ranch, when he’s home. The cattle are run in Dubois and for the past two summers, he has spent his time running the cattle in the high country. He also does a little bit of leather work, mostly just for close friends as a hobby and would like to start getting a few cows to start a herd. “I’ve also got some horses that I trained to keep going,” he said. Lindsay is a speech pathologist for an elementary school on the Wind River Reservation and had quit rodeoing when attending graduate school. “One of the biggest benefits of working in the school is having the summers off, going with Zach and staying home and getting some of my younger horses going,” she said. Lindsay is starting to get back into it and is currently working with a new barrel horse. “I don’t know what my time frame is in the next three years. Buying them young, it takes a lot of time,” she said. “She plans on starting out small and hitting some local jackpots to get him going. From there, I think she would like to move on to bigger and better associations. She’ll be done with work in a couple weeks, so hopefully if she can get her horses going we can go together to the regional rodeos” added a hopeful Zach. Lindsay is at a cross roads in her life and is throwing around the idea of going back to school to get her PhD. “It’s a life turning decision between that and rodeo. It looks like rodeo is going to win,” she testified.

    Zach’s original goal for this season was to make the Wrangler National Finals. “This year has not been as good as last year. I got in a slump early and I’m working my way out of it. I figure that I’ll just get my qualifications built back up and go at it hard next year. I want to be able to get into everything,” said Zach. He is well on his way to doing that as he placed in the first round of the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo at the beginning of 2013 and made it back to the short-go. He will hit the road with Seth Hardwick and Casey Colletti for the rest of the season. Zach is up in Eagle Mountain City, Utah, next and has recently returned from the California rodeos. “I’ll work on the ranch for a while and my wife’s family has a horse sale [Bill and Carole Smith, Wyoming Quarter Horse Sale] coming up next weekend, which we’ll help with,” he said. “I worked for Bill the first summer I was hurt and spent the whole summer riding.”

  • Ilene Choal

    Ilene Choal

    “I’m nervous and excited and glad I get to go,” said 24-year-old Ilene Choal, talking about her first trip to the Ram Circuit Finals in Oklahoma City, Okla. “It’s a lot to get my mind around.” Ilene is in her first year of dental school at the University of Nebraska. “The stars are lining up for me. April is the worst month of our curriculum with exams and finals. It just happens to be the only week for the next month that I don’t have an exam.”

    Right up until she leaves for Oklahoma, Ilene will be studying and preparing for the last stretch of her first year at the University of Nebraska. “We’re going in as a dental student, that’s my full time job,” she said. Taking 21 credits, her classes include Pathology, Immunology, Microbiology, Physiology, Anatomy, Occlusion, Operative, and Histology. “It’s a set up program, so everybody takes the same course load. It’s a really rigorous year because we take our boards after the first year, not the second like most schools. I’ve been told it quiets down after this.”

    From Laramie, Wyo., Ilene and her younger sister, Joann, learned how to ride at their grandparents ranch near Sheridan. “My cousins were entered in a little rodeo and I wanted to enter. My grandparents said if I could learn the pattern, I could compete. My cousin stayed up all night long showing me how to make the barrel pattern. I showed my grandparents the next morning that I knew the pattern and they entered me. That was when I was 11.” Her parents, Ross and Cheryl Hilman, never competed in rodeo, so it was a learning curve for the entire family. “My dad works for the state archaeologist and mom works in the engineering department and runs the computer lab at the University of Wyoming. My dad grew upon on a ranch and got away from horses and through his kids he ended up right back in them.”

    Ross and Cheryl hauled Ilene to all the Wyoming high school rodeos and weekly 4-H practices. Joann went another direction, competing in shot put and recently completing a year abroad in South Korea as a foreign exchange student. During Ilene’s senior year in high school, she bought a horse named Zip. The pair rodeoed for the University of Wyoming while Ilene completed a degree in archeology and they made the College Finals during her junior year in 2010. “It’s taken both of us learning each other and getting comfortable. I’ve learned a lot as a rider and he’s come a long ways.”

    Although she liked her career options in archeology, Ilene realized that she wanted a career that would allow her to rodeo. “I really like working with my hands – and I wanted a hands-on career. As a dentist, I can work with my hands, help people, and have the flexibility I need to rodeo.”

    She also wants to make the NFR, and started the process by getting her permit this past year. “I was planning on filling my permit this summer – that was my goal. I ended up filling it a lot quicker than I expected. I learned about the Mountain States Circuit Finals, and had a little less than a month and a half to qualify before I went to school. My husband (Tyler) and I sat down and made a plan. We qualified and then we came to Lincoln and I hoped that I had enough money made to go. That’s how I got there.”

    Tyler and Ilene have been together for eight years. They started dating in high school and got married four years ago. “He’s been my rock and best friend through everything. He’s not a horse person, but he helps me in the arena and will feed and helps me exercise Zip. He helped me to figure out how to make rodeo possible in the summer so we could make the Circuit Finals. Ilene and Zip made the trip to Rock Springs and won the average. “Now we’re off to Oklahoma.” Ilene and Christi Loflin represented the Mountain States Circuit in Oklahoma City.” She was the first person that said hi to me at a pro rodeo. She’s been great about making sure I felt welcome and congratulating me on chasing my dreams.”

    Part of chasing those dreams for Ilene included overcoming Dyslexia. “At the end of my third grade year I was almost completely illiterate,” she said. “The teacher told my parents that I would never learn to read.” Thanks to family support, and Ilene’s determination, she is now a student in one of the best dental programs in the nation. “I think a person’s success has to do with how dedicated a person is to their dreams and how much work they are willing to put into achieving those dreams. I dreamed about being a dentist and someday competing at the NFR and I am working towards reaching those goals. Being dyslexic has made me have to work harder but has not stopped me from achieving what I set out to do.”