Monthly Archives: September 2011

It’s opening day in the NFL, and I’ll be in my seat at Arrowhead Stadium by today’s noon kickoff. But I won’t be that far away from the rodeo world. Having a smart phone allows me to keep up with the goings-on in the rodeo world. And, trust me, I will.  

HEMPSTEAD, Texas – The Waller County Fair and Rodeo in Hempstead, Texas, is taking its respected rodeo to the professional ranks. This year’s event, scheduled for Friday, Sept. 30-Saturday, Oct. 1, is our inaugural year in the PRCA, and we’re coming into the highest level of the sport with a bang. Better yet, we’re giving back to the contestants: 1) Buckles made by Montana Silversmiths will be presented to event champions; 2) The fair’s theme is “Riding for the Ribbon,” and all cowboys who take part in our Tough Enough to Wear Pink celebration on Saturday night will be eligible for a free gas card, given to the contestant with the best time or score on that night; 3) we are putting in $3,000 in added money for each event, one of the biggest purses in our area. Our stock contractor is Carr Pro Rodeo. We’re putting on an event for cowboys, and we want this to be the best rodeo ever in Waller County, maybe in all of southeast Texas.

I’m in the middle of preparations for a special section that will wrap around the Omaha World-Herald’s sports section right before the Sept. 22-24 River City Rodeo. It’s a great opportunity for me to work a ProRodeo championship. I hope I can show the folks in Omaha just how special their hometown rodeo is each September.

We’re down to the final month of the 2011 ProRodeo campaign, and contestants within reach will be doing everything they can to finish the regular season among the top 15 in the world standings. The first big push for those in the top 24 in the Wrangler Million Dollar Tour standings comes this weekend in Puyallup, Wash., home of the Justin Boots Playoffs — the top 12 on the tour’s money list after that event will earn the right to play at the Justin Boots Championships, set for Sept. 22-24, at the River City Rodeo in Omaha, Neb. But plenty of others will be chasing the dollars at other great locals, like Pendleton, Ore.; Lewiston, Idaho; and Fort Madison, Iowa, just to name a few. No matter what happens, it’s going to be a great race.

I worked the bull riding for the McCrossan Boys Ranch just outside of Sioux Falls, S.D., on Aug. 27 and was looking forward to having some time at home for a couple of weeks before I hit the road again. It’s nice to be home and be able to get some things done that have been staring at my mind’s eye all spring and summer – I’ve just never had enough time to do it all. All work and no play? NOT. Having not been around these parts most of the summer, I figured I’d run up to the South Dakota State Fair and take in the CBR bull riding last Thursday evening. After making sure the kids got to their respective soccer practices, I headed to Huron to see some ol’ friends and maybe even do some networking. I got to see and visit with my ol’ friends like Dustin Evans, Roach Hedeman, Cody Sosebee, Matt Zens, others, and met new ones. They had two bullfighters Thursday because one of the three had gotten hurt the night before and couldn’t return for the Thursday performance. The bull riding started, and I was hanging out by my friend, Matt Zens, who was there providing medical support to the contestants and personnel. On the first bull out, the rider hung up, the bull falls and gets back up with the rider still hung up. Bullfighter Matt Baldwin took a good shot while tending to the wreck. I winced as I watched the bull hooked him right to the belly/ribs and lifted him into the air a few feet. I was thinking he’d be lucky if the bull didn’t get up under his rib-pads. He was doubled over for a bit, collecting himself as Matt Zens and the doctor on duty checked on with him. Come to find out, the bull didn’t have to get under Matt Baldwin’s pads because he chooses not to wear rib-pads for some reason. Somebody from the CBR came up and asked if I had my “stuff” with me. I laughed and told him no. He said to go get it on and walked off. A minute later, he come back over by the fence and told me where I could find some gear and a jersey. A quick change of clothes, and I was in the arena. It had only been three or four weeks since I last fought bulls in Dodge City when my groin gave me troubles, but that didn’t bother at all. I felt pretty at home and had fun. It’s still kind of amazing to me: Here I was just seeing some ol’ friends, do a little networking and hang out. I got to do all that, then got to do what I really enjoy and even took home a check. My lucky day! Thank you, Jesus. On the drive home, I reveled in the feeling of being blessed with the skills to do what I do and able to step in at a mere moment’s notice, wherever and at whatever level. On top of that, I needed the hour’s drive to figure a fun way to tell April about bringing home the unexpected income. I am blessed more than I deserve. Thank you, Lord!

The Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo wraps up the 2011 Wrangler Million Dollar Tour today, but other than a few Facebook posts from the PRCA, there hasn’t been much word about it. After the earnings are tallied, we will know the 24 qualifiers to the Justin Boots Playoffs in Puyallup, Wash. But for those of us who want to keep up with the happenings in the Northwest, we’ve not been able to do so. Mike Donnell, a dear friend of mine who promotes rodeo and represents contestants, has visited with me about ways to get results available to the public in a timely fashion, especially at events like Ellensburg. It really comes down to the producers to release up-to-date results. The PRCA has done a great job of getting results posted on ProRodeo.com as quickly as it can. Media department employees bust their tails in order to do so, but the results from Ellensburg just aren’t available. I’ve gone to the rodeo’s website, and the only results I’ve found are from last year’s championship. There are so many rodeos that do an excellent job of posting results and utilizing our information-seeking society. I hope that trend continues. For now, though, we’ll just wait until the Ellensburg Rodeo ends and the final tabulations are released.

Winning and finishing second in rodeo can happen in the blink of an eye. Overall, the sport is fast-paced, where livelihoods are measured in eight-second increments. But life gets a lot faster for the competitors in breakaway roping, where winning runs typically are in the 2-second range. Erin Johnson of Pueblo, Colo., and Willow Raley of Baggs, Wyo., are occasional traveling partners. They’re also battling each other for this year’s Women’s Professional Rodeo Association breakaway roping world championship. In fact, the world title likely will be won during the WPRA World Finals, set for Oct. 13-16 in Lincoln, Neb. Last year, Lari Dee Guy roped four calves in 15.5 seconds to win the average title in Lincoln. That helped Guy to the 2010 world title. But it also serves as a pretty handy script for Johnson and Raley to follow this year.

A lot of these trivia questions were focused on the regional local of the Buck Wild Days Rodeo, the annual celebration in Silverton, Texas. That’s why there’s a certain “twang,” or flavor, to them. But I suspect rodeo fans can answer them. How many Texans won PRCA/WPRA world championships in 2010?

To the question: Which ProRodeo world champion was the last one to be crowned such in the state of Texas? (drum roll please) Scott Snedecor, the 2005 National Finals Steer Roping in Amarillo. That was the final year of the championship in the Panhandle city before moving to Hobbs, N.M., for three years. This year’s Clem McSpadden National Finals Steer Roping will take place at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Okla., for the third straight time.

While promoting the Silverton, Texas, Buck Wild Days Rodeo, I created some rodeo trivia questions for callers hoping to get tickets to the event. Every now and then, I’ll ask them of you. Give me your answer, and if you don’t know, give me your best guess. Which ProRodeo world champion was the last one to be crowned such in the state of Texas?

Jerome Schneeberger is one of the best in the game, an 11-time qualifier to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and its 2001 tie-down roping average champion. Never once has he played on ProRodeo’s grandest stage in team roping, but he did so this past weekend during the Colorado State Fair & Rodeo. In fact, Schneeberger placed in the opening go-round and the average to earn $1,150 while roping with Justin Smith. That, combined with $740 won in tie-down roping, earned the Ponca City, Okla., cowboy the all-around title in Pueblo. When was the time Schneeberger claimed an all-around crown at a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association event? “I don’t even remember,” he told me Wednesday night. How did Jerome Calf Roper become Joe Header? “A guy asked me if I’d fill in for his partner, who couldn’t make it,” Schneeberger said. “I asked him if it was a doctor release or a turnout, because I wasn’t going to pay entry fees. When he said it was a turnout, I agreed to it.” Schneeberger knew he could borrow a friend’s heading horse, but the only ropes the Oklahoma cowboy had were for tie-down roping. “I found a rope that somebody’d just thrown away, so I used that,” he said. Was this God’s way of telling the 35-year-old tie-down roper it was time to start transitioning to team roping full time? “He’d have hell doing that,” he said with a laugh. Nonetheless, Schneeberger made the most of his guest appearance in Pueblo. If the right circumstances appear again, he might win another all-around buckle. Just don’t ask him to pay his own entry fee.