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We are watching 100 Days of Rodeo in 100 days on the Cowboy Channel

GAC had the last couple of seasons of Cowgirls. The girl ride ranch Broncs and were on the PBR Velocity Tour with their finals at Rapid city. Never saw it before but if was fun to watch. Only a little bit of Girl drama but they covered some broncs and had some wrecks.
 
Faster horses said:
Today is the final performance at Ellensburg.
I think I saw Cody-n-Nancy in the stands. 😄
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Naw, they don't go to real rodeos like Ellensburg. What you did see FH was several of my distant cousins. I couldn't identify any of them because I have never met them or even know all the related names. Two of my great uncles left Texas in the late 1800s, one settled in Arizona, and the other in Washington. They were both big-time ranchers and part of the bunch that started the rodeos in those areas. They each had about 15 children, mostly girls. Several cousins in regional rodeo Halls of Fame. Somehow none of my family history or my own, made me anything other than a small-time cattle raiser and now a former one with a worn-out body living on the outskirts of town.

Big rodeo names have never impressed me, especially now that they are trained in rodeo schools and more athletes than ranch hands. Recently on another site, one that took his internet first name from old Williams last name posted a photo of himself with Dee Pickett out in front of the National Hall of Fame induction ceremony building 2003. My comment is well I don't have any paid-for posed photo of me with Dee, but back in the 1980s when he was roping at local rodeos, I and friends shot the breeze with him and friends before rodeo time. I was even wearing my made in the USA high waist jeans with the big W on the back pockets.

Had I been wearing my made in the USA bareback high waist riding and roping rodeo Rocky jeans, I might be known today as Mrs. Pickett despite me being 5 years older. SIGH!

I did come very close to marrying a famous rodeo all-star Hall of Fame cowboy once, very very close! Yes, I did! I asked him and he said NO!!! OK, that was a joke from my former ranch comedy routine that I always threw in with my failed cowboy poetry.
 
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Wow. You have been busy, but had a lot of fun, I bet.
Did you ever meet Mike Logan from Helena, Mt at the Elko Cowboy Poetry gathering? He was Master of Ceremonies at least once.
Mr FH went to a Pickett/Beers team roping school several years ago and lets just say he really liked Mike Beers. 😄
Your family was very instrumental in starting rodeos in the Pacific NW. That's pretty awesome.
I'm glad you dressed the part and didn't disappoint anyone. 🤣
 
No, never met Mike Logan. I only recited in a few local poetry gatherings. No one ever gave a fat pack rats tail about my ranch poetry or writings. I did go to Elko once but nothing noteworthy to report since I was just another face in the crowd. Yes, Mike Beers was the better half as are nearly all heelers. Headers seem to develop ego issues and think they are above the lowly heeler.

Beers is a local guy raised in Rufus, Oregon, went to college in Pendleton and I think now has a ranch down in Post, but goes to Arizona in the winter and Dee Pickett lives around Caldwell, Idaho. Anyone involved in rodeo that has been around Eastern Oregon since the 1980s knows them and those like one aforementioned LA roper would be laughed out of town for dropping their names in these parts hahaha! Eastern Oregon has had a lot of famous folks from Hall of Fame musicians to pro rodeo to pro baseball to the first swimsuit model to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

I recently got in an online argument with a self-proclaimed expert, a LA school-trained urban honky-tonk header that teaches youth to throw way too much rope resulting in jerking of slack. I am of the school that advocates learning to throw your loop accurately with just enough extra rope so that the forward-moving calf will take up the slack. Learn that way, standing and roping a moving dummy calf. Minimize movement. I have seen some ropers that jerk so much slack high and back, that they look like a panicked four-year-old girl getting her first crappie nibble.
 
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There are some interesting stories I have heard second hand about Mike Beers learning to rope. I do know that his dad owned a truck stop at Biggs and did very well. He built an indoor arena up above Rufus for Mike to learn to rope at. A good string of horses, plenty of steers, and hired a guy who was a rodeo bum but a real good roper to head for and teach Mike. Practice practice practice. Being mounted and run a couple hundred head a day will make a young man into a roper.

Our older dog is named Rufus. Named after that town along the Columbia. Good name for a dog and it is Biblical. There is some minor character in the Bible named Rufus. I don't remember where I saw it but it is in there.
 
webfoot said:
There are some interesting stories I have heard second hand about Mike Beers learning to rope. I do know that his dad owned a truck stop at Biggs and did very well. He built an indoor arena up above Rufus for Mike to learn to rope at. A good string of horses, plenty of steers, and hired a guy who was a rodeo bum but a real good roper to head for and teach Mike. Practice practice practice. Being mounted and run a couple hundred head a day will make a young man into a roper.

Our older dog is named Rufus. Named after that town along the Columbia. Good name for a dog and it is Biblical. There is some minor character in the Bible named Rufus. I don't remember where I saw it but it is in there.
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Well, Rufus is a biblical name and great for a dog, but I prefer to use the only real biblical dog name and that was Lazarus's dog Moreover. It is in the Bible, the book of Luke I think, "Moreover the dog licked his sores."
 
Moreover, here Moreover....... come Moreover I think Rufus is a better dog name.

In the very early 70's I went to a bareback bronc riding school in Madras. There was a young kid there whose name I think was Mike Beers. If I ever run into Mike I am going to have to ask him if that was him. If it was he made the right decision to pick up a rope.
 
Went to two Beers schools 30 some years ago. Mike is a great roper but at that time was riding high on being a champion and wasn't much of an instructor. He lives near Kamloops BC in the summers now before the plague hit us. The first school he and Picket did together, the second he had a header called Rusty Wright with him.
Ricky Green was a fine instructor and a very kind and soft spoken character. We stayed in touch with each other right up until his death a couple years ago. Bob McClellen was with him for the first school he did here and the second he did by himself.
 
webfoot said:
Moreover, here Moreover....... come Moreover I think Rufus is a better dog name.

In the very early 70's I went to a bareback bronc riding school in Madras. There was a young kid there whose name I think was Mike Beers. If I ever run into Mike I am going to have to ask him if that was him. If it was he made the right decision to pick up a rope.
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I would call him Mo. If you shorten Rufus to Ruf, then your dog can say its name ... "ruff ruff."

As my dad would say, "you can spend your time practicing for rodeo, but that isn't going to get the cows rounded up and the fence repaired. "

I have always found rodeo team roper guys the most arrogant of all the rodeo performers. I am still puzzled why unless it is because they don't have hands-on contact with the animal, like bulldoggers, bronc and bull riders, or even mutton busters.
 
Mountain Cowgirl said:
I would call him Mo. If you shorten Rufus to Ruf, then your dog can say its name ... "ruff ruff."

hands-on contact with the animal, like bulldoggers, bronc and bull riders, or even mutton busters.
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I do call the dog Ruf most of the time. Except when I call her Rufus the Dufus.

Mutton Busting. Now there is the event. My youngest daughter dated a guy who was a pickup man for a while. His partner had a daughter of mutton buster age. She quit entering because it got old winning every weekend. She had sheep riding down to a science.
We went to Halfway on Sunday. I saw in the program they give a pretty good buckle away in the mutton busting. No wonder why I see young people running around with fancy trophy buckles. They are champion mutton busters. Bert and I were talking about that up at Halfway. He said his daughter won a nice buckle at an FFA livestock judging contest. What the heck???? I won the livestock judging at the PI as a senior and 2 years later in the college division. That was the big time. They never gave me no buckle. In FFA I got a phony little trophy. I don't think I got anything in college.
 
MC said "I have always found rodeo team roper guys the most arrogant of all the rodeo performers."
I think you are onto something there. I announced team ropings for years, even USTRC ones/finals.
I have a joke I like to tell. St. Peter was at the pearly gates letting people in...or not. Guy goes up and St. Peter asks him what his IQ is. Guy says "120". St. Peter says "you must be a doctor. Welcome to Heaven." Next guy up, St. Peter asks him his IQ. Guy says "110." St Peter says, "you must be a lawyer. Welcome heaven." Third guy up, St Peter asks, "what's your IQ?" Guy says "70." St. Peter says "do you head or heel?" 🤣

Of course there is the proverbial joke, "what do you call a basement full of team ropers?"
Answer: A whine cellar.

And then "How many team ropers does it take to change a light bulb?"
Answer: "they won't change it. They will just sit in the dark and whine."

We have friends who are team ropers and friends who are bronc riders. Guess which ones are the most fun to be around...

Hope you enjoyed the jokes.
 
Faster horses said:
MC said "I have always found rodeo team roper guys the most arrogant of all the rodeo performers."
I think you are onto something there. I announced team ropings for years, even USTRC ones/finals.
I have a joke I like to tell. St. Peter was at the pearly gates letting people in...or not. Guy goes up and St. Peter asks him what his IQ is. Guy says "120". St. Peter says "you must be a doctor. Welcome to Heaven." Next guy up, St. Peter asks him his IQ. Guy says "110." St Peter says, "you must be a lawyer. Welcome heaven." Third guy up, St Peter asks, "what's your IQ?" Guy says "70." St. Peter says "do you head or heel?" 🤣

Of course there is the proverbial joke, "what do you call a basement full of team ropers?"
Answer: A whine cellar.

And then "How many team ropers does it take to change a light bulb?"
Answer: "they won't change it. They will just sit in the dark and whine."

We have friends who are team ropers and friends who are bronc riders. Guess which ones are the most fun to be around...

Hope you enjoyed the jokes.
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There is also the classic. Do you know the difference between a large pizza and a team roper?

A large pizza will feed a family of four.
 
Well, Webfoot at least you got a trophy for FFA livestock judging. I took 1st place in high school FFA regional livestock judging (I was classified as 4 H no girls in FFA then) and won a Zebco fishing reel. Our team got a 3rd place trophy. I wasn't allowed to be in the yearbook FFA photo holding the trophy with the guys since I wasn't official FFA. I was the only reason the team won 3rd place. 55 years later and I am still PO'ed about it hahaha! I think the year after I graduated, girls were allowed to be official FFA members. 40 years ago as an adult, I won a green tough rubbery plastic 2 1/2 gallon feed bucket for 1st place when they had a big 4H ranch workshop out north of Baker. A friend's daughter (my fake niece) insisted I go and entered me into the adult livestock judging. I still have and use that bucket. If my fake niece stays in my good graces, she will inherit that bucket someday when I kick it.

"To head or to heel, that is the question" William Shakerope

"He doesn't always dally, but when he does he always remembers how he lost his thumb"

"Then he said to me if you marry me I will never ask you to run the chute. I said no and ran away because I won't marry a liar."

"You blame your horse for everything! It isn't his fault I am leaving with the disqualified one-armed bronc buster."

Grandpa, please please tell me again how many steers you ran a day before Grandma rode off with your best rope.

So you want to be a team roper, a header do you sweetie? Well, head on out yonder with the herd and keep up with old Fido as he does the heeling.

If you could hook that rope to your jaws, honey, you could be both the header and the heeler in one run with a record-breaking time.

So you broke the barrier. Beating your dead horse won't get you that coveted oversized buckle, but $25 and a visit to the gift shop will.
 
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In my senior high school annual the gal who was our "chapter sweetheart" signed it. Part of what she wrote was that it was a little strange going to the meetings with all the boys. I have wanted to locate her now and tell her that she was just slightly ahead of times.
 

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