June 15, 2011
As I sit down to write this blog, I am relaxing in the motorhome and watching a 2004 NFR DVD (after just finishing the 2005 BFI DVD) in beautiful Bishop, Calif. The California High School Rodeo Association State Finals is underway, and I’m tickled to be here! For those of you who have never been to Bishop, it’s an oasis of fun every year this week in June. While temperatures are supposed to reach 100 degrees tomorrow, we’re surrounded by snow-covered mountain ranges. It’s an awesome sight to see the sun rise up over the mountains and set behind another mountain range. It’s special to me that this rodeo is held in the Mike Boothe Memorial Arena. Mike was an NFR team roper who died at 25 after a wreck on the grass at Pendleton in 1995. He’s gone, but never forgotten by his family, friends and anyone who ever watched him rope.
I’m looking forward to a summer full of fun, since I graduated from high school on June 9th. From Bishop, I’ m headed to Reno for a few days to watch the pros at the Reno Rodeo and of course the Bob Feist Invitational Team Roping Classic on Monday, June 20. I’ve been going to Reno with my mom for as long as I can remember, and I always enjoy being there and watching my heroes compete. I’ll never forget Bob Feist letting me announce a round at the 2009 BFI with Bob Tallman when I was 16. That was cool.
It’s an exciting time right now, with many high school rodeo state finals happening all across the country and the college finals currently going on in Casper, Wyo. I’d like to personally wish everybody from out here in the West Coast Region the best of luck back there! My good friend Jordan Ketscher was 9.4 on his first calf in the tie-down roping and split 5th and 6th in the round. Jordo — you are a hero. I’m going to team rope with Jordan at the college rodeos next year when I’m rodeoing for Cal Poly, and am looking forward to it.
I would also like to congratulate my buddy Cameron Elston on his first PRCA win at the rodeo in Ramona. Camo was the California High School Rodeo Association State Tie-Down Roping champ last year when I won the bulldogging. It was pretty cool for him to get his first big ProRodeo win right there where he lives, so he got to be the hometown hero. I was excited to see that he split 5th in a round at the Livermore PRCA Rodeo with TUF COOPER. It is awesome to see my good friends and guys I’ve rodeoed alongside succeed. Tuf just took the world standings lead, so congratulations to him on that too.
Chad Masters hasn’t skipped a beat since coming back from his broken collarbone. He was back roping with Jade Corkill the first weekend in June, and they won money at both rodeos they went to that weekend. This past weekend they were the average winners at the rodeo in Sisters, Ore. Chad has regained his lead in the world standings on the heading side, by $10,000 as of today over Clay Tryan. Jade leads all the heelers, too, and has roped with a few different guys while Chad’s been out, including Clayton Hass, Steve Brandt, Britt Williams and Erich Rogers. He’s got about $13,000 on Travis Graves right now.
A twist of fate caused by a wildfire has brought NFR header JoJo LeMond out of semiretirement. When he lost all his grazing grass to a recent fire, he called Canadian Marty Becker and hit the road at the 2011 season’s halfway mark. JoJo and Marty jumped out and won the first round at Sisters in record time, with their 4.5-second run, erasing the 15-year-old record of 4.6 set by Speed Williams and Dennis Gatz. JoJo and Marty finished second to Chad and Jade in the Sisters average, then turned around and won the one-header in Livermore in 4.6. They won that one by over half a second over the Minor brothers.
Since reigning World Champion Bareback Rider Bobby Mote partnered up with World Champion Heeler and BFI titlist Mike Beers as a team roping duo, Bobby has cracked the top 50 in the world team roping standings on the heading side for the first time. Not too shabby for the four-time World Champion Bareback Rider! He won the all-around titles at both Livermore and Sisters this past weekend, which is pretty impressive for a guy who just stepped into the all-around race. Look out, Linderman Award contenders.
I’m happy to say perennial heeling contender Kory Koontz is healing up nicely from hurting his knee playing basketball this spring out in California. He was playing a pickup game with a bunch of cowboys when he hit a slick spot on the floor and went down, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Kory’s tough, and hasn’t let it slow him down much. Kory’s one of the guys I always love watching at the BFI. He’s won over $112,000 there over the years, and is seventh on the all-time BFI earnings list behind Rich Skelton, who’s the leader of the pack with $165,106, Speed Williams, Charles Pogue, Clay O’Brien Cooper, Matt Tyler and Britt Bockius. Kory’s won it twice — back to back with Rube Woolsey in 1995 and Matt Tyler in 1996.
We all get so wrapped up into winning, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But we sometimes need to step back for some perspective. My thoughts, prayers and sincere sympathy to some rodeo families who are hurting right now. Byron Walker, who won the world steer wrestling championship in 1981, and his barrel racing wife, Mary, lost their only child, son Reagon, this spring in a Texas traffic accident. Reagon was a rising star among PRCA bulldoggers, and at 21 was just getting started. The Walkers had just returned from a trip to Maui that they went ahead and took with Reagon’s girlfriend, Kaitlyn Larsen (who was driving at the time of the accident; Reagon had planned to go to Maui also), and were doing their best to get back to living life with the plan of hitting the road with Mary’s promising barrel horse, Latte. Right after they returned from Maui, Mary and Latte went down on the third barrel at the rodeo in Crosby, Texas, and Mary broke her hip in three places in the fall. She had surgery June 11 in Houston.
That same day, June 11, Columbia River Circuit timed-event hand Ned Kayser and former Miss Rodeo Oregon Janice Healy Davis died in a plane crash in the Blue Mountains. They were on their way to watch Ned’s daughter, Kelli Kaiser, and Janice’s nieces, Mary Shae Hays, and Jordan and Jade Crossley, at the college finals when the small plane went down. It’s a tight-knit rodeo community up in the Northwest, and Ned and Janice were connected in so many ways. Ned was the brother of Nate Kayser, and a cousin to Sam Kayser. Janice’s sisters include NFR bronc rider Butch Knowles’s wife, Mary; PRCA team roper Shane Crossley’s wife, Maureen; and PRCA steer wrestler John T. Hays’s wife, Joan. Her cousins include the Currin brothers. My heart goes out to all of them, and especially the kids they leave behind.
I look forward to seeing many of you in Reno next week. Thanks for checking out my blog!! I really appreciate your support, and love reading your comments. I invite you all to use the comment section for this blog as sort of a discussion board. I would enjoy discussing different standings and events, and hearing your thoughts on rodeo and roping.
It’s my journey, and your experience.
Lane Santos-Karney