PBR/Rodeo Fans

[jube baker]

great pics!! hey jube how come they spelled your name wrong on the second pic?

dont know they mst have been hung over

[Mike Leonard]

I have been a rodeo fan all my life. I had my early heroes and was lucky enough to meet many of the great saddle bronc and bull riders back in the day. Casey tibbs was the earliest and i was very small. Jim Shoulders, Winston Bruce, Guy Weeks, Alvin Nelson, Ronnie Rossen,Benny Reynolds, Jim and Tom Tescher, Marty Wood, and later Shawn Davis and Larry Mahan, and others i can't recall right now some as great or even greater without as much prestige but none the less great riders. I tried my hand for a while thru school and although I had some good coaches I made many more spectacular buck offs than I did rides. LOL! I finally resgned myself that the other end of the arena was probably better suited for me and roped calves and steers for a good while. My early roping hero was Dean Oliver and I tried to emulate his style and I got to meet him several times at match ropings and he was a very nice guy. then along comes this guy from deep south Texas named Phil and not only was he a whiz with a rope and set a new style in place that cut times consistantly he would go to the other end of the arena and ride the hair off bulls. A real all around hand that won titles and world all around, and i had to let Dean go and follow this guy. LOL!


Oh Shorty you might have met this fellow a time or two. LOL!


As for Jube I always worry about these wrecks with him. Dad gum! he gets all beat up and then it is going to be up to me to try to break trail or do more of the dragging.LOL! Let me tell you he is one tough guy and regardless of the wrecks he is up the next morning in the saddle or out following those hound in some of the roughest dang country you ever saw.

My hats off to you bull fighters the true heroes of the roughstock game!!

[Here Kitty Kitty]

Shorty,
I have to agree with Mike. The Bull Fighters and the Pickup Men are the true heroes of the rodeo's and the PBR.
I have seen many times you guys jump off the bucking chutes or run from them and hold horses down or cut ropes
when guys and girls were in some bad wrecks. If it wasn't for you all paying attention and quick on your feet some
bad wrecks would have happened.

Never understood why both didn't get more recognition. Some of those pickup men rode some of the nicest, most
broke horses I have ever seen. Hats off to you guys because your the superstars. May god bless you always.
-Missy-

[Powder River Walker]

What's your guy's worst feeling when it comes to the job. I could deal with hangups that happens but I hated (only had it once in my short time) when they hung a spur in the tail of the rope. that to me is a helpless feeling, I always wondered about carrying my knife that I had when I roped calves in my sock but then thought that to could be bad.

[jube baker]

I had two hang there foot in there rope last weekend but by the time i got my knife out they came lose, i was fighting bulls at a high school rode one time kid was on a pretty rank bull and was turning back right in the gate well the gate man got up about half way but the bull was spinning so close he cought the gate man with his back feet and pulled him right down under him and both feet landed right in the middle of his chest ans that ended up being a pretty sad day...

[Shorty]

Well thanks for the traffic and comments folks. I'd just like to let everyone know that this isn't just for bullfighters. If you have a cool pic/story of yourself/child or whatever, post it.

If you haven't figured out that Mike L. was talking about the great Phil Lyne from deep south Texas, he is my father in law. Another tie in to hound hunting as he grew up a very avid hounder himself. If I told you how many bobcat his dad cought anually , you'd call me a liar. Phil himself got more into hunting hogs. In fact if you ask why he retired so young he'll tell you this, " while driving from rodeo to rodeo I caught myself thinking more about hunting than rodeo. I knew that it was time to go hunting, so thats what I did."

As for the bullfighters and pick-up men being the true heros, thanks. However I think a good bullfighter and pick-up man should go unnoticed to the untrained eye. The job intels preventing a wreck from ever getting so severe that you must take drastic measures. Now, there is times where a guy just gets off in a bad spot. In general though if you see alot of them they are missing oppertunities to prevent wrecks earlier on in the ride.

We had an incredible ammount of people hanging their spurs in ropes/flanks. The reason being is that the rowel actually flared out at the end. This would give more contact surface with the bull. The down side was, if you ever got it through a rope/flank, you were stuck. In the PBR they have given them the choice between two rowels. Don't wear on of those two and you don't get on. Since this took place we have only had one hang in that fassion. I myself carry a safty/seatbelt knife. This is so I can not cut anyone or anything but the rope.

[Cowboyvon]

I've always been a rodeo fan of course I grew up watching Larry Mahan, Leo Camarillo, Roy Copper. I was raised on a Quarter horse ranch in Estancia NM and my father raised and trained cutting horses. I broke colts for my Dad and a few outside horses , we had as many as 40 head of horses at one time. I showed quarter horses in the AQHA from the time I was little. Bill Hill and Ned Tiejen taught me to calf rope and I team roped a little but at that time team roping was for old men.

I kept up with the PBR for a couple of years but quit watching I still watch as many rodeos as I can.. I've never been much of a rough stock guy. Like most when I was a kid I rode a few bulls and when I discovered I wasn't any good at that and that it hurt I thought I would try barebacks and that hurt worse so that didn't last long.

I got married young and started raising a family.. I still rode horses and trained some for my dad but didn't compete.. when team roping started getting real popular I started going over to a couple of places and started practicing not really wanting to go anywhere. Then I got real fascinated with heeling and it was all down hill from there now 20 years later over 2 dozen horses thousands of steers a couple of burros 20 or so goats and a divorce I can heel a steer. On a good day as good anyone around but I don't work at it much anymore.. I still go to the big jackpots and some of these little ones around here but thats about it... Now dry ground lion hunting fascinates me.. I just hope it doesn't cost as much

[Powder River Walker]

Jube,
The last rodeo I worked was a little thing in North Pheonix, AZ and right before the bull rideing they had a steer rideing for the kids. out of like 20 kids all but on the first one hung up. after the first few I made the dads quit having the kids use a split fingure wrap. then a few more hung up so I told them they don't need to take a wrap at all just ribbon it in their hands to ride bull you need to ride with your feet not tieing your hand in the rope. We were still hanging kids up, they had so much rosin on the ropes and gloves they couldn't open their hands. It was by far the worst time I ever had. 8 seconds was the worst movie they ever made, LOL

[Coyote]

Gotta agree with PRW, 8 Seconds was a pretty bad movie. I don't do much fighting or riding anymore but I ate it up before I had a family. Best story I have is when I was at a bullfighting school in Kansas. Cory Wall was the instructor and the entire school was run by Lyle Sankey. I made a decent pick and it didn't seem like much at the time but when I got home and was watching the video you could hear Lyle in the background shouting at Cory, "That's Rob's brother right there." At that time Rob Smets was still going pretty strong in the PBR. That's a compliment I'll never forget.

Not sure where most of my pics have gotten to anymore but here is one from when I was a freshman in high school riding in Cortez, CO.

[Cor]

Thought I was going to be a cowboy when I was 19. Was at this rodeo sitting on this big ol bull and they opened the gate. Next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital bed about 8 hours later. Broke my jaw in 3 places. Needless to say I never became a bull rider, but did learn a expensive lesson. Stupid hurts sometimes..

[Shorty]

Cor, funny you say that. One of my father in laws favorite sayings is " if your going to be dumb, you better damn sure be tuff".

[StrawberryMt]

Hey Shorty is Justin Mckee and Leigh no longer there?I have only been able to grab bits and pieces of the season this year.By the way Nice hair LOL

[Shorty]

Leah and Erin are splitting the events this year. Justin will be making some appearances at different events. I believe he'll be there this weekend in Arlington (Dickies Iron Cowboy). They have gon from a three man booth to a two man booth. When doing that you need a broadcaster and an Annalise (which should be a former bull rider). Justin is a combination of the two although he never rode bulls. That's why he was the unlucky one to get cut out of the broadcast.

They are going to use him for some special events throughout the year. I know everyone misses him and loved his work. They may not get their fill of him but they'll get a good taste. Hope that all makes sence and helps everyone understand what's going on.

[StrawberryMt]

I just really enjoyed justins knowledge of the bulls and bloodlines.Must be the contractor in me LOL Man that bushwacker is something else I can remember sayin to my wife the first time I saw judd buck him he could be bull of the year in the right trailer.I liked that big Hawaiian bull they bucked in Ok.City too.

[driftwood blue]

Justin McKee has some creditability there... has been around rodeos for a long time..
sure glad to see him back even though it was only briefly on the PBR now.

I sure hope the LAST MAN STANDING works up to the billing. that will be a good event.
we hope to make it to the Kansas City event