SADDLING UP AT STOCK SHOW
For many, rodeo is as much a lifestyle as it is a job
For competing cowboys and cowgirls at the National Western Stock Show, rodeo is as much lifestyle as job.
Every January, hundreds of athletes stream in to Colorado from across the county. No, they’re not marathon runners or triathletes trying to get some in some winter training at altitude. They’re not Olympic hopefuls looking for a tryout in Colorado Springs, either.
They’re riders and ropers. And they’re here for the rodeos.
By the time it is over this year, 20 pro rodeo performances will have been held at the Denver Coliseum as part of the National Western Stock Show. It’s expected 750 cowboys and cowgirls will participate and about $500,000 in prize money will be doled out by the time the finals are held Sunday, Jan. 21.
For many of the competitors — whether they be bull riders, bareback bronco busters, steer wrestlers or barrel racers — rodeo is as much a lifestyle as it is a job. It requires long hours on the road and results in the occasional bruise or two (or worse). But it has plenty of perks, if you’re OK with life on the move.
“You get to see a lot of new country, get to do a lot of new things you’d never get to do and meet a pile of people you’d never meet,” bull rider Cain Smith said Sunday as he readied himself to “get on” as part of the stock show’s afternoon Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association performance.
The 24-year-old Smith, from Pendleton, Ore., has been competing professionally for five years. In 2017 alone he competed in 103 PRCA — Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association — events and put an estimated 75,000 miles on his truck in the process. The son of former rodeo cowboy, Smith said he could never do a 9-to-5 job that required him to be inside all day.
“My parents stuck me on a sheep when I was 2, 2K, and that was about all it took,” he said of his career.
During peak summer rodeo season, Smith said he will routinely drive all night between events, catch some sleep where he can, and get ready for his turn atop a bull before setting out for the next event after winners are announced. Unlike some other professional sports where athletes receive contracts that pay them even when they don’t perform well or are too injured to participate, a rodeo cowboy’s livelihood hinges on how they
do in the arena.
“You have to stay on to get paid,” Smith said. “I paid $321 to get into this rodeo. If I get bucked off both times, I’m out that and a plane ticket.”
About an hour before Sunday afternoon’s opening ceremony, Tim O’Connell was among a handful of cowboys standing near the bucking chutes stretching and getting ready. O’Connell is coming off a very good 2017. Not only did the Iowa native win the bareback finals at the National Western Stock Show last January, he went on to win the world championship in that event. Sunday marked his second day on a bucking horse as part of the 2018 season.
“Mainly, what we do on game days is mostly stretching, making sure you eat a good breakfast and a good lunch,” O’Connell said. “The day after my first competition of the year I’ll probably feel like (crud), but then I’ll adjust as my
body get used to being on a horse again.”
There to kick off every rodeo performance at the stock show this year is Keri Sheffield. The 24-year-old Floridian recently was named Miss Rodeo America 2018. Her job at the stock show is to ride in carrying the American flag at the beginning of every performance, as well as carrying flags for event sponsors.
“We still value God and country. That’s huge,” Sheffield said of what sets rodeo apart from other sporting events. “And once you come to a rodeo, watch a rodeo, just by watching you’ll get that sense of togetherness. Just genuine people. It’s something we’re all looking for in this life, and it’s found right here in the sport of rodeo.”
Tim Ditrich is somewhat of an outlier when it comes to cowboys. He was raised around horses but didn’t participate in a rodeo event for the first time until college. At first, he was interested only in roping, but then he saw a picture of his coach-mentor Ben Londo riding a bronco. Now he lives with Londo and travels the country with him competing in saddled bronco events.
He said the key to a successful rodeo doesn’t rest with the cowboy alone. He noted the PRCA keeps records on its “rough stock” animals too, and if a rider draws a horse that routinely doles out energetic, highscoring rides, it’s a sign that rider could end up in the money that day.
“You do your job. Hopefully, the horse does his job and you let the rest fall to fate,” Ditrich said.
For a complete listing of rodeo coming up at the National Western Stock Show, visit nationalwestern.com/ rodeos/.