Bromby the All-around Rodeo Horse

Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life, Rodeo, Uncategorized

A big strawberry roan in Oklahoma is about to reach retirement.

Bromby, who is 17 hands and 1,500 lbs., is owned by pickup man James Hajek.

Born in 2004 north of Edmonton, Alberta, he was on a truckload of colts that were supposed to be bucking horses. Purchased by Sammy Andrews, of Andrews Rodeo Co. in Bagwell, Texas, Bromby didn’t show much inclination for bucking.

Bromby, James Hajek’s pickup horse, was mostly used for roping bulls during the bull riding. The big strawberry roan had the muscle and size to drag bulls to the out gate, if needed.

So Sammy sold him five years later to James, who, after only sixty or seventy days on him, roped a bull on him during the bull riding at a rodeo. Bromby took to it well, and it wasn’t long before Bromby was one of James’ pickup horses.

James, who lives near Hennessey, Oklahoma, got his PRCA card in 2010 and at his peak, picked up 25 rodeos a year. Bromby went to nearly all of them, and was used mainly during the bull riding. His height and size made it harder to use him for the bareback and saddle bronc riding; it’s that much farther that James has to reach for the back cinch or the bronc rein.

Named after the brumby, what wild horses are called in Australia (and in The Man from Snowy River), the gelding “is peculiar” at times, James said.

“When you go to catch him, he acts like he’s a mean old bronc till you get ahold of him, then he just melts.”

Bromby, a former bucking bronc that didn’t work out, found his niche as a pickup horse.

He’s scared of plastic bags that blow by. “He’ll about tear the side of the trailer up, trying to get away from them.” He also doesn’t like the ramp on James’ trailer. “If you tie him up to it, he’ll be snorting and blowing the whole time.”

Bromby can be a “jack wagon at times, but he wants to get along with you, please you, and do everything right.”

Bromby’s done about every job there is to do at a rodeo, outside of competition. He’s been ridden by judges, announcers, queens, and to carry sponsor flags. James has headed and heeled on him a couple times, and in his college days, messing around in the practice pen, even took him around the barrels a time or two. He wasn’t cut out for the barrel racing, James said. “He was big and fat and slow,” he joked.

The horse even has his own Facebook page, updated by Jill, James’ wife. https://www.facebook.com/Bromby21

Kids pet Bromby at a rodeo.

Now Bromby is about ready for retirement.
Next year, 2025, is his retirement tour, James said.

“For picking up, he’s getting old. I figure he doesn’t owe me anything. I’ve been roping bulls on him for fourteen or fifteen years now, and it’s time to let him be a horse for a little while.

“If I quit on him now, he’ll have a few good years to be a horse and enjoy life.”

James is also cutting back on his pickup work next year. He won’t get his PRCA card and will work amateur rodeos close to his home.

He and his wife Jill will focus more on their cattle herd.

And Bromby will get to enjoy life at home, in the pasture, with a mini donkey named Wally, his best friend.

Bromby with the American flag.

Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life, Rodeo, Uncategorized


About Ruth Nicolaus

Ruth is a rodeo publicist who loves the Great Plains and its people. She can be found behind the chutes at a rodeo, working in her flower garden, or cooking, some of her favorite things to do....

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