May 10, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
My son was a senior in high school that spring. It was a practice high school rodeo and we were there early to get a good spot to park with room for his horses. We had unloaded and had the horses tied to the trailer, hay nets hanging by them so they could pick at […]
February 6, 2023
Ruth Nicolaus
A special bucking horse went to a special retirement home in January. When Sammy Andrews from the Andrews Rodeo Co. in Bagwell, Texas, retired saddle bronc horse No. 012, Lock and Load, the 23 year-old gelding went to live with Isaac and Britany Diaz in Desdemona, Texas. Isaac has a special tie to the sorrel. […]
December 26, 2022
Jan Swan Wood
We’d bought a place back in my home country that was right along the county road. Just across that road was a pasture that my Uncle Paul owned. He wasn’t really blood kin, but, he’d always been Uncle Paul. He was a stock contractor. During the summer he ran his bucking horses in that pasture […]
November 19, 2022
Ruth Nicolaus
When Rickie Engesser competes at her first National Finals Breakaway Roping this December, she’ll be aboard an unlikely horse. Lavaca Sting, “Rollo,” a twenty-year-old gelding, will be her mount for the biggest breakaway stage in pro rodeo. Rickie, who lives in Martin, S.D., never intended for Rollo to be her main mount. While in college […]
October 3, 2022
Ruth Nicolaus
A very special horse is among the 2022 inductees in the Casey Tibbs Foundation. Captain’s Darkie, “Doc”, owned by the Steffes family and ridden by sisters Nikki Steffes Hansen and Kristi Steffes, is recognized as one of the greats. The Steffes family purchased the horse from Malcom and Nola Price of Wasta, S.D. as a […]
September 20, 2022
Ruth Nicolaus
The most unlikely candidate became a trick riding horse for three young sisters. Shyla, age sixteen, Layna, twelve, and Clara Navarre, age seven, daughters of Corey and Melissa Navarre, each started their trick riding careers at the age of seven on a little Shetland pony named Thunder. But Thunder, who came to the Navarres of […]
August 2, 2022
Ruth Nicolaus
A very special horse carried his last rodeo queen in June. Kearney, a 21-year-old bay roan American Quarter Horse, owned by Marvin and Janet Mueller of Sutherland, Neb., has carried seven years’ worth of Miss Rodeo America queens at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte. And his last mount was the 2022 Miss Rodeo […]
July 16, 2022
Ruth Nicolaus
A pretty special horse is about to retire. Shorty, a red roan gelding owned by Dane Pokorny and his parents, Brad and Paula, will make his final steer wrestling runs at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Gillette, Wyo. July 17-24. Then it’s green grass and pastures for the mount. Shorty is no […]
May 10, 2022
Ruth Nicolaus
The 2021 Women’s Pro Rodeo Breakaway Horse of the Year winner was never intended to rodeo. No Wimpy Turns, “Onna,” started life as a reining horse. But when her rider couldn’t get her to lope slow circles, her career changed. Shelby Boisjoli, the 2021 reserve world champion breakaway roper, bought the mare three years ago, […]
April 16, 2022
Ruth Nicolaus
PRCA trick rider Bethany Iles has a new horse, a very special one. Cowboy, a nine-year-old palomino, just came into his own last year. The Okahoma-based cowgirl had a trustworthy trick riding horse, a palomino named Vanilla. But with her and her partner Rider Kiesner’s busy rodeo schedule, she needed another mount. So in the […]