Daily Archives: January 17, 2010

Christina Dusendang still tears up today when she talks about Cash, her 19-year-old quarter horse that helped qualify her for the past two International Finals Rodeos. 

  “I always said he would run on three legs for me, and he did,” said the Whitesboro, Texas, barrel racer.

Cash fractured his leg during a barrel race last July.

Dusendang tearfully agreed the next day to put down Cash when equine surgeons told her nothing could be done to save him.

But thanks to a little luck and a last-minute experimental surgery, Cash was saved.

Dusendang hadn’t seen Cash since July until she reunited with her beloved quarter horse in Oklahoma City at the International Finals Rodeo.

Cash was injured in July in Tennessee. As he approached the first barrel, the horse “overreached” and shattered a bone in his left front leg, Dusendang said.

“It sounded like a shotgun went off,” she said. “I heard it, but I didn’t know what was going on. My adrenalin was going.

“He still kept running to that first barrel on three legs and he made a beautiful first barrel (turn). I felt something, weird, obviously. I looked down and could see a leg hanging in the air and everybody screaming for me to stop. (read more)

Georgia Cowboy, Clint Thomas is one of 15-tie down ropers to qualify for the International Finals Rodeo.

He is like the other cowboys. He loves to rodeo. He loves to rope. He wants to be a world champion someday.

But the 24-year-old IFR rookie also is different than the rest. He is deaf.

Thomas has been deaf since birth, but it hasn’t prevented him doing what he loves and doing it well.

“He doesn’t hear the crowds. He doesn’t hear the announcer,” said Thomas’ friend, team roper Dustin Buchanan. “He just backs in there and goes and ropes and ties them down.

“He feels like he is an equal in a world where a lot of us probably feel like he is at a disadvantage. I am inspired by him all of the time.”

In his first year in the International Professional Rodeo Association, Thomas already has locked up the Rookie of the Year honor in tie-down roping.

Thomas is the only rookie to qualify for the IFR in tie-down roping. He also is battling for the All-Around Rookie of the Year title, an award he covets.

“I want it a lot,” Thomas said by writing his answers to questions from The Oklahoman. “I have been working hard to win the all-around rookie.”

Thomas said his parents were not reluctant about letting him compete in rodeos because of his disability.

He comes from a rodeo family. His father, David, is a rodeo cowboy and so is his older brother, Matt, and younger brother, Jake.

The Ranger, Ga., cowboy was taught to rope by his dad at a very young age.

“I started roping at 2 or 3 years of age,” he said. “I’ve rode horses all my life.” (read more)

*photo from www.ipra.com