Monthly Archives: March 2010

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HOUSTON – Houston has a long and storied history of watching things soar to new heights – think NASA – and the rodeo fans at Reliant Stadium will have something pretty special to keep on their radar this week.

When five-time World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider Billy Etbauer enters the second round of Super Series V tonight at RodeoHouston, he will be $8,452 away from joining Trevor Brazile as the only $3 million cowboys in the history of professional rodeo.

Perhaps more significantly, Etbauer is $9,786 shy of becoming the first man to earn $3 million in a single rodeo event (yes, Billy has $1,335 in career team roping money).

“I didn’t honestly realize I was that close,” Etbauer said with a slight shake of his head. “That’s amazing. I just wish I had all that money in my pocket today. But it’s a true blessing to be healthy and be able to continue doing something you love.

“It’s been a lot of years since my brothers (Dan and Robert), Craig (Latham) and I started down this road, pooling our prize money so we could keep going. It’s always been a family effort; Craig still does all my entering for me. And I couldn’t do this without the continued support of Express Ranches. They are the biggest part of why I’m still able to go do this.” (read more)

Fred Whitfield won the 2010 BP Super Series III Tie-Down Roping Champion title with an overall time of 27.8 seconds in three rounds. After 35 years of professional roping experience, Whitfield felt confident going into tonight’s competition and earned a payout of $6,000.

 “It’s all about the draw and getting a good calf,” he said. “I was lucky tonight and got one that placed two different times.”

Advancing to the Semifinals with Whitfield are Jake Hannum, Jeff Chapman and Timber Moore.

Steven Peebles earned the BP Super Series III Champion Bareback Riding title with an overall score of 245 in three rounds.

 “I felt pretty good before I left the chute,” he said. “I really wanted to place first and knew what I had to do to pull it off.”

Peebles has seven years of bareback riding experience and his payout for Super Series III was $8,000. Advancing with Peebles in the Semifinals will be Tom McFarland, Clint Cannon, and Kelly Timberman.

Jake Weddle and Broc Cresta made their RodeoHouston debut with the BP Super Series III Team Roping Champion title. Their overall time was 19.9 seconds in three rounds and a payout of $10,500. Weddle and Cresta had never met until their first RodeoHouston appearance two years ago.

 “It helps when you have a good, experienced partner, but it depends a lot on the calf too,” Weddle said. “Our goal is just to focus real hard and when the calf comes out of the chute we want to catch ’em and knock ’em down.”

Meeting Weddle and Cresta at the Semifinals will be Clay Tryan and Travis Graves, JoJo LeMond and Randon Adams, and Jake Cooper and Jim Ross Cooper. 

Anthony Bello secured his spot in the Semifinals for Saddle Bronc Riding with a Series III third round score of 79 and an overall score of 238.5. Bello earned $5,500 and this is his first time to advance in the Semifinals.

 “I’ve never done well here before, so I’m excited about moving on in the competition.”  

Advancing with Bello will be Ty Atchinson, Jesse Bail and Cort Scheer.

Lee Graves claimed the BP Super Series III Steer Wrestling Champion title with an overall time of 13.4 seconds in three rounds and a payout of $6,250.

Advancing with Graves will be Wade Sumpter, K.C. Jones and Ken Lewis.

Brett Thompson came from behind, earned $6,000 and the title of BP Super Series III Bull Riding Champion with a third round and overall score of 81.

“I don’t get nervous about riding anymore,” he said. “It’s the thrill of the ride and rush of adrenaline that gets me through each ride.”

Advancing with Thompson will be Shawn Hogg, Steve Woolsey and Luke Haught.

Christina Richman won the BP Super Series III Barrel Racing Champion title with an overall time of 45.13 seconds in three rounds. She earned $8,500 in her first appearance this year at RodeoHouston.

“I’m not sure if it has sunk in yet, but I look forward to the Semifinals.”

Advancing with Richman will be Sue Berg, Tana Poppino and Jana Isaac.

Watch all of these contestants and more during the RodeoHouston BP Super Series Semifinals, March 17-18. The top four from each event in each Semifinal round will advance to the BP Super Series Championship March 20. The remaining six from each event in each Semifinal will compete in the Wild Card March 19, where the top two from each event will advance to the BP Super Series Championship. RodeoHouston BP Super Series Champions walk away with a $50,000 payout. The RodeoHouston Super Series continues through March 20, with an Xtreme Bulls competition March 21.

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He owns 13 world champion­ships, but would trade in all of them if asked to choose between his two sons and the rodeo.  

That family devotion goes a long way toward describing Shawn Minor’s reign atop the International Pro Rodeo Associ­ation standings. He couldn’t do it, he said, if not for the support of his wife, Tara, and children Kole, 4, and Tate, 2.

And he can’t compete in the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Associa­tion, he said, because the travel to western rodeos would take him away from his family.

“If I had to go hard in the PRCA again, the main thing is I wouldn’t be able to take my wife and kids everywhere,” Minor said. “I’m not going to miss a minute with my boys. It’s not important enough for me to go PRCA to miss something with my kids.”

Minor grew up a PRCA com­petitor from Nebraska, but learned a new side of the rodeo when he met his wife at a IPRA rodeo in Huntsville in 2004 and settled in her world of Camden, Ohio, to start a family.

“I was probably 23, 24 years old before I crossed the Missis­sippi,” said the 34-year-old cow­boy. “I was surprised how many rodeos were here.”…….(read more)

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When real-life cowboy Bronc Boehnlein heard the commotion — and the panic — of a more than 1,400-pound rodeo bull breaking free into a public parking lot, he didn’t hesitate.

Bronc asked a nearby calf roper if he could borrow his rope and his horse. Then, Bronc went about saving the day — cowboy style.

With “20 to 30 police officers,” doing their best to steer the runaway bull from the public lot to an employee lot, according to Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo CEO Leroy Shafer, Bronc rode onto the scene. Then, he did what a police Taser shot could not.

Bronc stopped the bull, by roping it with that borrowed lasso.

“The more I hear about it, the more and more impressed I am by what transpired and how everyone reacted to the situation — especially this wrangler, who believe it or not, tells our people that his name really is Bronc,” Shafer said. “Just the presence of mind to ask to borrow a rope and a horse …  And obviously, he has very advanced roping skills. As a wrangler, that’s his training.” (read more)

Twenty-eight contestants moved one step closer to the RodeoHouston Championship after the BP Super Series II Champions were named Sunday, March 7.

 Ryan Jarrett came out on top in Tie-Down Roping with an overall time of 28.7 seconds in three rounds and $6,500. The Commanche, Okla., cowboy has made multiple trips to RodeoHouston and looks forward to the Semifinals.

 “Houston is a great rodeo, for sure,” he said. “I just try to concentrate and focus on what I train to do all year long.”

 Advancing with Jarrett are Scott Kormos, Ace Sloan and Clint Robinson.

 BP Super Series II Bareback Riding Champion Kaycee Field of Payson, Utah, held on for eight seconds and won big with an overall score of 245 points in three rounds, winning $7,000. This was his third time riding at Houston, and though he’s been riding for most of his life, Field has been riding professionally for only three years. Advancing with Field are Matt Bright, Eric Swenson and Chase Erickson.

 Team Roping partners Luke Brown, header, and Martin Lucero, heeler, came together and won the BP Super Series II Team Roping Championship with an overall time of 25.1 seconds in three rounds, winning $12,250. Advancing with Brown and Lucero are Brady Tryan and Rhen Richard, Justin Yost and Kyle Crick, and Blaine Linaweaver and Brandon Bates.

 The Saddle Bronc Champion for the BP Super Series II was Luke Butterfield of Ponoka, Alberta, Canada, with an overall score of 231 points in three rounds, winning $5,500. The 22-year-old cowboy grew up on a ranch and around rodeo, but not Bronc riding, he said.

 “A lot of my family were bulldoggers, but I’m not that big of a guy, so I wanted to ride Broncs,” Butterfield said.

 Jake Hayworth, Chad Ferley and Jeff Willert also advance to a semifinal round.

 The BP Super Series II Steer Wrestling Championship title went to Trevor Knowles, of Mount Vernon, Ore., after total time of 13.3 seconds in three rounds, winning $7,000. After numerous trips to RodeoHouston, this is Knowles’ first time advancing to the Semifinals since the start of the BP Super Series in 2005.

 “At this level I don’t really have a game plan,” he said.  “Now it’s [competing] more of a natural reaction, not so much something you can prepare for.”

 Advancing with Knowles are Justin Davis, Jule Hazen and Cody Cassidy.

 Bull Rider Tyler Smith of Fruita, Colo., advances to the Semifinals as the BP Super Series II Bull Riding Champion during his first trip to RodeoHouston. The only cowboy to earn a qualifying ride in all three rounds, Smith had an overall score of 243, winning $6,000.

 Before a ride, I just hang out, joke around and try to stretch out,” he said. “You’re afraid to do bad, but not afraid to ride a bull.”

 Advancing with Smith are Bobby Welsh, Clayton Foltyn and Jason Beck.

 Two-time World Champion Barrel Racer Sherry Cervi advances to the Semifinals after an overall time of 45.26 seconds in three rounds, winning $9,500. Advancing with Cervi are Stephanie Fryar, Sabra O’Quinn and Mattie Little-Jackson.

 Watch all of these contestants and more during the RodeoHouston BP Super Series Semifinals, March 17–18. The top four from each event in each Semifinal round will advance to the BP Super Series Championship March 20. The remaining six from each event in each Seminfinal will compete in the Wild Card March 19, where the top two from each event will advance to the BP Super Series Championship. RODEOHOUSTON BP Super Series Champions walk away with a $50,000 payout. The RODEOHOUSTON Super Series continues through March 20, with an Xtreme Bulls competition March 21.

Learn more at Rodeo Houston!

Bobby Mote wasn’t the top money winner in his bareback riding super series for the first time in three years.

But if this RodeoHouston unfolds like 2007, he’s not going to care for long. That was the year the reigning and three-time world champion won his last championship in Houston.

Mote turned in the top two scores in Super Series I — punctuated by an 86 in Thursday’s final round — but finished half a point behind aggregate winner Steven Dent, who won $8,500.

The 33-year-old Mote was second overall with $6,250.

“It always helps to start off good,” Mote said. “Any way you cut it, $6,200 is a good check anywhere.

“It kind of pales in comparison to the last check they’re going to give on the last day of this rodeo, but I’m happy so far.”

That $50,000 check for the winner of the Championship Shoot-Out went to Waller’s Clint Cannon last year. He won the bareback title with a Houston-record 92 in the shoot-out.

Mote didn’t compete for the grand prize then, finishing last in the championship final, where the top four go to the shoot-out, but his early scores actually are better than last year’s. (read more)