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"The Elks Magazine", February 2006
RODEO RIDES AGAIN
SARA L. MILLER
Reprinted, with permission, from the February 2006 issue of The Elks Magazine.
© The Elks Magazine.

Just east of the Bighorn Mountains in northern Wyoming, the city of Sheridan lies between two of this country’s most romantic and distinctive landscapes: the Rocky Mountains and the northern Great Plains. It is an area rich in history, rich in land, and rich in cattle. Out here, “cowboy” is a real occupation, and rodeo is not just a sport, but a way of life.

Small Hats, Big Hearts
That way of life often begins at a very early age. On a hot, blindingly beautiful weekend last August, boys and girls in cowboy hats and boots sat astride sturdy horses on the edge of two rodeo arenas, maneuvering their animals in a series of quick turns, full gallops, and abrupt stops. On the sidelines, a couple of 5-year-olds amused themselves by lassoing a few innocent trailer hitches. Slowly a river of calves snaked into view, accompanied by its very own dust cloud and a signature scent. The calves didn’t know what was about to happen, but the youngsters did. And they were ready.

Over the next two days, there would be a lot of riding, a lot of roping, and a lot of dust as 144 children and teenagers from Wyoming and six other states in the Rocky Mountain region participated in the thirteenth annual Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo, sponsored by the Sheridan, Wyoming, Lodge. Contestants in four age divisions would vie for prizes in twenty-five individual rodeo events; for All- Around titles in each division based on the highest cumulative scores in up to five events; and for the coveted All- Around Youth title, awarded to the contestant between the ages of 7 and 17 with the highest score in five events.

CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS FROM WYOMING AND SIX OTHER STATES PARTICIPATED IN THE SHERIDAN ELKS YOUTH RODEO.
If the competitors at the 2005 Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo seemed on the small side—the youngest was only 3—the prizes were anything but. The top prize, awarded to the All-Around Youth champion, is a three-horse trailer. The Senior All-Around (ages 14 to 17) wins a year’s lease on a brand new three-quarter-ton pickup truck, with the contract in the name of their parent or guardian. Two All- Around Youth Reserves win scholarships worth $1,500 and $1,000. And there’s more. In 2005, the total value of prizes awarded at the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo exceeded $49,000.

But it’s the pickup truck and horse trailer that set the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo apart. In fact, no other open youth rodeo competition in the region offers awards of this value. “We wanted to make it worthwhile for the kids,” explained Sheridan Lodge member Bob Strauser, the architect of the rodeo and the chairman of the lodge rodeo committee, “so we had to offer something big.”

Cowboys and Cowgirls
The Sheridan Elks hoped to accomplish a couple of things when they started their rodeo in 1993. First, they wanted to provide a fun, constructive activity that would keep children and teenagers busy and practicing hard all summer. Second, they wanted to make the rodeo appealing to talented youngsters across the Rocky Mountain region. Third, they wanted to reward the young contestants who work just as hard as adults in the sport, but who rarely take home more than ribbons and buckles (not that handsomely engraved, silver belt buckles are not proudly worn—they are).

RODEO
Many of the contestants at the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo are ranch kids—born in the saddle, handy with a rope. Some come from professional rodeo families whose names are known not only locally, but nationally. The children of a four-time world champion saddle bronc rider compete here, and so do the children of a former world champion All-Around Cowboy. Not surprisingly, a lot of these youngsters are serious about success. Sheridan Lodge PER Steve Alexander recalled watching the national high school rodeo finals on television a couple of years ago and being delightfully surprised when the camera panned the parking grounds. “There were three Elks Youth Rodeo trailers right next to each other. At a national championship, that’s pretty impressive.”

Throughout the year, the Sheridan Elks advertise their rodeo on local radio, in print, and online. When summer begins, Strauser himself drives the truck and trailer to regional rodeos, horse shows, parades, and other events to display the vehicles and attract contestants. By the time the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo rolls around in August, few people in Wyoming and neighboring states haven’t heard of the event or seen the two vehicles, and everyone who has is reminded just how benevolent the Sheridan Elks have been to area youth, year after year.

True Grit
Rodeo is not a one-dimensional sport. Speed is essential, but so are accuracy, agility, strength, and control. In livestock events, contestants must be able to ride, rope, and even throw an animal (in this rodeo, a goat) to the ground. In the racing events, it’s all about horsemanship. Pole bending—the rodeo version of a slalom race—requires horse and rider to weave in and out of a row of evenly spaced poles, trying to clock the fastest time without knocking any poles down. In barrel racing, contestants race in a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels, receiving time penalties for tipping barrels over. It is a dramatic sport, with both the horse’s athleticism and the rider’s handling key to a successful run.

Troy Doud, from Gillette, Wyoming, has been bringing his daughter, Lexi, now 10, to the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo for about four years. Doud, who is a professional team roper himself, likes the fact that the rodeo provides stiff competition in barrel racing and pole bending, events usually reserved for cowgirls. (At the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo, boys and girls compete in all events.) “Some of the best girls in the area are here,” Doud noted, “and they’re tough to beat. So it’s competitive, and it pushes you. That’s why we come. But there’s fun stuff too, like the ribbon race and the flag race.”

Unlike barrel racing and pole bending, in which contestants who own one or more specially trained horses might have the advantage, the ribbon and flag races make the competition fun and rewarding for all the contestants. As a result, Doud explained, “kids who might not have the resources for a top barrel horse have a chance to win events that aren’t so specialized, maybe even win the pickup or the trailer. And that’s what a lot of these kids are working toward all year.”

When the Sheridan Elks established their rodeo thirteen years ago, they were determined to make sure that any contestant who worked hard could win the top prizes. Thus, competitors for the All-Around titles must use one horse for all five events. This, said Strauser, not only tests the rider’s well-roundedness but also puts the contestants on an even footing. “Some contestants might only own one horse,” he pointed out. “We want to make sure that those kids have a chance to win, too. And when you’re out on the ranch, you can’t go back to get another horse every time you have a different job to do.”

What spectators won’t see at the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo are “rough stock” events, that is, events that involve riding or wrestling untamed or unbroken animals. There is no bull riding, no bronc riding, no steer wrestling. Rough stock is risky business, and the adult professionals who compete in these events are the gladiators of rodeo. What’s more, the cost of procuring bulls and broncs, and the high insurance that goes with them, would have raised the entry fees substantially. “We had to keep the fees down,” said Strauser, “so that everyone could afford it. We didn’t want anyone to be excluded.”

The Sheridan Team
Putting on a rodeo—even one without bulls and broncs—takes serious resources. Yet almost everything in the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo—prizes, livestock, labor—is either donated, loaned, or volunteered.

RODEO
Approximately one hundred sponsors and donors contribute goods, services, and cash. In addition to the pickup truck and trailer, which are provided by local dealerships, the rodeo also awards two $1,200 tack and headstall sets (for the horses), thirty-two silver buckles, and dozens of trophies and ribbons. The lodge doesn’t make money, and it probably loses a little here and there. But the event was never intended to be a fund-raiser.

What the Sheridan Elks did intend was to use their rodeo to promote the well-being of children and teenagers, and to exemplify the Elks’ commitment to help young people make the best choices in life. Toward that goal, each contestant in the rodeo receives a packet of Elks drug awareness material during registration, and each parent is asked to wear an Elks drug awareness ribbon throughout the event—which they gladly do. For

Strauser, especially, it’s the lifestyle, not the ledger, that is the prime motivation. Strauser, whose father was a rodeo professional, first got the idea for a youth rodeo when his daughter, Dawn, took up the sport. Strauser enjoyed driving her to competitions and horse shows around Wyoming and neighboring states. Once, at a lodge meeting, he suggested rather offhandedly that the Sheridan Elks ought to start their own youth rodeo. “And they took me seriously,” he recalled. Since then, the rodeo has grown in scope and prestige. The number of hours the rodeo chairman puts into it has also grown. Today, Strauser jokes that eventually he had to retire from his accounting practice to work full-time on the rodeo.

Of the seventy-plus volunteers who help run the rodeo every year, most have limited experience with livestock and horses. But Strauser also relies on a core crew of former rodeo professionals, local ranchers, and experienced ranch hands to operate the cattle chutes, move the calves and steers, rake the arenas, and keep the rodeo running smoothly, safely, and on time. “For this kind of event,” explained Strauser, “you have to have people who know what they’re doing.”

Strauser is keenly aware of the value of all his volunteers, however, taking care to “feed and water them,” as he put it. (There are volunteers here whose only job is to make sure the other volunteers around the arenas get enough to eat and drink.) About thirty lodge members, including nearly all the officers, are part of this hardworking team, and they spend long hours registering contestants, assigning stalls, hauling supplies, operating concessions, and tallying results. The community pitches in, too. Parents of local high school students volunteer annually at the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo, a favor which is returned by lodge members, who donate their time when the high school holds its rodeo. The idea, said Strauser, is to “keep the volunteers coming back year after year, too.”

That system has worked successfully. “One of the things that makes this rodeo so good is that it’s run well,” observed Troy Doud. “They must have had over 500 entries yesterday, and they were done by two o’clock. That’s outstanding.”

The Right Stuff
Equally outstanding were the nervy performances, gutsy runs, and welldeserved victories of the contestants. Joey Painter, from Buffalo, South Dakota, continued a family tradition by winning the Senior All-Around title. After the award ceremony, the 14-year-old rode off in her new leased truck, just as her older sister and two cousins had done in past years. (Her brother and another cousin have both won the trailer.) The young generation of Painters is just following in their elders’ footsteps. Joey’s father was a national college rodeo champion, and the rodeo résumés of her aunts—not to mention her grandmother, who was Miss Rodeo America in 1955—are also impressive.

Brett Heggie, age 17, from Parkman, Wyoming, has been competing in the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo for about five years. In 2004, Heggie won several roping events but no grand prize. “I’ve been trying to get something out of here for a while,” he joked, and in 2005 Heggie hit his stride, capturing the All-Around Youth Award and the trailer that goes with it.

Like any sport, rodeo has its share of the unforeseen and the unpredictable. Every year the Sheridan Elks Youth Rodeo awards a “hard luck” buckle to the contestant on whom fortune refuses to smile. The 2005 award went to 13-year-old Trey Barlow, from Gillette. The night before the rodeo, Trey’s horse suffered an aneurysm, collapsed underneath her, and died. Though devastated by the loss, she didn’t withdraw. Riding a horse loaned to her by the Doud family, Trey competed in every event she had entered.

That’s not kid stuff. Despite their tender ages, the contestants here are remarkably mature. Sheridan Lodge PER Lew Eubanks helped get the rodeo up and going in 1993, and he’s been volunteering in the arenas every year since. He’s proud of what the Sheridan Elks have accomplished, but prouder of the youngsters. “They’ve all got an A-plus attitude. They cheer for each other and help each other, and they treat their animals with respect. When you watch them grow up, from the Pee Wee level to Seniors, it makes you proud.”

The young contestants here are lucky to be growing up in a great American tradition. It takes a big spirit and a big heart to be a cowboy— or a cowgirl—and it takes commitment. The Sheridan Elks have found a way to celebrate that tradition while keeping the next generation of cowboys and cowgirls on the right course. That’s their commitment. ¦

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