ProRodeo Sports News - May 4, 2018

Steer roper Chet Herren, aboard his horse Whitey Bob, poses with the surfboard he was awarded for winning Rodeo Corpus Christi. Herren won the four-head average with a 49.1-second time. Dudley Barker photo

Heeler Clint Summers, left, and header Bubba Buckaloo compete during Rodeo Corpus Christi (Texas). The duo won the three-head average in a rodeo record 17.0 seconds. Dudley Barker photo

here last year and didn’t win anything.” Summers, who was 10th in the April 30 heeler standings with $24,449, is going to rope with Colby Lovell for the next several rodeos, before teaming up with Erich Rogers, the reigning team roping header world champion. Rogers and Summers were initially supposed to rope together all season, but Rogers tore the medial collateral ligament, anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his right knee March 3 while steer wrestling at a non-PRCA event. Rogers is expecting to compete again by the Reno (Nev.) Rodeo, June 14-23, if not sooner. MUSICAL PARTNERS Buckaloo began the season roping with Joseph Harrison. He switched to Travis Woodard and then teamed up with Summers. As of May 1, Buckaloo’s rodeo count was at 13. “Probably in the next two weeks I’m going to have a new partner, I just don’t know who it is going to be yet,” Buckaloo said. “It has been pretty good because everywhere I have gone, I have had a great partner. I have not had to just settle for anybody, somebody who I didn’t want to rope with. I’ve just been picking around at all the rodeos I have been to, and I have had good partners and I have won good money with everybody who I have roped with. Plus, everybody I have roped with I have been pretty good buddies with, which has been nice.” According to Buckaloo, he will rope withWoodard at the Guymon (Okla.) Pioneer Days Rodeo, which began May 4 and concludes May 6.

“I also have a lot of (Prairie) Circuit rodeos coming up that I will go to and I will just keep busy,” Buckaloo said. Buckaloo is riding a horse he has named Silver, 13. At Rodeo Austin (Texas), March 10-24, Buckaloo finished third while roping withWoodard. But Buckaloo’s main horse, Bob, hurt his foot and he’s out for six months. “I’m hoping to maybe buy another horse, but for the time being until I find something else, Silver is going to be my main horse,” Buckaloo said. LONG JOURNEYTO NOTORIETY Being right near the top of the RAMPRCAWorld Standings is rarified air for Buckaloo. He joined the PRCA in 2008 and earned $8,663 that season, but then he didn’t compete in 2009-10. Since 2011, Buckaloo has competed on and off, finishing a career-best 23rd in the 2015 standings with $52,426. Buckaloo said rodeo has always been a way of life for him. “My wife (Josie) and I have some cows, and we just hang out at home,” he said. “This year I’m going to rodeo hard. I’m dang near 30 years old, and I feel this is do or die.” The lure of qualifying for the prestigious Wrangler National Finals Rodeo fuels him. “That’s why I’m still doing it,” Buckaloo said. “That would be the icing on the cake for me. That’s what I have been working my whole life for. That has been my dream since I was a little kid. I know if I could make it, it would light a fire in me.”

Complete results on Page 49

SADDLE BRONC RIDING 1. Jacobs Crawley .........................92 pts. 2. Jesse Wright ....................................89 3. Allen Boore .......................................88 4. Colt Gordon ......................................86

TIE-DOWN ROPING 1. Caleb Smidt ............ 29.3 sec. on three 2. Scott Kormos ............................... 29.6 3. Welsey Brunson ........................... 31.2 4. Bart Brunson ................................ 31.8

STEER ROPING 1. Chet Herren .............. 49.1 sec. on four 2. Landon McClaugherty .................. 49.7 3. Cody Lee ...................................... 53.5 4. Will Gasperson ............................. 54.8

BULL RIDING 1. Tyler McVay ...............................87 pts. 2. Braden Richardson ........................85.5 3. Joseph McConnel ..........................84.5 4. Daylon Swearingen ...........................84

ProRodeo Sports News 5/4/18

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