Gail Hughbanks Woerner
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Spend Time Viewing Some Great Documentaries

1/19/2015

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As the new year comes wildly in with cold weather in warm-climate places, and warm weather where icicles usually rule in January.  But be patient, grasshopper, those temperatures are not going to last long.  It can change from morning to night.  I just returned from a trip where the weather changed every 50 miles.  Mother Nature is no one to mess with, and it is best to be respectful of her.

 I have begun the year by watching three amazing documentaries.  Each one has it’s own voice, and I highly recommend each one.

BEHIND THE GATE, The Finish Line is Just the Beginning, is told by many people involved in the Thoroughbred horse racing business.  The setting is Santa Anita Race Track, and those who talk about the sport are breeders, owners, jockeys, trainers, and others you will recognize that have some connection with the sport.  They are telling the honest truth about the racing world and how it has evolved, not just in Santa Anita, but in the United States.  You will gain a great deal about racing from this movie.  It is a film by Mark Giardino and Daryle Ann Lindley Giardino who own  Home Journey, a thoroughbred youngster who appears to have ‘what it takes’ to be a success in racing.  They tell how it affects them, as owners, and how the many people who take care of Home Journey feel about racing and this horse – the jockey, the trainer, the vet, the gamblers and even the night watchman, who is there each night, after everyone else is gone.  Joe Pesci, an Academy Award winning movie star is featured, as is Hall of Fame Trainers Bob Baffert and Ron McAnally, and many more people you will recognize.  The familiar phrase, ‘It takes a village – “ can truly be said about a race horse, as well as a child.  This documentary was winner of The Wrangler Award in 2014, given by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City; it was winner of Best Documentary for Movieville International Film Festival in 2013, and winner of the Alan Balily Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking in 2013.

RUNNING WILD, The True Life Story of Dayton O. Hyde.  One man’s quest to save the wild mustang.  Dayton Hyde is a writer, with several books he has written during his 90 years in the west.  For the past 25 years he has maintained The Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in South Dakota on 12,000 acres of prairieland.  More than 500 mustangs run wild in this area.  Most have been captured and collected from wild horse roundups across the west.  Hyde has a special feeling about the horse and yet he enjoys watching them live their lives free and untrained.  In his earlier life he left home and went to his uncle’s ranch in Oregon.  He had been named for his uncle and expected a big welcome when he arrived.  Instead his uncle put him in the bunkhouse with the cowboys he hired for his ranch.  They taught him a great deal.  He even became a rodeo clown for a time, hired to work rodeos along-side Slim Pickens for a time.  For any horselover this 93 minute movie is a must-see.  The scenery alone will enthrall you.

COWBOYS IN IRELAND, a Chris Cox film, from the director of Chris Cox Horsemanship.  This movie is the story of modern day cowboys who went with Jack Roddy, a Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association World Champion Steer Wrestler in 1966 and 1968, to Ireland.  Jack’s father’s family were farmers in Ireland, and as a young boy, Jack had the opportunity to be on their farm close to the town of Ballaghaderreen.  Chris Cox, the outstanding horse trainer, plus Patrick Johnson, Buddy Simmons and Jeff Servson and Roddy, and wives, explored Ireland by starting with a visit with Roddy’s relatives still farming there.  Roddy relives memories from his time spent there as a youth.  The cowboys wouldn’t be cowboys if they didn’t challenge someone.  Chris Cox was the lucky one they challenged to a goat roping.  The group enjoyed watching the sheep dogs at work in the Irish countryside.  Finally heading to Killarney, needing to experience some equine exposure, they attended the age old steeplechase.  The entire trip is a testament to the tradition and solid values of the Irish people.  This group of American cwboys fit right in with the Irish sensibilities.

All of these outstanding documentaries are available on line.


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A Look at the "Rodeo Arena in the Sky"

1/6/2015

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In 2014 we lost some good cowboys and cowgirls.  But I am sure the ‘arena in the sky’ is not in short supply of great hands these days.  Although I certainly didn’t know them all, some of those we lost this past year will all be missed by many of us.

We lost Ralph Buell, World Champion Bareback Rider 1962;  Bob Chambers, rodeo announcer from Oregon; Rick Chatman, bullfighter; Quail Dobbs, hilarious barrelman; Stan Harter, roper and NIRA champ; Cecil Jones, roughstock rider and President of Rowell rodeo; Ray Kohrs, stock contractor; Clark McEntire, World Champion Steer Roper; Bart McSpadden, son of Clem & Donna; “Tex” Martin, bareback & saddle bronc rider; Louis & Frank Quirk, roughstock riders; Benny Reynolds, 1961 World Champion All-Around; Frank Rhoades, bullfighter; Ted Smalley, timed eventer; “Cowtown Gene” Walker, bull rider; Eugene Weakley, steer wrestler, judge; Bob Wegner, World Champion Bull Rider; Ray Wharton, World Champion Calf Roper; Nancy Bragg Witmer, trick rider; Alvin Nelson, World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider, 1957; and G. K. Lewallen, bull rider and more.

I am sure that “rodeo arena in the sky” is going to be busy.  If only we could witness the competitions that are bound to be happening there between the ‘new recruits’ and those that have been gone for some time.

JUST IMAGINE:

A bareback competition with Eddy Akridge who won the World Championship from 1953 through 1955 and again in 1961, pitted against Smokey Snyder the first to win the Bareback World title in 1932, and Jack Buschbom another top bareback rider, and now Ralph Buell and “Tex” Martin are there as contenders.  It’s time to see if Three Bars, owned by Reg Kesler, or Harry Vold’s Necklace and other great broncs can toss these fine ‘busters’.

Other roughstock competitors like bullriders, G. K. Lewallen, Bob Wegner 1964 Champ, “Cowtown Gene” Walker, Louis & Frank Quirk rosin up their bull ropes and attempt to score higher than Jim Shoulders, with six world champ bull titles to his credit,  and Dick Griffith with four titles.  Bullfighters that recently arrived like Rick Chatman and Frank Rhoades, at that ‘great arena up above’ are there to keep the bulls, like Bodacious and #61, in tow alongside Buck LeGrand, John Lindsey, and Junior Meek; with Quail Dobbs, barrelman, who will buddy up with George Mills, Hoyt Hefner and Jasbo Fulkerson as they keep the audience laughing with their unique styles of humor.

Saddle Bronc newcomers like Alvin Nelson, 1957 World Champ, and “Tex” Martin, will attempt to score higher than Casey Tibbs, with five Saddle Bronc Titles in the 1950s, Pete Knight who won four years in the 1930s, or Doff Aber with wins in 1941 and ’42.  The horses they will face include Steamboat, who whistled through his nose, Tipperary, Midnight and Five Minutes to Midnight will show their stuff and maybe the cowboys will determine whose the biggest ‘tuff’!

In the Tie-Down Event recent arrivals, Stan Harter and Ray Wharton can compete against Everett Bowman who won the first title in 1929 plus and two more years, Toots Mansfield, seven time World Champion calf roper, and Don McLaughlin, top roper from 1951 through 1954 and again won the title in 1957.

Newly arriving Clark McEntire enters the steer roping event and meets up with his good friend and competitor, Shoat Webster, as well as his dad, John McEntire, Everett Shaw, King Merritt, Ben Johnson and Ike Rude, all who won the world title roping steers at one time or another.

The Steer Wrestling event includes Eugene Weakley and Ted Smalley, who recently arrived, against Homer Pettigrew title-holder from 1942 through 1945, and again in 1948; Harley May winner in 1952, ’56 and ’65; big Jim Bynum and Todd Whatley.

Bob Chambers enters into the ‘sky-high’ announcer’s booth alongside Clem McSpadden, Cy Taillon, and Foghorn Clancy, and they tell the audience the history of these outstanding competitors as well as the stock, with little vignettes of history thrown in for fun.  Their familiar voices are clear and easy to hear for the spectators, and families sitting in the bleachers, like Bart McSpadden, as well as the competitors.

Although they just got there it didn’t take Cecil Jones, long to stay busy keeping the rodeo moving along smoothly, while Ray Kohrs, took care of the stock, and Benny Reynolds offered to open the gate, when he wasn’t competing in the roughstock and timed events.

Between events, Nancy Bragg Witmer, did her famous backbend trick riding, along with Tad Lucas, Mabel Strickland, Faye Blackstone and an array of beautifully clad performers.

All the new arrivals are finally free of pain and problems and are anxious to get back in the arena and do what they did best here on earth.  May their loved ones, who are still here on earth, be assured they are with those that talk their ‘language’ and can enjoy  those cowboy stories they love to tell.  May they be able to forget the injuries, disappointments and long lonely roads between rodeos.  Let them relive those great bronc rides, bull rides, low roping scores and steer wrestling times and still hear the roar of the crowd’s applause.

GOD BLESS COWBOYS & COWGIRLS.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!.  


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    Author

    Gail Hughbanks Woerner is one of rodeo's foremost historians, having written hundred of articles and six books on the subject. She has interviewed hundreds of cowboys and cowgirls,

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