<\/p>\n
Loading a steer into a trailer is never easy. Neither is branding a calf, corralling a full-grown cow or staying atop a cutting horse. Don\u2019t bother telling that to ranchers, however, because they already know. Such endeavors are part of their everyday life.<\/p>\n
Hoping to showcase that way of life, win money and have fun, more than 75 ranchers arrived at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds on Aug. 2 for the Cortez Ranch Rodeo.<\/p>\n
Travelling from as far away as Oregon, participants took part in numerous ranch-related activities and in doing so, not only shed light what is required of today\u2019s ranchers, but also illuminated what is a difficult, yet beautiful, way of life.<\/p>\n
Exciting format produces impressive results<\/p>\n
From the very start, this year\u2019s Rodeo proved to be exciting thanks to a new format that streamlined the event. The format required teams of five ranchers to load a cow, brand a calf, tie down a steer and pen two cows as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
In order to save time, teams divided the activities amongst individual ranchers and as a result, several one-on-one battles pitting cows against men took place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe format was a little different,\u201d said Cortez resident Jeremiah Karsten. \u201cYou\u2019re forced to do things on your own. It forces a guy to compete individually.\u201d<\/p>\n
No team enjoyed a better performance than \u201cCow House,\u201d a team comprised of Shane Hatch, Rusty Herrera, Bill Weisman, Russell Sullivan and Wade Hatch.<\/p>\n
Showing off impressive riding, roping, and tie-down skills, the six-man team from La Salle, Utah, completed the required tasks in two minutes and ten seconds and took home a $3000 first prize.<\/p>\n
Also performing well were \u201cThe Sale Slaves,\u201d a team comprised of Chase Massengill, JoDan Maribal, Zane Yates, Joe Stevenson and Rowdy Suckla. Finishing second overall with a time of two minutes and 29 seconds, \u201cThe Sale Slaves\u201d collected $2000 and relished the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rodeo a lot, but there are no events like this,\u201d said Massengill. \u201cThis is day-to-day stuff that cowboys are doing. When you\u2019re a rodeo cowboy, you don\u2019t get to do this kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cortez resident Will Charles\u2019 horse, Ringo, was named the top horse in the event, while Kasey Rudder was named \u201ctop hand\u201d and Wade Hatch was named \u201ctop youth rancher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, the rodeo paid out $7600 in cash prizes and $700 worth of gear. Just as importantly, competitors offered an opportunity to demonstrate what they do on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gives us an opportunity to go to town and show off our horses and show off our riding,\u201d explained Karsten. \u201cWe\u2019re authentic guys that actually work for a living and darn sure make a living punching cows.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this year\u2019s (ranch rodeo) went smooth,\u201d added event organizer Zane Odell. \u201cEverybody who came out really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rodeo provides insight into a western way of life<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-118556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118556"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=118556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}