\u201cI think this is the biggest event of the year for this area,\u201d Moore said. \u201cPeople come from all over. And this event keeps getting bigger each year, where we\u2019re getting a ton of big names to come to UMR.\u201d<\/p>\n
From her first interactions with the UMR as a competitor in her early 20s, Moore has grown her own rodeo community through her travels.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom Arizona to Canada, I\u2019ve met so many people \u2013 and it feels like it\u2019s a family, everybody knows everybody,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Nucla before moving to Montezuma County, Moore always found herself around horses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was riding before I could walk. I think my first belt buckle was in a rodeo in Dove Creek when I was still on a lead line,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned that I love training the horses maybe even more than I do running them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with the nerves of performing in front of friends and family, Moore prioritizes the UMR Rodeo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stick closer to home, and this rodeo is special because of the people who run it,\u201d she said. \u201cThe whole UMR committee is focused on making sure that the community is included in all the things that are happening out here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore\u2019s passion to compete for as long as she can still runs in her veins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t know what else I would do if I wasn\u2019t still doing this,\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
In her barrel race competition, Moore\u2019s effort on her horse Betty resulted in a time of 18.18 seconds. It was outside the top spots, but earned a loud roar from the home fans.<\/p>\n The UMR Rodeo lineup filled with plenty of area talent, with a bevy of contestants arriving from Northwest New Mexico, Northeast Arizona and Southwest Colorado to compete for the sizable UMR purse.<\/p>\n Shiprock\u2019s Kim Jim competed in the breakaway roping field and scored the top time of 2.5 seconds to take the lead in the UMR field.<\/p>\n Dennehotso\u2019s Matthew Tuni kicked off the night in bareback with a score of 71. Colin and Denton Begay of Rough Rock, Arizona teamed up in the team roping event, while Tuba City\u2019s Stade Riggs and Bayfield\u2019s Mitchie Story nodded on the saddle bronc. Riggs posted a score of 61.5.<\/p>\n A pair of Gallup riders entered the bull riding event with Kolt and O\u2019Dey Tom joining Rock Point, Arizona\u2019s Wade Tuni and Ignacio\u2019s Luke Mackey in the field atop the tough stock from Powder River Rodeo. However, there were no eight-second rides on Friday.<\/p>\n Along with Jim\u2019s leading time, new leaders emerged in other several events.<\/p>\n Evan Betony of Tonalea, Arizona seized the top spot in bareback with a ride of 82.5, while Allen Boore of Axtell, Utah claimed the new best mark in saddle bronc with a score of 84.5.<\/p>\n Jace Logan of Yampa, Colorado took the top time in steer wrestling with a mark of 4.9 seconds, while Trey Yates and Jake Clay earned the best team roping time of 4.4 seconds, and Arizona\u2019s Sharon Harrell now owns the best barrel race effort after posting a mark of 17.45 seconds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Upholding the long-standing tradition of \u201cCowboy Golf\u201d for a good cause, the UMR\u2019s Rob Yates Memorial Golf Tournament at Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez brought another year of fun to the weekend\u2019s itinerary.<\/p>\n The four-person scramble brought out the best in the over 100-plus participants, and all proceeds went to the fairgrounds and rodeo facilities.<\/p>\n Add in the side contests like roping and games of washers, the golf tournament leveled the playing field between the veteran golfers and the once-per-year players.<\/p>\n In the first flight, the trio of Keenen Lovett, Kevin Lovett and Sarah Lovett posted the top finish. As for the second flight, John Franzen, JD Harrell, Craig Rowe and Rod Korte finished with the best score, while in flight three, the team of Rodney and Terry Cox, Rob Kirks and Ellis Yates won the top prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Friday\u2019s riders came from Northwest New Mexico, Northeast Arizona and Southwest Colorado<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,38,39,2261,28,1235,37,36,937,1774],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-golf","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-rodeo","tag-shiprock"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27255","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=27255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80004,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27255\/revisions\/80004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27255"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}