Thus, when the opportunity to compete in the Montezuma County Fair\u2019s Ranch Rodeo on Aug. 3 presented itself, Yeomans was all in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do the stuff that you see in ranch rodeos every day,\u201d the Mancos native said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to show people what we do and it\u2019s always a good time. It\u2019s definitely fun to perform in front of hometown fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Highlighting this year\u2019s Ranch Rodeo was a unique format that required teams of five ranchers or six ranchers to complete a multitude of tasks, including penning, tie-town roping, trailer loading, and branding.<\/p>\n
Teams were ranked according to the time that it took them to complete the four tasks, and prize money was awarded to winning teams.<\/p>\n
Leading the way in the competition was a team of ranchers from Monticello, Utah, known as the \u201cWild Bunch,\u201d who completed the assigned tasks in 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Finishing second was a team deemed the \u201cSlip Shots,\u201d which finished in a time of 4 minutes and 8 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work a lot of cattle, and we work in the oilfields,\u201d said Wild Bunch team member Dante Pacheco, who described himself as a fifth generation rancher. \u201cEvents like this have a great community element and that\u2019s what keeps us coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n
At several points during the competition, ranchers on foot were nearly decapitated by ropes attached to fast-moving steers or stomped by heifers, yet the competition remained injury-free.<\/p>\n
The wild cow milking event, which required ranchers to separate a heifer from a larger heard before roping it and milk it featured several cowboys being dragged by their bovine counterparts much to the chagrin of the large crowd.<\/p>\n
Country music played over the loud speakers throughout the event, and ranchers of all ages could be seen laughing and congratulating one another on their accomplishments. Midway through the evening, an especially entertaining sequence occurred when a small steer ran underneath the legs of a horse before falling into the arms of a pursuing rancher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen that done before,\u201d but it worked,\u201d quipped announcer Zane O\u2019Dell. \u201cThat was an interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
As fans filed out of the arena at the end of the three hour event, a small group of ranchers from Utah loaded could be seen loading their horses into nearby trailers in preparation for what one described as a two-hour drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose we\u2019ll be back at it tomorrow,\u201d one man said, as he climbed into his truck. Safe travels on the way home.\u201d<\/p>\n
And with that, truck engines fired up and scores of ranchers hit the road in preparation for another day of hard work alongside the horses, cattle, and family members that they have come to love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thus, when the opportunity to compete in the Montezuma County Fair\u2019s Ranch Rodeo on Aug. 3 presented itself, Yeomans was all in. \u201cWe do the stuff that you see in ranch rodeos every day,\u201d the Mancos native said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to show people what we do and it\u2019s always a good time. It\u2019s definitely fun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[281,21,13,28,60,1263],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-agriculture","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-ranching"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69869","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=69869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69869"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}