About: Ted

Sosebee will get to experience the rodeo’s unique personality this year GOODING, Idaho – In his years as a professional rodeo clown, Cody Sosebee has received many accolades. He’s been named the PRCA’s Comedy Act of the Year and has been selected to work the National Finals Rodeo, the sport’s premier championship that takes place each December in Las Vegas. He’s been recognized as one of the top clowns and top barrelmen in the business. But he has yet to experience the Gooding ProRodeo. He’ll get his first shot at it this year, with performances set for Thursday, Aug. 18-Saturday, Aug. 20, with a special “Beauty and the Beast” performance on Wednesday, Aug. 17. All performances take place at 8 p.m. at Andy James Arena. “Sose is going to be wowed by the crowd,” said Steve Kenyon, the rodeo’s announcer since 2002. “He’s going to be entertained by the fact that they are there to be entertained.” Those words are the reasons why so many elite cowboys, cowgirls and personnel love what they experience every year in this southern Idaho community. It’s why so many return to town annually to be part of the fun and frivolity for which Gooding’s rodeo is so well known. This will be Sosebee’s first trip to this rodeo, and he’s already looking forward to it. He brings a rotund sense of humor, a larger-than-life personality and an ability to make fun of himself when given the chance. On top of that, he packs a trailer-load of acts to keep fans on the edges of their seats. “My greatest honor has been getting chosen by the bull riders to work the NFR in 2017, which was followed up close by winning the Comedy Act of the Year in 2018,” he said. “I didn’t expect either one. I was an old guy in my career choice. Just walking down the hallway at the NFR and bumping into those bull riders, it made me feel good because they thought of me to help protect them at the biggest rodeo they’re ever going to be part of. “When I run into a top-end NFR bull rider and know he took time to vote for me, that’s something I’ll have with me the rest of my life. The money’s been spent, but getting acknowledged for your craft really humbles me.” His humble nature comes from his small-town Arkansas raising. He lives in a town of 2,500 people, and he cherishes that time he spends with them. He also loves getting on the road and sharing his experiences with his “rodeo family.” By being able to work an event like the Gooding Pro Rodeo, he knows he’ll get to hang out with ProRodeo’s elite, the sport’s biggest stars. “You’re getting to walk out there with the best in the PRCA,” Sosebee said. “It’s like being asked to play pickup ball with Michael Jordan.” He understands that, because he’s worked so many of the biggest rodeos in the world. He’s a fixture at the Cheyenne (Wyoming) Frontier Days, and he’s clowned at rodeos all across America. He now gets to add Gooding to his list of accomplishments. Now in his 50s, Sosebee has no plans to stop doing what he loves. “We’ve had great role models to follow like Ted Kimzey, Rudy Burns, Lecile Harris, people we’ve held high and respected,” he said. “I’ve seen them still do funny stuff after 50 years old. “My biggest challenge is I want to know what I’m doing is still effective. When it’s not, that’s when I’ll start slowing down and still do it at a professional level. I don’t ever want to go in with an amateur attitude. People are paying their hard-earned money to see us, and they deserve a pro level.” Sosebee has the right attitude and personality for rodeo, and it’s going to be something to witness once he goes to work in southern Idaho. “He has a down-home feel, and let’s face it: Gooding is small-town America,” Kenyon said. “Sose and Gooding are going to get along well together.”

DODGE CITY, Kan. – With eyes firmly on the future, members of the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo committee have always been progressive when it comes to putting on a world-class rodeo. It’s one of the many reasons the event was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame a decade ago, and it’s why thousands of fans pack into Roundup Arena for six nights of action each summer. This year’s rodeo is set for 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3-Sunday, Aug. 7, at Roundup Arena; Dodge City Xtreme Bulls is set for 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2. New to the landscape is breakaway roping, an all-girls event that’s been around for decades but has witnessed a resurgence in the last few years. Money and events have increased for breakaway ropers since 2019, and it’s still growing. “We’ve seen what people are seeing with breakaway roping, so the committee decided to add it to our rodeo this year,” said Dr. R.C. Trotter, Roundup’s longtime president. “We want to showcase it this year and see what our fans think of it. I think they’re going to be excited to see what we have to offer.” In 2019, The American rodeo in Arlington, Texas, was the first big-time event to showcase breakaway roping, and a teenager – Madision Outhier – earned the first title. She went on to become the first breakaway roping Resistol Rookie of the Year, earning that title last season. The first National Finals Breakaway Roping took place in 2020; the third year of the grand finale is already scheduled for the end of November in Las Vegas. Roundup will be one of the highlighted events on the ladies’ schedule. It will feature a purse of about $30,000 for the cowgirls, which is an opportunity at good money for elite ropers. “With Dodge City adding breakaway roping, it’s awesome for us and for breakaway roping,” said Erin Johnson, the No. 1 breakaway roper in the world standings and a two-time NFBR qualifier from Fowler, Colorado. “Dodge City is one of those iconic rodeos and is one of the ones everyone wants to go to and to win. “If I sat down and wrote a list of 25 rodeos on my bucket list, that would be one of them. It’s close to home, and it’s a rodeo I’ve heard about since I was little bitty.” The field will include 80 ropers, with 20 competing each day for the four preliminary performances; 15 will compete during the morning “slack” of the rodeo, and the remaining five will be part of the evening performance. The top 12 times will advance to Sunday’s championship round. The cowgirl with the fastest two-run cumulative time will be crowned the inaugural Roundup Rodeo breakaway champion. “I’m super excited they’re giving breakaway roping a try,” said Johnson, who was raised near Burlington, Colorado, near the state’s border with Kansas. “I think the committee and the fans are going to be happy. I know they won’t have any trouble filling it with ropers.” It’s a good sign for the sport and for the spectators who enjoy a fast-paced, high-energy event at Dodge City Roundup.

Rooftop Rodeo committee has been a longtime partner with Cinch ESTES PARK, Colo. – Rooftop Rodeo was a Cinch rodeo before being one was cool. There was a time not long ago when another Western clothier had a stranglehold on ProRodeo marketing, and the Colorado-based manufacturer was left to its own devices. David Dean, the chairman and CEO of parent company Miller International, found brilliant avenues around the situation, and members of the Estes Park Western Heritage Inc. were right beside him. “Western Heritage was established in 2012 after the rodeo was produced by a town committee for the first 80 years of the rodeo’s existence,” said Mark Purdy, chairman of the group, which features volunteers that now work with the town of Estes Park to produce the annual event. “We wanted to establish a stand-alone non-profit; we’d do all the sponsorships and give every dime back to the town.” As the levels of organization grew, the founders realized they needed special people to be involved on Western Heritage’s board and asked Dean to be a director. Not only did he agree, but he also brought a powerful punch to the table: The Cinch brand. Alas, the Cinch Outlaws were born, and members of the committee wore the Cinch shirts with pride. They still do and will during this year’s Rooftop Rodeo, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 6-Monday, July 11, at Granny May Arena in Estes Park inside the Estes Park Fairgrounds. “It was a fun thing in our minds,” Purdy said with a laugh. “We called ourselves the Pirate Rodeo. We were a constant fly in the ointment for the PRCA, and David started supplying our entire committee with Cinch committee shirts. We never have paid a dime for those, and we have a bunch of committee members. We have six performances, so we have six different colored shirts to use each year, and David has never balked once about providing them for us.” While the PRCA’s primary clothing sponsor had naming rights of the National Finals Rodeo and had a monopoly on banners and placements at rodeos, the Cinch Outlaws continued to make their ways across the rodeo circles. They wore their Cinch Rooftop Rodeo shirts all over Las Vegas each December during the NFR and even had patches made with a skull and crossbones to showcase their marauder theme. “We actually had somebody stitch in a Cinch insignia, and we wore those everywhere we could,” Purdy said. “We couldn’t have Cinch banners that were visible from the arena, but we had them up in the tent where we had our queens’ luncheon. The PRCA balked at that, but we assured them the banners were not visible from the arena.” That all changed a few years ago when the PRCA opened its doors to more sponsorships and allowed the monopoly to end. Since then, Cinch banners have been proudly displayed inside and out at rodeo arenas across the country. “What a lot of people don’t know is that before the chains broke and allowed Cinch in the door, Cinch had been putting a lot of money into the rodeo ecosystem – high school rodeo, college rodeo and senior ProRodeo – and now there are quite a few rodeos that are Cinch-based,” Purdy said. None, though, were Cinch through and through like Rooftop Rodeo was a decade ago. In fact, the committee has gone a step further; when the makers of Cinch started brewing Gold Buckle Beer, Estes Park volunteers started selling it at the rodeo. Both brands are important fixtures when the rodeo is in town. “We’ve covered our arena in Cinch,” Purdy said. “It’s up on our scoreboard. It’s going to be on our center gate. David Dean and Cinch have been fabulous partners of Rooftop Rodeo, and I hope they will be for years to come.”

PECOS, Texas – Over the last 11 years of the West of the Pecos Rodeo, one of the greatest bucking horses in the sport has reigned supreme. Pete Carr Pro Rodeo’s Dirty Jacket has carried cowboys to the Pecos bareback riding title six times, including each of the past two years. The 18-year-old bay gelding has been selected to buck at the National Finals Rodeo every year since 2009 – he was just 5 years old in his first appearance at ProRodeo’s grand finale. “This was my 17th year in Pecos, and I’m proud to have been at that rodeo so long,” said Pete Carr, owner of the Dallas-based livestock firm. “It’s the oldest rodeo in the world, and we love being part of it. A lot of our animals buck good there, but there’s something about it that really fits Dirty Jacket. He’s been winning there for 10 years.” Dirty Jacket has been exceptional at just about every community in which he’s been showcased, but there seems to be something special that happens when he performs inside Buck Jackson Arena. Clint Cannon learned that in 2012, when he matched moves with the powerful bucking for 90 points to win the prestigious Pecos buckle. In the years since, Dirty Jacket has proven his mettle time after time. Taylor Price scored 88.5 points to win in 2013; two years later, Ryan Gray set a West of the Pecos record with a 92-point score. Jamie Howlett was 88.5 to win in 2017, then Kaycee Feild utilized his 91.5-point winning ride last year to catapult himself to his record sixth world champion’s gold buckle. Most recently, though, bareback riding leader Jess Pope scored 89 points this past Friday night to collect another big victory in an already successful season. The $3,600 he earned in west Texas pushed Pope’s season earnings to nearly $116,000, and there are still three months remaining in the 2022 ProRodeo season. Pope has a lead of nearly $45,000 over the field. “He’s always been that good,” said Pope, the NFR average champion each of the past two years from Waverly, Kansas. “That has a lot of try and a lot of heart; he is a special horse. Not many horses can be hauled like he has been and still do what he does at his age. “He’s got the biggest heart you’ll ever really see in a horse.” It was the first time the two-time NFR qualifier had matched his skills with Dirty Jacket, and it was everything Pope had hoped it would be. “I told (my fiancé) Sydney a couple of months ago when Tim (O’Connell) got on him in San Angelo that I hope I could get on him before he gets retired,” Pope said. “I was pretty tickled when I saw my name next to his on the call backs; I might have squealed a little bit.” Dirty Jacket is a two-time Bareback Riding Horse of the Year, earning those championships in 2014-15. In 2013, he was the reserve world champion bareback horse, and the year before that, he was third in the voting for horse of the year. His trademark explosion out of the bucking chutes has been showcased time after time. In 2014, after having stayed at home on the Carr ranch to heal from an injury, Dirty Jacket returned to action during the championship round of the Cheyenne (Wyoming) Frontier Days Rodeo and promptly guided Richmond Champion to the title with a 91-point ride. At the NFR that December, Champion won the fifth round and Caleb Bennett won the 10th round on the world-class horse. Over the years, cowboys continuously have found their ways to the top on the back of Dirty Jacket. Since his first appearance in Guymon, Oklahoma, in May 2008, there have been more than 40 victories associated with the stout bay gelding. That includes the victory in Guymon that year, when, as a 4-year-old, he guided Jared Schlegel to the title in the Oklahoma Panhandle with an 87-point ride. They also won that rodeo the next three years, all with 87s: Jared Smith won in 2009, three-time world champion Will Lowe in 2010 and Matt Bright in 2011. Bill Tutor added a fifth Guymon title with an 87.5-point ride in 2018. “I had a pretty good feeling from the first time I saw him that there was something to him, and that’s why I purchased him from Jim and Maggie Zinser,” Carr said. “We were still a young company when I bought him and another Night Jacket colt, a mare named Outa Sight. We loaded them in the trailer with Deuces Night, a Night Jacket mare Wes Stevenson had purchased, and brought them all back to Texas. “I was fortunate enough to get Deuces Night from Wes a year or so later, and all three of those horses were phenomenal for us. They all went to the NFR. They all bucked great. Dirty Jacket has been exceptional from Day One.” To further consider Dirty Jacket’s greatness, one has to see what the bucking horse has done when he’s switched to saddle bronc riding. He’s continued to excel; of his 12 qualifications to the NFR, he’s been bucked in broncs three times. In his first year under the saddle, Rusty Wright won the title in Eagle, Colorado, after posting a 91-point ride. Raised on the Zinser Ranch in Michigan, the son Night Jacket – possibly one of the most prolific breeding stallions in ProRodeo history – Dirty Jacket was destined for greatness. Carr purchased him as a colt, then put him through the paces before realizing he had something special. After seeing how he handled himself in different situations, Carr opted to test Dirty Jacket at his first rodeo in Guymon 14 years ago. The big equine athlete has been winning ever since.

GUNNISON, Colo. – Growing up on the outskirts of this picturesque Rocky Mountain town, Tyler Hanson learned the value of hard work and what it means to be part of a community. He operates Umbrella Bar Hay & Cattle Co. and is following in his family’s footsteps as one of the chief committee members for Gunnison’s Cattlemen’s Days celebration. He’s been around the community gathering all his life, so it’s a natural fit. “My first recollection is probably when I was 4 or 5 years old and showing in the open horse show,” said Hanson, 34, the committee’s second vice president. “My uncle Bret and my dad both served as president of the committee, and I’ve had cousins and other family that have been on the committee. I have extended family that is still on the committee, and my brother and my wife are still part of it.” The tasks of the volunteers who help organize the annual event are numerous and detailed, but each member does it in honor of the community in which they serve. That’s why it’s nice that he and his wife, Hannah, can work together and share their love for the celebration with their 14-month-old son, Colby. “I showed constantly in the open horse show all the way through high school,” he said. “I did 4H. We used to have steer riding, and I competed in that for three or four years. I also have competed in the Watershed Team Roping since I was 7 or 8 years old. “Volunteering for Cattlemen’s Days is a tradition in the Gunnison community. For these ranching families, that’s our week not to worry about the work and go to town and enjoy ourselves. For me, I wanted to be part of Cattlemen’s Days to help in keeping our rodeo around.” The annual PRCA rodeo is set for Thursday, July 14-Saturday, July 16, at Fred Field Western Center in Gunnison. It will feature many of the top stars in professional rodeo and some incredible action. “I believe our rodeo is getting a resurgence back in it,” Hanson said. “For a lot of people, having a rodeo is becoming a lost art. I wanted to help keep rodeo in our community and keep the agriculture background in this valley in front of other people who haven’t been raised the way I was raised.” Both a life in agriculture and a presence in rodeo are important to the Gunnison cowboy. He attended Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado, where he team roped and rode bulls while working toward a degree in equine management. He returned home and is hoping to continue to energize his community and the people who care about keeping the tradition alive. “Agriculture is what started this whole valley,” he said. “To me, it feels like this valley is losing touch with that aspect of our lives, and that’s a key reason I think it’s important to keep Cattlemen’s Days around for it. “For me, it’s giving back to the community. There was huge community support when I was a young kid learning the tradition of Cattlemen’s Days. It’s important that we keep doing this for the next generation.” Now that he’s a father, the urgency has been amplified. “I want my son to experience what I did growing up with Cattlemen’s Days, learning what there is outside the ranching world in the Gunnison Valley,” Hanson said. “That’s probably the biggest reason I got involved in team roping. Without Cattlemen’s Days, I wouldn’t have known there was a big rodeo world outside of this valley.” Beyond the annual celebration, he remains involved in the community in other ways. He’s a member of the Farm Service Agency board and serves as Gunnison County’s FSA representative. He’s been on the board of the Gunnison Roping Club and continues to be an active member of the group. He knows the importance of keeping children involved, and his focus is pointed toward having horses involved. There is a sense of healing that happens with horses in people’s lives. He has experienced it, whether it was roping during one of the PRCA performances in front of a big crowd or being one of many family members who were part of horseracing when it was part of Cattlemen’s Days. “The fact that we’re going to have our 122nd celebration of Cattlemen’s Days is the reason it’s special,” Hanson said. “It’s lasted over time. A lot of things come and go throughout the years, but Cattlemen’s Days is still here and it’s still the biggest week in the Gunnison Valley visitor-wise and money-wise. It’s still a big deal for the families. That makes it a big deal for us, too.”