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News and Notes from the Rodeo Trail, Oct. 7

by ProRodeo.com | Oct 7, 2014

ProRodeoLive.com with Steve Kenyon will be in Waco, Texas, Oct. 9-11 for live coverage of the final three nights of the All American ProRodeo Finals, presented by Pendleton Whisky.

The specialty acts for the 2014 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo have been announced. Canadian trick rider Madison MacDonald will be making her fourth appearance at the WNFR, while trick roper Rider Kiesner makes his third trip to Las Vegas. Kenny Petet and Whiplash the Monkey will be making their first appearance together at the WNFR. Whiplash and Tommy Lucia have previously performed at the WNFR.

Jim Lathrop, a PRCA Gold Card member and custom saddle maker, died Sept. 23 at his home in Fort Sumner, N.M. He was 85. Lathrop owned saddle shops in California, Montana, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

Franchone Myers, mother of WNFR cowboys Cash and Rope Myers, died Oct. 3 in Tyler, Texas. She was 71. Myers was a barrel racer, and also was Miss Rodeo Kansas in 1963. A celebration of life is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Oct. 8, at the Living for the Brand Cowboy Church in Athens, Texas.

Two-time WNFR saddle bronc rider Tyler Corrington and Morgan McSweyn were married on Oct. 4 at Willowood Ranch in Sherman, Texas. Among Corrington’s groomsmen were current saddle bronc riders Cort Scheer, Chet Johnson and Travis Sheets, and former saddle bronc rider Billie Sutton, who currently serves as a member of the South Dakota State Senate. Saddle bronc rider Dustin Flundra’s son, Ridge, was the ring bearer.

Bull rider Jinichiro Shibahara, the only Japanese native currently competing in PRCA rodeos, is out of action for the immediate future after sustaining a strained left abdomen and rib separations at the San Dimas (Calif.) Western Days Rodeo.

The North Texas State Fair Association announced Oct. 3 that it has bought 109 acres near Interstate 35, the first step toward relocating one of Denton’s longest-running events. Negotiations had been actively in the works for six months, according to Glenn Carlton, the fair association’s executive director.

Six college students received $2,500 scholarships as part of the Royal Scholars program, sponsored by the American Royal Rodeo in Kansas City, Mo. The six men and women who received the scholarships are Garrett Kays, Kansas State University; Alyssa Clements, University of Tennessee; Jade Kampsen, South Dakota State University; Morgan Weinrich, Colorado State University; Emma Likens, University of Nebraska and Sadie Kinne, University of Missouri.

The city of Caldwell (Idaho) has paid $425,000 for 10 additional acres at the Caldwell Events Center for use by the Canyon County Fair, Caldwell Night Rodeo and other events, according to Mayor Garret Nancolas. “We’re just trying to make our events center a premier facility,” Nancolas said. Adding 10 acres will help relieve congestion, provide more parking and remove the conflict of people using certain areas.

Two new exhibits have opened in the 101 Gallery at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy in Colorado Springs, Colo. The first is “The Artist and the Bucking Horse,” a collection of artwork in different mediums with the iconic bucking horse as the subject. The majority of the artwork in this collection was accumulated by Valona Varnum Crowell, and donated to the museum in 1983. The collection originally contained 44 pieces, and a few additional pieces have been added over the years from other donors and artists. Some of the artists represented are Walt LaRue, Frank Serratoni, Fredrick Remmington, Edd Hayes, Bob Scriver, Chris Navarro, Murray Tinkelman and Al Luster, among many others.

There was an extra element of excitement at the Fort Bend County Fair & Rodeo in Rosenberg, Texas, when a four-foot alligator was found in the horse barn on Sunday morning. He’d escaped from a nearby carnival and had been missing for three days when he turned up at the rodeo. No bite, no foul. The gator was roped, bound and turned over to animal control for return to his owners.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
I’ve been coming to the Waller County rodeo since I was little. We got it to be a ProRodeo four years ago, and I never even placed until this year. To win in front of everybody – I’m getting toward the end of my career – feels good to let everybody come out and see in person that I can ride.

-Four-time Wrangler NFR bareback rider Clint Cannon telling rodeo journalist Ted Harbin how it felt to finally win his hometown rodeo.

Courtesy of PRCA

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