News & Notes from the Rodeo Trail, July 6
by ProRodeo.com | Jul 06, 2015
Steven Peebles won the July 2-4 Livingston (Mont.) Roundup and $4,822 with a ride for 86 points on Kesler Championship Rodeo’s Imperial Beach, but his life took a turn for the worse just after the whistle July 2. As the whistle blew, Peebles’ hand blew out of his riggin’, ejected him out the back of the horse and he landed flat on his back. Peebles wanted his traveling partner, fellow bareback rider Brian Bain, to take him to the hospital in Billings, Mont. – 117 miles away – so Bain could get to his next rodeo. Bain insisted on going to the hospital in Livingston, which saved his friend’s life. Peebles had suffered broken ribs and a broken artery, which caused blood to begin filling his lungs. His blood pressure was dropping and blood had filled 80 percent of his lungs, so he was rushed by ambulance from Livingston to Bozeman (Mont.) Deaconess Health Services, a 20-minute drive. “The doctors said he had about 30 minutes before he would’ve died,” Bain said, “so if we’d gone to Billings, he wouldn’t have made it.” Peebles was released from the hospital on the evening of July 5, and Bain drove him home to Redmond, Ore. Bain lives about eight miles away in Powell Butte. Peebles has doctor released for the next 30 days, Bain said, but hopes to return to action shortly thereafter.
Scooter Fries, a PRCA Gold Card member and roper, passed away June 25 in San Antonio, Texas. He was 83. Fries is one of several famed champion cowboys whose names are inscribed on a monument standing in a place of honor on the courthouse lawn in Bandera, Texas. The monument gives tribute to those champion cowboys from Bandera County who campaigned for and promoted the sport of rodeo. Services will be at 10 a.m. July 10 at the United Methodist Church in Bandera.
Ralph Lamb, a PRCA Gold Card member and former Clark County (Nev.) Sheriff, passed away July 3. He was 88. Lamb gained fame for enforcing the law in the 1960s in Clark County and then again in 2012-13 when his career was fictionalized in the TV show Vegas. Lamb was an instrumental part of the National Finals Rodeo Committee and the group from Las Vegas that promoted the move of the NFR from Oklahoma City to Las Vegas.
The American300 organization hosted the third annual Wrangler National Patriot Mountain Cowboy Tour July 2-6 in Bridgeport and Pickel Meadows, Calif. The event, hosted by founders Rob and Gretchen Powers, featured actor and United States Marine Corps veteran Wilford Brimley, world champion and ProRodeo Hall of Fame cowboys Lewis Feild and John W. Jones Jr., Miss Rodeo Florida and United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Jenna Smeenk and NFL Super Bowl Champion tight end Bear Pascoe. The event gave Marines the opportunity to bond with the special guests, which included teaming up to load cattle into a trailer. For more information, visit American300’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TheWarriorTours.
Scott Byrne, a 12-time Canadian Finals Rodeo bullfighter, worked his last Ponoka (Alberta) Stampede June 25 through July 1 and will retire after the 2015 rodeo season. The Brandon, Manitoba, native is well-known and highly-respected as one of the best bullfighters to ever grace Canadian arenas.
The Corn Palace Stampede Rodeo committee and the Mitchell (S.D.) Exchange Club teamed up during the month of May to donate more than $6,000 to the Mitchell Area Safehouse, which helps prevent child abuse.
The Folsom (Calif.) Rodeo canceled the July 1 cattle drive which typically starts the rodeo because of extreme temperatures in Northern California. Temperatures reached 107 degrees in the area.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I was beat up and sore and I couldn’t crawl out of bed. I had to roll over and fall out of bed. I went and got some X-rays and everything came back good.”
– Bareback rider Jake Vold telling the Calgary Herald how hard it was to recover from two tough rides at the Ponoka Stampede July 1.
Courtesy of PRCA