Steer Roper Tom Plant Competes at NCFSR while Battling Cancer

By: Jolee Jordan, Special to ProRodeo.com

Two days prior to the start of the 2022 National Circuit Finals Steer Roping in Torrington, Wyo., Tom Plant was home in Miles City, Mont., with no thought of competing at the circuit level’s championship event.

But he got a phone call that Thursday from PRCA officials letting him know that there had been a doctor’s release and he was the next in line for the spot by virtue of his position in the 2021 Montana Circuit standings.

“I hadn’t roped, or even been on a horse since September, so I thought that wasn’t fair to my horse,” Plant said of initially declining the position.

“When my wife drove in the yard, I told her, ‘You won’t believe the phone call I just got,'” Plant continued. “And she said . . . ‘you said yes, right?'”

When he told her he’d turned down the chance to compete in the $40,000-plus event, Kristi Plant had one question . . .. why?

Plant hadn’t been practicing or competing for a one major reason: last fall he was diagnosed with prostate cancer which had metastasized to his bones. He underwent surgery over the winter and is still undergoing treatments.

Though Plant didn’t ask for help, his rodeo family and community have rallied behind him, organizing a benefit and an online auction to offset his medical expenses. The latter included lessons donated by PRCA World Champion Tie Down Roper Haven Meged, with whom Plant was once neighbors.

“I watched Haven grow up. He used to rope at the house,” Plant said. “The Meged family said that I was an important part of their lives and I really appreciated that.”

Meanwhile, as for the NCFSR, Plant told his wife he felt he should leave roping on the back burner while he recovered and that everything felt off and “out of time.”

“She said, ‘so what?'” he said with a chuckle. “She said just live your life. ‘Go have fun, hang out with the guys.’

“The steer ropers are a great bunch of guys, no better guys to be around,” Tom said.

So, he quickly threw things into the rig and headed for Torrington to be ready to rope April 30.

“I threw about twenty practice loops at the dummy and took off,” he said.

Once in Torrington, things got off to a bad start when his horse fell on the first steer, but Plant mustered through the six rounds over two days, finally getting one tied down on Sunday, which he called a victory in itself.

“I wasn’t fast, but I got one down and all the bad was forgotten.”

With a glass half-full attitude, Plant found mostly positives in the experience of competing against some of the sport’s best.

“After going down there, I’ve sure got the itch to go again,” he admitted, noting that the runs have helped him evaluate his horse as well, which will help him down the road.

“The guys I talked to there really helped me out, inspired me, to see that things are never really that bad and to keep going,” he said. No doubt others were inspired by his appearance in Torrington as well.

Plant’s history in ProRodeo is pretty short. Though he competed in tie-down roping and some team roping in his younger days while growing up in New Mexico, Plant stepped away from the sport after getting married and moving to Montana.

“Once we started our family, I figured out I couldn’t rodeo and family at the same time,” he said. Plant has worked on a local ranch in Miles City and is also a livestock inspector for the sale barn, the Miles City Livestock Commission.

He and Kristi raised two girls, Tomi, and Kyleigh, taking them to youth and high school rodeos. After both went off to college on rodeo scholarships and later got married and began their own families, the desire to compete came back to Plant thanks to his friendship with Ryle Harms.

“He’s a buddy of mine who was a steer roper and I kind of fell in there with him,” he said. Just as he was getting started, Plant attended a school taught by National Finals Steer Roping qualifier Jason Evans and tore his ACL.

“I was out before I ever even started!” he joked.

Joining regional associations, Big Sky Steer Ropers and Wyoming Steer Ropers Association, Plant began to gain experience, qualifying to the finals of both associations while claiming the rookie title for the Big Sky. He joined the PRCA and quickly filled his permit but stayed on it for a second year in order to compete in the permit section at the NCFSR in 2019.

He qualified to the Montana Circuit Finals Steer Roping while still on his permit, but a broken collarbone prevented him from competing. But Plant soldiered on, getting his card a year ago.

“I was 57,” he chuckled, “probably the oldest rookie ever.”

Despite the setbacks, Plant is fulfilling a dream he had way back as a youngster growing up in eastern New Mexico during the heyday of Guy Allen, ProRodeo’s most decorated steer roper.

“I didn’t think I had a chance to do this (back then), I didn’t know how to make a horse and I never thought to ask those guys for help,” he said.

Now, he is making plans for a bigger return to the arena as he beats back adversity once again.

“I’m feeling like I want to start to go again, see what I can do,” he said.

Courtesy of PRCA