WNFR Bareback Rider Dar Haskins Passes Away
Bareback rider Dar Haskins, a three-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier in 1984-85 and 1987, passed away Jan. 1. He was 66.
“(Dar) was a good guy,” said Dale Haskins, Dar’s brother, and former PRCA saddle bronc rider. “Tom Reeves tells the story that when he was just starting to rodeo, and he didn’t have any money and (Dar) was doing good he would make sure Tom had something to eat and took care of him and wouldn’t ever accept any money when Tom did win something and tried to pay him back. That’s just the kind of guy (Dar) was.”
Reeves, an 18-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier and 2001 PRCA Saddle Bronc Riding World Champion, was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2008.
Dar Haskins, who was living in Maybell, Colo., finished a career-best 12th in the 1985 world standings. He also finished a career-best seventh in the NFR average in 1987 with 729 points on 10 head.
“Dar rode from the time he was a kid,” Dale said. “We started getting on steers and horses when we were 10 or 11-years-old and he just had a knack to ride. He went to the high school finals in the bull riding and bareback riding, and he opted for the horses (in the PRCA).”
In 1984, he split third in Round 10 with a 76-point ride on Sutton Rodeo’s Air Wolf. The next year, he also split third in Round 8 with a 74-point ride on Sankey’s Leo. During the 1987 NFR, Haskins split third in Round 1 with a 76-point ride on Calgary Stampede’s Flashing Jewel and fourth in Round 3 with a 77-point trip on Reg Kesler Rodeo’s Ace of Spades. He also split third in Round 6 with a 77-point ride on Growney Bros. Rodeo’s Dreamboat Annie.
“I always wanted to go to the (NFR), but I never had the big funds,” Dar said in an article. “I figured that if I could win at the big building rodeos, I had a chance.”
At the PRCA Circuit level, Haskins was Mountain States year-end champion in 1984 and he won the average at the Mountain States Finals Rodeo in 1984 and 1988. Dale Haskins was the Mountain States saddle bronc riding year-end champ in 1979 and 1982 and he was the Mountain States Finals Rodeo average winner in 1979.
“Dar rode left-handed, and he broke his (left) forearm and they put plates in it, so he went and got him a right-handed riggin’ and went right back to rodeoing,” Dale said. “When his left arm got healed, he switched back to his left. There are not many guys who can just run their hand in there from either side and ride.”
Dar was honing his skills in the practice pen in 1979 when a horse flipped over on him and broke his left foreman.
“Six months later, the doctor told me he thought the arm was healed enough to ride again,” Dar said in a newspaper article. “It worried me a little because I wasn’t sure if he knew how much abuse a riding arm took, but I wanted to make the Circuit Finals that year, so I gave it a try. I should have trusted my first instinct.”
A few seconds into the ride, a plate holding the original fracture in his arm bent, the bone separated, and it was back to the sidelines and a plaster cast. Haskins waited another year before testing the arm again, but it still wasn’t ready; it fractured for the third time in less than two years.
“They finally did some bone grafting and by the 1981 Denver rodeo everyone thought the arm would hold together while I was riding,” Haskins said. “I was really worried when I climbed on my horse, but a few jumps later everything was still in one piece. The horse was great to ride, and I laid back and concentrated on spurring. I didn’t win anything, but I felt pretty good when it was over.”
In addition to qualifying for the NFR, Haskins was the Mountain States Circuit Bareback Riding Director in 1981-82.
“I’d like to rodeo hard for at least three or four more years, then wait and see,” said the 5-foot-8, 155-pound Haskins in the 1986 PRCA media guide. “I like construction work, and I’m part of a country-western band and I enjoy performing. Right now, the performances I’m most worried about are those I want to make in a rodeo arena.”
Haskins rodeoed until 1993 before retiring after competing at that year’s National Western Stock Show & Rodeo in Denver.
After rodeo, Haskins worked as a carpenter and brick layer and general contractor, and he also ran a successful wild game processing plant in Maybell for several years. In his band, he played guitar, five-string banjo, and fiddle.
Haskins Celebration of Life will be at 2 p.m. (MT), Jan. 20 at the Moffat County Fairgrounds Pavilion in Craig.
Courtesy of PRCA