A couple of cowboy horseshoers from the original Cowboy Capital of the World in Oakdale just took the team roping title at the 2020 California Circuit Finals Rodeo, which was held October 9-10 in Red Bluff. Ryan Reed and Joseph Shawnego were 6.1 and 6.2 to edge reserve average champs and 2020 California Circuit Year-End Team Roping Champions Pat Boyle and Jared Hixon by six tenths of a second on two steers.
“It was cool to finally win the circuit finals,” said Reed, 28, who won California Circuit year-end championships with Shawnego in 2014, and roping with Tanner Luttrell and Dalton Pearce in 2016. “This was my seventh year being there, and I’ve been high call three times—with Joseph at my very first circuit finals, and with Monty Joe Petska a couple years ago, when we had all day to win it and I missed.”
Reed and his fiancée, Kristy Monschein, welcomed a baby boy—Colter Curtis—to their family on September 11. In addition to shoeing horses and riding outside horses and his own—he and Kristy have 19 head of their own—Ryan also works part time helping out with the Monschein family business.
It was Shawnego’s second California Circuit Finals win, to add to his pair of circuit finals year-end team roping titles. On top of his circuit crown with Reed in 2014, Shawnego took circuit team roping honors heeling for Blake Hirdes in 2015. Shawnego won the 2017 California Circuit Finals roping with Cody Mora.
“The coolest part of this win for me is that I’m a little bit older now, and a lot of the guys I’m competing against are half my age or close to it,” said Shawnego, 40. “And given the fact that it’s been a trying year, it was just nice to get to come up here, compete and have some normalcy.”
Reed considers his 2016 Pendleton Round-Up win with Pearce his career highlight to date. Shawnego’s won rodeos like Redding, California, and Lewiston, Idaho, and rounds at the Reno Rodeo, but it’s a day at The Daddy that tops his favorite hits list.
“I think my most memorable was when I roped with Doyle Gellerman my rookie year, in 2001, and we won the second round at Cheyenne that first year they had team roping. If I had to take a trip down memory lane, that’s a favorite rodeo day to look back on. I was a 20-something year-old kid roping with a guy I grew up watching on TV, so that was pretty special.”
They won the 2020 California Circuit Finals with horse help from Reed’s Burnt Wood and Shawnego’s Rosie, and are now 2021 RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo bound next spring in Kissimmee, Florida.
“I’m a huge Epcot Center fan,” said Shawnego, who goes way back with Reed, and even helped him fill his permit. “I know my way around there now, so I get to maximize my experience. It’s wonderful, and it’ll be fun to get to go back.”
Now that he’s a family man, Reed’s trip to the RNCFR will be from a new point of view.
“I always wanted to be a Top 15 header,” he said. “There for a second, I thought I was one. But I made a full transition last winter. I sold a lot of my horses, and bought some property in Arizona. We got engaged, then found out we were going to have Colter. I don’t plan on rodeoing hard anymore. It was kind of nice when I won this one to have a family to get home to. My perspective has changed tremendously.”
Every contestant there thanks the California Circuit rodeo committees who joined forces to make this year’s finals possible. Big thanks to the Red Bluff Round-Up, Brawley Cattle Call Rodeo, California Rodeo Salinas, Clovis Rodeo, Empire Rodeo, Industry Hills Charity Pro Rodeo, Poway Rodeo, Rancho Mission Viejo Rodeo, San Bernardino Sheriff’s Rodeo, San Dimas Charity Pro Rodeo, Santa Barbara Old Spanish Days Rodeo and Santa Maria Elks Rodeo.
