Where better to finish up a fun fall that followed a spectacular summer than the Pendleton Round-Up? Ryan Reed and Dalton Pearce couldn’t think of a better place when both were left breathless from the hot lap around the track that surrounds a football field at Oregon’s reigning Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Large Outdoor Rodeo of the Year.
Reed, 24, and Pearce, 20, banked $10,519 per man for coming tight on three steers in 19.5 seconds on the green of that gargantuan grass arena. They finished fourth in round one, and split the short round with David Temple and Tee Jay Brown.
“I’ve always talked about how I wanted to win a big rodeo, like Salinas, Ellensburg or Pendleton,” said California native Reed, who still spends spring and some of summer in the Golden State, but these days considers Ozzie and Judy Gillum’s place in Wittmann, Ariz., home. “It was a big deal to me to win a rodeo outside my home state, and besides Filer (Idaho) two weeks before, this was the first one. The victory lap was really awesome. I couldn’t really compose myself. I went a little crazy. To finally win one of the big ones was such a relief.”
“It was really, really cool,” said Pearce, a Cuesta College junior and this year’s PRCA Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year, who lives in San Luis Obispo, Calif. “You really don’t realize how cool it is until it happens, and it doesn’t really set in until later on. I’ve always wanted a Pendleton buckle, and the victory lap was a pretty good feeling.”
Yes, that victory lap is a hot one, and the race was on. Then it was back to shoeing horses for Reed and back to school for Pearce. Reed finished up the last couple rodeos of the regular season spinning for Clint Harry. Pearce wrapped it up heeling for Hayes Smith.
Reed will ring in the new year heading for Cody Pearson, but since Pearson won’t get into a few of the winter rodeos plans to rope with Pearce at places like Denver and San Antonio. Pearce was unsure of his 2017 partner plans at press time, but did know he’d again head for fellow Central Coast cowboy Tristan Ruffoni at the college rodeos.
Reed shoes a lot of horses at home and on the road. “It keeps me in shape,” he said. “A lot of guys get tired out here. It’s like I get paid to work out. If any of the guys blow a shoe, they run over to my trailer. I tacked on a shoe 10 minutes before I roped at Kennewick (Wash.). It was hot, and I was in full dress code.
“I keep shoes on a lot of my buddies’ horses out here—Jake (Minor), Jordan (Ketscher), Lane (Karney), Taylor (Santos), Cody (Snow). I give my boys a discount. It’s like my sponsorship to them.”
Reed started the 2016 season with Arizona’s Pearson, then when Pearson didn’t want to go to California for the spring run headed for his best friend, Tanner Lutrell, through Redding in May.
“I won the majority of my circuit money with Tanner, then I decided to stay home and shoe horses, and he wanted to go on. I wanted to go to Oregon—St. Paul and Molalla, where it’s cool—so I talked to Dalton and he told me he wanted to win rookie. So I entered us at Casper and Sheridan the following week, too.”
They placed at both, then kicked it into high gear. Finishing second to Erich Rogers and Cory Petska at the California Rodeo in Salinas the same week they placed second behind Snow and Dugan Kelly at Santa Rosa (Calif.) carried on their “crazy, surreal” summer roll. “I’ve been waiting for a deal like that,” Reed smiled.
Pearce kicked off 2016 behind Oregonian Ryan Opie, and they roped from the Denver Qualifier through Redding in May. Pearce’s first rodeo with Reed was Santa Maria, Calif., the first of June. “After we placed at Casper, Sheridan and Salinas, it just kind of snowballed from there,” Pearce said.
Call the trip to Casper a working vacation. There’s a ranch outside of Casper that belongs to a very special person in Reed’s life, Bill Spratt. Spratt sold Reed the horse he won Pendleton on—Burnt Wood, who’s 11 now—and also his full brother Batman, 10. Reed paid pennies on the dollar for both, and they came in a packaged deal with Spratt’s priceless wisdom. Having spent some time on that arena-lined road in Wittmann, where Spratt can be found most sunups sipping coffee at the Gillums’, I got to see this very special story unfold.
“I bought Burnt Wood when I was 18 and he was 5,” Reed said. “Bill sold the horse I had, told me to buy Burnt Wood and made me an awesome deal on him. He told me he’d sell me the horse, but I had to come down every day for a month and rope with him for an hour before everybody else practiced. I would score literally 45 steers every morning and he would let me rope two or three steers max. I had no idea how to score a horse, so he was teaching me to do that. He would just lean over the chute and coach on me. I apply all the stuff Bill taught me to every horse I ride.”
Burnt Wood is registered as brown, but has got a little grulla to him, too. Batman looks just like him, only he’s bay. “Burnt Wood kind of has a color of his own,” Reed said. “He’s kind of a one-of-a-kind horse all the way around. Bill made my horses what they are. He’s just kind of taught me how to maintain them.”
Pearce’s 6-year-old bay horse has a special story, too. Butter was his practice horse last winter, but is virtually the only horse he’s ridden since Santa Maria, all summer and fall.
“We bought him as an embryo before he was born, and brought him home when he was 7 months old,” Pearce said. “He got run through a fence when he was a yearling and broke his knee open. We had to doctor him every day, so he became a pet. He’s like a dog, and is really trusting because of that. When we started him they told us he had the hocks of a 15-year-old, and that he wasn’t going to make it as a performance horse to compete on.”
They’re taking different forks in the road right now, but there’s a good chance we haven’t seen the last of Reed and Pearce. And they remain great friends.
“I can’t say enough about him,” Reed said of Pearce. “For 20, he’s got so much talent. And he’s got a great horse. What he’s doing is pretty amazing, and he’s really a good guy. He’s always got a smile on his face. He’s happy to be out here and eager to be a part of it. He has good morale.”
It’s as if Reed was describing Cuesta College Rodeo Coach and Dalton’s dad, Clint, who grew up in Oregon and now runs the Madonna Inn alongside Dalton’s mom, Connie (Madonna) Pearce, among other business endeavors. Clint and Connie both rope, as does Reed’s mom, Leane.
“My mother taught me the basics of roping, and we did it as a fun thing around the house,” Ryan said. “When I was 11 or so, she hauled me to Walt Rodman’s. He taught me the style I use now. I spent a few years around him, and he really helped me out.”
Rodman is one of the rare few who’ve both headed and heeled at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Polaris RANGER. And on the subject of connections, NFR heeler Caleb Twisselman is Pearce’s cousin. Caleb’s mom, Cathie, and Connie are sisters. Cathie and Rowly Twisselman have provided the steers for ropings like the BFI and Reno Rodeo Invitational for years.
Then there are the Gillums who, like Spratt, really are family to Reed. “I grew up in the small town of Lockeford (Calif.), I graduated high school early and moved to the Gillums’ place in Farmington (Calif., just outside of Oakdale) to train horses for them when I was 16,” Reed said. “They’ve been great to me, and I can’t say enough about them. They’ve helped me with everything, and I wouldn’t have met Bill if not for them. Riley and Brady Minor live next door in Wittmann, and have helped me a lot also. I was just 16 and jackpotting around California. Ozzie and Judy picked me up and helped me pursue my dream.”
My boys and I first got to know Ryan at Gillums’ and a few Northern California Junior Rodeo Association events. When Lane had to skip the NORCAL Finals to go to his first high school rodeo, Ryan jumped in with us and headed for Taylor. Ryan reminded me of a conversation we had at an all-night roping in Arizona right around New Year’s a few years ago.
It was back when I was still trying to talk Ryan and Cody Snow into college (I give; you guys are right where you’re supposed to be), and when the snack shack closed at midnight with several hours to go I ran to town and got chicken dinner for 30. I was asking Ryan about his hopes and dreams, and he was telling me he just really wanted to make the NFR. He has not been derailed, and came close this year with a 22nd-place finish in the final world heading standings.
“Ever since I was 4 or 5 years old, all I wanted to do was make the NFR, and it’s pretty well clouded my judgment ever since,” grinned Reed, who looks up to Jake Barnes and Blaine Linaweaver because they “ride in the box to win first and are world-class people.” “I don’t think about much else. That’s all I want to do. I don’t really care about gold buckles or sponsors and all that stuff. I want to be in the top 15 and go to that rodeo at least one time. The way this year went kind of rationalizes the idea that I might be able to accomplish it. I know how hard it can be, and all about the ups and downs. But I feel like I’m inching toward it.”
Pearce is pursuing an ag business degree at Cuesta via online studies. He plans to go to the big buildings this winter, and finish up school in May.
“I shouldn’t miss too much, really,” he said. “Then I’ll go hard from there on. The rookie deal means a lot. Cody (the 2015 PRCA Resistol Rookie Header of the Year, who’s also from California’s Central Coast) won it, too. It’s something I wanted to win, and I almost wrote it off when I only had $3,000 won as of July 5th. Then all of a sudden I realized I had a chance to win it after Salinas. Ryan turns almost everything that comes out of the chute and doesn’t break the barrier, which is what a header’s supposed to do. I had a great time this year, and want to do it again.”
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