Dear Roper,
If you’re anything like me, this time of year has you staying out in the arena late, swatting off mosquitos and rinsing off sweaty horses before kicking them out to the ever-drying pasture. It’s the time of year that really feeds the soul for those of us who love this industry—at least those of us in this part of the Rocky Mountains.
This is the time of year that we get the great stories, too. You’ll see that we honor some of those ropers beating Father Time this summer with Contributing Editor Julie Mankin’s story on page 68. Even as this issue went to press, I got a text about a legend named John Keller entering Wyoming rodeos at 90 years young, soaking up the good life in the high desert of the Cowboy State. Look for his story next month.
With the heavy trailering schedule many of us keep this time of year, on-staff writer Lillian Kent thought it best to remind you of all the fundamentals of hauling on page 56, just in case your dad didn’t hammer that into you hard enough as a kid. (My dad did, but I don’t always listen—just ask Ty Blasingame, who had to change a blowout for me outside of Laramie as we were rushing to a rodeo and I had exactly zero tools in the truck or trailer to do anything about it.) Luckily for me, I’ve gotten USRoper since then, and they can fix it just as quickly—or almost as quickly—as a ProRodeo cowboy who puts hundreds of thousands of miles in behind the wheel each year.
Hauling my cowgirl kid around is my activity of choice these days, and with that comes fewer miles on the truck (at least for now, while we go to the local junior rodeos at the county fairgrounds and the barrel racing jackpots). That gives me time to sneak down to the Hall of Fame ceremony each year when, in another lifetime, I’d have been en route to a circuit rodeo. This year, we’ll see Doyle Gellerman inducted, and you’ll find his story by Senior Editor Kendra Santos on page 62.
As always, we sure hope something in this issue makes your life just a little fuller in or out of the arena. Let us know how we did by shooting me an email at cshaffer@equinenetwork.com.
Chelsea
