Today and every day, we offer our heartfelt thanks to the military veterans who’ve served our country. On occasion, we have the privilege of sharing their stories, along with the stories of the roping community members who rally around them. Here, we revisit a few of our readers’ favorites.
Thank you to Equinety for helping us share stories of military members, veterans and first responders in the team roping community.
Air Force to Equibrand: Shane White’s Second Act in the Western Industry
People trying to work for industry icons Charly and Jackie Crawford usually just want to rope in return for mucking stalls.
But in 2023, something different happened.
A senior master sergeant and 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Shane White, dropped everything in Louisiana to work full time for the Crawfords for six months—for free…
Roping and Reconnaissance: Air Force Veteran Clint McMurtry’s Two Worlds
Growing up in central Oklahoma and roping as a kid meant Clint McMurtry occasionally heeled steers for Nick Sartain, the 2009 world champion header. In fact, McMurtry heeled so well that he made the National High School Finals Rodeo every single year of high school.
“That’s what I wanted to do for a living for the longest time,” said McMurtry, 44, now of Midland, Texas. “But it was difficult to get a break.”
Instead, after a stint at college and while working for Jack Holden, he lived with his Army veteran uncle who talked about the great life he had while serving. McMurtry enlisted in the Air Force…
Veterans Travis and Jessica Beck Build Community Through Rodeo
The kind of people who want to serve their country just also seem to want to help others. A couple from Oklahoma are that kind of people.
Jessica Beck is a Navy veteran who grew up barrel racing in Texas, and has since started heeling and breakaway roping. Her husband, Travis, is also a timed-event guy—a Nebraska native who retired after 20 years in the Air Force. They met at a military rodeo and married in 2012. Now living in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, the Becks have two arenas and do plenty of team roping….
Lindboe Back to Roping Sharp
Dakota Lindboe, 35, seemed a perfect candidate for our Military Salute, considering he spent his teen years spinning steers for Kaleb Driggers and Clint Summers and his adulthood in the Air Force calling air support in war zones.
But when we phoned Lindboe in early July, he sounded distracted and said he’d have to call back. That’s because he was literally walking the banks of the Guadalupe River to search for victims in the human recovery effort following the catastrophic flooding in Kerrville, Texas. He’d seen our post about rescuers needing old ropes, so he’d also gathered up all his used Cactus twines and recruited a buddy to stop at their headquarters and grab three boxes full…
Blood of a Cowboy
Adam Pollard’s DNA has “cowboy” written all over it. Serving as a Marine fit right in with the cowboy mentality and now it’s come full circle—he’s running the Military Rodeo Cowboys Association (MRCA).
Pollard, 54 now, is a Midland, Texas, native who grew up ranching and was inducted in 2021 into the Military Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame. His ancestors roped at a very early rodeo in Pecos, and have a history as colorful as Yellowstone’s Duttons…
—TRJ—
Thank you to Equinety for helping us share stories of military members, veterans and first responders in the team roping community.
