Tonight at the WNFR they honored those that passed away in the past year. Some greats have gone to the big arena.

The Bronc  riding has a lot of Canadian contenders in it.  I believe the reason is in part because of two great Bronc riders stepping up a few years ago and helping the young Bronc riders of Canada with the fundamentals that makes great bucking horse riders.

Clayton Hines and Skeeter Thurston stepped up and helped anyone that wanted it.

I’ve known Skeeter for a long time and he has incredible try and the attitude of a cowboy and the skills to back it up. Great family and western lifestyle advocates.

We lost Clayton last summer.

I never new Clayton when he was riding broncs.  I got to know him on his journey of horsemanship.  He was a real thinker and analyst and wanted to be the best he could be.

We talked a lot about Bronc riding and he loved the event and really broke it down and understood the fundamentals and how to teach them. He didn’t talk loud, but he talked deep. And I don’t meen his voice.

He was twice a Canadian champion Bronc rider when there were a lot of great Bronc riders in Canada.

I saw lots of photos of Clayton’s Bronc riding at his place. He really turned his toes out, got way up in the neck, and handled his rein.  

The last time I talked to him he was wishing he had been a better person.  That was Clayton Hines, always wanting to be better.  Everyone I knew that knew him thought the world of him, and he made lots of people feel good and be better in all aspects of life.  I’m pretty sure he had to make lots of improvements along the way, but he became a great Husband, and he and his wonderful wife Susan were a great team.

I really liked him and I really miss him.  I watch these young Bronc riders and when I see where they have their back cinch set, I know Clayton had some influence and is still making a difference.

Check out Art of the Cowgirl website to see where it’s live-streamed and the time it is on.

Over 20 years ago I did two colt starting demonstrations a day at Las Vegas Event Center Cowboy Christmas during the WNFR for Purina for several years.

It was great fun to start colts in downtown Las Vegas in front of the rodeo crowd. We met so many people and David Nelson and Darrell Burnett really treated us great and the time there created lots of good memories for our family. We even got to ride on the Binion stagecoach one night at the rodeo.

A funny thing happened one day. I had finished a demo and was visiting with some old cowboys and Mesa was riding our saddle horse “Zorro” and he farted her off in the round pen. She was all upset about it and I told he she was probably the only one to ever get bucked off in downtown Las Vegas for along time.

Fast forward 20 years or so and Mesa had become very involved in the bucking bull world. She was helping shag bulls out of the arena at an ABBI event and got rimfired and her horse bucked her off in front of the whole crowd and all the folks on the live stream. She took it even worse than the first time!

Well we are headed back to Vegas. Mesa is producing a woman’s ranch rodeo championship for The Art of the Cowgirl on December 6th at 1:00 pm and Mesa and I are doing Ranch work demos at 10:00 am each day at Rodeo World Las Vegas at Resorts World. It will all be on Facebook livestream on several places.

Come and see if Mesa gets bucked off or stays on! It’s going to be fun and we will throw lots of ideas out there for you to think about.