November, 2006, marks a decade for the Rodeo Attitude Program. I still remember like yesterday the day that Diane walked into the copy shop I was working at in Ankeny, Iowa, and wanted some help on a project on the then relatively new Internet. Our first site was known as Let’sRodeo.com. We burned a lot of night oil on that first site. There were just four of us in the beginning, Diane Davis, Todd Crase, Mark Ficken and me. In the beginning I think we went to every event within driving distance. We created some great memories and some great road stories. Trust me, you have never rodeoed until you have slept in a club cab pickup with all your luggage, two adults and two teens in a rainstorm in a town that has one small hotel and a few hundred cowboys! Persistence, however, paid off and we got some great people to join us and we were on our way!
I can remember my first trip to the PBR Finals. I was scared to death! Very few people had ever heard of Rodeo Attitude and I must have personally talked to what felt like a few thousand people my self. One of the greatest moments of that event was meeting Gail Hughbanks Woerner. I can’t imagine where we would be today without her guidance. She has truly been a blessing and a mentor to me. Today the PBR is an association member and we have the event covered by several members including our Western Regional Director, J. W. Kinder of Wyoming, our Eastern Director, Tom Smith of North Carolina and rodeo announcer Jason “Tex” Hetland of Minnesota. You can listen to great rodeo reports each day from TalkRodeo.info produced by Bill Pulanuk with a click of your mouse on RodeoAttitude.com. The athletes and stock contractors that have joined our program are amongst the top contenders at the 13th Annual PBR World Finals. What a difference a decade makes!
Over the last decade I have met and visited with many wonderful cowboys and cowgirls. Some were World Champions and some are happy being weekend warriors. I have also been blessed to meet many in the Cowboy Ministries including Cody Custer, Homer and Suzan Joy and of course, Elsie and Clyde Frost. How lucky can one lady be! The last two years I started most days by visiting Shane Drury’s web site to see what he had to say. He often inspired me when I was feeling down and definitely gave me courage this year when I suffered a light stroke. He will never know but I don’t know where I would be today if it had not been for his guidance. This week as we reach our10 year milepost Shane passed away. He will be missed by all of us whose lives he touched.
I was born a farm girl and dad was a cattleman but I knew very little about the bucking bull industry but Lynn Rice, Dillon Page, Ronnie Roach and Brandon McLagan patiently educated me. I will never forget the night Brandon got married in Las Vegas. We were all standing outside the chapel waiting for the service to begin and Dillon was sitting in his car next to the group quietly listening while I asked Nevada Berger, who I had just met, “Now what bull is yours?” This was also the night Little Yellow Jacket was announced Bull of the Year. . He almost fell out of the car laughing as Nevada answered in a total monotone, “Little Yellow Jacket.” Needless to say, he wasn’t the only one laughing! Never had to be reminded who owned Little Yellow Jacket after that night! Thus my motto, “I am only as smart as the cowboy standing next to me!” In short I know I don’t know it all, but I do know who to ask and sometimes that is more important. Today I know the entire Plummer story, the steps in cloning, what a recip cow is and the names of most of the top bulls I still refer to the experts!
My knowledge of timed events went as far as I loved horses and I loved to watch them. Johnny Dollar changed all of that. If I thought the bull people were patient, Johnny deserves an award. Teaching me what it meant when someone was a number one roper or a number 8 roper, why ropes are marked header and healer and all the many different terms used to describe a rope was not easy but he did. I even wrote an article on roping 101 when he got done! Barrel racing was Hiedi Scole’s challenge. That is a book in itself and one of the biggest reasons that each event now has its own director. We also have directors for announcers, bullfighters, producers, stock contractors, specialty, cowboy ministries, country music acts and even a youth director. You can’t beat the experts for the answers!
As we reach this milestone the two top corporate ads are the PBR World Finals and PRCA NFR video. Rodeo is the fastest growing sport in the world. We dreamed, we worked and most of all we prayed. Today we are ranked as the number one site of our kind in the world. As we enter our second decade I want to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers, all the members, all the sponsors and most of all the fans who have supported us so wonderfully over the past decade. I have only one regret, Diane passed away in a farm accident a few years ago and I wished she could see us now, but then perhaps she does. To each and every one of you, “Thanks for the memories! You are the GREATEST!”
