Houston Wrap-Up

The battleship that is Rodeo Houston has come to dock for 2010 and leaves in its wake a Wyoming bred champ in the bareback riding who climbs to the top of the world standings after cashing the $50,000 Shoot-Out Round paycheck. Ryan Gray has many relatives in the “Cowboy State” and in nearby Colorado. Ryan lives in Washington but he’s got Wyoming credentials that include growing up in both Cheyenne and Laramie. He’s a college graduate and a Christian athlete that almost always has a smile on his face even when fighting through the physical pain all pro bareback riders have to endure. The pay-per-view broadcast of Rodeo Houston allowed us to capture the action at the finals over the weekend. Here are Gray’s two rides Saturday and part of his arena interview in front of 70,000 rodeo fans:

Ryan

Team Wyoming bull riders Bobby Welsh and Seth Glause got to the finals in Houston and while they were sprung early, the young men from Gillette and Rock Springs respectively pocketed healthy enough amounts of cash to hold down spots in the Top 30. Welsh made a beautiful wild card round ride of 85 to make the Saturday finals and adopted a new piece of headgear replacing his hat with a helmet:

Bobby Houston recut

Welsh said he wore a helmet for a few rides in high school and knew he could adapt to one easily. He has, adding: “I didn’t even realize I had one on.” Congratulations to Bobby and Sunni as they await their fourth in the fall.

Wheatland’s Tyler Willis finished second in the Houston XTreme Bulls competition and that money sent the traveling partner of Seth Glause to the #19 spot of the current world standings.

A Wyoming horse carried one of pro rodeo’s most respected champs to a second win in Houston. Rod Hay, who is 40 and won Houston for the first time in 1989, topped the 2010 Houston bronc riding on a Burch Rodeo Co. (Rozet, WY) horse called Lunatic Fringe:

lunatic

And we simply can’t put Houston in the record books without making note of another outstanding showing for Meeteetse, Wyoming bullfighter Dusty Tuckness. He never ceases to amaze with his displays of courage in the face of battle. Here is just one example from the two-and-a-half weeks of Houston’s bruising affair:

dusty