School is in session
Calvin Nez, pushes his son, Wyatt Nez, 17, on a spur board on Saturday morning during Ty Jones’s Rough Stock Day Camp at the Ed Whitethorne Arena in Tuba City. Wyatt Nez, champion bull rider in high school rodeo, keeps his toes turned out and spurs the board with his legs extended.
Youngsters learn ins-and-outs of rough stock events
Calvin Nez, pushes his son, Wyatt Nez, 17, on a spur board on Saturday morning during Ty Jones’s Rough Stock Day Camp at the Ed Whitethorne Arena in Tuba City. Wyatt Nez, champion bull rider in high school rodeo, keeps his toes turned out and spurs the board with his legs extended.
TUBA CITY
Rodeo is a business.
And that rodeo duffle bag, Paul Tohtsonie says, is a rider’s briefcase.
“That’s how much you have to love it to do it,” said Tohtsonie, a longtime saddle bronc instructor who has experience in the professional rodeo circuit. “That gear bag is your briefcase, that’s how you make a living.”
Education though, Tohtsonie says, is important.
“It’s important to stay in school and it’s important to get your education because … one’s rodeo career is very short,” he explained. “You need something to fall back on.”
Young cowboys all dream about becoming prorodeo cowboys, whose one goal is to reach the National Finals Rodeo.
And to get there, they must qualify at the amateur level to compete in the professional events.
“But who’s teaching these guys at the amateur level?” asked Ty Jones, professional Diné horseman. “A lot of them are out there getting hurt, getting beat up, getting banged up, and they quit.”
Jones says a majority of rodeoing is about safety, “learning it good and learning it well.”
At Jones’s Rough Stock Day Camp on Saturday, young Diné cowboys Brad Moreno, Wyatt Nez, and Davin Salt – the only three participants – received one-to-one personalized instruction from cowboys who’ve “been there and done that” in the world of rough stock rodeo.
The rough stock events consist of bareback, bull, and saddle bronc riding. Of the three disciplines, the instructors say, bareback riding is the hardest.
“And it’s also a dying sport,” said Wilbert Tuni, who has experience in the professional rodeo circuit as a bull rider.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow