Riding 'as long as I can'

Each year EmmyLou Daswood thinks it's time to put away her boots and hang up her hat.

She's been a barrel racer since she was 14 years old and now, just over 60 years old, Daswood is still circling those barrels.

"I said I'm going to ride the horse as long as I can," she said. "When I can't get on the horse I know I can quit or hang up or something. Every year I keep thinking I'm going to hang up, but I don't. It makes me feel good, it keeps me going."

At the Dinéland Senior Rodeo Association Central Navajo Fair rodeo on Aug. 20, Daswood placed second in the barrel-racing event with a time of 18.07.

She also placed second in the 40-plus ribbon-roping event with partner Ernest Sam with a time of 31.92. She placed second in the 50-plus ribbon-roping event with partner Leroy Williams and a time of 19.32. She also walked away with the women's all-around title.

A resident of Pinedale, N.M., Daswood and her husband Donald Daswood have two daughters, Tammy Daswood and Dee Dee Daswood, who have also made names for themselves in the rodeo circuit.

Daswood is an education technician at Wingate Elementary School. Having been an educator for 32 years, Daswood uses rodeo as an escape.

"I'm still doing it because for me it keeps me going physically," she said. "I'm still able to be fit and feel good about it. I just don't sit around. The older I get it feels like I keep getting better. People say, 'I want to be like you when I'm your age.'"
For those like Daswood, senior rodeo is a way to continue the sport they love but for others, like J.R. Williams, from White Cone, Ariz., it's a way to live a dream that was once taken away.

As a child Williams said he always dreamed of being a rodeo cowboy until a high school teacher made him believe otherwise.

"I wanted to go to rodeo school and he said, 'No, you're not going.' He told me rodeo wasn't a career then," Williams recalled.

So he went to college and earned a degree in chemistry. He rediscovered rodeo as his children started high school.

"I don't do it full time," he said. "I think from my point of view participation is more of a weekend thing for me. Rodeo is a second activity for me.

"When I was younger I was pretty much committed to being a father to my boys," he said. "I couldn't really spend much time and money participating in rodeo even though I wanted to."

Williams took first in the 40-plus tie-down roping event with a time of 15.69, first in the men's breakaway 40-plus event with a time of 3.77 and first in the 40-plus team-roping event with partner Gerald Hobbs with a time of 9.82. Williams was also named the 40-plus all-around cowboy.

In only his second year in the association, Williams said won about 75 percent of the rodeos he's been to.

"It's just been fun for me," he said. "A lot of these contestants are 50-plus. I know a lot of them, they're good friends of mine, they're well respected."

For JoAnn Smith rodeo was something she decided to pick up after work. An educator like Daswood, Smith said she was looking for an escape and turned to rodeo 10 years ago.

She said she comes from a rodeo family of brothers who rode in the 70s and 80s but never thought to do it herself.

She also put her son Roderick Shawn Morrison, who passed away in 2005, through junior and high school rodeo.

"When my son went off to work I thought, 'What should I do with myself?,'" Smith said. "It's a fun sport to go to, it takes you out far and relax somewhere. Just to get away from all this stuff."

Smith said she broke and trained her horse and eventually started getting better as a barrel racer, winning buckles, jackets and saddles.

At the Chinle fair, Smith took first in the 40-plus ribbon-roping event with partner Ray Tsosie with a time of 13.21. She also took third in barrel racing after knocking down the last barrel for a time of 22.32.

Smith said she'll ride as long as she can.

"It's a good sport to go into," she said. "Our rodeo association is drug free, alcohol free. It inspires 40- to 50-year-olds to go on, keep exercising, to go on keep riding. It's not too late. Keep going to want to exercise, stay strong and be fit."

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