RODEO

Indian National Finals Rodeo

'It's been a long time'

Old pros Begay, Holyan and Begay win world titles

By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times

LAS VEGAS, Nev., Nov. 17, 2011

By rodeo standards, they are considered to be a rare breed of "old-hands."

But for guys like Benny Begay, Ed Holyan and Victor Begay getting older doesn't mean they have to accept decline.

Instead their longevity seems to have leveled the playing field during the 36th annual Indian National Finals Rodeo over the weekend.

All three, who are well over 40 years old, walked away as world champions at the conclusion of the four-day event at the South Point Equestrian Center on Saturday night.

"It's been a long time since I won this title," said Benny Begay, the overall bareback champion. "I really didn't expect this, but I want to thank my family for standing behind me. Their support means a lot to me."

The 43-year-old Rock Point, Ariz., cowboy said despite his age he was able to take advantage of some good draws.

"It was just awesome the way I rode," Begay said. "These guys are a lot younger than I am and they can really ride, but after this week I felt like I was about their age."

This was Begay's second world title with the last one coming in 1998 when the finals were held at the West World Equestrian Center in Scottsdale, Ariz. Since then he's placed in the top five.

"It's always feels good to make the INFR," Begay said.

For Begay this year's title began ceremoniously as he turned in four solid performances.

"I didn't know what kind of horses I would draw and on my first one I scored an 83-point ride," he said. "From there I knew I was going to get on some good horses and that was a lot of fun."

Needless to say, that 83-point ride set the tone for the rest of the week.

"I think it broke the ice," Begay said. "After that I started to feel more confident and continued to ride good."

But in the second round, he received a wake-up call and took the brunt of an aggressive horse - after leaving the chute his horse sideswiped the arena wall.

"He hit that wall pretty hard," Begay said, noting that the collision bruised his right eye.

In the next round, Begay faced another difficult horse and he was almost knocked out of contention.

"I was a little off, but I just kept charging back (towards) the front," he said. "I ended up winning the round."

Incidentally, that ride earned him the top spot entering Saturday night's final performance with a 6-point cushion over Alberta, Canada, cowboy Justin Randle. Besides Begay and Randle, four other cowboys were also in contention for a world title as they made three qualified rides.

And when the draws were announced for the final round, Begay felt that his horse - Stomper - would lead him to that elusive title.

"I saw that horse in the third round and I was tickled to death that I drew him," Begay said of the bay. "But all I wanted to do was get a solid mark-out, which I did and I just took him jump-for-jump."

At one time, though, it appeared that Begay was in trouble as the horse doubled back.

"He kind of stood me up and he almost flipped me over my rig," he said. "But all I did was lift and I just kept charging to the front and I got back into my seat."

And after Ray Champ, the rodeo's emcee, announced his score of 77 points, Begay was swarmed with congratulations for a job well done on the arena floor.

"They were pretty excited that I won my second world title," he said. "They are my rodeo friends and they fired me up behind the chutes."

For Holyan, his entourage included his wife, INFR Commissioner Carole Jackson-Holyan, who stood nervously near the roping box during the tie-down competition.

But for the eight-time world champion, his face revealed no evidence of emotion.

"You know, I want to thank God first because I was really nervous out there," Holyan admitted. "I was set on freaking out. But coming into the final round the pressure kind of got to me because some of the ropers before me missed."

One of those guys was Wyoming roper Scott Rogers, who trailed Holyan by a mere two-tenths of a second after three rounds.

And after he missed, Holyan mounted his horse inside the box as guest announcer Joe Beaver mentioned that Holyan had about 14 seconds to play with. To be exact, it was 14.3 seconds, but that didn't smooth things over for Holyan.

"I just thought that I would play it smart," he said.

But after his dismount, his body got caught between the animal's head and the taut rope mounted on his horse.

"I started to panic and I thought, 'Man this is not going right,'" he said.

Nonetheless he got his calf tied in 13 seconds, which was 1.3 seconds under the time he needed to beat. Holyan finished the four-round aggregate in 46.1 seconds.

At the awards presentation, Holyan joked about the length of time it took him to win his second tie-down championship.

"It's been about 19 years since I stood here at the podium," he said. "Since then technology has changed with the Internet and the new gadgets."

And although he won the all-around and steer-wrestling crowns in 2001, the Coyote Canyon, N.M., cowboy considers the tie-down roping his signature event.

"You know, I work harder at it than I do in the steer wrestling," Holyan said. "I guess you can say I love tie-down roping more than anything else."

Unlike Holyan, Victor Begay concentrates on only one event. And over the years, he's gotten better at heeling in the team-roping event.

In fact his skills, ambition and work ethic has helped him carve the way to two world titles this year.

Late last month, Begay partnered up with Aaron Tsinigine and won the International Indian Finals Rodeo in Farmington, N.M.

And last Saturday night, Begay won his first INFR title with Fort Defiance cowboy Roderick Tso by double-hawking their steer in a nail-biting finish.

With that they turned in a 6.9-second run and had to wait for the team of Willie Covers Up and Ed Harry to complete their run as the latter pair needed something under 7.5 seconds to win the title.

But the title switched hands when Harry lost one hind leg in their run.

"It's always hard to win, but if you do it long enough you start to play it smart," Begay said at the awards presentation.

With that said, it's reassuring to know that despite the slower reflexes, the true masters of rodeo are still on top of their game.