Barstow celebrates animal, human athleticism at rodeo

BARSTOW • Before entering the arena at the Barstow Rodeo Stampede on Saturday night, barrel racer Karen Moon wasn’t sure how she and her horse, Jac, would perform.

“It could be good and it could be ugly,” the Hinkley math teacher said.

Moon, who teaches the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grades at Hinkley School, had just come from a rodeo in San Bernardino, the second one Jac had ever performed in. At 5-years-old, Jac is still “green,” Moon said. Barstow would be his third rodeo, and Moon wasn’t sure how Jac would perform. But after running around the barrels in just over 18 seconds, Moon was pleased.

“I’m going on adrenaline,” she said before her race, adding later that she didn’t really care about the time. “I think he is too. It might play into my favor.”

The animals at the rodeo, held at the Marine Corps Logistics Base on Saturday and Sunday, garnered as much praise for their athleticism as their human counterparts. According to rodeo secretary Juanita O’Maley, you can’t make a horse or bull buck if they don’t want to. O’Maley and her husband Pat own the Slash T rodeo company based in Gooding, Idaho, and provide the bulls, calves and bucking broncos for the rodeo. Many of O’Maleys’ broncos are bred for their ability to buck, O’Maley said. And many people raise bucking bulls, she said.

Straddling 1,500 to 2,200 pounds of bucking bovine for eight seconds is more than just holding on, according to Kelly Gilbert and Jamie Hooker. It takes as much mental prowess as muscle to hang onto a bull, they say.

Members of a Norco organization called Calf Riders Only, Gilbert and Hooker latched onto the mostly male sport of bull riding when they were kids. Gilbert, 26, began bull riding at age 12. Hooker, 24, started riding bulls at age 15.

“I’ve never turned one down,” Gilbert said, adding that the name of the first bull she rode was Old Blue. “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to ride the best.”

Even though they performed apart from the main competition Saturday night, Gilbert and Hooker do compete against men. There are tens of thousands of male bull riders, Hooker said, it’s uncommon to see women in the sport. In order to provide support to women bull riders, Hooker and Gilbert started the Women’s Roughtstock Foundation. About 35 to 40 women of all experience levels are in the group, Hooker said.

Barrel racing and bull riding were two of seven categories at the rodeo over the weekend. Other events included bareback riding, tie-down roping, saddle bronc riding and steer wrestling. Kids 50-pounds and under participated in the mutton busting event, holding onto the backside of a sheep for as long as they could. Contestants came from as far away as South Dakota.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com