21st century cowboy

Welcome to a world where pain is a constant, gain is not

MOSES LAKE — It's true that how good of job you do determines how financially successful you will be. In the rodeo, the concept is taken to an extreme. The best get paid, the worst go home hungry.

"You don't want to be on your last dollar and be hoping to win," said Jimmy Tanner, a participant in the Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo this weekend as a steer wrestler, an event he's been doing for nine years. "If you're not doing well, it costs you a lot of money and you end up going home."

In steer wresting, the top eight fastest times get a payout ranging anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Tanner has made it to the National Finals Rodeo twice, which he called the "Superbowl of the Rodeo."

Tanner has also had his share of poor luck. "The first thing that goes through your mind when you do bad is what went wrong," he said.

However, when it goes well, he says there's nothing better.

"The best thing about the rodeo is the personal satisfaction of knowing you've done your job … knowing you're good at something."

He credits two key factors in winning — a good partner and a good horse. He said he and his horse Biggin are compatible, which is one of the biggest parts of scoring. The partner you have is usually a best friend you've known all your life, someone you can bet your livelihood on, which is just what these competitors do.

Although Tanner thinks he has only four years of quality competing left, he said he will rodeo until he can't any longer.

One part of the rodeo he won't miss is being away from home.

"It's tough being so far from home," said the Tifton, Ga. native. He spends only four months at home, and without a wife and children of his own, the rodeo has acted as a surrogate.

"We're just like a group of traveling Indians," he said. "These people become your family."

Circuit saddle bronc rider Gary Alger takes his family on the road with him when he can. His four kids range from 7 to 17.

"We have a good time," Alger said. "They've done it since they were itty bitty kids. They're good travelers."

This is likely to be Alger's last season in the sun; age and family responsibilities are taking their toll on the Pendleton, Ore. man.

"It'll be rough," he said of the sport he's done for 18 of his 36 years. "The traveling stuff I don't care for because I have home stuff, but I love riding buck horses. If I didn't have to travel so far, I'd keep doing it 'til I couldn't do it no more."

In 2000, Alger tried one last time to go to the NFRA, but because of the lack of money, he couldn't. He said it takes about $50,000 in yearly earnings to make the cut, he only made $17,000 that year.

"My body don't take it well as it used to," he said.

E.W. Dunsworth was a professional bullrider in the late 1950s, and now finds himself back near the show, but this time, behind the scenes as organizer of the Model-T and Pig Races that opened up the rodeo each night.

Dunsworth, a Tillamook, Ore. native, finds that he still longs for his days of competition saying, "I still wish I could do it."

He said that, at first, he took to the rodeo lifestyle "not really well. I found out it was too rough a life. Living out of a suitcase gets old after awhile."

Although he loved it, starting a family was a bigger priority.

"When you get married, your priorities change," he said.

When he quit the rodeo, he started racing Model-Ts with pigs and has been involved in it ever since.

There are no guarantees, save for a few: You're guaranteed to be traveling every few days, you're guaranteed to be homesick and your guaranteed to be wondering if you're the next to be forced to go home, but you're also guaranteed to have some unique experiences that you could find no other place and meet some interesting people along the way.

"You meet a lot of people on the road in these towns," said Tanner, "You get to see them each year, you make some lifelong friends."