Small rodeos are the heartbeat of American rodeo
They don’t call it The Daddy. It doesn’t have a one-word association like Calgary or Houston or even Pendleton.
Cheyenne Frontier Days is 120 years old, “The Daddy of ‘Em All.” The Calgary Stampede bills itself as “The greatest outdoor show on earth.” Garth Brooks will be the opening night entertainment for the Houston Livestock and Rodeo.
Those are the big ones and rightly so, but it’s the smaller ones in the small towns across the country that are the heartbeat of American rodeo and the Moses Lake Roundup has proudly taken its place in making the sport great with an all-star lineup riding all-star stock every year for over seven decades.
The heartbeat of American rodeo pumps right here for three days in August and the great ones will tell ya it’s one of the finest around.
Shane Proctor is a Columbia Basin cowboy from Grand Coulee. Proctor finished third in the world ($272,364.58) in 2016 and part of that payday came at Moses Lake where he was the all-around winner and top bull rider on a Flying Diamond Rodeo bull called Blue Bells.
He placed in five rounds of the Wrangler NFR on his way to his first bull riding world championship in 2011, but he still remembers the Moses Lake Roundup and its place in Pacific Northwest rodeo.
“I hadn’t been able to come to Moses Lake since 2005 when I was 18 years old. I used to come here and watch slack and watch the guys growing up. That was something I thought was awesome,” said Proctor, who spends a lot of his time on the PBR circuit. “I’ve known (Moses Lake stock contractor) Mike Corey since I was a little kid. He helps me out in a lot of different ways whether it’s with my bull riding school or something else. It’s always fun to come to these rodeos and ride.”
The lineup hasn’t been announced yet, but Columbia Basin rodeo fans can expect a sprinkling of the world-ranked cowboys and cowgirls chasing an NFR dream. Proctor sits 29th in the standings right now and could use a little home cookin’ to get back to Las Vegas.
Saddle bronc rider Jacobs Crawley of Boerne, Texas was No. 1 in the world when he rolled into town last year and he’s back on top of the Weather Guard PRCA standings again this year. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t, but that’s why you ride as much as you can. Crawley won Moses Lake in 2013 and he and his brother Sterling Crawley have been coming up ever since.
“This is what the backbone of rodeo really is,” said Crawley, who placed in seven rounds at the 2015 Wrangler NFR en route to his second NFR average title and first world championship. “The fans come out and the people are hospitable that you’re in town and we get to do our job.
“This is what rodeo’s all about. We put our hearts in it every year. I got a Moses Lake buckle and it’s rodeo’s like this that keep me doin’ what I’m doin’.”
This year’s rodeo clown and man in the can Keith Isley’s career has spanned four decades. Isley and arena announcer Will Rasmussen will provide the entertainment in a finely crafted manner developed over the years of working rodeos just like the Moses Lake Roundup.
Isley says the big ones operate on the verge of the spectacular. But it’s the mid-size and smaller events that make rodeo what it is in America.
“It’s not about stadiums and big light shows. Rodeo is about all those ones in community arenas around the country,” said Isley, who was recognized with the Man in the Can honors (2012-11-10-06) and the Clown of the Year (2011-10-09-08-07-06).
“I enjoy putting a smile on people’s faces and helping them forget about life for awhile and I’m looking forward to coming back to the Moses Lake Roundup.”
Rodney Harwood is a sports writer for the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com