As we made our way to Glen Rose, Texas, for the 11th
annual Texas Corriente Cattle Association show and roping, Texas Bluebonnets
were in full bloom in all their glory. Ditches, hillsides, pastures
were splashed generously with bluebonnet blue; some pastures looked
like blue lakes! Texas had definitely put on her Sunday best for the
TCCA exhibitors.
With the economy the way it is, the TCCA officers were
concerned about entries. Diesel wasn't over $4.00 a gallon
any more, but everybody is feeling the pinch from the economy
and the soft cattle market. However, we were blessed with
our turnout: the show grew to 542 entries, up 30 from last
year. 363 head of cattle filled all but one of the 120
cattle pens, plus 23 mature bull pens. What we found the
most encouraging were the 10 new exhibitors, with a total
of 51 ranches entered.
TCCA tapped two of NACA's newest judges to handle the
judging. Jared Long and Roger Schalla had just graduated
from NACA judging school with high marks. TCCA's 11th annual
show was the first NACA-sanctioned judging assignment for
both.
Unloading on Wednesday, April 22nd was radically different
from 2008, thank goodness. This year there weren't any
violent thunderstorms, golf-ball-sized hail, or torrential
rains. Instead, warm sunny days and cool nights--perfect!
Unloading progressed with the now trademark efficiency
of the team of Dale Price, Stacy Lynn, Benny Maben, Billy
Luke, and Dallas Luke. Brands were checked, paperwork inspected,
check-in envelopes with hip tags & glue handed out,
and cattle sent to their stalls. Next on the list for exhibitors
was check in at the Show Office to turn in stall assignment
sheets and pick up exhibitor packets.
In the Show Office, a display of the beautiful trophies
TCCA Director/Show Manager Billy Luke had chosen as awards
caused a mini-commotion. The stunning trophy buckles for
the sanctioned classes were solid turquoise inlay with
silver and gold lettering. The roping classes, like last
year, had beautiful custom embroidered horn wraps for trophies.
The custom Wilson Capron trophy spurs for the Grand Champions
caused a lot of deep sighs and wows. The beautiful trophy
saddles for the Breeders topped off the display.
The conformation judging began promptly Thursday, 4/23.
Like last year, we began with the huge class of 21 pens
of Get of Sire, followed by the Produce of Dam. After clearing
those two roadblocks, the conformation classes ran two
rings simultaneously, and moved right along. Roger Schalla
had a brain-draining task of evaluating 140 females in
5 classes. Jared Long waded his way through 128 animals,
finishing his judging with Mature Bulls. In 2009, TCCA
featured an enormous class of 20 mature bulls, with numerous
former grand champions in the class. Fortunately, on Tuesday,
Stacy Lynn, Billy Luke and Dale Price had organized a superb
set up for judging mature bulls with the show site personnel.
With a 50 foot round pen at the end of the mature bull
stall aisle, judge Jared Long had plenty of room to observe
the bulls' movement and conformation. The setup also allowed
up close, but safe, observation for the entire spectators'
gallery. It was amusing to watch the show photographer
during the class; he stayed behind two plastic barrels,
but still seemed a bit apprehensive of any bull that was
overly curious about his camera flash.
Thursday afternoon, Mark Taylor presented Ken Beck with
a Pioneer's Award for his early work in breeding and promoting
corrientes at Hilltop Ranch. A Duke & Suzanne Sundt
Bronze Set with appropriate inscription is being made for
him.
TCCA'S annual membership meeting was held Thursday evening.
Everybody got to go through the buffet line for delicious
Mexican food at the Welcome Social, then ate while we held
the meeting. Talk about a captive audience! Elections put
Bobby Beauchamp on the Board of Directors, and returned
Benny Maben to the Board. Mike Camp was elected Secretary/Treasurer.
Dale Price was re-elected President, and Stacy Lynn was
re-elected Vice-President. Billy Luke announced the 2nd
Annual TCCA Summer Roping and Performance Show would be
held on Saturday, July 11th. NACA sanction is being sought.
Billy is also working on a Corriente production sale to
be held at the roping. Other items discussed during the
meeting included cultivating rodeo producers, doing email
blasts to TCCA members and interested parties for TCCA
news/announcements, and possible new sites for the show.
Dale Price agreed to work with Mike Camp to organize e-blasts.
The membership voted to have the TCCA Board of Directors
explore possibilities with rodeo producers, and to keep
the show in Glen Rose. The meeting was adjourned at 8:38
pm.
After feeding and watering the stock, most everybody congregated
in the breakfast room at the host hotel for a little singing,
a little visiting, and some of our favorite adult beverages.
Jeff Nourse, Mel Gnatkowski and Clay Mack kept the rest
of us in stitches with their badinage between songs.
Friday, April 24th, was Performance Classes day. Wayne & Stacy
Lynn of the LF Ranch did a great job organizing world-class
ropers to do the roping in the performance classes. The
precedent had been established at the 2006 TCCA show: hire
NFR-caliber topers to do the roping, so that each animal
gets as consistent a handle and fair chance to be judged
as possible. The rules for the ropers are simple: they
rope in set teams, not for fastest time, but to demonstrate
the individual animal's abilities as a roping animal, and
get bonuses for first through third place on who has the
most clean catches.
Several World Champions and NFR qualifiers participated
in the roping classes this year. They more than lived up
to their reputations--it was better than being at Thomas
and Mack during the Finals! Dale Price, TCCA president,
relaying hip tag numbers to judge Roger Schalla, said "It's
a bit surreal, seeing your own bull being roped by Clay
O'Brien Cooper."
At the end of the roping classes, when Grand and Reserve
Champion Roping Animal needed to be determined, the top
3 teams of ropers were turned loose--"rodeo run" time!
The 10 first and second place animals were turned and stretched
with dazzling speed and finesse. What a treat to watch!
At the conclusion of all sanctioned classes on Friday,
it was found that three very unique things had happened
during judging. First of all, TCCA's 11th annual show created
not one, but TWO, Supreme Champions! LF Ranch's entry,
LF Ranch Cow 815, won the Senior Yearling Heifer class
(49 entries) as well as the Junior Roping Heifer class
(36 entries). Rockin' BL Ranch's steer, BL's Steer 72,
won the Steer Conformation class (15 entries) as well as
the Roping Steer class (also 15 entries). The second unique
happening was that Rockin' BL's new Supreme Champion also
won the Bulldogging Steer class! What a trifecta! We're
not sure if this has ever happened before. The third unusual
result of the two judges' efforts was the result of the
All-Around. In a show this size, it's not unusual to have
no qualifiers, or only one or two, in each All-Around.
However, TCCA 2009 featured 4 All-Around Bull qualifiers
out of 39 entries, 5 All-Around Female qualifiers out of
53 entries, and 5 All-Around Steer qualifiers out of 15
entries. Wow!
The Breeders Roping started on-time Friday night, with
16 ranches entered. Britt Holt and Benny "Red Mud" Maben,
TCCA directors and Roping Committee Co-chairs, had designed
new rules for the roping, insuring a level playing field
for all breeders who wanted to enter. Jeff Nourse, roping
for Cactus Corrientes' Bill Dean (still healing from a
fractured pelvis) and Sam Doyle, roping for Doyle Ranch,
won the custom trophy saddles. Jean Poythress, roping for
Ready 2 Rope Ranch, and Britt Holt, roping for Morning
Star Ranch, were the #2 team in the average, and won custom
embroidered TCCA arena jackets.
TCCA took over the breakfast room at the host hotel, as
usual, Friday night. A big thanks is owed to the hotel
management for graciously allowing the Wau-Ban-See Cantina
to be set up and fully operational. Even after the fast
start at partying Thursday night, we managed to keep it
at a not-so-low roar until the wee hours.
The Members Ropings were held Saturday morning. Billy
Luke and Britt Holt won the buckles in the #13, with Jeff
Nourse and Jarret New the runners-up. Jean Poythress and
Britt Holt won the average in the #9 Members Roping. Bryan
Knox and Sam Doyle were runners-up, with Dean Keyes and
Sam Doyle coming in third. The fastest time in the first
go was 8.97 seconds with Dean Keyes and Jarret New.
An exciting thing happened on the way to the banquet:
after the final runs of the Members #9 Roping, a steer
somehow got loose from the Members Roping pen of cattle.
He was reported to the Expo Center management to be (to
quote Glen Rose police) "wandering at large in the
streets of Glen Rose." Billy Luke, Show Manager, jumped
in his Cadillac ("The Batchelor-mobile," featured
in Rockin' BL ads in THE CORRESPONDER!) and took off in
hot pursuit. Duane New, with Joe New riding shotgun and
Jarret New in the back, followed in their pickup truck.
Billy hazed the steer with his Cadillac until Jarret was
put in position by his dad. With one accurate throw, Jarret
roped the steer and dallied off in the back of the truck.
Duane New jumped out and bulldogged the steer. Billy & Jarret
then got the steer's feet tied. Brett Chartier screeched
to a stop in his truck and trailer. After running the head
rope into the trailer and tying off, the steer's feet were
released. Loading him was a snap. So, all's well that ends
well, but where's a video camera when you need one?!
The TCCA Awards Banquet was held that Saturday night,
with delicious bar-be-que and a cash bar. After Dale Price,
TCCA President, emceed announcing and handing out the sanctioned
class awards and roping results, Jean Poythress announced
the Dummy Roping winners. The First-Timers Award went to
Leslie Pederson of Old Route 66 Corrientes in Tucumcari,
New Mexico. The Premier Exhibitor Award went to Wayne & Stacy
Lynn of LF Ranch in Desdemona, Texas. The Top Hand award
went to J J Hearron of the Rockin' BL Ranch. To finish
up the banquet, Mel Gnatkowski of Coffee Pot Cattle Co.
did the honors as auctioneer for the TCCA Live Auction.
An absolutely hilarious item was the hit of the evening:
the "mystery" item! The rule was, you bid on
it and bought it with NO IDEA as to what it was. You could
then peek in the bag and see it. If you wanted to keep
it, you could then show it to everyone else. If you didn't
want to keep it, you could seal the gift bag back up, and
send it back up for another round of bidding! The mystery
item went up for bidding no less than 3 times. It was finally
revealed to be an ENORMOUS bright purple lady's underwire
brassiere!
Saturday night presented one final opportunity for the
exhibitors to visit and sing together at the hotel. Many
folks were so kind as to offer exciting ideas for next
year's show, such as a Welcome Social with live entertainment
and a DANCE! The TCCA Board of Directors will be actively
discussing, and pursuing, these ideas to help the 2010
TCCA show be even bigger and better!
The TCCA Board of Directors and Show Management wish to
offer a sincere "thank you" to the many people
who volunteered their time and efforts to help the show
be a success. There's no way to adequately recognize and
thank everyone; the list includes, but isn't limited to,
first-time exhibitors Mike Ault, Joe, Duane and Jarret
New, Daryl Pickett, and Joe Mark Milloy. TCCA veteran volunteers
to be thanked include Ricky Mara, Carol Ford, Bobby & Sharon
Beauchamp, Russell Barham, Mel Gnatkowski, Craig Dorrance,
Lyndon Love, and Barney & Ruth Luke. The TCCA also
wishes to thank Britt Holt's employees for their help in
the Breeders Roping, and Billy Luke's top hand, J J Hearron
for his help from unloading time on Wednesday to go-home
time on Sunday. Thanks are also offered to our sponsors
and donors for their support--we couldn't do it without
you!
TCCA, finally, thanks our exhibitors. With last year's
weather fresh in your memory, and the gloomy economic news
always on the television, we're very grateful you came.
We hope you had as much fun as we did!
See ya'll next year!
Footnote: TCCA sponsored a display booth at the Rope-for-the-Kids
Charity Roping in Glen Rose on May 2-3. Billy Luke and
Janice W. Price, DVM manned the booth. A huge truck roping
event like this poses an ideal opportunity to introduce
ropers to the benefits of registered Corrientes!
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