Ryann Pogue jumped off her horse Coors to run over to the goat she needed to tie up. She struggled to get a hold of the three legs for a few seconds, but finally got a good hold and started wrapping the rope around.
Just as the 7-year-old Tucsonan was tightening the rope, the goat kicked out one of its legs, making the run ineligible.
Ryann slumped her shoulders, dropped her hands to the ground and let her head roll back as she let out an exasperated sigh.
“It was kind of frustrating,” Ryann said about her run.
Although Sunday was Pink Day around the arena, staffers, volunteers and fans wore pink in support of breast cancer awareness, Ryann was decked out in a bright turquoise button-down shirt.
“I wanted to wear the shirt my Nino gave me for Christmas,” Ryann said.
The girl’s goat tying event followed the girl’s barrel racing event, where Ryann finished with a time of 56.22 seconds. This was the third year the Thornydale Elementary first-grader competed at La Fiesta de los Vaqueros. This was the second year Ryann competed in goat tying, but the third time competing in barrel racing.
Ryann said, although the whole family is into rodeo events, she got into competing through her older sister, 12-year-old Dilyn.
Dilyn, a seventh grader at Tortolita Middle School, said she started competing at the Tucson Rodeo at age 8 after being inspired by her family. Dilyn is set to compete in Thursday’s junior rodeo events.
“Our family was doing it and they worked here,” Dilyn said. “We saw them doing it and thought ‘that’d be fun to be in it.’”
The girls’ grandfather, Tony Felix, is one of the board of directors for the Tucson Rodeo Committee and their father Andy Pogue is an associate director.
Although the girls have grown up in the rodeo lifestyle and have been competing in the Tucson Rodeo for years, Dilyn and Ryann said they’re kind of surprised by the lack of knowledge about rodeo sports among their classmates.
Dilyn said she has only one friend at Tortolita who knows about the rodeo, but Ryann said no one at her school knows anything rodeo related. And that frustrates her a bit.
“I’m like ‘well, goat tying is when you flip the goat down, you sit on it and you tie it.’ And then barrel racing they don’t know,” Ryann said while rolling her eyes and throwing her hands to her face.
Ryan said her favorite part of the rodeo is being able to compete in the different events. While Dilyn said she also enjoys the competition, she likes being able to meet all the different cowboys and cowgirls.
Either way, they just really love the sport.
“This is a really fun sport and if you get an opportunity to try it, you should because it’s really fun,” Dilyn said. “You’ll learn awesome people skills and responsibilities. You’ll learn a lot of things.”
Notable
• In the Bareback Riding event, rider Seth Lee Hardwick’s horse Stardust fell down almost immediately after coming out of the chute and struggled to get back up. Stardust got back up with less than a second left before the eight-second buzzer went off, with Hardwick still on. Due to the fall, Hardwick was granted a re-ride, but opted not to go again.
• In the second half of the Team Roping event, three consecutive teams came out with near-perfect performances and finished within tenths of a second between each other. Rhett Anderson and Coleby Payne, the seventh group out, clocked in 6.7 seconds. They were followed by Zane Barnson and Cole Wilson, the eventual winners, with a time of 6.6 and Chris Francis and Cade Passig made a time of 6.8.
• Cameron Messier won the second round of the Saddle Bronc Riding competition after completing his re-ride and scoring 80.00. The score was good enough to take second place after two days of action.
• Kellie Collier brought the Women’s Barrel Racing fans to life in the fourth run of the event. Collier and her horse were slow to come into the arena, but as soon as Collier brought her horse to a gallop, the fans perked up and broke out in cheers. Collier finished with a time of 18.96 seconds, good enough to take the lead.
But Leigh Ann Billingsley, the last rider of the event, came out fast and made tight turns to beat out Collier with a time of 18.90 seconds.
• The Australian cowboy Dave Mason, who resides in Texas, became the buzz of the arena after being held up after the dismount in the Bull Riding Event. Mason stayed on top of the bull Bullet Proof for the entire eight seconds, but was caught off guard at the dismount.
Bullet Proof eventually knocked Mason off his feet and dragged the cowboy a bit along the ring, but the Aussie came out of the incident without any serious injuries.
“I’ve already got a bum knee and this (bull) hit my knee a bit, but it’s already bugging, so I can’t hold (the bull) onto that,” Mason said.
