If you ride broncs for a living — if you wear boots and chaps and a cowboy hat, earning millions of dollars looking for eight when they pull that gate — you know a lot more than Garth Brooks and George Strait songs.
You know that La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, the Tucson Rodeo, is one of the big ones.
It is one of the 25 leading rodeos in America, with a purse near $350,000 and a distinguished list of former champions like Hall of Famers Jim Shoulders and Casey Tibbs.
Maybe it’s not as celebrated the Cheyenne Frontier Days or the Calgary Stampede, but La Fiesta de los Vaqueros is the sixth-oldest rodeo in America. It turned 95 this week. If you win in Tucson, the PRCA adds it to your online bio under the heading “major rodeos won.”
Such was the setting Friday afternoon when a cameraman from the Wrangler Network angled for a closeup of 10-time National Finals Rodeo bareback rider Steven Dent in Chute No. 8 at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds.
Esteemed PRCA public address announcer Will Rasmussen declared that Dent is “one of the greats.”
I stood on a platform maybe 10 yards above Dent — the best view in Tucson sports — as he paused and took a knee, seeming to meditate before mounting Never Before. I think I was more nervous than Dent, a 33-year-old rancher from Mullen, Nebraska, who has been riding broncs at the Tucson Rodeo since 2007.
Never Before was restless, loudly banging the walls of the chute, a 1,200-pound force of nature. Dent’s friend, Leon Fountain, a saddle bronc rider from Socorro, New Mexico, jumped over the restraining fence and attempted to help rodeo officials calm Never Before.
It didn’t work. The tension grew.
Dent has competed in more than 1,000 rodeos on the PRCA circuit. He has broken a shoulder, torn an MCL, ripped a hamstring, you name it. Before attempting to mount Never Before, he put a brace on his elbow and another on his neck.
He tied a support to his right hand and then taped it for further support.
“I’ve got to make sure my riggin’s good,” he says.
Dent has won every conceivable rodeo on the circuit:
The Yuma County Fair and Rodeo.
The Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo.
The Beef Empire Days Rodeo of Kansas.
The Laramie Jubilee Days Rodeo.
Tucson is a bigger stage.
Although La Fiesta de los Vaqueros comes early on a cowboy’s yearly calendar, Dent and most of his bareback competitors in Tucson have already competed in the ongoing San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, a three-week blockbuster with $1.5 million in prize money and all the glamour cowboy and cowgirl names of the sport.
After winning the collegiate rodeo national championship as a student at Ranger College in Texas in 2004, Dent appeared destined to become one of those glamour names of rodeo. But about a decade ago, the Wright brothers — the cowboys from Southern Utah, not America’s aviation icons — emerged as the Next Big Things in rodeo.
They’ve already gotten as many headlines as former world champions like Ty Murray ever did.
Nine of the Wright brothers (and cousins), including Spencer, Rusty, Ryder, Jesse, Cody and Jake, became so famous so fast that they’ve been featured on “60 Minutes,” in National Geographic and subject of a New York Times best-selling book “The Last Cowboys.”
I read “The Last Cowboys” a few months ago. It was so good I was disappointed when I got to the last page. The book described the lifestyle of a rodeo cowboy like Steven Dent in such detail that you wondered how anyone could survive the day-to-day grind.
Dent, who is married with three small children, usually travels alone while his wife, Kay, takes care of their cow-raising ranch in Western Nebraska. Before they had kids, they lived a Wright brothers-style life.
“We’d drive forever, then Steven would ride at the rodeo, and we’d hop back in the car and drive for 15 hours to the next rodeo,” Kay Dent told The Fence Post magazine last year.
The rodeo season is just beginning. After Sunday’s finals at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds, Dent and his fellow competitors will travel to 60 or 70 more rodeos. Those trying to make a name for themselves — to become financially solvent — will put more than 100,000 miles on their Dodge Rams and Ford F-150s.
As Dent prepared to climb over the railing and mount Never Before on Friday, you couldn’t help but read the money-producing advertisements that adorn his chaps, his sleeves and almost every available space on his vest.
Tehrani Motor Co., of Mullen, Nebraska.
Kraye Angus Ranch of Mullen.
Nutterman Panels and Fencing of Stroudsburg, Nebraska.
Sandhills Physical Therapy and Sports Rehab of Nebraska.
Steven Dent is a legend in and around his hometown. As a high school junior he led the state in rushing, with 2,488 rushing yards. A year later he won a state wrestling championship. And then he won the collegiate rodeo title.
All of those accomplishments didn’t make Dent any less determined as he mounted Never Before on Friday. Once the gate blew open, Never Before bucked and snorted and chewed up the dirt at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds like his tail was on fire.
After eight seconds, Dent bailed out. The video board displayed his score — 87 — which is like shooting a 67 in golf. It easily qualified him for Sunday’s final go-round.
“What a combination,” said Rasmussen, the PA man. “A great cowboy and a great horse.”
Dent walked through the dirt to a makeshift, open-air dressing room behind the grandstands. He removed his protective gear, changed his clothes, put a chew of tobacco in his mouth and gave a bro-hug to his friend, Fountain.
Someone asked Dent if he planned to return to Sunday’s championship round.
“If you get this far,” he said, “you’ve got to finish the job.”
