Life in the Boonies

My husband has been roping calves competitively since he was 12 years old. He has roped at the Texas Cowboy Reunion in Stamford Texas every year for nearly the past 30 years. He has also entered the Double Muggin and won it in '97. We both have competed there as I used to run barrels. Our daughter Kalie Rae has also been the TCR Sponsor.

Since our kids have been so busy in their teen years, we have put our rodeo days behind us and put our focus on them and their activities. Lately we have found ourselves with a couple of kids already out of the house and extra time on our hands.

This extra time, and a cute little mare I bought has put Todd back in the roping arena. It also gave him a new-found youthfulness because this year he decided to come out of "retirement" and enter both the calf roping and the double muggin.

Todd called his great friend Jody Bellah to enter the Double Muggin with him. Jody had also retired from entering the Muggin but was still roping calves. It was to be the comeback of comebacks. Todd at 39 years old and Jody at 49 were going to "Show those kids how to do it".

Well here they go pushing the barrier like the OLD pros they are....a great start! Jody is the roper and Todd is mugging for him.

Here's where it gets really exciting: The dismount. Todd borrowed this horse from his dad who has borrowed him from someone else, who bought him from someone, who bought him from someone, etc., etc. Needless to say, the old guy is about 20 and has seen and done it all. Well apparently he has done a little bulldogging, too because when Todd got close to the yearling, Uno (because he only has one good eye) hit another gear and never slowed down for Todd to bail off! Therefore, I was not allowed to post the picture of Todd falling down and having to get back up to get to the yearling to mug. And they say women are vain....

Well obviously he got there and so did Jody!

They got her to the ground...

Tied her then celebrated! After mugging two yearlings, they now have a spot sitting 8th in the average coming back tonight in the finals!!! Wish these OLD guys some luck and that no one gets hurt.

P.S. The other guys who made the finals are not kids, either. These are they guys Todd and Jody have been mugging with for the past 20 years who made it back. They are all 40 plus years old. None of the young men (kids) made it back! They may be old but they are still kickin' it!

Oh yeah, and the calf roping? Well, we didn't fair so well, got out ran on the first one and Todd blew a stirrup on the second. He said all he could think of was how he was going to get off if he caught since he didn't have his right stirrup!

Tonight will still be exciting for us in the Double Muggin at the Texas Cowboy Reunion.