Kelsey Parchman and Richard Durham roped their Shootout-round steer in 7.3 seconds to win $52,250 each at RodeoHouston. They hadn't roped together at a rodeo before, and when their partners didn't qualify for Houston, they were randomly drawn together.

While RodeoHouston might not be rodeo’s biggest stage, it is where the sport’s stories are told to more people at once than anywhere else. With 72,412 rodeo (and perhaps Brooks & Dunn) fans in attendance for the Super Series Shootout final performance in Reliant Stadium in Houston, one might expect rodeo’s brightest stars to rise to the occasion. Historically, that’s been true, but with a couple of exceptions, the 2009 RodeoHouston featured a most unlikely group of $50,000 champions.

First among them were the team ropers. Kelsey Parchman from Cumberland City, Tenn., and Richard Durham of Morgan Mill, Texas, didn’t even enter RodeoHouston together. They each entered with their respective rodeo partners, York Gill and Blaine Linaweaver, neither of whom qualified for Houston. Therefore, they were randomly drawn together by the PRCA’s central entry system.

"The entry office drew us," Durham said. "I called up for drawbacks—I didn’t even know if I was going to make it in like my partner—and I called up there and they said I was roping with Kelsey, so I said, ‘Right on, let’s go over there.’"

Houston marked their first-ever rodeo together, however, they had roped together as second partners at some of the open ropings early in the season.

Slotted in the Super Series IV of RodeoHouston’s playoff bracket system, Parchman and Durham didn’t do anything in the first three preliminary rounds to set the world on fire. In round one, they were 11.8 with a leg. Round two they won with a 5.6 time. In round three, they turned in a no-time when Kelsey had an illegal head catch. That placed them fifth in the average for their bracket at 17.4 on two. It was good enough, however, to advance them to the SuperSeries Semifinal II. Once there, they stopped the clock in 5.3 seconds to place second and easily advance to the Super Series Championship Round.

That is exactly what every cowboy likes about the bracket system: Competitors have plenty of chances to win money and advance. They also appreciate the fact that within their preliminary Super Series bracket rounds, they’re competing on the same stock. So, not only does the playoff system make advancing less of a drawing contest, it gives cowboys second chances.

From the two Semifinals and a Wild Card consolation, 10 teams advanced to the Championship round. Scores and times are wiped clean and the top four from that round immediately compete in the Shootout round for the $50,000 top prize.

The four teams that advanced to the semifinals were Travis Tryan and Cesar de la Cruz, Parchman and Durham, Chance Kelton and Rich Skelton and Keven Daniel and Martin Lucero.

Daniel and Lucero broke out and caught a leg after a 5-second run, pushing their total to 20. Next out were Kelton and Skelton, who turned in a no-time when the steer stopped just before Kelton could get his slack tight and the loop came off. He missed his second loop as well. Next up were Parchman and Durham—who knew a solid run would garner them no worse than second.

"Seeing the two teams going before us, we knew we just had to go catch our steer and let that last team after us just do what they did," Parchman said.

Richard Durham, and his 7-year-old heel horse Flip, took extra care roping their final-round steer, knowing just being solid would earn them no worse than second place. As it turned out, it was enough for the win.

And they didn’t push any limits. Parchman stayed off the barrier, roped a neck and Durham took an extra swing or two over the steer’s back and they stopped the clock in 7.3 seconds.

"I think it was only three swings, but it felt like forever," Durham said. "Kelsey kept asking me, ‘Do we need to be fast?’ I told Kelsey, if we’re winning it when we leave the arena we’re going to have no less than $14,000 a man and stranger things have happened. Our game plan was to leave the arena leading it. We only had to be 19, so that’s why we safetied up."

Anyone paying attention figured Tryan and de la Cruz had just won $50 grand. How could these two veterans and solid ropers not turn a final round steer faster than 7.3? An illegal head catch is how. Tryan figure-eighted the head loop around the horns and the steer’s nose. He tried to correct it, but couldn’t get it right in time to place in the money.

"There ain’t much you can say about it, it’s a great deal," Parchman said of an additional $52,250 in his bank account and PRCA World Standings total—easily bumping him into the lead.

In fact, he didn’t say much about it at all, instead letting his performance do all the talking. Riding the 12-year-old gelding named Dakota that he bought from Chad Masters, Parchman acted unsurprised and unmoved by the win.

Durham, on the other hand, was ebullient, and heaped much of the praise on his seven-year-old gelding.

"He was a cutting horse reject and I bought him as a four-year-old and trained him myself," he said of the horse he calls Flip. "I’m the only person that’s ever rode him. I haven’t ridden him at many places, but he’s my No. 1 now, so I’m riding him everywhere. That horse is doing amazing right now. I can make mistakes or the steer can do something funky and he really cleans it up for me, keeps moving and makes it simple."

Now Durham, who will go to his second Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and Parchman, who will attend his first, will continue the rodeo season with different partners. Parchman, who had been roping with York Gill, will pick up with Monty Joe Petska. Durham, meanwhile, will go back to roping with Blaine Linaweaver.

Tie-Down Roping
The next, and probably most unlikely $50,000 champion at RodeoHouston, was tie-down roper Ryan Watkins. And the tie-down roping was nearly as ugly as the team roping.

Wrangler NFR veterans Brad Goodrich, Cade Swor and Nate Baldwin headlined the Shootout round while Ryan Watkins from Stephenville, Texas, who last year was 35th in the PRCA World Standings rounded out the field.

Goodrich got things started with a solid 9.3—but he broke the barrier. Next to rope was Cade Swor, who in 2008 had a no-time in the Shootout round at Houston. Unfortunately for him, history repeated itself when he missed his calf. Nate Baldwin drew a hard-running calf and when he caught up to him, the calf ran through his loop.

Watkins had to rope his calf in 19 seconds to win $50,000. He backed the 9-year-old mare, Pepper, who is owned by Casey and Robert Walsh, into the box, with the door to his first Wrangler NFR qualification swinging wide open.

"It really wasn’t that much pressure after I knew I didn’t need to break the barrier and tie him down. It kind of took all the pressure off," he said. "I guess I knew I had already run him one time before in the semifinals and he tensed up real bad when you roped him, so I didn’t know if I was going to be able to tie him real fast if I needed to."

And he didn’t tie him real fast. First, he missed the barrier by a mile, then took extra care tying him down, finally stopping the clock in 11.3 seconds.

"It’s amazing," he said. "It’s the first big winter rodeo I’ve won. I’ve placed pretty good at some of them, but I’ve never won one of the big winter rodeos."

And because of that, most rodeo fans haven’t seen him much. Watkins started in 2003 and has competed at RodeoHouston four times, but if the rodeoing won’t pay for itself, he goes home.

"I’ve just kind of been off and on and I never saved up and made it through all the bad times," he said. "I’ve never gotten in debt rodeoing. I just go until I keep winning enough to keep going and if I don’t win enough, I go home."

The $52,500 won in Houston ought to be enough to finance at least one season’s run at the Finals.

Clint Cannon rode Classic ProRodeoÒ¢ââ¬a‰â¬~¢s Big Tex to a big Texas win and new Rodeo Houston arena record of 92 points. Cannon also set an earnings record for the rodeo with $59,250

Bareback Riding
Continuing the theme of unlikely champions is Clint Cannon. Cannon was born one mile from the Reliant Stadium and grew up in nearby Waller, Texas. Out of high school, Cannon played football for Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches and later Texas A&M Commerce.

In 2003, he got off to a fast start and won the rookie of the year honors, then in 2007 he finished 16th in the PRCA world standings and missed the Wrangler NFR. Last year, he sat out the entire season with major reconstructive shoulder surgery.

"I sat out for eight months last year just thinking about it everyday and training," he said. "I trained so hard everyday, working the spur board. I just thank God and I’m blessed to be here. It’s a long time coming. I feel like I’ve always rode good, but I could never put it together where I rode good all the time. Sitting out for eight months really made me think about what I needed to do and I have a whole new focus and outlook on rodeo."

And so far in 2009, it’s working. Prior to RodeoHouston, Cannon had already amassed around $24,000 and sat fourth in the world standings. But for Cannon, Houston is on another plane.

"This is my hometown rodeo, so every year I look forward to the Houston, Texas, Rodeo," he said. "When they announce me as a hometown boy from Waller, Texas, I get goose bumps sitting on top of my horse. I was focused on what I needed to do, but it took some of the fear of failure out so I could prove to everybody what I could do."

What he did was score 90.5 in the Championship round on Classic ProRodeo’s Wise Guy (see page 78) to lead the field into the Shootout round. Once there, he drew another Classic horse, Big Tex, who finished third in the PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year balloting last year.

But before he had his chance at the horse, he had to watch Will Lowe, Kelly Timberman and his traveling partner, Heath Ford, ride. Lowe notched an 85, Timberman an 83 and Ford an 86.5.

Ford, however, might not remember it. After an 87-point ride in the Championship round, he suffered a concussion during the dismount.

"Back in the locker room after the round of 10, he didn’t even know where he was at, that it was RodeoHouston or anything," Cannon said. "We just told him, ‘You gotta do it buddy, there’s a lot of money.’ His brother and my brother were out there and we taped him up and got his riggin ready and he went out there and did what he needed to do.

"It made me so excited to see Heath get out there knowing that he just got knocked out and didn’t even know his name and stuff and then scoring 86.5. I knew I’m giving it everything I got and I’m coming to beat him."

And that’s exactly what he did—and more. Not only did he set a new Reliant Stadium arena-record with a 92-point ride, he set a new earnings record for RodeoHouston with $59,250.

Steer Wrestling
Perhaps the least unlikely champion at RodeoHouston was steer wrestler Curtis Cassidy. Cassidy has been among the frontrunners for a world title for the past two years, and because of his super-horse Willy, is in that group again in 2009.

After carrying Luke Branquinho to the world title in 2008, Willy took Cassidy to the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo win in Denver, Colo., then Jason Miller won the Fort Worth Rodeo on him and Branquinho and Tanner Milan won over $15,000 on the horse in San Antonio.

As a matter of fact, both Branquinho and Cassidy qualified for the Shootout round on that horse.

It was another world champion, however, Dean Gorsuch, who set the early pace. Incidentally, Gorsuch claimed his 2006 world title after winning RodeoHouston. Gorsuch threw his steer in 3.6 seconds. The steer ran, but once to the steer, Gorsuch couldn’t have thrown him faster. Next up were Cassidy and Willy.

"I don’t know what more you can say," Cassidy said. "He’s a great horse, 23 years old and still lets you win rodeos like this—especially when you have Dean Gorsuch come out and be a 3.6 and you have to try and beat that and he lets you do it. It’s unreal."

The only difference in their runs was that Cassidy was able to get to his steer faster, and he might not have thrown him as cleanly as Gorsuch did, but nonetheless quickly.

The pressure was on for the final two, Stockton Graves and Branquinho, who both broke out trying to top the 3.3 set by Cassidy.

"The steer wrestling is always a real tight race," Cassidy said. "Just like you saw last year, it was a super tight race going into the Finals and all the way through the Finals, so to have a $50,000 hit in one place is a big deal. Aside from the Tour Finals, $10,000 or $15,000 is all you can win anywhere else. This is pretty huge."

But it won’t change his strategy. Cassidy could nearly lock up the title for himself if he didn’t share Willy with his chief competitor, Branquinho. But he won’t do that. Instead, he’ll stick to his plan of resting the old champ for a couple of months after the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo then bringing him back to competition for Reno.

"We usually take him to 25 rodeos a year," he said. "We take him to these winter rodeos down here in Texas, we’re gong to take him to Pocatello, and then basically he goes home until June then we’ll take him to a couple close ones around the house.

"He still gets enough runs, he just doesn’t get the miles in the trailer. Hauling is the hardest thing on them. They’re bouncing around in the trailer. If you can keep them out of that trailer, that’ll improve their longevity."

For Cassidy to have the chance to win a world title on the horse he jumped his first steer on 15 years ago is proof that he knows what he’s talking about.

Former world champion Mary Burger and the 2006 WPRA/AQHA Barrel Horse of the Year, Fred, returned to form with a 15.17-second final-round run to win RodeoHouston.

Barrel Racing
Another likely champion—however not the most likely—was Mary Burger in the barrel racing. Likely because she is the 2006 world champion and her horse, Fred, has been running in 2009 like he did in 2006. Unlikely because she had to face reigning world champion Lindsay Sears and her phenomenal horse Martha.

Burger set the early pace with a 15.17-second run—her fastest of the rodeo. She played the format perfectly, being consistent in the early rounds and ratcheting up the speed factor as stakes rose—without hitting barrels.

"I guess I never count myself out," the 61-year-old grandmother said. "When it’s your turn, it’s your turn. I had some very good runs and that horse is just awesome."

That horse, Rare Fred, is owned by Ron Martin and won the 2006 WPRA/AQHA Barrel Horse of the Year. Not only that, he came back from a pulled suspensory ligament in 2007 to carry Burger to the Wrangler NFR last year.

Yet after her run, she had to watch Jill Moody and Lindsay Sears make the pattern to see if the time would hold. Moody’s horse took one extra step past the second barrel, costing her a chance, and Sears and Martha tipped the third barrel to go out of contention.

"Martha, she’s just awesome, but everybody’s got their day and todays’ was Fred’s," Burger said. "I’m so proud of him. The competition was awesome."

And the $58,500 she won will change her strategy for the rest of 2009. Fred is not an easy keeper, suffering from allergies and requiring special shoeing to prevent bruising on his feet.

"I won’t go to quite as many," Burger said. "He loves the Reno and St. Paul area. He likes that ground and when it gets hot (at home in Pauls Valley, Okla.) he gets lots of allergies. I think he can breathe a little better there. We’ll change our strategy a little bit, but still keep him rolling."

Douglas Duncan won his hometown rodeo after this 89-point fight with Cervi Championship Rodeoâ¬"s Sam Tâ¬"s Multi-Chem. For Duncan, the eight second ride was worth $55,000.

Bull Riding
Before the Championship round, all the cowboys hang out in a contestant hospitality room in the bowels of the Reliant Stadium, chit chatting and talking about their draws, taking turns on the DVD looking at previous runs of whatever they’ve drawn.

Somebody asked Douglas Duncan, who grew up in nearby Alvin and has attended every RodeoHouston since he was a baby, what he had drawn.

The reigning rookie of the year looked back slyly and said, "Bodacious."

Being somewhat arrogant is a prerequisite for bull riders. While Duncan isn’t obnoxious about it, he does have an air of confidence those in the sport need to tie themselves to a bull.

"I just try to take it one bull at a time," he said. "I used to look at the standings and that kind of stuff and I realized it wasn’t helping anything. A lot of times I won’t even look to see what bull I’ve got, I’ll just show up and go at ’em. I like that mentality a lot better."

And it seems to be working out. Even prior to RodeoHouston, he was third in the world standings with $43,000.

He entered the Shootout round in the top spot and Cory Melton, Marcus Michaelis and reigning World Champion J.W. Harris all bucked off before him. All he needed to do was ride to win the $50K.

He drew Cervi Championship’s Sam T’s Multi-Chem, a 4-year-old bull that won the National Bucking Bulls Association Classic Finals. In fact, Duncan bucked off the bull at a rodeo in Longview.

"That was actually a really hard bull ride. I didn’t feel in control at any point in time," Duncan said. "He had me down over my hand and I couldn’t set back down and I was just trying to track him the whole time. Somehow he just stayed underneath me."

But it was a little questionable. The whistle blew as he came off.

"I didn’t think I made it, for some reason at this rodeo it seems like the whistle takes forever, but I hate working so I wouldn’t let him go," he said.

The judges awarded him a score, and the 89 points was all he needed to win the $55,000 and push his world standings total over $100,000.

"I like this just as good as riding at the NFR," he said. "My hometown is right down the road and I’ve got so many people supporting me, friends and family."

So what about Bodacious?

"I would have liked to have had a chance at him," he said. "I like the situations where nobody gives you a chance to ride a bull and those moments are what people live for. I thrive off of stuff like that."

Saddle Bronc Riding
Bryce Miller, a four-time Wrangler NFR qualifier from Buffalo, S.D., took top honors in the saddle bronc riding by making a simple adjustment on Big Bend Rodeo’s Spring Planting. He had drawn the horse in the semifinal round at San Antonio and was bucked off.

"Today I just went a little bit shorter rein and it seemed to work out," he said. "He’s real strong, comes up pretty hard and hits the ground hard, so that shorter rein helped keep me screwed down in there."

In sum, Miller won $53,500 in Houston with the 86.5-point ride.

"To have a $50,000 hit, there isn’t any other rodeo close to that," he said. "At Cheyenne, I pretty much 40 percented it and won $22,000. To win $50,000 at one rodeo is unbelievable."