Time to Ride: Ranch hands show their skills at Willacy rodeo

RAYMONDVILLE — “Hey! Hey!” shouted one of the ranch hands as he and his fellow rodeo riders raced toward a steer.

Their horses leaned forward at the urging of their riders, members of the M3 Cattle Company team. Amid the pounding of hoofs one rider lassoed the steer and others quickly wrestled the steer to the ground at the Willacy County Livestock Show Ranch Rodeo yesterday morning.

“Oh, nice!” said Russell Klostermann, Ranch Rodeo producer who also served as announcer.

Four teams competed in the rodeo, presented by the Willacy County Fair and Auction. All four were made up of ranch hands and competed for cash prizes and belt buckles.

“It’s to entertain the fans,” said Klostermann as the bleachers began to fill.

“These are working ranch cowboys doing stuff they do on ranches every day,” Klostermann said.

The first event was called sorting in which they had to separate one steer from a herd of several, each with a number.

“Number four, four, four!” Klostermann said.

Riders from the Cowboy Fellowship Church in Jourdanton whipped into swift action, cutting their horses back and forth to separate one steer from the rest. The task proved more difficult than most would imagine.

“Turn! Turn!” someone said. “Get four! Bring him out there.”

They managed to separate one steer within the 90-second time limit but number 7 managed to slip across a chalk line.

“No time,” announced Klostermann.

Rondo Sloan, captain of the Jourdanton team, explained why this task was so difficult for his and the other teams.

“Steers bunch up,” he said. “Once one gets away, the others want go to him.”

In the steer tying event, ranch hands riding with M3 had their work cut out for them. Steer and riders seemed in a pitched battle, kicking up black dirt as the animal kept standing up. One rider fought to tie three hoofs together while the steer kept kicking and breaking free.

Finally, however, the knot stuck, and M3 scored a time of one minute and 16 seconds.

“Good job, guy!” said Klostermann. “You are in first place.”

M3 was proud of accomplishing its task with such a spirited animal.

“We did good in the beginning,” said Reynold Munoz. “When we had the steer down we shouldn’t have let him get back up. We should have kept the rope tied on the back heels.”

Spectators enjoyed the event.

“We enjoy it all,” said Bert Sutton, a Winter Texan from Michigan. He and his wife Ellen have been attending the event for years.

“We never miss this,” he said.