Horse Blog

If you are dying to watch the finals,you need not have to strain much because Teamonetickets.com provides you a lot of tickets to a variety of events. The web site is one of the best you can ever come across.

Dave in Texas reminded me that he wanted cowboy boots as well. It's been a long time since I was in Texas, so I don't know what kind of fashion trends cowboys down there are into. Here in Fabulous Las Vegas we get the National Finals Rodeo every year (a big deal from what I understand) and it draws the best of the best from all over the country. I expect that they are fairly representative of the modern cowboy. Anyway, here's what most of them were wearing.

My friend Justin’s brothers team rope. His brother Matt made it to the National Finals Rodeo a few years ago where I think he earned rookie of the year. Here are some clips I shot at one of Matt’s rodeos, and some of us skiing.

I made this photo on Saturday, December 10, 2004 at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. The photo is of Clay Tryan, of Billings, right and Patrick Smith of Midland, Texas as they performed their world record time during the team roping event.

The UNLV air is redolent with horse excrement and parking is completely jacked up, which can mean only one thing: the rodeo is in town. If you don’t know what I mean, read this from the LVRJ:

As the 2005 rodeo season nears the end, the clock begins to tick faster and faster for those not in the Top 15 of the Jack Daniel’s World Standings. No one has felt the pressure more than Cash Myers, who heading into the final week of October was ranked second in the all-around world standings, but not in the top 15 in his signature event of steer wrestling or in tie-down roping.

Fresno State Bulldogger rodeo team member Anthony Estep of Wilton is currently second in the nation in tie-down calf roping at the College National Finals Rodeo now under way this week in Casper, Wyoming with his eye on the third round Thursday and the finals on Saturday.

He started his pro rodeo career in 1975. The 5-foot-9, 160-pounder qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 12 years in a row (1978-89). He also won the 1989 NFR average and he won the Calgary Stampede Rodeo $50,000 bonus a record three times. He retired in 1991. ...

In November, he canceled several tour dates, including an appearance at the National Finals Rodeo, while undergoing treatment for cancer of the bile duct.

And so, after a lovely day in which I went to hear my eight year old friend Sophia sing in the Holiday Recital, that would be Sophia-of-the-perfect-pitch, and in which I got my tree up and decorated, and took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to wash all my windows so I can see through the old-fashioned storms, I'm now curled up on the couch, eating a delicious bowl of mac-and-cheese-with-hotdogs, and watching the final night of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Next year, to paraphrase my Jewish friends at a different holiday, Next...

This year will mark Powell’s third appearance at the National Finals Rodeo. He also roped at the NFR in 2001 and 1999. Powell attended Vernon Regional Junior College before earning a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Tarleton State University in Stephenville. His wife Molly is a seven-time NFR qualifier in barrel-racing.