The past couple of weeks have been pretty crazy. It seems like I've been all over the country and can barely keep up! A couple of weeks ago, I went to Redmond, Ore., to do a photo shoot for Ariat. I've teamed up with Ariat as an endorsee, and I'm really excited to be involved with such a great company. I met a lot of really neat people on that trip, and even got to hang out with Chris Shivers a little bit, which is always fun! I met Bradley Harter (saddle bronc rider) and his wife Kirby, as well as their son Houston, and I fell in love with them! This lifestyle allows me to meet some of the greatest people!

I flew back from Oregon and went straight from the airport to my friend Rex Samford's near Abilene, Texas, to pick up a bull. I'm a hick and parked my truck and trailer at the airport! My truck started not running right on the way there and broke down on me, so I spent the day helping Rex work his bulls. While I was helping him get some two-year-olds out of a pen, one hooked me pretty bad. He hit me right in the gut and ran over the top of me, thankfully, instead of continuing to hook me. But when I hit the ground, I hurt my back and hip pretty bad. I'm still pretty banged up. I never did go to the doctor, but I did have a medic look at it at a bull riding, and they said one of the bones between my spine and pelvis was probably fractured, and my ribs were pretty bruised up. I've never really been hooked before, and it sucks! It gave me a whole new appreciation for bullfighters Frank Newsom, Jesse Byrne and Shorty Gorham. They are some tough dudes!

"I've never really been hooked before, and it sucks."

Last weekend was the American Heritage futurity, derby and maturity in Guthrie, Okla. This is a huge event in the bucking bull industry. I had Cowboy Casanova entered in the maturity. My friend Aline and I traveled up there together and had a fun girl's weekend. It was a great event. D&H Cattle Company's 173X Hard Twisted and Pillow & Barrett's 54 Jungle Fear split the futurity. A lot of people said one or the other should have been the winner, but honestly, I don't think one was better than the other. They had really different bucking styles, but were both outstanding.

Cowboy won third in the maturity behind Shepherd Hills Sod Buster of D&H Cattle Company and J.W. Hart's Flirting With Distaster. Cowboy bucked really well. What was really cool is that one of his sons, City Lights, won third in the derby, to. Cowboy's calves are proving to be outstanding! They did great at the futurity level and are making great rider bulls as well. Needless to say, he's getting turned out on every cow I own!

After Guthrie, I picked up the rest of my bulls and two horses, and headed north to my parents' place in South Dakota. I'm going to spend a couple of months up here helping my dad start about 70 head of two-year-old bulls. 

It's been a long, fun couple of weeks!

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