CALIFORNIA DREAMING Hillman Rides Truck to Top the Leaderboard at Red Bluff By Allie Bohus S ix-time Wrangler NFR qualifier Stevi Hillman and her trusty gelding Cuatro Fame better known as Truck, proved to be a force to be reckoned with at the 104th annual Red Bluff Round-Up, held in Red Bluff, California every April.
Truck is Hillman’s 15-year-old gelding who loves running outside in the big wide-open pens, and “typically loves the California rodeos… he loves the crowd, and he loves to feed off the crowd. California crowds are some of the loudest,” Hillman said fondly. He is by Dash Ta Fame and out of Princess Streaks. The duo ran in Red Bluff slack on Thursday night, and won second with a time of 17.32 seconds. Payton Schoeppach won the round with a
drew good and the win was awesome!” Hillman and Truck also won the rodeo back in 2017, so this was a fun win to replicate especially on her beloved gelding. “He’s always liked Red Bluff,” said theWeatherford, Texas, cowgirl. “We’ve won money there every year. He likes that pen, and our last win there was 5 years ago. He feels like he did then. I’m super thankful he’s firing hard. He feels like I have my 10-year old Truck back.” The duo’s Red Bluff success paid handsomely. Their first round second place win was awarded with $2,697, and winning the second round paid $3,147, which lead to an average win paying out an additional $3,147 for 34.42 seconds on two run. This brought in a payout totaling nearly $9,000. Hillman didn’t have a great winter, so the big win at Red Bluff helped significantly. “It was a blessing to do well there,” she said. After Red Bluff, Hillman headed to another historic California rodeo - the Clovis Rodeo. Their first run at Clovis was a little off; Truck didn’t have a great start and slipped pretty good at the first barrel. They came back and placed third in the second round with a 17 flat, a good solid second run. Then came back in the short round and won it with the fast time of the rodeo, stopping the clock in 16.73 seconds. The two solid runs awarded them third place in the average, and $6,194 worth of Clovis money. Following Clovis, Hillman had to hustle back eastbound, driving like crazy to exhibition a colt at the Ruby Buckle barrel race in Guthrie, OK before heading home to Texas. Stevi Hillman turned in a smoking run during the second round on Sunday afternoon in Red Bluff stopping the clock in 17.10 seconds, to win the round en route to the average title. Hillman and Truck turned in two runs totaling 34.42 seconds to outdistance world champion and hometown cowgirl Nellie Miller who finished with 34.71 seconds on two runs. Photo by Fernando Sam-Sin
time of 17.29. They were lucky to not have to run in the rain on Friday or Saturday, and came back in the perf on Sunday with a smoking run of 17.10 seconds. “Thursday slack was good, and then he came back and had a really great run the second run on Sunday. He really fired hard,” said Hillman. Hillman was especially grateful for the Red Bluff Round-Up Rodeo Committee for their exceptional work on the ground. “The rodeo committee was dragging every 5 or 6 this year,” noted Hillman. “That makes all the difference in slack… It makes it a more level playing field for everybody… [Overall] the ground was good. It’s one of those things [where] it was raining during the perf on Friday and pretty wet for Saturday’s perf. There were some dirt clods on Sunday, but we were thankful to be in the perf on Sunday. We were excided we Stevi Hillman won second in the first round at the Red Bluff (CA) Roundup after stopping the clock in a time of 17.32 seconds during slack on Thursday. She was very appreciative of the committee dragging after every 5 in slack as she says that makes all the difference. Photo by Roseanna Sales
28 WPRA NEWS MAY 2022
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