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winning. She roped after me, and I wasn’t going to try to take a fast shot to win the average. I just wanted to be safe on the barrier so that I could place in the average.” Holyan ended up missing her final calf, and Deerman came up the winner. “It means a lot to me because I grew up in the Turquoise Circuit and both my parents competed in it,” Deerman said. “I’m continuing a family tradition!” Deerman was riding her trusty horse, Yeller, who is 15. But he hadn’t always been a trusty mount, she explained. He was a ranch horse at first, and her dad rode him as a 2-year-old and he was stubborn and arrogant, she said. “He was named Glue Stick at the time!” she said laughing. “My dad gave him to me and said I could make something out of him, or we were going to sell him. “We ended up making better partners, and that’s when his name changed from Glue Stick to Yeller.” Deerman said Yeller is very aware whether they’ve made a good or a bad run. A good run ends with him doing a little head shake while he walks off, but if they miss, Yeller walks off with his head down. No doubt he could be proud after three strong runs at the Turquoise Circuit Finals this year.
Margo Crowther of North Fort Myers, Florida. “Davie has always been a good pen for me and my horse,” Wetzel said. “He’ll stand up on a lot of ground. He’s really sure-footed, and he makes sure to take care of both of us on shifty ground.” The ground in Davie is in good shape, she said, but because of how things are with the arena, there are some horses that have had trouble keeping their feet. That’s definitely not the case for Wetzel or her trusty sorrel. A year ago, they tipped a barrel in the first round, then went on to win Rounds 3 and 4. “What really makes him special is his will to please,” she said of Squirrel. “His heart and his try are bigger than the universe. He’s a goofy horse. He doesn’t take life seriously. All he wants to do is lay, and I don’t think he thinks running barrels is a job. He just goes in there and plays.” Now that he is in the prime of his life and she has nearly $13,000 that counts toward the 2023 ProRodeo season, Wetzel may step out of the circuit and test the waters across the country. She’ll already be traveling to Colorado next summer, so there may be an opportunity for her to make a run at the NFR. “I think I’m probably going to go pretty hard this year,” Wetzel said. “I have all the confidence in my horse; I just have to search for a little confidence in myself. Hopefully I can finish out the year in the top 15. “I have a young horse I’m trying to bring up, but it’s hard to step off your good horse.” While many ladies in this business tend to grow up with gold-buckle dreams, Wetzel got into rodeo a little later in life. She had a passion for riding, but it wasn’t until she met her husband, tie-down roper Michael Wetzel, that she got the bug for good. She purchased Squirrel as a 3-year-old for $1,300 and worked with a friend to train him. “My first three years of rodeoing were absolutely awful,” she said. “I couldn’t get him to turn the second barrel. “The fourth year, the first rodeo we placed at was Brighton (Florida). Ever since then, it’s just clicked. He’s been a superstar from there on out.” So has Wetzel.
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Kree, three, is no easy task. Along with partner Josh Mehan, she’s grappling with some big decisions for her and her family about how much time to devote to rodeo. Horses like Rory are so special and rare. Making the most of that mount becomes the challenge. “I’m doing a lot of contemplating right now,” Winkelman explained, “as far as I can move to part time, scale that back and allow myself a little more time to go to some rodeos, because that’s really where my heart is. You only get these opportunities here and there in this lifetime so I’m still working out all the details. “I just love spending time with [my kids] and I feel like taking a step away from the traditional job that I have for a while allows me to spend more time with them when they’re still small. Every morning when I leave for work, they want to come with me to. ‘We get to go with you to the rodeo. Why can’t we go with you to go see patients?’ I’m playing with all those things.”
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is anxious to improve on her performance. “It was a cool experience,” said Masters of her first visit. “That arena was super cool. I didn’t do any good. I think I missed my first one and broke out on my second one, but the girl I went out there with, we were actually travelling partners. She came home with quite a bit of money. Her name is Kirbie Gibbens. That was fun to experience that with her even though I didn’t do any good. I’m excited to go back now knowing what it is and what it takes.”
DECEMBER 2022 WPRA NEWS 35
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