"The Rodeo Road" offers twenty short stories that portray a rodeo cowboy's career from kids' rodeos through competition on the professional rodeo circuit. From fifteen years participation as a rodeo contestant the author brings to life the people and places that he knew while traveling the rodeo road. Although the names and places have been changed, the stories are mined from the author's own experiences and ring true to what most people could expect if they went rodeoing.
Meet the kids that develop their skills at home on the ranch riding a "cowboy-engineered" bucking barrel for practice and then hold a winter rodeo in the barnyard on a dark freezing night. Travel halfway across Kansas to win a check and get hung up in a stirrup, all on the same ride. Get to know, personally, all nine saddle bronc riders as they compete at the big rodeo in Camwalla. Feel the thrill of "strapping your wood" on the greatest bronc of all time. Experience such diverse yet historic events as Houston's Livestock Show and Rodeo and Milburn's "Oldest Rodeo." Slip into a pair of well-worn boots and feel the weight of 400 cubes under the hood as you and Sid knife through the Colorado mountains on an 800 mile run competing at three rodeos in three days.
Best of all, share in the grueling test of ten go-rounds at the National Finals Rodeo as you ride with Blain Connor when he takes on the top fifteen bronc riders in the world and challenges championship bucking stock in a quest to see what he's made of. You're on the rodeo road and you are eating, sleeping, traveling and competing with the men and animals of rodeo as they really are.
By Thad Beery