Sand and Sage Forge World Champions

Jolly Ranch/S&L Cattle Co. get set to defend their title at the World Championship Ranch Rodeo

They are the most unassuming world champions you have never met.

The Jolly Ranch/S&L Cattle Co. ranch rodeo team will compete for its third consecutive title at the World Championship Ranch Rodeo Nov. 11-14, in Amarillo, Texas. But, these six cowboys don’t train like professional athletes. They just raise cattle.

“It is just everyday life,” said Phy Lord, a teammate from Lamar, Colorado. “That is what we do, and we get to go show what we do every day to a crowd that doesn’t really get to see that way of life.”

Instead of traditional rodeo events like bull riding and steer wrestling, ranch rodeos feature timed events like cattle sorting, calf branding and team penning. These events are meant to replicate everyday ranch work. The only difference is the stopwatch.

“At home, it isn’t a timed event,” Lord said. “At the rodeo, you are on the clock. You have to speed everything up. Or you had better if you want to win.”

And win they have. The team — comprised of Lord, Jesse Jolly, Dustin Bowling, Will Shaffer, Kyle Spitz, and Nick Peterson — has won the WCRR four times in the past eight years.

The team does not hold formal practices. Their success is a product of trust, humility and years spent running cattle on arid expanse of eastern Colorado.

“In the fall, there really isn’t time to get together and practice,” Lord said. “We all do it every day, and we all show up in Amarillo and hope for the best.”

The team may not practice, but they show up prepared. Cowboys need to hone their skills and ride good horses to ranch profitably, said Jesse Jolly, the team captain from Agate, Colorado.

“You want to be good help, and you want to ride a good horse,” Jolly said. “That is really all a cowboy has got. Do you listen? Are you good help and a good hand? Are you trying to make a good horse? If you don’t have that, you aren’t much of a cowboy.”

Real-life cowboys working in a high-stakes competition draws a big crowd. The 2021 WCRR will draw around 17,400 attendees over four days, predicted WRCA Manager Leman Wall.

“It is an entertaining competition to watch,” Wall said. “It is unique in the fact that these are real working ranch cowboys, not professional athletes. The day before they get here, they are horseback doing something. They come to town, show off and compete for a couple days, and go back home and they do it again.”

The Jolly Ranch/S&L Cattle Co. team does not try to be fast. They trust each other to work the livestock smoothly.

“The biggest way to be successful is to forget about time and try to be smooth,” Jolly said. “Any time you try to be fast and rush, it doesn’t work. But you would be amazed when you just go catch your stock … you look up and you got done pretty fast.”

The team is not trying to win rodeos, Jolly said. They are trying to earn a living.

“Having a good crew matters if you are truly doing this for a living and every pound matters,” Jolly said. “If you are planning on selling those calves, you need to walk everywhere. You need to handle those cattle slow and gentle.”

Despite being a highly competitive team, Lord said the cowboys do not take themselves too seriously. In fact, Jolly and Bowling often wear argyle vests in the arena, just for fun.

“The guys I go with, we all have fun,” Lord said. “That is one of the main things: to have a group of guys who get along and have fun. I mean, we want to win, but everybody is there to have fun, get along good, and do the best they can.”

The team does not have a complex strategy. Simplicity breed success, Jolly said.

“Everybody knows everybody is trying hard,” Jolly said. “Nobody is going to make a mistake on purpose. When you truly believe that, you really respect the people you are with.

“If you are worried about messing up, well, it doesn’t work,” he continued. “If you know the guys you are around and you aren’t worried about messing up, you rarely do.”

The public enjoys the candid feel of the rodeo, Wall said. Attendance grew 8% from 2018 to 2019. Ticket sales were depressed in 2020 because of the pandemic, but Wall said 2021 ticket sales exceed those sold at the same time in 2019. “Cowboy culture” draws the crowds, Wall said.

“The cowboy way of life is something that is pure and something you can hold on to,” Wall said. “God, faith, family, country, heritage — all of that is on display.

“That is one of the reasons we will see a banner year this year,” Wall added. “People are wanting to get back into the things that mean something.”

The WCRR is not just entertaining. Profits from the rodeo raised more than $6 million to support working ranch families since 2001, Wall said.

“A group of guys from Amarillo were working cows one day and had a conversation,” Wall said. “They talked about how ranching is a good life but not exactly a good living. They decided they needed a way to support the working ranch cowboy.

“Inevitably, they thought that the way to make money was to produce a big-time ranch rodeo,” Wall added. “People would pay to come and watch that, and lo and behold, it proved true. They have come, and they have paid.”

Despite being a four-time ranch rodeo world champion, Lord does not make arrogant remarks or bold predictions. He just hopes for the best, he said in his laid-back, neighborly style.

“Hopefully, we will just go down there and do what we do, Lord said. “That is all you can do. Do the best you can with what you get to work with, and hopefully it all works out.”

Feature by Wade Yoder for OSU course work.