By Ted Harbin

Photo Courtesy of Phillip Kitts

Sitting at the driver’s license bureau last week, one of the few rodeo friends in my hometown asked me why I wasn’t on the road?

“I figured you’d be busy with Cowboy Christmas,” he said.

He’s not wrong. I just wasn’t on the road. That trip arrived the Fourth of July, bound for a combination vacation/work trip – first to Rooftop Rodeo in Estes Park, Colorado, then to Cattlemen’s Days in Gunnison, Colorado. (My family vacations while I work in beautiful settings, but I snuck in a couple of days of R&R.)

Both rodeos happen at the tail end of Cowboy Christmas, that series of lucrative rodeos centered around the holiday. They offer a mountain respite for the weary travelers that have stretched themselves from western Oregon to Arizona to Minnesota and beyond. There are dozens of rodeos, and contestants will try to hit as many as possible with hopes of cashing in big.

Last year, for example, reigning three-time tie-down roping world champion Riley Webb had the most earnings with almost $33,000. Half his earnings came in St. Paul, Oregon, where he deposited a check worth $16.235, but he also made bank in Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and North Dakota.

That’s just a few summertime days. It’s a hectic time filled with many miles between competitions. It means roadside burgers, makeshift beds in an airport awaiting the next flight and very little sleep. It means one rig heading to the Northwest, while another awaits arrivals at Denver International Airport.

It means riding in Red Lodge, Montana, then hoping to make the 119-mile drive to Livingston, Montana, in time to ride again. Performances in Red Lodge started at 5:45 p.m. MDT, while performances in Livingston began at 8 p.m., but it takes two hours to traverse those highways and hope for no traffic snarls.

That’s not the only time cowboys and cowgirls will try to make two rodeos in a day. It’s certainly a rush, but it’s not the only time of the year contestants peer through droopy eyelids to make it from one event to the next. Those types of schedules define July and August.

The end goal, of course, is to finish the regular season among the top 15 on the money list in their respective events and play for the big pay in December during the National Finals Rodeo at Las Vegas. From now until then, though, there will be a lot of windshield time that will help make it happen.

Competitors must manage hours on the road for 8 seconds of work, but it’s their way of celebrating Cowboy Christmas.