story by Ruth Nicolaus
Bo Bushhousen is a state champ.
The 19-year-old, a resident of Worms, Neb., finished as the Nebraska State High School champion cutter and is headed to Nationals for the third time in his high school career.
Bo rides Big Short Stuff, “Doc,” an eight-year-old bay gelding, who was purchased by the family in the fall of 2022. Doc has worked out well. He is cowy and observant, Bo said. “He really watches stuff. If you walk by something and he doesn’t know what it is, he’ll keep an eye on it. but that helps in the cutting pen, because when a cow moves, he’s always ready to go.”
A 2023 graduate of Grand Island Northwest High School, Bo enjoyed his high school years. Math class came easy to him, and he loved sports, playing football for three years, track for two years, and wrestling for all four years.
Sports was a big part of high school for him. “Our school has a really good culture, sports-wise,” he said. “I formed a lot of close friendships and bonds with sports kids. That was fun, having all those kids to talk to. And we had some really good coaches I enjoyed who helped me out a lot.”
He was on his school’s honor roll; he lettered in wrestling all four years and was an academic all-star award winner in 2022-23.
He’s a big part of his family’s business, which consists of farming, raising cattle, a feedlot, and raising pheasants. He ran the planter this spring and often rides pens and doctors cattle in the feedlot. With the pheasants, which the family sells for hunting, he helps feed and water them.
The best meal Bo’s mom makes is chicken alfredo, and his favorite dessert is anything chocolate, but especially a seven-layer chocolate cake with fudgy frosting between each layer. His favorite fruit and vegetable are oranges and asparagus, and the most fun he’s had on a trip was to Davis, Okla., this spring, when the family rode side-by-sides and fished for stripers. Stripers are fun to catch, “because they fight hard,” he said. They’re also tasty, dipped in batter and fried.
If he were given $1 million, he’d spend it on land for hunting, as he’s a hunting afficionado. He likes to hunt whitetail deer, turkeys, ducks and pheasants, and would buy land along a river.
For fun, Bo and his family like to ride the airboat in the Loup River.
This fall, he will attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to study ag systems technology, which consists of business, communications and technology. He will focus on the tech side of farming, including guidance systems. After college, he’ll head back to the home place to help farm and ranch.
Bo has competed at state finals the last three years, finishing third in the cutting his sophomore year and winning the state title his junior and senior years.
At Nationals his sophomore year, Bo’s first run was 71 points but on the second run, he lost a cow. His junior year was much better: he had an average of 423 points, which allowed him to finish in seventh place in the year-end standings.
He has a plan for Nationals this year. “My goal is to be more consistent. Last year I had a good first cut, then it got worse the next two days. This year, I want to keep a consistent, decent score and finish in the top four or five.”
Bo has two older sisters: Sydney, age 26, and Brook, age 23.
He is the son of Brad and Lana Bushhousen.
