story by Lily Weinacht
Rodeo gives Jared Fulton a sense of connection. When his boots hit the dirt in the middle of a steer wrestling run, he’s carrying on a tradition that his dad, Brian Fulton, and older brother, Jake, have kept in the family for more than 30 years. “I really like rodeo – that’s the best way to describe it,” says 18-year-old Jared. “My brother’s done it most of his life, and Dad did it all his life.”
Jared entered his first 4-H rodeo when he was 11, but took up the reins more seriously as a freshman in the SDHSRA. “In high school, Dad really started me,” says the cowboy from Todd County, S.D. “I roped calves and team roped my freshman year, but I didn’t start bull dogging until my sophomore year. This year, I think I’ll focus on the bull dogging and team roping. As I’ve become more consistent with bull dogging, it’s become my favorite event. I am very fortunate to practice several times a week with Jake and fellow steer wrestler Rob Juker. The best role model I had was my dad,” says Jared. “Gabe Taylor has been a great source of inspiration, and Rob has been the biggest influence lately – he’s teaching me to bull dog in a consistent way, and I like it. The more runs I’ve done, I’ve been able to remember everything about them and actually think the run through as I’m doing it, so I’ve been enjoying that progression, and the rush.”
He’s steer wrestling off a gelding named Chunk, started by his dad, Brian, and Jake and Gabe. “Chunk stands 14.2. He’s a ranch bred horse that didn’t rope calves very well, so we started making him a bull dogging horse, and he works dang good,” Jared describes. “I rope off of a horse we call Doc. He’s the son of A Streak of Fling, and his full sister went to the NFR in barrel racing.”
In addition to the SDHSRA, Jared continues to compete in 4-H rodeo, and holds his card with the SDRA. He recently finished his junior year at Valentine High School, where he wrestles and plays football, and he also enjoys his FFA Power Systems class, where they work on engines. His backpack hardly hits the floor before he’s off to work on the family’s ranch. After his dad passed away in August last year, Jared, Jake, their brother, John Lloyd, and mom, Lisa Fulton, pulled together even closer. “Things have changed a lot in the last year, but Jake and I are at the age where we’ve picked up a lot of responsibility,” says Jared. “And Rob keeps us motivated in the right directions. Jake and the people that work with us handle most of the colt riding, and I’m mainly in charge of haying. I also help with catching colts, saddling, doctoring, washing – basically anything that has to do with colts! This year we have 18 two-year-olds.” John Lloyd, ten, is riding and also looking to join the rodeo ranks in the next year or two.
Jared has left a few calendar squares open this summer for going to wrestling and football camps, and though he enjoys the occasional hunting excursion, he’s focusing much of his energy on rodeo. “I’d like to make it to state finals and the NHSFR, and then the SDRA finals this fall,” he says. “This would be the first time I’d qualify for Nationals, but I’ve been out there before with Jake. After high school, I’m planning on going to SDSU to play football, and I want to be an Ag. teacher.”
