Rodeo honors Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees

By: 
Nathan Oster

Tucked in between the mutton busting and the bronc riding, this year’s Big Horn County Fair rodeo began with a special presentation celebrating the four men from Region 6 who are being inducted in the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame.

This year’s class of 43 inductees includes three men from Big Horn County, Jim Caines of Hyattville, Gene Bischoff of Powell, and the late Andy Gifford of Lovell, and one from Park County, the late Dick Skeen of Hyattville.

As their loved ones looked on in admiration, Caines and Bischoff accepted their plaques and the crowd’s applause, as did family members of Gifford and Skeen.

The induction ceremony for the four men will be Sept. 11-12 at the Little America in Cheyenne.

Formed for historical, cultural, literary, and educational purposes, WCHF's chief goal is “To preserve, promote, perpetuate, publish and document Wyoming’s working cowboy and ranching history through researching, profiling and honoring individuals who broke the first trails and introduced that culture to this state.  WCHF plans to collect, display and preserve the stories, photos and artifacts of such individuals and anything else that will honor and highlight their contributions to our history.”

When the action resumed, the spotlight returned to the cowboys and cowgirls jockeying for position in this year’s Big Horn Rodeo Circuit standings. The ones who helped themselves the most were the following individual event winners: Colton Farrow (bareback), Tucker Hatch (ranch bronc), Chris Williams (saddle bronc), EJ Panetta (calf roping), Tanner Griemsman (junior breakaway), Rylee Anderson (women’s breakaway), Dusdee Shepperson (women’s barrels), Mesa Allen (junior barrels), Wyatt Blank (steer riding), team ropers Casey Good and Ryan Zurcher and mixed team ropers Laney Accord and J.T. Collingwood.

Here are the top finishers in each of the respective events.

 

BAREBACK — 1, Colton Farrow, 68.

RANCH BRONC — 1, Tucker Hatch, 74. 2, Kurt McNabb, 70. 3, Matthew Duke, 69.

SADDLE BRONC — 1, Chris Williams, 77.

BULL RIDING — 1, Zane Fitzgerald, 76, and Brian Harrison, 76.

CALF ROPING — 1, EJ Panetta, 15.14. 2, Tate Edeler, 20.11.

JUNIOR BREAKAWAY — 1, Tanner Greimsman, 14.26.

WOMEN’S BREAKAWAY — 1, Rylee Anderson, 4.22. 2, Laney Accord, 4.60.

WOMEN’S BARRELS ­— 1, Dusdee Shepperson, 18.045. 2, Della Eppler, 18.097. 3, Lori Johnson, 18.461. 4, Mandy McKim, 19.051.

JUNIOR BARRELS — 1, Mesa Allen, 18.628. 2, Payton Bischoff, 18.872. 3, Kynley Floy, 19.311. 4, Taylor Chenney, 20.059.

STEER RIDING — 1, Wyatt Blank, 73. 2, Virginia Lohr, 72. 3, Austin Curt, 67. 4, Monte Blank, 62.

TEAM ROPING — 1, Casey Good-Ryan Zurcher, 7.58. 2, Leland McMillan-Jeremy Stahl, 14.88. 3, Tim Accord-Jake Agar, 16.72. 4, Brooke Dahoney-Ryan Zurcher, 16.73.

MIXED TEAM ROPING — 1, Laney Accord-JT Collingwood, 10.21. 2, Lacee Good-Keeton Pollan, 11.17. 3, Kayleen Chaffee-Cactus Floy, 12.24.

SHEEP RIDING — 1, Kaysen Nyberg.