Hal Burns

chance for harm. And ranches are owned by big corporations or are being divided up. The PRCA has programs to help schools and youth rodeo and amateur associations. It is vital to keep the western lifestyle alive. Entities used to be competitive with each other. Now it has gotten better. This is my opinion. We are all working for the common cause. Also, the bulls are vastly better. Many pre PBR/ PRCA bulls go to the smaller rodeos first and they are better than the riders. But just as you bring the bulls along, the young riders need to be brought along and many times they are not ready for this caliber of bull. Both young riders and young bulls need to be developed.

Are you still in the business?

No, I sold the company about 8 years ago. I have some beef cattle and sell their calves.

Where do you see western sports going in the future?

Western Sports entertainment is a hot ticket. It is extremely attractive. People want to see cowboys

R to L - Cade Burns and Hal Burns

compete. But it is getting scarcer. You have parents not wanting their children to be cowboys, you have animal rights groups that have no idea how well these animals are treated, transportation is tougher and tougher, and the various diseases that the animals contract.

I cannot guess what the future holds. You cannot breed bulls to buck any harder. Some breeders are now breeding for speed.

If someone wanted to go into the rodeo/stock contracting business, what advice would you give them?

Be patient. Many in the business today can afford to do it because they have other businesses. Do a good job and be honest. Take it one step at a time. It is a tough business to make money in. You have to pay your dues and work your way up. There is opportunity in rodeo but it is a difficult business.

The best part was all the good people I met and I loved working with large animals.

By Abe Morris

Mike Smith - Part I

Right after Mike Smith graduated from the seventh grade in Dallas, Texas, his father, who worked for the Chevrolet division of General Motors, was transferred to Denver, Colorado. They wound up living near the Bear Creek horse riding stables. This would be Mike’s first exposure to the equine industry. Before this, he readily admitted that he was a spoiled kid whose father was a member of the corporate country club. Mike was also involved in playing golf and tennis before his interest in large animals.

Smith would frequently walk across a foot bridge to the stable and curiosity would eventually get the best of him. He finally got up the courage to ask his father to buy him a horse. His father’s response was if you want a horse then you need to get a job and earn enough money to buy it yourself. Mike took the advice and got a paper route delivering newspapers for the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post. When Mike would finish his daily deliveries his mother would give him a ride to the stables to spend the remainder of the evenings. After he had saved enough money, Smith was able to buy his first horse for $100.00.

Several ropers would also practice in the indoor arena and utilized the younger kids to help them move cattle. Then later they would bribe and tease the kids to ride some of the roping calves and steers. Soon afterwards Mike advanced to flag racing and pole bending. When he was a little older, one of the other kids asked him if he would like to go to a rodeo. Smith’s response was, “What’s a rodeo?”

When Smith was 15 years old, he got a summer job working at a dude ranch near the Idle Wild Ski Resort. Every morning they would round up about 60 horses and bring them back to the stables for the paying customers. During the days, the wranglers would take customers out to ride the trails. But under the cover of darkness they would secretly flank some of the horses to get in a little rough stock practice when the stable manager went to dinner.

The National Little Britches Rodeo was held in Littleton, Colorado when Mike was 16 years old. Mike’s father had gotten involved in his son’s future burgeoning rodeo career by becoming a NLBR board and committee member. Mike ended up winning the title of senior boy’s bull riding national champion. Afterwards Mike Smith told his father that he preferred to concentrate and focus on rodeo events. Prior to this he really had absolutely no interest in seriously pursuing the sport of rodeo.

Smith also discovered a place in Boulder, Colorado where they regularly got on bucking horses. The place was owned by a guy named Rex Wilson. (not the same rodeo guy who lives in Sydney, Nebraska)

By the time Mike competed in the National High School Finals at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Colorado, he entered all six events. Later on he decided to focus and only concentrate on the three rough stock events.

Mike and his father had met and become good friends with legendary World Champion rodeo cowboy Larry Mahan. In future years, through his father’s corporate business relationship with General Motors and Chevrolet, Mahan was regularly set up with vehicles at multiple rodeos whenever Larry flew to smaller airports throughout his long and very extensive rodeo traveling career.

Mike Smith was able to get his Rodeo Cowboy’s Association permit and promptly filled it winning the necessary $1,000 required for a full fledge membership in just his first two pro rodeos. Normally he was going to have to wait until he turned age 18 to become a member. The family’s relationship with Larry Mahan paid off and Mahan wrote a letter to then RCA President Dave Stout asking for special consideration for the very talented youngster. Smith was granted his RCA card a year early.

Next stop would be the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, Colorado in January 1973. Mike Smith drew the six time and famous Bucking Horse of the Year, Descent, owned by Beutler Brothers and Cervi. Their match up took place on a Thursday night at the Denver Coliseum, and reminiscent of the poor Christians being thrown to the lions in the old Roman Coliseum of the biblical days, Mike would be the poor innocent Christian at the mere age of 17 going up against the mighty warrior bronc that most people were afraid to even get on. It also happened to be Champions Night when all of the RCA World Champions who were crowned in the previous year were awarded their trophy rodeo belt buckles.

Young Mike Smith wowed the sold out crowd by successfully riding Descent and the hometown kid received a standing ovation when the pickup man safely let him back down to the terra firma. Needless to say, he became an overnight sensation with a write up and photo on the front page of the Denver Post the following day.

Mike Smith would go on to have an outstanding and very sterling career throughout his high school years. He wasn’t able to compete at the National High School Finals his senior year because of a

broken leg. Rodeo team coach Gordon Steinmiller approached and offered Smith a full ride scholarship to attend Lamar Community College in Lamar, Colorado. Smith’s first question was, “Where in the heck is Lamar?”

Smith enrolled and attended LCC in September 1973. He was roommates with Matt Fowler a very talented Native American bull rider from Mounds, Oklahoma. During the summer months he and Fowler hit the rodeo trail very hard and vigorously. They both also cleaned up almost every where they were entered.

Eventually, Mike Smith transferred to the University of Southern Colorado (nowadays known as Colorado State University - Pueblo). Mike Smith qualified and competed at the College National Finals Rodeo all four years. He also won money by placing in the saddle bronc riding and bull riding events at every single college rodeo except one during that four year span.

In Fort Collins, Colorado he bucked off of the bull Lizard who was owned by Edker Wilson and sustained a fractured cervical vertebrae in his neck. Lizard had terrorized the college and rodeo circuit throughout the state of Colorado for several years.

Smith graduated from USC in 1979 and ventured to Canada to stay with and travel with perennial NFR bull rider Jordie Thomson from Black Diamond, Alberta. Together they went to 13 rodeos and Smith placed at every single one. He was hot and on a roll lighting up the skyline with his own personal version of the Aurora Borealis otherwise known as the “Northern Lights.”

Mike Smith also traveled periodically with 1979 World Champion saddle bronc rider Bobby Berger in his small private airplane that was nicknamed the “Bumble Bee” because of the yellow and black paint job.

The downturn of a very promising rodeo career started at the famous Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo (the Daddy of ‘em All). Smith bucked off and hung up to a bull for quite awhile. Another major injury happened at a rodeo in Yuma, Colorado. A saddle bronc horse accidentally crossed his front legs and tripped causing a somersault and landed on Mike Smith’s hips. The crushing and very devastating blow crushed Mike to the ground. A broken pelvis

Mike Smith riding the great bucking horse, Descent, in Denver, 1973.

Photo by Jerry Gustafson.

prevented Mike from walking out of the area. Next was a very agonizing three hour ride to a Denver hospital emergency room. Smith endured a forced three month injured reserve sideline stint to convalesce, heal up and learn to walk all over again.

After Mike was healthy enough to start riding again he sustained some broken ribs and a punctured lung from hanging up to a Jim Sutton bull in Mitchell, South Dakota. Next Smith dislocated his shoulder on a Beutler Brothers and Cervi bronc in Amarillo, Texas. These intermittent periods of time off lead Mike Smith to do some very serious soul searching and he concluded that a different professional career would be more fruitful to his pocketbook and less harmful to his body.

Personally, I’ve been around the sport of rodeo for most of my life. Mike Smith had a very classy style of his own. He turned his toes out East and West and waved his free arm in such a gliding and controlled motion. I always enjoyed watching him effortlessly riding good bucking bulls. It was truly poetry in motion. At the peak of his bull riding career he was definitely talented enough to qualify for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo a few times. But it wasn’t meant to be because Smith just couldn’t seem to stay healthy long enough in order to make that happen. Mike Smith had also began to dabble in some PR venues combining live bands and bull riding events. They had scheduled a big Match Bull Riding Invitational event near Denver but as fate would have it was snowed out and he lost over $13,000 in investments. It was also about that time that Mike decided he no longer wanted to play the role of a professional rodeo cowboy and sought to make his fame and fortune in the corporate world and an office environment. Smith moved to Austin, Texas. He started out working for a computer dealership selling IBM personal computers and accessories. Later, he branched off promoting his own personal computer sales and service business.

(to be continued)