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GET A DRINK
RYAN DORGAN / NEWS&GUIDE
Youngsters are helped into their saddles during a musical chairs game during Sydney Lee Judge Memorial Night activities at the Heritage Arena.
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Sydney Lee Judge Foundation is back under the grandstand
Funds are raised for people who are in need in honor of the rodeo rider who died in 2013.
By Evan Robinson-Johnson
Lee Judge and her partner in crime Pam Carter refer to themselves as “the unsung heroes of the rodeo,” and as the crew that provides libations at the popular Wednesday night beer stand, they just might be.
The stand offers all the classic Coors and Budweiser offerings, as well as four or five local concoctions from Snake River Brewing Company, though when folks ask for a recommendation, Judge usually laughs and tells them to pick based on what color they like best — neither she nor Carter are beer-drinkers.
“People always get a big kick out of that,” Judge said.
She does dive into specifics when it comes to the profits, which go to the Sydney Lee Judge Foundation. Sharing photos and stories of rodeos past, Judge tells visitors about her cowgirl daughter, Sydney, who loved all things rodeo, from the calf scramble to the camaraderie, and who died in a car accident at age 16 in 2013. “It doesn’t matter how long it’s been, it still makes me cry when I think about how generously spirited she was,” Judge said. “The fact that we can do this in her name
Sydney Lee Judge
just means so much to me.”
The foundation provides scholarships for valley youth and funds organizations like MakeAWish and the Special Olympics, which Sydney helped out with throughout her childhood. Judge also finds small opportunities to use the money to brighten someone’s day and “support the underdog,” something her daughter always tried to do.
In April, when the Hernandez family lost their home to a fire, Judge saw the smoke from her front window, and a message on Facebook from one of Sydney’s former classmates, promoting a GoFundMe for the family.
It was an easy donation for Judge, who said she’s always appreciated the willingness of the Jackson community to support those in need.
Carter has also been touched by the generosity
RYAN DORGAN / NEWS&GUIDE
Hailey Hardeman leads her cousin Ty Lucero to the ring for his go in the men’s barrel racing during the fourth annual Sydney Lee Judge Memorial Night at the Heritage Arena. The night is held in memory of Judge, who died in a 2013 car accident.
of the Jackson community, which reached out to support her and her two sons after her husband, Paul Carter, died of cancer in 2001.
Now that the duo run the beer stand together they get to see simple philanthropy in action while also having fun at one of their favorite community functions. Last year they bought cowbells and rang them every time someone donated. Thanks to Carter’s infectious spirit, those gifts came rolling in, even from folks who didn’t buy a beer.
The partnership between the Sydney Lee Judge Foundation and the Jackson Hole Rodeo extends beyond libations in other ways too. Each year the Wilson family, which runs the fairground festivities, donates a check at the end of the season; the foundation then funnels the money into scholarships specifically for rodeo children.
“We work hand in hand,” Judge said. “That rodeo family is such a strong connection.”
Teton Barrel Racing Association also does an annual jackpot race to benefit the foundation. Judge said the foundation made just as much in 2020 as the previous year, despite reduced rodeo attendance due to COVID-19.
Judge works as a reimbursement manager for St. John’s Health, but she’ll be back alongside Carter under the fairgrounds grandstand come Memorial Day weekend for what’s sure to be another “bonkers” summer.
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like buying a used car — same arena, Wilson said, he’s never sure if the anithey’re likely to get bored. mal’s health and habits
“You got to change it up are as its owner says, and with them,” he said. “You you can only tell so much gotta change the delivery. from the tape: “SomeAnd they have to get a times you don’t get the cowboy on the ground.” honest truth.”
When the riders are Once wrestled back to too sticky, the bulls lose the Jackson fairgrounds, confidence and Wilson the bulls don’t always said they’ll just stop and get along with their new quit. He imagines the mates. bull’s mindset is “It ain’t “I don’t know what it is working, everything I’ve with our place, but we’re done, I can’t get a cowboy bringing new stock in all on the ground.” the time until there’s al-
To fire them up again, KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE PHOTOS ways a pecking order,” Wilson will take the bulls Jaspur Brower takes his turn in the arena atop 208 Illuminati. Wilson said. “That part around to the practice stinks because one of pen and give them a smaller, younger rider who they can them’s gonna get woofed really bad … once they smell easily buck off. blood they all get hot with it. It’s crazy.”
“He needs the victory,” Wilson said, “to have confidence In this season, before the summer’s bucking begins, the to keep going.” bulls get some time off to hang out and eat. Floyd, who
The bulls raised in this circuit have been born and Wilson said is “gonna be one fun one for the guys to get bred for the bucking ground. When they turn a year old on,” already weighs at least 1,700 pounds and will get a they have a remote-controlled 20-pound dummy tossed on new feast of grain and hay to munch on. their back. By three they’ll meet a real rider, then start Soon enough they’ll start running the bulls around to traveling for competitions. Wilson likes to pick them up get them back in shape, and form a more personalized around age five, allowing ample time to notice patterns diet for each bull. The “easy keepers,” for example, “can like aggression and excitability. look at grass without eating it and gain weight,” whereas
But even with that preparation the actual sale can feel other bulls will need every morsel to bulk up.
KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE
KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE
Emmit Ross rides the bull 324 Raizin the Roof during the first of two bull riding sections last year.
Unlike the pros, there’s no swimming pool training at the Wilson farm, and Buskin jokes that because the bulls are fighting each other so much, they get more than enough exercise. Perhaps that’s the
Jackson Hole secret. Each of Phil Wilson’s three sons take on a different aspect of the rodeo — horses, ropes, and, in Buskin’s case, bulls — “Once they smell mirroring their lifelong passions. And for Busblood they get all hot with it. It’s crazy.” kin it’s hard to imagine a place he’d rather be. “[We] work hard at — Buskin Wilson getting the best bulls we can for those guys ON BULLS MEETING BULLS that come out,” he said, “and they love it.” He’s also pumped that the pandemic is on its way out, opening the door for full-on fairground revelry again. “We’re back on the right path now. And I think we’re all moving ahead. We’re ready. We’re ready to be rolling.”
KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE
