Gracie and Kasey: born to ride

The story goes that Gracie Hardeman and Kasey Carr were both born wearing cowboy boots. Both descending from generational ranching families, Hardeman and Carr have instilled the knack for rodeo in their bag of blue collar tricks.

For Hardeman, a Jackson Hole High School senior and the president of the Wyoming High School Rodeo Association, it’s all about tradition. Her grandmother, Jennifer Clark, competed on the University of Wyoming rodeo team in the 1960s. Her grandfather, the late Earl Hardeman, a member of the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame, was a familiar voice in the valley, announcing the Jackson Hole Rodeo for more than 30 years.

Gracie’s father, Rob Hardeman, still competes in the arena, and her older sister, Hailey, has followed her grandmother and represents the brown and gold for the Pokes’ rodeo team.

“Rodeo has always been a big part of our family’s lives,” Hardeman said, “Getting the opportunity to grow up on a ranch in Jackson has helped me immensely with my rodeo career throughout the years.”

Now in her fourth and final year of high school rodeo, Hardeman has come out of the gates hot. Last season she tussled with Wyoming weather, a bad draw of stock and injured horses. But her motivation to achieve this spring has been nothing short of monumental.

With the hunger to show off her array of skills at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Gillette come July, Hardeman is after the podium in breakaway roping, her top event.

She was sitting in fourth, behind Farson’s Sydney Jones, Douglas’ Dylan Thar and Yoder’s Hadley Thompson, respectively, in early May.

“The past few years the Wyoming High School Rodeo Association has had some phenomenal athletes, making the competition extremely strong,” Hardeman said, “But I’m working hard on continuing to be a strong competitor.”

Carr, a Jackson Hole High School junior and Wyoming High School Rodeo competitor, has also had another standout rodeo season. After battling with a stress fracture in her tibia last spring, Carr has gotten back into the swing of things.

“My biggest goal is to stay healthy and to continue to take care of myself as well as my horse’s health,” Carr said.

With her groove restored, she has placed within the top four for goat tying at every high school rodeo this season and has been swapping with Yoder’s Thompson for the top spots on the podium. Currently, Carr holds the state buckle-winning position for goat tying with 79 total points for the season. Her talent has also earned her a spot within the top 10 in pole bending and breakaway roping.

On the last weekend in April both athletes saw the arena in Big Piney for their respective events. Carr, who competed in breakaway roping on Saturday, placed sixth with a time of 3.690 seconds.

To close out the rodeo, Hardeman placed sixth in both breakaway roping and pole bending with times of 3.000 seconds and 21.318 seconds, respectively. Carr snuck into the top 10 for

By Mia Fishman

goat tying with her time of 8.950 seconds, placing ninth.

In early May the rodeo crew traveled to Newcastle in search of competition. Hardeman placed within the top 10 for breakaway on both days. Her pole run wasn’t what she had hoped for, but she bounced back into third place in the rankings with a time of 20.7 seconds.

Carr did well in goat tying, placing fourth on a Saturday and second on Sunday, winning the average. She also placed sixth in barrel racing and seventh in breakaway roping.

But the sport isn’t always all belt buckles and big checks, especially in the

Cowboy State during the winter months. Aside from keeping their horses healthy, weather is the biggest challenge for these rodeo girls.

“Rodeo time in the valley is limited, so when winter hits you have to get a little creative,” Hardeman said.

“I have had to find my own ways to be able to practice without my horse, like roping in my garage on foot and tying my goat dummy,” Carr said, “I’ve also been lifting weights, because staying in rodeo shape is so important, especially when you’re not able to ride all winter long.”

They not only compete at the high school level but can also be found surrounded by grandstands, roping calves, tying goats and running barrels or poles at the Jackson Hole Rodeo during the summer months. Last season, Hardeman waltzed into her senior year with a Jackson Hole Rodeo Breakaway Championship under her belt.

“The Jackson Hole Rodeo is a great venue to season horses and develop my skills,” Hardeman said, “Competing in front of 2,000 people for three nights a week only makes me a stronger competitor, both mentally and physically.”

For generations of rodeo athletes across the valley, the Jackson Hole Rodeo has been the foundation of their love for all things Western.

“The Jackson Hole Rodeo has been one of the highlights of my summer ever since I was 3 years old,” Carr said. “It was the place that taught me what rodeo really is all about.” rode all the way to the Mountain States Circuit Finals, winning $1,972 for an 86.5-point buck on Bad Memory. For those unfamiliar with the scoring, four judges dole out a combined 100 points, 50 for the rider, 50 for the bull. Rides count for score only if the athlete can hold on for at least eight seconds.

Contact Mia Fishman via 732-7065 or sports@jhnewsandguide.com.

And that’s where the Wilson bulls really shine.

Jackson’s rodeo has a particular knack for giving riders a chance at a score, thanks to the caliber of bulls Buskin recruits. Scouring the country for roughstock that are just the right amount of rough, the retired rider puts together a lineup that gives young athletes a challenge without immediately sending them into the dirt.

Talk to the athletes who drive from across the Cowboy State and the Mountain West to compete in Jackson Hole, and they all praise the Jackson rodeo for giving them the best rides of the year.

Of course, having the right bulls is only half the battle. In order to train young athletes, Phil Wilson has put together something of a boot camp on his South Park ranch. Just above the board room where his family gathers on rodeo mornings, there’s an outfitted gym to get the youngsters in shape. In addition to dumbbells and rowing machines, the center boasts an automated bull and a motorized breakaway steer for roping.

Don’t sleep on the training, Wilson warns, unless you want your season cut short by an injury.

A tough attitude might be enough to get a young competitor into the fair- grounds, but to escape without a pulled groin or a popped socket, some work in the preseason is well-advised.

Do it right and you can make it all the way to the National High School Finals Rodeo, where homegrown star Brody Hasenack took third in bull riding in 2021.

Jackson’s athletes have also found fortune on more gentle steeds. The Hardeman family, for instance, has made a show of the barrels for generations. Hailey Hardeman is competing for the University of Wyoming rodeo team and likely to go pro after graduation.

Keeping things in the family has been a boon for the Jackson Hole Rodeo. But as fewer ranch families call the valley home, the supply of talented cowboys and cowgirls is drying up. Athletes like Hasenack and Hailey’s younger sister, Gracie, wonder who will rise to their ranks after they graduate.

— Hal Johnson

But the old-timers don’t look too darkly on the situation. Wilson likes to say that rodeo is cyclical, with ups and downs in the national attention. As long as he can do his part to keep folks interested in the sport, he believes the athletes will continue to compete.

Hal Johnson, who ran the Jackson rodeo back in the 1960s and still lives in Teton Valley, Idaho, said he’s starting to see “city kids” take up the mantle. And as far as he’s concerned, they’re welcome in the arena as long as they can ride.

“It doesn’t matter where you were raised, it’s the desire, you know. If you want to do it, you can do it.”

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Wild Rides

Continued looping around one of the first barrels before riding across the arena to the next one and circling it before riding to the back of the arena. After looping around the back barrel, the rider sprints the horse back across the starting line, when the timer stops.

Originally a sport for the ladies, who were judged less on speed and more on horsemanship, outfit and style while the men took part in the roping and bull and bronc riding events, today’s barrel racing is for riders of all sorts — men, women and kids, according to the International Barrel Racers Association.

How to win: Be the fastest. Contestants who knock over a barrel are given no time, though touching a barrel, even to keep it from falling, is allowed.

Mutton Bustin’

The entry for this event on ModernFarmer.com is titled “6 seconds and a sheep,” which pretty much tells you everything you need to know. Mutton bustin’ is like bronc riding, except the contestants are kids and they ride fluffy sheep rather than 1-ton death traps.

Helmeted, the kids basically hug the sheep’s neck and hang on as the woolly ungulate sprints as hard as it can around the arena. There are basically no other rules, no spurring or style points, no marking out the animal. Though it may seem cruel to stick a kid between the ages of 4 and 7 on an animal that can weigh close to 200 pounds and is intent on leaving its rider behind, the sport introduces children to the roughstock events that their parents or older siblings participate in.

How to win: It’s quite similar to bull riding — just stay on for the six seconds. From there, if several kids manage to hang on and not slide off the animal’s side (which seems to be the way most fall off), it seems to be the judges’ discretion who wins.

Mini Bull Riding

Almost exactly like bull riding, except everything is smaller. Full-grown mini bulls are about 500 pounds (they’re the Lil’ Sebastian of the rodeo), and their pint-size riders are kids who haven’t grown up enough to fit on the back of a regular bull.

Riders are generally 14 or younger.

How to win: See bull riding above. Pee-wee riders, generally ages 8 to 10, are asked to stay on for six seconds; mini riders, generally 11-14, are asked to hang on for eight seconds.

Contact Tom Hallberg via 732-7065 or sports@jhnewsandguide.com.