GUNNISON, Colo. – This mountain town is a little bit out of the way for Andrew Galloway.
He lives in Albuquerque and works as a farrier. He’s pretty busy with that, but he still finds time to wrestle steers, mostly in the Turquoise Circuit, a series of rodeos and contestants primarily from New Mexico and Arizona.
He made the trip worth it by stopping the clock in 4.6 seconds during Friday’s second performance of the Cattlemen’s Days PRCA Rodeo to take the bulldogging lead.
“I love coming to this rodeo; I try to come every year that I can,” said Galloway, 33. “The committee’s great, and normally the cattle are super good here, so I really enjoy coming here.”
He specializes in horses that need correction on their hooves. That helps keep him busy, so he’s a part-time rodeo cowboy.
“I’ve been blessed enough to do some corrective stuff,” he said. “I do a lot of stuff with limonitic horses, founder and ring bone.”
Those types of specialized jobs are necessary to horse owners. He served as an apprentice under renowned farrier Riley Henson, and he’s built on those lessons to serve his clients and their equine partners. When he’s on the rodeo trail, he rides a horse owned by fellow bulldogger Cimarron Thompson of Hobbs, New Mexico, who knocked his steer to the ground in 5.4 Friday and sits in a tie for third place.
“I try to go to all my circuit rodeos and anything that’s co-approved,” Galloway said, noting that money won at the rodeo in Monte Vista, Colorado, will count toward the Turquoise Circuit standings. “Gunnison is close to Monte Vista this weekend, so I decided to enter and have a little bit of fun.”
He hopes to open his schedule a little more starting next year to rodeo a little more and see what might happen. Of course, all success comes because he rides a good horse and has a solid hazer like Thompson lining out the steers for him. Bulldogging is the only event in rodeo where the athlete has a helper like that.
“He sure puts them in my lap, and I think that’s one cool thing about the Turquoise Circuit, because everybody tries to help each other out,” said Galloway, who earned his first trip to the regional finale last year.
He finished 10th in the circuit last season and has some work to do if he’s going to advance again this season. He’s 18th on the money list, and only the top 12 will move on.
“I’d sure like to make it again,” he said.
Cattlemen’s Days
Gunnison, Colo.
July 11-13
Bareback riding: 1. Rocker Steiner, 87 points on United Pro Rodeo’s Big Apple; 2. Tilden Hooper, 85; 3. Waylon Bourgeois, 84; 4. 5. Keenan Hayes, 82; 5. (tie) Cole Franks, Gavin French and Isaac Ingram, 81.5; 8. Monte Downare, 81.
Steer wrestling: 1. Andrew Galloway, 4.6 seconds; 2. Jacob Wang, 4.7; 3. (tie) Garrett Guillot and Cimarron Thompson, 5.4; 5. Seth Peterson, 5.7; 6. Hadley Jackson, 6.1; 7. Chisum Docheff, 10.3; Brady Reneau, 30.5.
Team roping: 1. Jr. Dees/J.C. Flake, 5.1 seconds; 2. Gary Haynes/Bryton Scheller, 5.5; 3. Austin Crist/J.W. Borrego, 5.8; 4. Clay Ullery/Tyce McLeod, 6.0; 5. Corey Whinnery/Robert Murphy, 6.2; 6. Brodi Jones/Arye Espenscheid, 7. Kory Bramwell/Calvin Brevik, 9.5; 8. Blake Hirdes/Mike George, 10.6.
Breakaway roping: 1. Brighton Bauman, 1.8 seconds; 2. Nicole Baggarley, 1.9; 3. Tiffany Schieck, 2.2; 4. (tie) Kristy Stewart and Shayla Smith, 2.3; 6. Brooke Ladner, 2.4; 7. (tie) Beau Peterson and Jade Mitchell, 2.5; 9. Kassidy Dennison, 2.6; 10. (tie) Payton Scalzo, Kinlie Brennise, Haley Mason and Winter Williams, 2.7.
Saddle bronc riding: 1. (tie) Tegan Smith, on United Pro Rodeo’s Ropin Dreams, and Bailey Small, on Rafter G Rodeo’s Blue Velvet, 86.5 points; 3. (tie) Jake Finlay and Gus Galliard, 85; 5. Isaac Richard, 82; 6. Cauy Pennington, 79; 7. Kolt Ferguson, 77.5; 8. Carter Sandberg, 76.
Tie-down roping: 1. (tie) Ryan Jarrett and Brice Ingo, 8.7 seconds; 3. (tie) Landyn Duncan and J.D. McCuistion, 9.3 seconds; 5. (tie) Jayden Broussard and Riley Pruitt, 9.4; 7. Bart Brunson, 11.1; 8. Stuart Hoar, 12.4.
Barrel racing: 1. Jana Bean, 17.53 seconds; 2. Fallon Taylor, 17.74; 3. Tara Seaton, 17.83; 4. Shy-Anne Jarrett, 17.83; 5. Rachel Huerkamp, 17.84; 6. Sara Redden, 17.89; 7. Megan Albrecht, 17.98; 8. (tie) Sarah Kieckhefer and Taylour Latham, 18.01; 10. Kelly Yates, 18.06; 11. C.J. Vondette, 18.07; 12. Ryleigh Hauer, 18.08.
Bull riding: 1. Luke Mackey, 87 points on Harper Morgan’s Can’t Get It Rig; 2. Brody Hasenack, 83.5; 3. Vinell Mariano, 80; no other qualified rides.