Enjoyin' the ride -- Hasauer, Lowe win titles at Ellensburg Rodeo

ELLENSBURG -- Among professional sports, rodeo is profoundly different than its higher-paying brethren, in ways that are at once breathtaking and endearing. Because its athletes are typically more approachable than those in other athletic arenas, and unfailingly friendly and yes'm polite, their audiences respond to them almost like members of the family.

And that love affair is entirely a two-way street, which is why even competitors who are already assured of qualifying for December's National Finals Rodeo will often compete right up until the end of the season.

"To me, it's to be able to succeed in rodeo, and not have to go home to whatever job you do in the off-season, and to be able to keep rodeoing in front of all these nice people," said North Dakota cowboy Dusty Hausauer after winning the saddle bronc competition.

"This is just one of them rodeos where the fans are great," said Hausauer, who has no intention of slowing down after earning $6,556 in Ellensburg to improve on his seventh-place standing. "And there's just something about rodeos you do good at."

In his third straight year in the money at Ellensburg, Hausauer earned his aggregate (total on two rides) paycheck with his 86-point ride upon a boisterous bronc called Fearless Warrior. Although Anthony Bello tied him the best score of the day, Hausauer's was far more impressive simply because of the horse's unpredictable athleticism.

"He had a couple more moves than I'd seen before," Hausauer said. "Most horses have one big move, and he had that one big one to the left -- but this horse had a couple more, and I knew I had my hands full."

So, too, did bareback rider Will Lowe. Although his 83-point ride was only tied for the third-highest score -- Royce Forde and Josi Young each had an 86 -- the three-time world champion's churning journey aboard Mad Money was definitely the ride people will remember.

"I was just trying to stay on," Lowe said. "That horse really bucks hard. He cranked me around the corner real good, and I kept trying to get back. I did about all I could. There's a lot of power in that horse."

Not as much, though, as the bull named North Chill that brought a chilling silence to the arena crowd. The bull tossed JayC Bean of Goldendale, who -- because his hand remained caught in the rigging -- was jerked down onto the bull's head and horn and knocked into next week. Bean was taken from the arena on a stretcher and it was announced he would be taken to the hospital, but within 10 minutes Bean had convinced paramedics he was fine and went on his way.

When that was announced to the audience, there was both a collective sigh of relief and a knowing chuckle: Yeah, these cowboys are TOUGH.

Minutes later, Bean's buddy Marcus Michaelis of Caldwell, Idaho, earned 88 points aboard a bull called Due North to earn both the day and aggregate paychecks.

The seven failed rides before him -- and the long wait while Bean was tended to -- were a little unnerving, Michaelis admitted. "The longer you have to wait, the worse it is. You want to hurry up and get to it," he said. "I'm glad JayC's OK. He's been my traveling partner a couple years now, but he's a tough guy. I knew he'd be OK."

Ken Lewis of Colorado and California's Luke Branquinho tied for the steer wrestling aggregate title at 13.6 seconds each over three rounds, even though each had hoped for better in Monday's go.

"(Competitors in previous rounds) have been 4.3 on (the steer) twice, and I was 4.7," Lewis said. "I should probably have been faster, but I'll take what I can get."

Branquinho, the leader coming into Monday, had a tough time chasing down his fast-breaking steer and ended up with a 5.0. "I knew I was beat from the get-to," Branquinho said. "He left and ran more than I thought he would."

Idaho tie-down roper Matt Shiozawa won his second Ellensburg title by a tenth of a second, and barrel racer Sheena Robbins of Fresno, Calif., won the barrel racing by three-tenths of a second in just her second rodeo since her horse, Shorty, returned from a back injury that had sidelined him for two months.

Team ropers Chad Masters, the reigning champion header, and Michael Jones were absolutely dominant, winning the finals in a swift 5.2 seconds and taking the aggregate by more than four seconds. The win was especially impressive, considering that Masters had torn an ACL on March 26, had surgery a week later and has only been roping with Jones for barely two weeks.

Whether the audience knew of Masters trevails or not, they remained uniformly appreciative -- as were the competitors themselves. Long after his winning ride, Dusty Hausauer was still lingering outside the bucking chutes, talking to spectators and talking about a nagging knee injury with a reporter.

"It's no big thing," he said. "It don't matter if you're riding horses or you're roping calves, if you're in rodeo you've always got some little pain here or there you're dealing with."

He pulled out a cell phone then, checking for the calls he'd missed.

"Well, I better call my mom," he said, with the grin of a cowboy and a gentlemen. "Been nice visiting with you."

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