A Nebraska cowboy won the Top Hand award at the National Western Stock Show Ranch Rodeo in Denver Jan. 11, and his horse won the Top Horse award.  

Sage Haythorn, Arthur, Neb., took the honors.   

The team: Haythorn, Tyler Minor, Cole Schaffer and Wade Speck, have been hitting the ranch rodeo scene for several years, competing at local ranch rodeos in Ogallala, Grant, Imperial and Arthur, Neb., among others, plus the ranch rodeos out of state, including Abilene and Fort Worth, Texas.  

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Denver’s ranch rodeo includes sorting, cutting out three cows and getting them through a sliding box car door, to pen them; wild cow milking; cutting and branding, sending a cow down a 12-foot alley, then heading, heeling, and branding and double mugging.  

TEAM EFFORT

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It doesn’t matter which team member does which job, each person is handy, Haythorn said.  

“Really, everybody on our team can really do anything,” he said. The men all ranch within 100 miles of each other, in the Sandhills, and trade work.  

Speck, who ranches near Keystone, Neb., has been rodeoing with Haythorn for the past nine years.  

Haythorn is humble and doesn’t brag on himself, Speck said, but he’s deserving of the Top Hand award.  

“He just keeps his head down and works at it,” Speck said. “He’s always trying to make his horses better, and he’s always trying to rope better. He has a ton of natural talent but he hones his skills a lot. He’s always working at it.”  

The men have competed together enough to know how the others will react. 

“We’ve ranch rodeoed long enough together that we all kind of know what each other’s going to do,” Speck said. “We all have a pretty good understanding of everybody’s strengths. We can read each other.”  

TOP HORSE

Top Horse was won by Add Two N Two, LaJunta, a 9-year-old gray gelding raised and trained on the Haythorn Ranch.  

“He’s got quite a bit of cow in him,” Haythorn said, “and you can really catch him anytime of the year, get on him, and go do anything.”  

He has ranched and rodeoed on the horse, as well as ranch rodeoed and roped on him. LaJunta is by PG Shogun, a son of Playgun, and out of a mare, Four Ada, with Eddie Eighty bloodlines.  

LaJunta will be for sale at the Western Heritage Classic Invitational Ranch Horse Sale in Abilene, Texas, in May. 

The horse is great, but there are young horses coming up that need Haythorn’s attention. 

LaJunta is “real willing,” he said. “I think that horse has plenty of speed and plenty of run. Nothing against him, but I think somebody else, as far as roping on him, will get more use than him standing here, and I need to move on to younger ones.”  

Haythorn has had two other horses win Top Horse at the National Western ranch rodeo; one of them was LaJunta’s full brother, Lamar.  

Haythorn’s wife Kelley admires her husband. “He doesn’t put himself first,” she said, “and he’s a team player. Because he’s the captain, he could say, “I’m going to sort and rope and you guys do this,’ but he doesn’t. And not only at the ranch rodeos, but at home with his crew that works with him.”  

Her husband is dedicated to ranching, roping, cattle and horses.  

“He just loves it. It’s his passion and his career, all in one. There are days when I think I want to go and help him, and I get halfway through the day and think, how does he do this day in and day out?”  

Of the four men, Minor has a horse that’s better at sorting, so he usually sorts. And Haythorn is the better roper, so they usually have him rope, Speck said. He’s cool, calm and collected under pressure. “I’ve never seen him come apart.” He’s also competitive. “He wants to go at it, and he wants to win.”  

But Haythorn’s abilities run beyond ranch rodeo.  

“He’s more than just roping,” Speck said. “He handles cattle good, he’s the whole package. He’s been doing it his whole life.”  

Haythorn has roped in the Nebraska State Rodeo Association, but doesn’t go to many rodeos. He prefers ranch rodeos. “I like that there’s many events in one, and I like the competition part of it. If I could, I’d go to more of them, but it seems like we get busy here. And it’s a team event, so not everybody can get away at the same time.”  

This is the second time Haythorn has won Top Hand at the Denver show. 

The Haythorn team won second at the ranch rodeo this year and won the wild cow milking. They have competed in Denver’s ranch rodeo about eight times; they have placed in second, third and fourth several times but have never won it. About 10 teams competed at this year’s show.