The Garden City Telegram
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Meet the ladies of the rodeo
Published 6/12/2009 in Beef Empire Days-Sports
By RACHAEL GRAY
Mary Burger scoops up her granddaughter after tying up her horse, Fred. Berger has just finished her barrel run in 17.30 seconds, the best time of the day.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Mary Burger, Pauls Valley, Okla., turns her horse around the second barrel Wednesday while competing in the Beef Empire Days PRCA Rodeo slack barrel racing at the Finney County Farigrounds Arena.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Sherry Robinson, Cimarron, chases down a calf to lasso on a run Wednesday in the Beef Empire Days PRCA Rodeo slack breakaway roping event at the Finney County Fairgrounds Arena.
The time keeps Burger, Pauls Valley, Okla., in first place after Wednesday's first go of slack barrel racers at Garden City's Beef Empire Days PRCA Rodeo.
Terra Bynum, Colorado City, Texas, finished the day in second with Maverick and a run of 17.34, just behind Burger.
Area star Dolores Toole, Manter, stood in fifth place with a time of 17.59 with her horse Paa Rocket.
All of them hope their times hold to place them in the money.
More barrel racers competed Thursday night, and more racers will compete tonight and Saturday night. The women just do one run and the best scorers from all the racers after Saturday night will place.
For these three women, barrel racing is a lifestyle. It's their hobby. It's their passion. It's their job. The talent and commitment of these women prove rodeo isn't just a man's sport.
"The fan base has definitely changed," Bynum said. "You see a lot more girls in the ring. You see a lot more girls in the audience."
Bynum said that most avid rodeo-goers she knows just come for the end of the rodeo. Rodeos usually end with barrel racing finals followed by bull riding. Women also compete in breakaway roping.
"They want to see the barrels and the bulls," she said.
Bynum started riding horses at age 3. When she hit the eligible age, she started doing local open shows and 4-H competitions. After more than 20 years in the game, she has won close to half a million in earnings.
She travels on the road with her husband, Joseph Gernentz, a rodeo calf roper. On their rodeo excursions, they bring his horse, her horse and usually a young horse in training.
Back home in Colorado City, Bynum and Gernentz have 13 other horses. Bynum said she enjoys training futurity barrel horses. Futurity horses are bred and raised to be outstanding performance horses.
For now, Bynum wants to continue training horses at home while still spending a fair amount of time on the road.
"As long I get the chance and can, and as long as I'm healthy and the horse is healthy, then we'll keep doing it," she said. "We'll keep winning. It's what pays the bills."
For Burger, who has only been a serious competitor for three years, barrel racing has been lucrative. In 2006, Burger finished the year with $189,185 in winnings and a Wrangler National Finals Rodeo title.
Like every barrel racer, Burger attributes her wins to her horse, Rare Fred, who is owned by Ron Martin. Burger trained Fred when he was a 3-year-old futurity horse.
"He was a nice futurity horse, but not a great one," she said. "When he got into his derby, he kept improving, so we decided to make a career out of him."
Burger said she trained him with "a little bit of sugar and not a lot of force." Fred became a four-time American Quarter Horse Association champion and later helped Burger to her NFR title.
Fred originally was bought for $2,000 as a 2-year-old. Ron Martin has turned down $300,000-offers for Fred, Burger said.
Burger said he's won about $730,000 so far.
"He's more than paid for himself," she said. "It really takes a special horse to shut that clock off."
Over her years in rodeo, Burger said, she always has noticed female interest and participation. She agreed that it's the action of the bulls and barrels that keep people coming back or get people started in rodeos.
"Barrel racing is such an important part of rodeo because that includes not just men, it gets the women in there, too," she said.
Manter racer Toole used to make 80 or 90 rodeos per year. She has cut that number back to 40 to 45 and likes to stay in the Prairie circuit region of Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, Kansas and Nebraska.
Toole said her 17-year-old horse can't be hauled as far or for as long.
Toole, 52 and with three grandchildren, and Diane Martin, Ulysses, trailer together. At the end of June, they'll go the route that is referred to as "Cowboy Christmas." It happens every year around the Fourth of July. They'll be gone for nine to 10 days and will travel to Colorado, Montana and Wyoming.
She's been to the NFR three times — 2001, 2002 and 2004. She said she just likes to go to the rodeos and make enough to be qualified.
She said she doesn't always win, but that money isn't necessary for her to stay in rodeo. Like many other women, she does it for the love of the race.
She said she likes barrel racing because it isn't gender- or age-specific.
"If you've got a good horse and are willing to travel, you can stay in it," she said. "It's not something you have to quit at a certain age."
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