On the conclusion of the 2024 PAFRA World Championship Rodeo in Clovis, New Mexico, Sept. 21, Adam Pollard and Tarrant Stewart—who’ve every supported the Skilled Armed Forces Rodeo Affiliation in various capacities for a few years—obtained to take residence World Champion buckles after splitting the win within the staff roping.
All through his life, 53-year-old USMC veteran Adam Pollard has gained loads of awards from his time within the area—sufficient to earn him a 2021 induction into the Navy Rodeo Corridor of Fame in Oklahoma Metropolis’s Nationwide Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum—however the PAFRA World Champion Header buckle he gained in September was a primary for the Midland, Texas, native who served as PAFRA’s president in 2013.
“I used to be on a heel horse,” Pollard stated, explaining that he’s been centered on enhancing his heeling and hoped to place a run collectively on that finish. “My header missed within the first spherical, and I had entered on the pinnacle facet. I assumed, ‘Properly, right here we go. Let’s see what we will do.’”
Pollard, who’s at the moment serving as president of the Navy Rodeo Cowboys Affiliation, drew a associate in 28-year-old Military veteran Dakota Smitherman, who gained the World Championship title within the tie-down this 12 months.
“He’s a really gifted younger man,” Pollard stated of his heeler. “He rides the proper of horses. He practices the proper approach. Issues that, as anyone who’s been roping for 30 years, I watched that child rope and I am going, ‘He’s figuring it out the proper approach.’ His approach is correct. His horses trip the proper approach; he’s very relaxed. It’s an superior factor to look at.”
2024 PAFRA World Champion Heeler: Tarrant Stewart
Pollard shared the winner’s circle with Tarrant Stewart, whose dad, Charlie Stewart, is a Vietnam veteran and a 20-year PAFRA member who’s nonetheless competing.
“My twin brother [Newell] and I obtained grandfathered into that group,” Stewart defined, hinting towards PAFRA’s family-friendly membership setup. “I’m an enormous sponsor of it, and my dad was a Vietnam vet. He was there. So my brother and I, we obtained to go and cord with our dad. That’s how we obtained into that about 10 years in the past.”
In that point, Stewart has secured himself a couple of World Championship buckles, together with in 2019 and in 2018, when he shared the title together with his brother. This 12 months, he headed for active-duty Airman Dakota Lindboe.
“I dwell in Floresville, Texas, and Dakota really moved to Floresville a couple of mile down from my home,” Stewart stated. “We met at a jackpot, and I invited him to begin roping with us. He and I’ve develop into buddies and now we follow collectively.”
Lindboe, initially from Florida, grew up pulling steers for guys like Kaleb Driggers and Clint Summers, however he put the rope down in 2009 to affix the navy. By the point he obtained again to it, Tremendous Looper and Spin to Win had develop into The Group Roping Journal. That is the primary time he and his spouse, Mandy, who can also be active-duty Air Power and a barrel racer, entered up on the PAFRA occasion.
“We had an superior time and thought it was a extremely good occasion,” stated Lindboe, who was driving a horse he’d acquired within the final six months. “He’s a 16-year-old gelding I obtained from Matt Schieck. I feel Money Obligation was driving him. He’s every thing I want. He’s quick. He’s good and levelheaded. I used to be actually fortunate to seek out him.”
For the World Championship, Stewart was placing within the follow hours on one in all his Riata horses, Hez Brief On Time.
“I’ve obtained a 5-year-old that we futuritied on, and we’ve been utilizing him on the Riata,” Stewart stated, explaining that he missed final 12 months’s PAFRA resulting from a scheduling battle with the Riata Championships. “I’ll let you know this: I’ve heeled about three ropings (I’m predominantly a header), and I used to be capable of catch three for Mr. Dakota. In order that was good.”
Pollard and Stewart each supplied a nod to PAFRA’s management, noting that entries within the staff roping could have doubled since final 12 months. The group additionally simply introduced a brand new March 1, 2025, rodeo to be held on the Cowtown Coliseum within the Fort Price Stockyards.
—TRJ—
Thanks to Equinety for serving to us share tales of navy members, veterans and first responders within the staff roping neighborhood.
