Harris and Smith Cattle Co. cowboys bring home title

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

A Hopkins County-led team of cowboys captured the champion title from the 11th Annual Wylie Ranch Rodeo competition on Sept. 13. Team members (from left) Lee Pogue of Mahoney, J.J. Hatcher of Antlers, Okla., Evan Darling of Birthright, and Jeffery Bevens of Cuthand, won buckles and cash for their top overall score. -Staff photo by Cope

October 2, 2003 -- You don't have to be a "real" cowboy to enter a ranch rodeo, but to win one you do.

For the second year in a row, the team led by Hopkins County cowboy Lee Pogue captured the top win at the Wylie Ranch Rodeo on Sept. 13 to bring home the cash prize and champion belt buckles.

The team, sponsored by Harris and Smith Cattle Co. of Sulphur Springs, consists of 40-year-old Pogue of Mahoney, 41-year-old Jeffery Bevens of Cuthand, 24-year-old Evan Darling of Birthright, and 21-year-old J.J. Hatcher of Antlers, Okla.

Pogue and Bevens, plus Pogue's (then) 16-year-old son Logan, were a part of last year's winning team.

Ranch rodeos are competitions that started in the 1930s which pitted large ranches' working cowboys against each other. Initially called "round-ups" or "cowpuncher reunions," they sought out the best in the cowboys' everyday duties of riding, roping, branding, horse breaking, etc.

At the Sept. 13 competition in Wylie, all the cowboy team members utilized the skills from their "day" jobs to compete against many other teams in four, timed events, which all involved the cowboys being on horseback: Pasture roping, wild horse race, branding, and sorting.

The Harris and Smith Cattle Co. team placed first in the branding competition, and clocked third place finishes in the other three events.

The accumulated scores put the Sulphur Springs team as the overall winner. Earning a second place finish was RRS Farms of Royse City; third place went to Bar 9 Bob Mitchell Ranch of Terrell; and fourth place, Arrow S Ranch of Bridgeport.

Pogue said the team's win was "great. This was the second ranch rodeo we'd done together ... we won first place at a ranch rodeo in Throckmorton about two months ago."

On Oct. 4, Pogue and a team will compete at a ranch rodeo in Henderson.

Pogue said the wild horse race was the toughest event. "You have to catch this (non-broke) horse by the halter, hold it, saddle it; then hold it by its ears while someone gets on. Evan was the one to ride the bronc" at the Wylie event.

The sorting event is another challenging event, Pogue detailed. As the team rides toward a group of numbered calves, a caller cites a specific number, and the team has to sort that calf out first, then sort them in numerical order.

Each of the Sulphur Springs team members have their ranch-hand specialities, such as roping or riding, and all have jobs that involve working cattle. Pogue, who said he likes to compete at the ranch rodeos because "it's the only thing I know how to do," works for Sulphur Springs Livestock Commission and has cattle of his own; Darling hires out for cowboy work and competed in rodeos in high school; Hatcher and Bevens works on ranches.