Three friends take on wild horses

Rodeo is known for the unpredictable. Team bronc riding, formerly known as The Wild Horse Race, puts eight unbroken two-year-old horses and 24 men all together in an arena. The unpredictability factor goes sky-high with action everywhere.

It's not an event most would enter on a whim, but that's just what three young men did at the 2009 Sisters Rodeo. Brothers Cody and Nicholas Koch, 25 and 22, and Stephen Martineau, 25, were sponsored by the R&B Ranch in Sisters.

"We'd sit up there in the stands at the rodeo and say, 'We could do that,'" said Cody.

They followed through this year, joining the Professional Team Bronc Riders Association as rookies. The trio finished the rodeo uninjured, .5 second off the money in fourth place and with a huge sense of accomplishment.

Not bad, considering two-thirds of the team never spends time with horses.

Nick, a Sisters High School graduate and now an OSU nursing student, said, "I hadn't been on a horse since I was in about first grade," and Martineau, project manager for a Seattle construction firm, confessed to being a bit afraid of them. Cody works with horses all day long as assistant livestock manager at the R&B Ranch.

The premise of team bronc riding is simple. A three-man team is outside the chute, with two of the team holding a nine-foot rope connected to a feisty young horse. The third member totes the saddle. At the count of three, which the crowd joins in on, the chutes open and the horses emerge, wild-eyed and moving very fast. The team has to get the horse to stand long enough for the saddle to go on and the rider to get aboard. Then the lead rope is cast off and the rider hangs on while the horse heads around a barrel.

Martineau drew the job of mugger, one of the hands on the rope. The mugger is closest to the horse's head and works his way to the head, wrapping his arms around it in an attempt to stop the horse's movement. The shanker, Cody, worked the end of the rope, offering some semblance of control. Nick, the lightest and leggiest of the trio, was the rider.

On Friday night, mud and nerves worked against the team and their horse got away from them in the soupy arena. Saturday night found Nick atop the horse but it wouldn't go around the barrel, something that happens when there's no steering control. On Sunday afternoon they got it all together, but were just out of the money.

"It was the most amazing experience we've ever had, especially the rush just before the chutes open," said Cody.

The team discovered a brotherhood of help and encouragement under the chutes as they prepared each day. Also, the president of the PTBRA lives in Central Oregon and he helped them build the saddle and gave pointers. It's not an easy sport to practice, but these young men showed that courage and grit go a long way toward success.