Team roping featured on rodeo poster

The 2018 Sisters Rodeo poster highlights a required skill in use even today on ranches throughout the West: Team Roping is part of the job description of cowboys, both historically and currently.

"Team Roping is an everyday thing," Rodeo board member and former team roper John Leavitt explained. "It is still used to catch cattle for branding, vaccinating and doctoring."

The poster is another collaboration by Dyrk Godby, Western artist; Gary Albertson, nature photographer; and Dennis Schmidling, poster designer. All three are Sisters Country residents.

According to Rodger Dwight, Sisters Rodeo director, "We like to feature one event each year, and realized we had not produced a team roping poster since 1997. I think Dyrk did a great job of showing the essence of teamwork among the two contestants and their horses."

The poster depicts a header on a palomino cow horse and a heeler on a sorrel. In a skilled maneuver, the header ropes a steer's head and then turns the steer to allow the heeler to rope both hind feet and bring the steer to a stop. Timing is everything.

In a new twist to Sisters Rodeo poster tradition, this poster celebrates a distant Mount Washington, Black Butte, and Mount Jefferson as the backdrop.

The poster is available for purchase at many Central Oregon locations: In Sisters at Ray's Food Place, Open Range, Dixie's, Heritage USA and the rodeo ticket office; in Bend at The Boot Barn and High Desert Ranch and Home; in Redmond at Open Range; in Prineville at WW Western Wear and in Madras at Ag West Supply.

Sisters Rodeo will begin June 6 with Xtreme Bulls, followed by four rodeo performances June 8-10. For tickets and information, call the ticket hotline at 541-549-0121 or 1-800-827-7522, or visit the ticket office at 220 W. Cascade Ave. in Sisters. For information visit www.sistersrodeo.com.