Cowboys, students gather for Exceptional Rodeo fun

Ken McCall

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

SITTING atop a gently rocking Wimpy the Bull, young Justin Miller grins ear to ear.

The 6 1/2-year-old cowboy-for-a-day is one of 47 special education students taking part Monday morning in the Exceptional Rodeo on the floor of the Thomas & Mack Center.

Escorted by a professional cowboy in town for the National Finals Rodeo, each child goes through a series of "events" on some of the meanest pretend rodeo animals you've ever seen. They also get to ride on a live pony, get their pictures taken with rodeo champs and take home a cowboy hat, trophy and other goodies.

When Justin is through taming Wimpy the Bull, he's gently lifted off and replaced in his wheelchair by two of the best steer wrestlers in the world: Ote Berry and Rod Lyman.

Slapping high fives with Justin, the cowboys push him to the next event -- Payday the Bucking Bronco.

"We were talking this morning," says Berry, a four-time world champ steer wrestler. "We've done a hundred of these and it never really gets old.

"It's always the first time for a lot of these kids."

The 34-year-old Checotah, Okla., native has been taking part in Exceptional Rodeo events since they were launched in 1983 by the Professional Cowboys Rodeo Association.

Berry keeps doing it month after month, year after year, because the kids are so great.

"Just to look at the smile you can bring to a kid," he says. "You see how much fun they're having."

As Berry helps Justin rope a steer, Lyman also praises the program.

"It's so rewarding, especially in this city where reality kind of gets out of perspective," the 35-year-old rodeo veteran says with a genuine ranch-grown Montana twang.

"When you bring in the kids in the beginning, they're a little withdrawn, and by the end they're laughing and it's great."

Lyman says he'd like to see a national sponsor take up and expand the Exceptional Rodeo, which was staged in a dozen cities this year.

It helps bring cowboys and the public together, he says, and helps dispel the stereotype of the hard-drinking, hell-raising cowboy.

"This is a program they (the cowboys) asked for," says Ruth Dismoke-Blakely, who created the first Exceptional Rodeo 13 years ago and has been organizing them ever since. "They wanted to share this with the kids."

The event, says the Albuquerque speech therapist, is not only good for the kids but for the cowboys as well.

"It gives them a chance to play rodeo instead of work the rodeo," says Blakely, dressed in a bright red Western shirt and a big, black hat. "As you look around, it's hard to tell who's having the most fun."

Justin's teacher at Variety School, Jeanette Walker, says the one-on-one interaction in such a stimulating setting with an audience in the stands is a wonderful experience for the children.

"Many of our children don't get to go out very much," says Walker, who brought seven students to the event. "They just go to school and then home."

After the last bronc is busted and trophy is handed out, Don Stuckey wheels his 5-year-old daughter, Amanda, off the arena floor.

"I just appreciate the time and the effort they put into it for the kids," Stuckey says of the cowboys. "They're all so sincere about it.

"They have a real good time doing it, they tell me. It's obvious."

A serious rodeo fan, Stuckey always takes a week vacation when the NFR comes to town. Amanda, for the second year now, has been an Exceptional cowgirl.

And they'll be back next year.

"Oh yeah, you betcha," Stuckey says. "We wouldn't miss it for the world."