Lowe to President Bush: Howdy, partner

Thursday, May 13, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

It's not very often that a rodeo cowboy will trade in his Resistol and Wranglers for a tie and sport coat. So when Will Lowe's wife suggested the world champion bareback rider update his wardrobe for a recent after-hours function, he began to grumble.

I mean, you would think he was meeting the President or something.

Exactly.

"They called me and said we need you back down here to meet the President," Lowe said, recalling a phone call he received after competing in RodeoHouston, a Wrangler ProRodeo Tour stop on March 20. "I was like, 'no way.' "

But it was true. So Lowe's wife, Tiffani, whom he married during the 2002 National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, thought it would a good idea that he dress for the occasion.

"You won't see me dressed like that very often," Lowe said upon visiting with George W. Bush at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

The President also dressed for the occasion. He wore a brown leather vest and Western-style shirt emblazoned with the Houston ProRodeo logo.

"He was a great guy, very down to earth," said Lowe, one of the 12 bareback qualifiers for the Pace Picante ProRodeo Chute-out, the championship event of the Wrangler ProRodeo winter tour, which gets under way tonight at the Orleans Arena.

"You could talk to him about anything -- like fishing."

Lowe said he really wasn't nervous about meeting the President, who immediately put him at ease.

"It was just like meeting any other guy," Lowe said. "He's just somebody who happens to be a very important guy."

But when the chute opens for tonight's go-round, that distinction will belong to Lowe, a 5-foot-3, 130-pound, 23-year-old dynamo who is fast becoming the world's most famous bareback rider since Lady Godiva.

Like golf and tennis, there are four major events on the pro rodeo circuit -- the Pace Chute-out, the Pace Challenge in Omaha, the Pace Classic in Dallas and the National Finals in Las Vegas every December.

Last year, Lowe became the first man to win all four majors in the same year. Not even Tiger Woods can make that claim.

You would think Lowe has an affinity for salsa, given the way he has dominated the Pace-sponsored events. In reality, there's just something about the big rodeos that brings out his best.

"The atmosphere that's created, especially in Las Vegas and Omaha, and Dallas is the same way -- those are big events," he said. "The money's good and so are the bucking horses. As a rider, you've got to love those kind of deals.

"It's like a big playoff game, is the way I look at it. If you do good at these deals, you're going to make some money and be that much closer to the National Finals, which is the World Series to us."

In addition to sweeping the majors in 2003, Lowe, who grew up in suburban Kansas City -- he's still a big K-State football fan -- but now resides in Canyon, Texas, set a bareback record for most money won in a single season with $188,247. He also tied the world record with a 94-point ride on Kesler Rodeo's Sky Reach Dip at the Pace Challenge in Omaha, a feat which got his picture in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd.

But tonight, he'll be just another number in the program, at least until the 8-second buzzer which marks a successful ride.

Lowe, who tops the Jack Daniel's World Standings in bareback with $46,563, said the playing field gets level in a hurry in big events such as the Chute-out.

"Everybody here is an extremely good bareback rider," he said. "You've got to wait to see the draw. Who draws a little better, who feeds off the energy a little better, who excels under pressure a little better is going to be the guy who wins.

"Hopefully, I'll be the one who does that. But you can't count out anybody."

Lowe said if you're looking for a sure bet this weekend, it's that he, for one, won't be riding the Big Shot, the thrill ride on top of the Stratosphere Tower.

"I don't mind strapping myself to a bucking horse," he said. "But I'm not going to strap myself to anything that's 1,500 feet in the air.

"The casinos are a lot of fun and I might ride a few roller coasters while I'm here. But I don't have much need to ride that thing on the top of that tower."