Bucking Tradition

SILVER CREEK — Rodeoing is a family tradition out at the Lazy HK Bar Ranch. Their professional stock bulls are part of a carefully honed bloodline manipulated by the veteran hands of Harlan Knowles. 

Harlan rode bulls for awhile himself before founding his bull breeding operation nearly 50 years ago.

“I’ve been doing this my whole life, and I’m 80 now and still doing it,” declared Harlan while deftly pulling strings behind the scenes at the once-a-month winter bull riding series he and his wife Chris host at their ranch in Silver Creek.

The Knowleses have been holding the regular rodeo romps at their place for the past 15 years and about 250 people pile into their rustic bull riding arena for each event. 

There was a capacity crowd for an event Saturday.

“It’s just kind of a fun thing for us to do. And this way I get to buck my bulls in the winter,” said Knowles, who uses the home winter series as a training and jury process in order to figure out which of his bulls are fit for top tier pro rodeo events and the summer fair series.

Following closely in his grandfather’s “mud” caked footsteps, Beau Shelton, 26, of Silver Creek, has assumed the brunt of the hands-on work with the bulls now, and the tall cowboy can be found orchestrating the chaos of the bullpen chutes come showtime. It’s a tradition Shelton first joined in as a youngster when he would help out around his grandparents’ ranch. He’s been a part of it ever since.

“It means the world to me,” said Shelton, when asked about the significance of helping to carry on his family legacy while working hand in hand with his grandfather. “All I ever wanted to do since I was a little kid was raise bulls,” said Shelton. “He has taught me everything I know. He has pushed me to make myself better at whatever I do.”

The family tradition at the Lazy HK Bar Ranch rodeo does not begin and end with the progeny of the Knowleses and their bulls though. In fact, the entire hoedown is a decidedly family-friendly event. 

Vaughn and Terri Aust, of Mossyrock, are frequent attendees at the rodeo, and they appreciate the all-ages fun. 

“We just love coming out here. It’s fun family entertainment,” noted Terri Aust. She hopes to get her grandchildren out to the show someday. “It’s all pretty much amateurs,” she said of the contestants. “Most of them won’t be on long, but it’s good fun to watch.”

Despite the large, and sometimes well-lubricated crowd, Aust says the environment is friendly and insists that safety is never an issue. 

“I haven’t met a stranger here yet,” quipped the well-versed local after taking a pull from her personal bottle of R&R whiskey. “You’ve got to come prepared to these things!”

While crowd safety is paramount, it can never be guaranteed for the brave participants that step inside the arena. Knowles and Shelton take pride in raising big, athletic bulls with enough fight to challenge the best bull riders in the world. 

That means the locals and greenhorns that come out for their shot at the winter series title often get bucked around pretty good. “They have problems with it but they’ve got to get over it,” said Harlan Knowles of the trials and tribulations of young bull riders. “You’re going to break some bones if you ride. There’s no way around it.”

Aron Jennings, 17, of Mossyrock, was just one of the young bucks that came out to Silver Creek on Saturday in order to try his luck with the bucking bulls. In his third-ever bull ride, Jennings failed to qualify for a score when he was bucked off in advance of the eight-second buzzer, but that did little to temper his enthusiasm once he’d safely scampered out of the bull’s path in the dusty arena. Jennings plays baseball and football, but he says there is nothing that can prepare a person for the jolt of riding a bull. 

“I got that first adrenaline rush and I just keep getting on bulls,” said Jennings, explaining how he found his way into the rodeo. 

So far the young bull rider has escaped without any injuries, although he’s usually “real sore the next day.” One thing Jennings has learned during his short stint in the chutes is that when you fall, “Just get up and run to the fence. Even if you’ve got dirt in your eye. Just run!”

In the crowd on Saturday was Jennings’ great-grandmother, Doris West, of Randle. Asked if she gets nervous watching her great-grandson tempt fate on the back of an angry 2,000-pound animal she noted, “I don’t, but his mother sure does.” West was simply impressed with her great-grandson’s progress, noting, “He’s getting better.”

All of the riders on Saturday wore helmets and facemasks in order to help prevent head injuries but the real security blanket for failed riders comes in the form of a pair of brave bullfighters. Easily confused with rodeo clowns, bullfighters are often dressed colorfully but they do not wear face paint and they are not on hand to entertain the crowd. The main mission of a bullfighter is to keep the bull riders safe at all costs, whether that be by baiting the bull into chasing after them instead or by lying on top of the rider in order to receive the business end of a bull’s impact intended for a prone rider.

Liam Bertolacci, 18, of Bremerton, was one of the bullfighters at the Lazy HK Bar Ranch Rodeo on Saturday. Bertolacci grew up attending the Kitsap Pro Rodeo and Stampede as a youngster where his mother administered massage therapy to dinged-up rodeo contestants. 

“I’ve wanted to do it since I was 2,” explained Bertolacci. “I always thought I would be in the rodeo, and fighting bulls seemed way better to me than getting on the back of one.” 

Saturday was only Bertolacci’s second appearance at the HK rodeo. Despite his age and inexperience Bertolacci considers himself a traditionalist, sporting classic jean shorts (called baggies) and suspenders as part of his ensemble. 

He also wears a mounted camera on his cowboy hat in order to capture close encounters with raging bulls. So far the young bullfighter has suffered only bruised ribs and thighs and a minor injury to his wrist. “Other than that I’ve never broken anything, yet,” said the energetic bullfighter. “Knock on wood.”

At the HK Ranch rodeo the junior riders go first with the more experienced riders taking on the bigger and more experienced bulls in the second frame. On Saturday only three riders managed to stay on for the full eight seconds and all of those riders were from the experienced set. Jake Davis, of McCleary, scored a 78, while Colton Dougherty, of Canby, Oregon, notched an 83, and Jace Catlin, of Toledo, took the honors with a winning score of 86.

While only the more experienced set wound up taking money home, it was the junior circuit that captured the hearts of the crowd. Cody Bartels, 15, of Tacoma, was one of those young bull riders. Bartels hung on for a wild ride that saw him fall just before the eight second horn. 

Despite his fall Bartels was thrilled with his ride on what he estimated was the biggest and nastiest bull he’d ever ridden. “It’s only my sixth bull so I’m still pretty green,” said the humble young bull rider. “It’s one of those things where my mom said I’d never ride and now here I am.”

Cody’s brother Scotty, 37, was also on hand on Saturday. Scotty is normally a bull rider himself but wound up filling in as a bullfighter in a pinch. 

The older Bartels admitted that it was nerve-wracking watching his young brother take his turn on the back of a bucking bull. He laughed when told that Cody did not suffer from any such fears. “He shouldn’t be. All he needs to do is concentrate on that bull,” said the proud older brother. “That’s the best ride I’ve seen him do. He did awesome!”

The younger Bartels summed up he and his brother’s passion for rodeoing by saying, “It’s a family thing. My dad used to do it and now we both do.” Like most things at the Lazy HK Bar Ranch it’s just an old family tradition.

There will not be any bull riding at the Lazy HK Bar Ranch in February but the rodeo will return on March 5. That event will be held as a fundraiser for the Raise for Rowyn charity that raises funds to help parents forced to deal with the death of a young child. 

For additional information on the Silver Creek rodeo, or to set up your own shot with the bulls, check out the Lazy HK Facebook page (LazyHKBarRodeo) or contact Shelton directly by phone at (360) 324-2664.