Interview: Jake Barnes

ERHOF Board member, Nip Tucker, interviews Jake Barnes, a 2018 inductee into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.

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My son created the software that the USTRC used, and for several years he showed up to troubleshoot & upgrade the software. I'm proud of his contribution.

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He would probably not remember this, but we were all roping in a jackpot in an indoor arena at Roseburg, Oregon, and my steer ducked to the left around the end of a pipe panel that was set up to keep the steers running straight as they left the chute. My good heading horse was doing his job, trying to stay just behind & to the left of the steer's hip as we closed on the steer, but when the steer hung a left around the end of the panel, my knee hit it hard. I thought it broke my kneecap. Someone pushed the steer back out in the arena & we had him roped in a short 7. I followed him out of the arena & rode back up the return alley in excruciating pain. Jake Barnes is the only person, out of a few hundred ropers, that rode down the arena & asked me if I was alright. I was wincing so badly that all I could get out was, "No!" I couldn't get, "thank you" out before he was gone. I didn't break my kneecap & I went on to head a lot more steers. Thanks, though, to Jake Barnes.