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I am a gay rodeo cowboy star.

That may be an overstatement but I am the 2006 International Gay Rodeo (IGRA) World Champion Pole Bender. When I recently shared that with my best friends father over dinner. This retired air-force Capitan said as he winced, "Sounds like a painful title if you ask me".

Of course I had to explain to him as I proudly displayed my shiny belt buckle and bling belt that pole bending is a speed event at gay rodeos where a horse and rider race past six poles then weave back and forth through all six poles ending with a flat out race past the poles to the finish line.

Pole Bending is one of two events that my horse, "Dazzelem Ms. Frankie" and I qualified to enter in the 2006 International Gay Rodeo Finals. I decided to participate in the gay rodeo circuit after my open barrel racing horse got injured and was lay-ed up. I thought and vocalized, "how tough could these gay rodeos be"? Well I had my hat handed to me for a solid year.

You put a "queen" in a saddle on a horse and those "queens" are the best horsemen in the world. It is no wonder that most horse event competitors outside the rodeo world are gay guys and straight girls.

Let me tell you there are gay competitors at the pro rodeo level. Go to any gay bar in any town in America where a pro rodeo is going on just watch the pro rodeo cowboys saddle up to the bar after a tough day roping, bull riding, and steer wrestling looking to blow off a little steam. After downing a beer you see them lasso a hot young male for a discrete hotel tryst and you will see why these rodeo stars never have a woman on their arms.

Several of the ropers and bull riders on the International Gay Rodeo circuit met on the circuit and fell in love and run some of Texas' biggest cattle operations. This discovery was a whole new world for this gay barrel racer and one that taught me that a queer on a horse is simply the most competitive and best horseman around.

I qualified for the 2006 IGRA finals by going to the most rodeos and placing 5th, 6th, and 7th place enough to be in the top 20 of all competitors nationwide. I was 19 in pole bending and 20 in barrel racing.

Frankie and I were considered the long shots when we ran and I was just glad to have qualified. On our first run we placed fifth and on our second run we placed first in pole bending. We were a clear second ahead of all the other competitors on our second run and the average gave us the finals title.

I cried for hours afterwords after Frankie and I won. It was a hard earned win and she is one amazing horse and I am proud to own her and be the gay rodeo pole bending champion.

Learn more about this author, William Sawyer.
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