HUMBOLDT — While his football teammates would often rest up on Saturdays after their bruising Friday night tilts, Dakota Slocum took the opposite approach.
He’d be riding a bucking bronco.
“It wasn’t too bad,” Slocum said. “I’d take it pretty easy in the morning, get to the rodeo and stretch and get warmed up.”
Then he’d do his darnedest to stay aboard for the full 8 seconds.
“I could usually tell by the horse’s second hop,” whether he’d be successful, Slocum said. “If I could stay level and keep my feet where they’re supposed to be, then I’d be OK.”
He’s been more than OK.
Slocum, who graduated from Humboldt High in May, recently earned a couple of nifty prizes for his bareback bronc riding skills.
He was the go-around champion in the Missouri High School State Finals held in Carthage, and was named reserve champion of the year at the high school level. (Slocum frequently competes in Missouri because those competitions are closer to home than those in western Kansas.)
“I’ll go about anywhere and everywhere,” Slocum said, usually with the United Rodeo Association or Missouri Cowboy Association series.
He’s in the midst of a busy rodeo schedule. On Friday, Slocum took second overall at a rodeo in Holden, Mo.
SLOCUM has always harbored a love of riding. He’d help father Randy rope and work cows on their family farm.
It was a chance conversation during a visit to the Allen County Fair Rodeo while Slocum was in middle school that led to his rough-and-tumble hobby.
“We were good friends with the rodeo’s contractor, and they had some small bucket horses there, and they needed them to be used for high school rodeos,” Slocum recalled. “They asked me if I would help.”
He started slowly, picked up some pointers from more experienced bronc riders, and soon developed a hankering for bareback riding.
Weekends were the busiest, particularly last fall.
