HORSEPLAY: Mead, Bond bounce back from injuries

HEART’S POUNDING, ADRENALINE pumping — can you sense the rush junior rodeo competitors feel in the chute as they’re about to give their nod, yes, to start?

There’s Conner Mead, situating himself atop his draw for the Bareback riding competition, left hand on the rigging. Just as he nods “Go!” the arena gates burst open, the timer starts and his wild bucking horse explodes into action.

Lillian Bond, readying her lariat, works to calm her horse down briefly while in the box next to the chute that has a spring-loaded rope, known as the barrier, stretched in front. As soon as she nods her head, the barrier is opened.

A light rope (used to ensure the calf gets a head start) fastened from the chute to the calf’s neck is released once the calf is well away from the chute. Once released, the two spring into action; she deftly throws her lasso over the calf’s neck (hopefully) within 2-3 seconds, while her trained horse immediately halts on his haunches. As soon as the calf hits the end of the rope, the rope (tied by a string to the saddle horn) is pulled tight and the string breaks. The breaking of the string marks the end of the run.

Mead and Bond are literally rough-and-tumble athletes who compete in junior rodeos (age 19 and younger). At last month’s Washington State High School Rodeo Association state finals, they qualified to compete at the National Finals in July — quite the accomplishment! Bond in break-away roping and Mead in bareback riding.

For these two, not much compares to the thrill of a good ride or successful run.

Events

In bareback, there’s no saddle — just a surcingle with a single handhold called the bascom rigging. The goal is to say on for 8 seconds. The rider must always have one hand in the air while trying to maintain balance with their legs and other hand on the rigging. Riders must “mark out” by having their heels over the horse’s shoulders when it makes its first jump out of the chute. From there, it’s a wild — and hopefully 8-second ride — between the rider and horse, with the rider trying to stay in sync with the bronc’s bucking motion.

Judges are looking at things like the rider’s spurring action (spur ends are dull, not spiky or pointed), control and rhythm, as well as the horse’s bucking strength, consistency and difficulty.

Breakaway roping is a variation of calf roping where a calf is roped but not thrown and tied. Once the rope is around the calf’s neck, the roper signals the horse to stop suddenly. The rope is tied to the saddle horn with a string. When the calf hits the end of the rope, the rope is pulled tight and the string breaks. The breaking of the string marks the end of the run. The rope usually has a small white flag at the end that makes the moment the rope breaks more easily seen by the timer. The fastest time wins.

Both Bond and Mead are sophomores in WSHSRA, part of the National High School Rodeo Association. They are also members of our local junior rodeo club, Peninsula Junior Rodeo Association.

Cracks

Bond winning the state title in breakaway roping is quite the comeback story after she had a serious roping accident in May 2024, nearly severing her middle finger after her hand got caught in the rope’s slack while breakaway roping at a high school rodeo in Basin City. Because of the accident, Bond was unable to compete the spring season of her freshman year with WAHSRA so she is considered a rookie this year.

Upon hearing of the accident, Port Angeles’s Hermann family, long-time junior rodeo supporters, flew their private plane to the Tri-Cities to pick up Bond and return her to Port Angeles, where local orthopedic surgeons Dustin and Loren Larson prepped her for surgery. The doctors, who are brothers, spent nearly seven hours reattaching her finger, including all the nerves, tendons and blood vessels, on Mother’s Day 2024. Bond spent the night at Olympic Medical Center to ensure blood flow was sufficient to the reattached finger. Eight weeks later, a determined Bond was back to roping, albeit protecting that finger and not competitively, and with post-surgery care and subsequent hand physical therapy, she gradually regained full use of the finger.

Upon her return one year later at the same high school rodeo in Basin City, she placed first in Breakaway with a time of 2.39 seconds.

Bond’s horse, Twizzler, was purchased from Amelia Hermann in 2024, and the pair have really clicked. Both Rashell and Amelia Hermann have helped coach the duo over the past year, and Bond also has had support and guidance from Brad Varner and Pat Pare, both local ropers who have volunteered to help coach local youth involved in rodeo.

Mead started in rodeo in May 2023, wanting to become a bareback rider. With little opportunity to learn or practice on bucking horses here, his parents sent him off to Sankey Rodeo School in Texas to learn. He has been active in rodeo since then. His first season was spent riding bulls/steers in Junior Rodeo before joining the high school rodeo team riding bareback horses.

Mead, who thrives on the thrill of fast-paced sports, broke his wrist in a dirt bike accident, which pulled him out of the rodeo season for the remainder of the spring.

By summer, he was back to riding in junior rodeo and was able to return to weekly rough stock practice on steers through the local Peninsula Junior Rodeo.

Over the spring and summer weekends, he keeps his family busy traveling around the state to junior rodeos, riding bulls, bareback horses and chute dogging. He made a full return to bareback riding at the Port Angeles rodeo in August 2024 and placed fifth in his first qualifying ride in a rodeo.

This past high school season, he was able to fully return to competition. He continues to attend clinics every chance he gets and has been to Eastern Washington, Colorado and Texas for training. This year he ended his high school season at third in state for bareback.

The two, and their families, will head to the National High School Rodeo finals in Wyoming from July 13-19.

For more information about junior high and high school rodeo, visit the WSHSRA website.

Be sure to check out Peninsula Junior Rodeo’s Facebook page and to cheer on our local youths at the PJRA Rodeo beginning at 9 a.m. Aug. 23-24. The event is free to spectators.

Events include bull and bronc riding, wild cow milking, barrel racing, break-away roping and more.

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Karen Griffiths’ column, Peninsula Horseplay, appears the second and fourth Saturday of each month.

If you have a horse event, clinic or seminar you would like listed, email Griffiths at kbg@olympus.net at least two weeks in advance. You can also call her at 360-460-6299.