“He never gave me a bit of trouble as far as being a 2-year-old, as far as being spooky or cold-backed or anything,” she said. “I was just a young girl riding him every day, teaching him barrels.”
Sharon had the opportunity to attend a Dan and Vicki Rinehardt clinic, and it was clear to her instructors that Bumper had a natural talent for barrel racing.
“I’ll never forget,” Sharon said with a laugh. “She asked me if I had another horse that I could practice on. Maybe I wasn’t doing things correctly. He was really just the second horse I had owned beyond the pony. So, the next day, I brought my other horse so they could teach me how to teach him correctly.”
Once Sharon started exhibitioning Bumper at the local jackpots, he caught the attention of Kim Landry.
“She asked me if I was going to futurity him, and I wasn’t even sure what a futurity was,” admitted Sharon. “She cautioned me about running him before his time, waiting until December before their 4-year-old year. I said, ‘Do you think he’s good enough?’ She said, ‘Oh, yeah!’ I joined the BFA and ultimately he won the BFA as the top 4-year-old at the end of the year.”
Coming True
Sharon and Bumper were second at their first futurity, the Southern Rebel. Although Equi-Stat records from the early 1990s are incomplete—some of the placings are missing to explain the earnings—their report shows six futurity championships: THE Texas Barrel Race, River Oaks, Florida Sun Coast, Florida East Coast, Florida Barrel Racing Association and Janet Myers (Stover). They were second at the West Texas Futurity.
“I was working intermittently as a nurse and just going to the big ones,” Sharon said. “I was still living in Florida, so it was quite a haul to go somewhere.
“He was just excelling and putting out 120 percent. I remember Talmadge Green—I had no idea who he was—was dominating the futurity world at the time. He called me and made an offer for him. I remember calling Marilyn and she said, ‘Oh my God, sell him. I’ve got more!’ Then I remember I said my prayers at night not for money, but a horse good enough to take me to the Finals.”
At the 1990 BFA World Championships, Bumper set an arena record in what became his trademark fashion—flying in from the Back 40.
“He would kind of High-Ho-Silver and take off,” she laughed. “He just craved it and I never worried that he wasn’t going to turn the first barrel.”
Unfortunately, a tipped third barrel kept them from winning the BFA World Championship Futurity that year.
“I definitely blame that on me being a novice,” said Sharon, who won $74,113 at the futurities on Bumper. “I could have run to the back of the arena and still won…but I didn’t.”
As a derby horse, Bumper continued picking up wins, like the West Texas Derby, and Lazy E Derby and Sweepstakes. He and Sharon also placed at the BFA World Championship Derby and Sweepstakes and the Old Fort Days Derby.
In 1992, Sharon and Bumper made their first appearance at the National Finals Rodeo and Sharon won WPRA Rookie Of The Year. They finished the year 10th in the WPRA world standings, earning $45,005.
“It was easy for him,” she said of Bumper’s transition to rodeo life. “I was just finding my way. I did 100,000 miles that year with my dog, my horse and myself.”
During his derby year in 1991, Bumper slipped at a first barrel that left him with a chip in his knee. It wasn’t bothering him, so Sharon opted to leave it alone until after the 1992 NFR.
“They told me it was in a spot that was OK as far as chips go,” said Sharon, who moved to Lindsay, Oklahoma, in 1991. “Dr. David McCarroll plucked it right out. He had absolutely no complications.”
Although they missed the NFR that year, Sharon and Bumper were the reserve champions at the famed Old Fort Days Derby. Their total Equi-Stat earnings, which doesn’t include a single dime of rodeo earnings, stood at $111,434—all won in the early 1990s.
Sharon and Bumper returned to the NFR in 1994—the first of four consecutive trips for the pair.
“Every run was a thrill with him,” Sharon said. “Each year, I learned which ones were the best ones to run him at—those were the big outdoor pens. I loved Cheyenne; he won a go-round there. I loved Houston. I had won Colorado Springs two years in a row. Nampa, Idaho, they were all such fun. Cowboy Christmas was always good to me. I’d go home and let him rest after that and still be making the Finals. The more I went, the less rodeos I went to each year because I knew I could make it [to the NFR] with the ones I went to.”
Their best season was in 1995, finishing the year in seventh with $59,802. Their richest year was in 1996, when they finished 10th earning $59,907, which didn’t include their $50,000 Calgary Stampede Shootout Championship. More impressive is the fact that the bulk of their earnings came in the days prior to barrel racers being awarded equal money at professional rodeos.
“Bumper won Calgary the first year they offered the $50,000 bonus to the barrel racers in 1996,” Sharon said. “The next year, we were second to Kristie Peterson and Bozo (French Flash Hawk) by mere fractions of a second. He definitely loved that pen.”
Sharon admitted she was a little intimidated by size of the Thomas & Mack Center arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Ultimately, he did win a go-round,” she said. “One year, he won the ninth goround and the next night he got second, and I thought ‘Well, can we start over? We’re finally getting it!’”
