Country Lifestyles
December 2016 Profile, Rusty Riddle – The Riddle Way
By Jessica Crabtree
A large personality comes to mind when describing Rusty Riddle, formerly known as “the happy red head.” “Rusty’s approach to life has always been determination. Whatever it took to get something done, that was Rusty’s way,” said Riddle’s wife, Dollie. She would know after 42 years of marriage.
When reminiscing about a young Riddle, Dollie recalls their first time meeting and early years of dating, “His reputation preceded him,” she laughed. “We just lived life to the fullest back then! That was my motto. We had a lot of fun,” Riddle interjects. The “back then” meant his years of rodeoing professionally as a bareback rider, a career that spanned 10 years.
Riddle was born in 1948, the oldest of four children. The family called Weatherford home. Attending school first at Granbury, then when the bus route finally reached their rural home, he completed school and graduated from Weatherford High School. Riddle’s time as a youth was consumed with work. At six years old, his family bought a dairy. By the age of 10, he and his younger brother, age nine, were running the business. “We would get up in the morning before school and milk then get home from school and milk again,” he explained. “Me and my brother would ride the milk cows. One day we’d ride her with a saddle, then next maybe with a bull rope,” he chuckled. “We rode whatever we could find. If it moved, we’d ride it,” Riddle said.
By the age of 15 his parents divorced and the dairy was sold. “At that point, I’d seen all the black and white cows I’d wanted to. I got my first taste of bareback riding and that was all it took,” he assured. By 16 Riddle was traveling and competing in rodeos. Starting out, the young cowboy wanted to do it all, every event. When he was 18 Riddle found Tommy Steiner from Austin and began working for him feeding livestock and driving trucks. That was the young man’s first taste of pro rodeo. The time allowed Riddle to gain experience practicing and study other competitors.
In 1968, Riddle obtained his PRCA card. With no time to spare, the rodeo cowboy hit the ground running, traveling and competing. “Like they say, it’s not when you get hurt, it’s how bad in rodeo,” Riddle said. In 1970 Riddle was in Jackson, Miss. when a bull stepped on him, breaking all his ribs on one side, collapsing his lung. The serious injury put him out the rest of the year. That is when Riddle drew the line, opting to only ride bareback horses, “I just saw I could ride bareback horses a little better and saw there was more opportunity there for me.”
To read more pick up a copy of the December 2016 NTFR issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
Riddle riding bareback at the Weatherford rodeo in 1977. (Photo courtesy of Dollie Riddle)
Riddle riding at Calgary in 1974 on Reg Kesler’s Country Cousin. (Photo courtesy of Dollie Riddle)
By Lacey Vilhauer
Ingredients:
1 whole lemon, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
2 pounds strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
¼ cup water
Directions:
Place the chopped lemon and sugar in a food processor and pulse until combined. Transfer to a large bowl. Puree the strawberries in a food processor and add to the lemon mixture along with juice of one lemon and water. Taste and add more juice as desired.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Nicholas Waters
As winter plods along – come Spring and gopher mounds – homeowners and farmers find themselves playing a familiar song – fiddling while Rome is burning.
Let’s make a mountain out of a molehill. Those mounds on your lawn and pasture could be moles, but they’re more than likely gophers; Plains Pocket Gophers to be pragmatic – Geomys bursarius to be scientific.
These rodents dig and chew, and the damage they can do goes beyond the mounds we mow over. Iowa State University cited a study in Nebraska showing a 35 percent loss in irrigated alfalfa fields due to the presence of pocket gophers; the number jumped to 46 percent in decreased production of non-irrigated alfalfa fields.
The internet is replete with academic research from coast-to-coast on how to curtail gopher populations, or at least control them. Kansas State University – then called Kansas State Agricultural College – also published a book [Bulletin 152] in February 1908 focused exclusively on the pocket gopher.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Annette Bridges
Everyone needs a room with a view that makes their heart happy. My honest favorite panorama would be either the mountains or the ocean. I have yet to convince my hubby to make permanent moves to either, although he does enjoy the visits as much as I do.
The location of our house on our ranch does not provide the expansive field of vision of our land that I would enjoy. So, I have created a room decorated and furnished in a way that gives me smiles, giggles, and a wonderful peace-filled feeling when I am hanging out in it. I am in that place right now writing this column. I am in a lounging position with my computer in my lap on the chaise that was once my sweet mama’s. I had it reupholstered this year to give it a fresh look.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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