Country Lifestyles
Inside the Arena: Father-Son Duo, Brandon, Brendall Dunn
By Dani Blackburn, [email protected]
“There is so much rodeo can teach you, not just as a sport, but in life in general. In rodeo, you must compete to get paid. You can’t be a sissy. Rodeo teaches you to go way down deep inside and it draws out a character in you that you didn’t even know you had.” – Brandon Dunn
Rodeo is a part of the Dunn family heritage, but it is not the reason Brandon and Brendall find themselves inside the rodeo arena. It is a deep-seated love for rodeo and a family bond that runs generations deep.
Brandon grew up in Okmulgee, Okla., before moving to Petrolia, Texas, in 1979. The family was heavily involved in rodeo, with his father bulldogging and his mother running barrels, and his uncle was a PRCA bull fighter inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.
“That’s all I ever wanted to be growing up was a bullfighter and a clown. We have home videos of me. I am only three years old, all made up, with a little stuffed bull. I would put him on the floor and run around him,” Brandon said.
Brandon got his official start into bull fighting at the age of 14. He would travel across the river to Waurika for practice sessions at his uncle’s bull fighting school every chance he got. He also began working junior rodeos and high school rodeos, eventually moving on to college and amateur rodeos.
In 1994, Brandon received his PRCA card and started professional rodeos and PBR events. He recalls his favorite rodeo to work was Fort Madison, which included big concerts and getting to meet individuals like Toby Keith.
Brandon’s bull fighting career came to an end in 2003 when he was hit by a drunk driver on Highway 79. The wreck took the life of his seven-year-old daughter and left him with serious injuries. Brandon did not fight bulls for more than a decade, until his son Brendall managed to draw him back to the arena.
“The wreck put a stop to my rodeo career for a long time. As a matter of fact, I thought it was done until Brendall here came along. When he was 11, he was always on me about fighting bulls. I finally told him he was going to have to get in shape and show me something. It got to where he was doing 100 pushups and 100 sit-ups a night. He was running every day. It was time to put up or shut up, so we got him a little Miniature Zebu bull. I figured it could roll him around a little and then that would be that,” Brandon sad. “Well, Brendall got in that cow lot of ours at the house. He put his own pump-up music on his phone. He’d go out there and he’d fight that little bull. I thought maybe it was time if he was really that serious about this, but I wanted to go with him. So, I started getting in the barrel.”
To read more, pick up a copy of the June issue of NTFR Magazine. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
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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