Amarillo Ranch Rodeo
Set For June 12-14

AMARILLO — The Crump-Hodge team will be back in the saddle again this year defending their title as top hands at the Cowboy Roundup USA and the Coors Ranch Rodeo here later this month.

"We'll be working cattle the week before the rodeo to get the horses tuned up," says Jerry Hodge, owner of the High Card Ranch near Clarendon.

The High Card Ranch won the ranch rodeo in 1997 and in 1990.

Fourteen ranches, including the Hitch Ranch of Guymon, Okla., the Dixon Creek Division of the 6666 Ranch near Panhandle, Texas, and the Thompson Ranch of Munday, Texas, will vie for top honors at the annual roundup June 12 through 14 at the Tri-State Fairgrounds in Amarillo. The Thompson Ranch and 6666 Ranch have each won twice. The Hitch Ranch has won one championship.

Hodge says the High Card team, consisting of Hodge; his two sons, Heath and Ryan; ranch foreman Morris Crump and his wife Linda and their sons, Ray, Randy and Elwin, should be ready for the competition.

But if Ron Cromer of the Sixes', Larry Thompson of the Thompson Ranch, and Rusty Tinnin of the Bell Ranch of Tucumcari, N.M., along with the Brainard Ranch of Canadian, Texas; the Masterson Ranch of Guthrie, Texas, and Smith Ranches of Channing, Texas, have their way, it will also be competitive, says Quien Stapleton of The Outfit, an Amarillo-based western heritage group who hosts the event.

"There are a lot of good cowboys out there participating," Hodge says. "What's neat about it is the camaraderie behind the chutes, but in the arena it's very competitive."