ProRodeo Sports News - Feb. 18, 2022

PRORODEO HISTORY

Garten

James Fain photo

Shorty Garten paid his dues as a bull rider and was rewarded when he made the 1982 NFR.

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kind of a natural thing to do to start roping steers. I like to team rope (as a header) and I had some friends there who roped some steers, and they gave me some help and I started roping steers.” Reaching the NFSR pinnacle was special for Garten. He placed 14th and 11th at the NFSR in 1994 and 2002. “That was one of those things you never ever thought you would do,” Garten said. “When you put enough work into it, and you get it accomplished it is a pretty gratifying feat. Once you start roping steers, you’re hooked. It is hard to tell somebody who has never roped and tied steers down, but once you do that it is so much more fun than team roping. It is all on you and your horse. It’s a blast.” Garten still competes on a limited steer roping schedule in the PRCA. “Mostly now I train steer horses and go to steer ropings,” he said. “I don’t go (steer roping) as much now and the kids have gotten so much better and they tie them so fast, and I probably have no business trying to beat those kids, but I still go to some of the better rodeos, and I get along all right. “I know being one of only three guys to qualify for the NFR in bull riding and the NFSR is pretty cool. Not much gets said about it really. It is really cool. Phil Lyne has always been my hero and I always considered him to be the last true all-around cowboy. He could work any event and was tough at all of them. To be in that group is pretty cool.”

a mistake, but when you make the same mistake over and over again that’s not good. I enjoyed what I was doing, and it wasn’t like work. I liked to do what I was doing, and it was work in a way but the more you put into something, and you put it in the right way the more you get out of it.” GARTEN GOES FROM BULLS TO NFSR When Shorty Garten joined the PRCA in 1978, he had visions of qualifying for the NFR in bull riding. Garten accomplished that goal in 1982. He finished 10th in the world standings with $42,330. “It took everything I had to just go up and down the road to ride bulls,” said Garten, 65. “It was pretty cool to qualify (for the NFR in bull riding) and if I had to do it again, I would do it the same way. That was something I worked really hard to do and when you accomplish something like that it is always a big deal.” Garten was a versatile cowboy, but steer roping in the PRCA was the farthest thing from his mind. “I think I have worked every event in ProRodeo except for bareback riding,” he said. “After I semi-retired from riding bulls we moved to Pawhuska, Okla., which is supposedly the steer roping capital of the world. I took a job for a natural gas company, and we moved to Pawhuska in 1988, and it was

ProRodeo Sports News 2/18/2022

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