There are some who believe there are strong bloodlines that will always show themselves and their qualities when the test is put to the individuals carrying them. That goes for both critters and people.

Harry Vold began making his way in life as an auctioneer in his native Alberta, like his father. But also like his father, he was a sure-enough cowboy who traded in livestock as well. He especially liked trading in bucking horses in a time when there were plenty of spoiled saddled horses around. He more or less drifted into supplying such animals to rodeos and developed a keen eye for finding bulls that would both buck and fight.

By 1967, he had begun his second career as a rodeo producer and had moved south of the Medicine Line to southern Colorado. In 1970 he formally launched the Harry Vold Rodeo Co. which became the standard for the next few decades. Vold was one of the very first to raise his own bucking stock. In those days it was considered easy to search the country for spoiled horses and cross-bred bulls with an edge on them. But Vold waved off the advice of the great Harry Knight and began his own breeding program. He believed in breeding “the best to the best” and the bucking horses he produced are legends beginning with the great General Custer who produced a line with five different “Bucking Horses of the Year” to its credit. Later, there was a string of years when a Vold horse won the honor for six straight years. Crooked Nose was not only his first Bucking Bull of the Year but was a notorious fighter as well. Harry Vold was named the PRCA’s Rodeo Producer of the Year a record 11 times.

Mr. Vold preferred a handshake and straight look in the eye to a contract and often supplied most of the biggest rodeos in the country on that basis. He had a big laugh and when you got the full smile you could see the gap where a tooth was missing half way around on the top left. It was Bob Tallman who first called him the “Duke of the Chutes” because he was always around the bucking chutes controlling things. And he was about as close as one could get to a real-life John Wayne.

Mr. Vold came to mind when I came across another one of those iconic black-and-white rodeo pictures. I know I have already written one time about my favorite old-time picture but this could certainly be a candidate. I honestly don’t remember the year. But it was either 1971 or ’72. I have slept since then but still have the details of the story trapped in the back of the mind. It was in Ellensburg, WA, and the bucking horse was a mare out of British Columbia they called Paper Doll. The bareback rider was Larry Mahan who already had five All-Around Championships to his name. He would earn another but his right leg would have to heal first.

The most common quick description of a bareback rigging is that of a suitcase handle. But it is actually nothing like that in my altered mind. To begin with, it certainly doesn’t pivot. It is locked solidly in place. It is hard and the leather is much more like sole leather but more inflexible. It is wide at the top of the grip but narrows to a point at the end nearest the rider. And there is a twist to it near that end. If it is made right the hand almost has to be worked into it. Both the “handle” and the glove will be heavily rosined to tighten the grip.

Mahan “hung up” on Paper Doll that day. The two pick-up men were the Vold sons, Wayne and Doug. Wayne rode in on the left side and was able to reach Mahan’s hand with his own right hand. But as the mare ran and buck down the arena with Larry hanging on her left side, Wayne was unable to work the hand loose. In the picture above, that is Dougie Vold leaving his own horse on the other side to finally work the rider’s hand out of the rigging at full speed.

Larry Mahan came away with a broken leg and would have to wait for another year to claim his next All-Around. But he also left with his life due to a pair of pretty good cowboys with a championship bloodline of their own.

I should also give a hat-tip to John P. Foster, the photographer who stood his ground during the wreck and took the shot.

It was my intention to just give Wayne and especially Doug their due. But it will be hard to close without giving my favorite Harry Vold story and it happens in a simple sorting pen and not a rodeo arena. So I will measure out another two fingers and try to remember it right!

It was Christmas Day and Mr. Vold’s daughter and her husband had driven down to take dinner with her parents. When the couple arrived, Bill Larsen (the son-in-law) was advised that before there was any visiting they would all get horseback and gather the cow herd in the next pasture. Mr. Vold wanted to sort out some dry cows to sell because the price was high and there were a few who would soon be on the decline. It was snowing and the wind was blowing (no surprise for southern Colorado). According to Larsen, the cows “gathered kinda like antelope,” which meant hardly at all.

But they finally got the cows penned and the women went to the house to put the finish on the holiday dinner. Mr. Vold positioned himself on the top rail of the fence to tell Bill which cows to sort out and give him fair warning about some of them. “Keep about four cows between you and that old yellow cow. She’s Crooked Nose’s mother and will sure get you.”

The snow was falling a little harder and the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees but the sort was finally finished and there were about 15 dry cows left in a smaller pen to themselves. They were all without calves and probably only had a few producing years left.

Larsen walked around to the outside to join Mr. Vold. The veteran rodeo producer moved over to the fence, put his hands on the top rail and looked over the bunch. After a long, thoughtful look the Duke gave an upward nod of the head with, “Where could you look over a set of cows like that? Hell, turn ’em out.”

With the cows trotting back to the high plains prairie grass they belonged on, the two men headed to the house for Christmas dinner.

One of the few men who truly was a legend in his own time, the 93-year-old Harry Vold passed away in his sleep in 2017. But he left behind some strong bloodlines as evidenced in some bone-jarring bucking horses, some gut-twisting bulls and some pretty good human critters who are worthy of his name.