Horse’s death hit Crawford hard, but he picked up right where he left off

There are 120 cowboys and cowgirls competing in the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, and there’s more great stories about them than you can throw a horseshoe at.

But none of them would be where they are if not for the incredible animals they saddle up to ride, and that’s something that can’t be taken for granted. At the 2014 NFR, in its 30th year at the Thomas &Mack Center, perhaps no one knows that better than Charly Crawford.

Crawford is competing in his eighth NFR, including his third in a row, as a header in team roping. He owes much of his career success to his trusty steed, Patron, including a sterling run at last year’s NFR, with Crawford winning the second and fifth rounds and ultimately finishing 10th in the world standings, with $118,168 in season earnings.

“I rode him all 10 rounds last year, and we won two rounds,” Crawford said. “He was really kind of getting to where he was older, mature and just good everywhere.”

At 13 years old, 2014 was shaping up to be Patron’s best year.

“He was probably working better this year than he ever had,” Crawford said. “It was getting to where I was so confident in him that no matter where we were, he was doing good. We were having a really good summer, and we were coming off a big win in Hermiston, Ore. — my second hometown. Things were rolling pretty good.

“Then we had two really good runs at Caldwell (Idaho), then went to Washington and did well there. Then we won the first round in Canby (Ore.), and right after that, he started acting up, rolling around, kind of colicky. The vet showed up and pumped him full of meds, but it didn’t help. They found out he had an intestinal displacement.”

While Patron was trucked off to a veterinary hospital, Crawford and his traveling buddies had to hit the road for the next rodeo, in Montana, with Crawford set to use his backup horse.

“I thought, even worst-case scenario, Patron would be back for the NFR,” Crawford said.

But hours later, the drive became much more grueling.

“When the intestine turned, it cut off circulation to his colon — his colon was dead,” Crawford said. “The vets called me, and they asked for permission to euthanize him. And I said, ‘Do whatever you need to do to save him.’ You know how sometimes you hear something, but you don’t really hear it? That’s what happened to me.

“I wasn’t getting it. I really wasn’t getting it. So I said, ‘Does that mean you’re gonna have to kill him?’ and nobody would answer. Finally, they said that.”

It was a shock to Crawford’s system.

“I looked down, and I was going 25 miles per hour down the interstate,” he recalled, noting that he had rallied from a sluggish start to the season to get firmly entrenched in the top 15 at that point, in mid-August. “It was a game-changer. It was so devastating. It was like watching a basketball team rally, go up by two, then all of a sudden, their best player goes out.

“What do you do now?”

In rodeo, all you can do is pick yourself up and keep competing. If you don’t compete, and compete well, you don’t get paid. Fortunately, Crawford has good friends in high places — including 11-time world all-around champion Trevor Brazile, two-time team roping world champ Chad Masters and three-time NFR qualifier Dustin Bird.

“Trevor let me ride his good horse, and my friends dang sure made a point that whatever I needed, it was there. You don’t see that anywhere else,” Crawford said. “That’s how cowboys are. It’s friendship first, business later. It was really special to have friends help me out.”

And of course, having a great teammate in heeler Shay Caroll — a first-time NFR qualifier — didn’t hurt, either. The two teamed up for a win at Ellensburg, Wash., with Crawford on Brazile’s horse, and kept their season on track.

“And my second horse started working really good,” Crawford said. “Things were just working in a way you can’t take credit for. You can’t explain things that were happening from higher places. It was pretty incredible.

“We just went to dominating, continuing what was going on when I had Patron.”

Crawford finished the regular season 12th in the world header standings, with $71,559. He entered the NFR less than $30,000 out of second place, and only about $40,000 out of first. That sounds like a lot, but that kind of money can be made up in a couple of rounds at the 10-day NFR.

“It’s an unknown on how good this could really be,” said Crawford, who was born in Canby, Ore., and lives in Stephenville, Texas, with his wife and 10-year-old daughter. “We could leave with only enough money to get home, or enough to pay off the entire place.”

Regardless, the 36-year-old Crawford will ride out of 2014 knowing he did all he could.

“It was pretty special,” Crawford said. “Dang sure a year I won’t forget, good and bad.”