I’ve told this story for years, but I don’t think I’ve ever written about it. It’s one of my favorite memories from the glory days of Carl Albert State College’s (CASC) rodeo team. In 1992 I was a senior in high school taking concurrent classes at CASC. The first day in class I noticed a skinny guy that had a CASC rodeo team jacket on. I silently wondered who this dude was. I didn’t say a word to him, but I noticed his jacket said bareback riding, bull riding and maybe saddle bronc.
A week or so later was the Muldrow rodeo. When I went to the rodeo secretary to pay my entry fees I noticed the skinny guy that was in my class at CASC. I hung around the secretary long enough to figure out his name was Steven Gussert and he was entered in the bareback riding. I wouldn’t rope until after the rodeo performance, I was in the slack. So, I hung around by the bucking chutes to see if this dude could ride bucking horses. I half expected him to get yard darted when the horse came out of the chute. I doubted he weighed 120 pounds; he wasn’t very big at all.
Now I’d heard several old timers talk about guys that could spur a bucking horse and leave tracks on the horse’s neck and shoulders, but I’d never seen it. I always kind of thought it was sort of an old wives tale. I really didn’t believe it was possible.
When Steven Gussert nodded his head and this horse cleared the chute, I could hear the rowels on his spurs singing as he spurred the horse. I will go to my grave saying I saw horse hair coming off the horse each time he spurred that horse. Needless to say, he won the bareback riding at Muldrow and no one else was even close. I’ve been a Steven Gussert fan ever since that night at Muldrow.
After I got to know him, I found out he made the high school nationals three times–1987, 88, and 89. While he was at Carl Albert, he was the Ozark region champion bareback rider and All Around Champion in 1992. Later he was on the National champion college team at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1993.
He has been the ACRA champion bareback rider six times, and qualified for the IFR eight times. He was invited to go to Brazil in 1997 in a USA vs Brazil Bull Riders only event.
Several years ago when he was just getting started with his stock contractor business, I tried to help him get some rodeos and grow his business. He was the only stock contractor that showed up in a leather sports jacket and a promotional video. The rodeo set attendance records and the queen contest brought in over $20,000 that year.
The other day I was scrolling the Internet and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he has qualified for the ACRA finals again this year.
Steven turned 54-years-old in November. The ACRA finals are January 23-25 at the Tulsa fairgrounds. I’ll be rooting for the old guy, my friend of 30 years, Steven Gussert.
James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi Mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories, and fools with cows and horses.
