The Turquoise Circuit’s Maddy Deerman navigated through four runs to emerge victorious at the NFR Open July 15, 2023, winning a total of $14,252.
Hailing from Hope, New Mexico, Deerman navigated a sharky short go to rope her final calf in 3.0 seconds, cashing her first ProRodeo check of 2023.
The victory is even sweeter when viewed through the lens of Deerman’s workload as a second-year geoscience graduate student at Texas Tech University—where she’s researching and writing a thesis, teaching a geology class and interning at Mewbourne Oil in Midland, Texas.
In short, Deerman’s got more than ProRodeo on her plate. So, when she rolled into Colorado Springs, Colorado, for the pinnacle of the WPRA Divisional Circuit competition, Deerman felt the nerves.
“This summer, I’ve entered maybe five rodeos—and one ProRodeo—because of the long hours at my internship,” Deerman, 23, explained. “I’d been riding a young horse because he needed to go, but I didn’t win any money at the rodeos. I knew Colorado Springs was going to be a faster setup, and that I really needed to be on my game and taking my first smart, fast shot.
“I think I did have some advantage over [my competition], though, because I have been able to practice every week, all summer, and they don’t get that opportunity out on the road.”
After the 9-to-5 at her internship, Deerman roped calves at Odessa College’s rodeo coach Shorty Shaw’s place. The effort paid off at the NFR Open when Deerman roped her first- and second-round calves in 3.9 and 2.6-seconds. She advanced to the muddy eight-man short go, where a 3.5-second run put her in the four-person final.
“I didn’t know what the mud was going to do to our set of calves, so I let my calf out a little further in the eight-man round,” Deerman said. “I let him out about shoulder-length, was a little off the barrier and took that easy shot right there in the cross-over. In the four-man round, my calf was stronger compared to the rest, so I knew I could take a faster start on him.”
Deerman was the third draw in the final four, which included two-time NFBR qualifier Taylor Munsell. When her first two competitors missed and Munsell was on deck, Deerman was thinking she’d rope for second place.
“I was just trying to make a businessman run,” Deerman said. “I knew Taylor was after me and she’s a badass. If I made a smart run, I would guarantee second place. But then Taylor got the barrier, and I got lucky.”
Despite her humble outlook, a little more than luck went into Deerman’s victory. A solid, home-raised horse named Whopper, her faith in God and hours of practice after schoolwork and interning all played a role in Deerman’s victory.
Whopper
The gelding Whopper has been in Deerman’s life for more than a decade. Registered as Lady Polka, 14-year-old Whopper traces back to Doc Quixote on the top side and Poco Bueno on the bottom. Purchased by her family when he was 3, Whopper put in his time as a ranch horse before finally making a breakaway horse.
“I trained him myself,” Deerman said. “I really like how I can know a horse inside and out that way. I ride him in a hackamore because he’s one of the brokest horses I’ve ever been on. If I put a bit in his mouth, he overcorrects and kind of rears up stopping.”
Whopper helped Deerman place inside the top three of college rodeo’s Southwestern Region for three years, as well as carrying her to the CNFR in breakaway roping in 2021 and 2022.
Although Deerman wasn’t sure how he’d handle the mud—citing an earlier mudding experience that didn’t go well—she chose Whopper out of her string because of his scoring ability. Whopper delivered, even if there was some slipping and sliding on Saturday night.
The plan? An awesome career
While many of the college rodeo athletes her age are fully focused on hitting the ProRodeo road, Deerman wants a solid career in the oilfield that can lead into a more comfortable rodeo lifestyle in the future.
“I know that I’m only going to be able to do school at this point in my life,” Deerman said. “I need to finish my masters instead of going off to rodeo. I figure, if I have a steady career and a good education, I can set myself up to rodeo in the future and maybe be comfortable doing it—not going down the road on pennies and dimes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be really hard to be sitting at a desk when everyone else is out rodeoing, but I’m believing it’s going to work out for me in the future.”
For now, Maddy Deerman is focused on finishing out her graduate program with a little Turquoise Circuit rodeoing on the side. She plans to return to breakaway more seriously when it’s made its way into the Thomas & Mack, reaching what she called the pinnacle of the sport.
