Episode 172 Charley Crawford / 10 Time NFR Qualifier / Patriot & Founder Of The American Military Celebration…

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Had a great time on the Podcast with 10 time National Finals Rodeo Qualifier Charly Crawford discussing the American Military Celebration. AMC a team roping event dedicated to thanking military veterans, first responders, and their families. Charly is a True Patriot & has a passion for giving back. Charly Crawford Bio Born and raised in Canby, Oregon Charly Crawford grew up with his dad who was a bareback rider and the self-proclaimed biggest team roping fan on earth. Charly’s father, Chuck always had good horses and was one of the reasons the crossfire rule was implemented. Growing up in the Northwest, the summers were always fun because guys like Mike Beers, Allan Back, Jake Barnes, Clay Cooper, and Leo Camarillo would come rope at their house. Due to the average rainfall being so significant, they could only rope about 4 months of the year outdoors. Chuck had a roping club where there were weekly practices and monthly jackpots. Charly always got to rope with guys that gave him no choice but to rope the best he could. He made the amateur finals before he made the high school finals. He and his dad would jackpot together, and Charly even did his first roping school at the age of 12. It took winning for Charly to take roping seriously and once he was accustomed to winning, he never looked back. “I paid my fees for the Dummy Ropings by picking up beer cans around the arena” Before moving to Arizona to attend college at Central Arizona in Casa Grande, Charly took home a state championship and made the National High School Rodeo finals three times. College was a challenge because he suffered from a learning disability, and it was always more enticing to make money. He tended to business long enough to take some teaching courses, make the college finals three times, and work on his farrier skills but never graduated. Charly bought his PRCA permit in 1997 and filled it at the first rodeo he entered in Tacoma, WA. He was roping with Shane Crossley. In 1998 he won PRCA Resistol Rookie of the Year. The years leading into 2001 were inconsistent, but Charly was focused on gathering up some good horses and making his herd valuable. There are a lot of influences in our sport, but one piece of advice always stuck with Charly: “It’s not how much you can win on your horses by how much your horses can keep you from winning” This led to the purchase of “Armadillo” which Charly acquired because of a bet. This horse proved himself by being named Horse of the BFI in 2001 and was Reserve Horse of the Year in 2005. You should know that through the roller coaster of life and the ups and downs on the rodeo trail that Charly always had an inkling to ride saddle broncs. His curiosity wasn’t fueled by trying to do what his dad did, but because he rode a lot of outside horses and if they’d fart, he fell off. In 2003, Charly was on the kick that he wanted to ride broncs when he got a call from Bucky Campbell to rope. He told Bucky what he had on his mind and all Bucky could say is “Don’t do it!” so, they roped for a while and Charly was back to having those thoughts about bronc riding again when he had the opportunity to roe with Tyler Magnus. Tyler also told Charly “Don’t do it!” “When one door closes, another door opens” Pretty soon, Charly was back in the Northwest and Matt Funk called looking for a partner. By this time, Charly was strongly evaluating the option to ride broncs and had decided to back his goals down and get back to basics. He told Matt that he wanted to win the amateur circuit, make the circuit finals, and practice with a purpose. Together they won both amateur association finals and made the circuit finals, but Matt decided to go back to heading so Charly was thinking about bronc riding again. He’d started hanging out behind the chutes, learning the lingo, getting familiar with the equipment and how it all worked. Now its 2004 and Mike Beers calls, he also says “Don’t do it!” so Charly is back to team roping and learns how to...