Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502060007
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONETA LENGTH: Long
Some kids want to be cowboys when they grow up.
Tom Lovell waited until he retired.
When he sold his home health-care business in October, the 52-year-old Lovell was well on his way to putting up a 34,000-square-foot, $130,000 indoor rodeo arena, literally in the back yard of his Bedford County farm off Virginia 747.
"Ever since I was a small kid, I always wanted to be a cowboy," he said recently. "At the time I grew up, most of the movies were cowboy movies. I played with the rope, drove my grandfather's old work horses and dreamed of one day having a horse of my own.
"As I got older, I never lost the dream of being a cowboy."
Gesturing at the nearly completed Broken Bow Arena, he mused, "This is probably as close as I'll ever get."
A longtime roping enthusiast, Lovell is probably the only cowboy on the range with an associate's degree in business administration and 30 years of experience in medical equipment sales.
But you'd never know it from looking at his graying black Wyatt Earp mustache, his faded black felt cowboy hat, and his muddied brown boots .
For the past several years, Lovell has spent his weekends and vacations traveling across the country competing in rodeo competitions and honing his cattle-roping skills. He's joined several rodeo associations - including the Mid-East Team-Roping Association, and the Tennessee-based Mountain State Roping Association. And since 1988, he's held outdoor rodeo competitions of his own at his farm during the summer months.
But in the winter, a cowboy's roping arm can get a mite rusty. So Lovell decided to build an indoor arena.
And his arena is no field of dreams. The people will come, Lovell said, some from across the country.
By the end of the month, he plans to host his first rodeo. He also plans to open the building - which boasts bleachers, wooden stalls, stadium lights and a vast, sawdust-covered dirt floor - to local 4-H groups for meetings.
He says he'll hold at least two sanctioned rodeos each month, all year long. Attracting fellow cowpokes from as far away as Pennsylvania, Florida and Tennessee, his all-day rodeos will feature events such as barrel racing, in which riders maneuver horses through a cloverleaf pattern of barrels, and team roping, in which two ropers try to lasso and take down a 600-pound steer from the front and back.
They will also compete in team pinning , in which riders have a limited amount of time to corral a specified number of cattle.
There's no steer wrestling at his events, and Lovell bristles at questions about the treatment of rodeo animals. His 42 head of cattle wear protective wraps around their head and horns to prevent rope burns.
"People have a lot of misunderstandings about rodeo animals. They think they're mistreated and kicked about but [rodeo operators] have so much money invested in these animals, feeding and doctoring them, that they take really good care of them.
"I give them the best feed I can afford, so they're strong, fast and healthy."
Lovell raises a lean brand of Mexican cattle for his roping contests. They're raised until they're about a year old, and sold for meat. Any older than that, Lovell said, and they start learning crafty "head tricks" - ways of dodging that make them dangerous to competitors.
Rodeo participants pay a fee to compete, and that allows Lovell to pay for the cattle's care and upkeep.
There's no admission charge for the rodeos, but Lovell said he's not exactly encouraging people to come, either. Though he said he welcomes polite rodeo fans, he doesn't advertise his events outside association newsletters and he's not sure he wants the hassles associated with large crowds.
But the arena will give some local cowboys a place to compete.
"It'll be a big help," said Vincent Clements, a cattle farmer from Rockbridge County. "In the winter months, you're limited to the amount of practice you get. Your horse gets out of shape and you get out of shape with your roping.
"In team roping, from the time you nod your head to start the round, everything happens in a matter of seconds. A half-second can be the difference between winning or placing. And it can take months to get a half-second back when you haven't been practicing."
Lovell makes roping look pretty easy. With a coil of thin nylon rope in one hand and the noose of his lasso in the other, he swoops the rope over his head, narrowly missing his hat, and with lightning-quick accuracy snags a bale of hay or a bystander's feet.
But as the Bedford County cowboy points out, "There's danger involved in this. If you dally your finger in this nylon rope and your finger's caught on one end and there's a 1,000-pound steer on the other end, your finger's coming off."
Bruce Friend, a 72-year-old self-described "old-school cowboy" who lives in Botetourt County, has taught Lovell a few tricks of the trade. He said, "If you get to worryin' about gettin' hurt or dyin', you'll never be a rodeo hand."
An ex-Marine, Friend worked at a cattle ranch in Oklahoma. Afternearly going broke in a farming venture, he rode to Roanoke in a freight boxcar with his horse.
Friend keeps up with the local rodeo and roping circuits, but now that he's getting slower on the draw, he said, he's hoping to pass on his respect for the traditions of the Old West to a new generation of cowboys such as Tom Lovell.
"I'm awful proud Tom's doing what he's doing," Friend said. "There ain't that many people that can trick-rope anymore.
"Tom, he tries to respect it. He's got the heart for it."
Lovell also hopes to pass on his mantle as a cowboy. His 13-year-old daughter, Jessie, rides and is learning rope tricks. And if Lovell has his way, his 2-year-old, Molly Rose, also will know her way around the rodeo.
Now Lovell's looking forward to many years of life as a cowboy - roaming, roping and riding.
"That's what it's about," Friend said. "You gotta enjoy life. Put up some hay for tomorrow so if you ain't there, somebody can feed the cattle. But don't be frettin' it so much you that you don't enjoy your life."
by CNB