Editor’s Note: Last week’s The Amarillo Independent did not have room for this feature.

Zach Blair twirled a lasso outside the Amarillo Civic Center Saturday afternoon, flicking it at an imaginary target as he prepared for the competition at the Working Ranch Cowboys Association ranch rodeo.
Blair ranches on the southern edge of the Flint Hills near Atlanta, Kan., southeast of Wichita. So what brought him some 435 miles to Amarillo? He gave a polite smile as he worked the rope.
“You get to see cowboys from all over the country,” he said, explaining that the challenge comes from testing his ranch skills against the skills of other cowboys.
He was preparing for the stray-gathering competition in which two steers designated as strays must be roped by a four-member team with each stray roped around the head and the back legs so that it can be tied down for at least six seconds.
Traditional rodeo, he said, has gotten away from the origins of rodeo, the riding and roping skills needed to manage a cattle herd on the ranch. Bull riders need not apply for a spot in a working ranch rodeo, of which there were 24 sanctioned rodeos this year that qualified for the 14th annual World Championship Ranch Rodeo.
Like fellow competitor, Chad Ray, of Hominy, Okla., Blair’s reasons for competing come back to one thing — keeping alive ranching traditions, and by extension, keeping alive a traditional ranch.
Thus, stray roping and bronc riding hold sway, as well as team penning and team branding. The only event done strictly for the purpose of putting on a show is the wild-cow milking contest in which a cow is run into the arena, roped by a rider on horseback, and the other team members bulldog or wrestle the cow into submission so another team member can draw enough milk in a bottle and race to the judge’s circle.
A milk cow is not an animal to be trifled with in the best of circumstances, let alone one that is chased by a cowhand on a horse and lassoed. The first hand grabbing ahold of the cow is likely to ski across the arena dirt if he grabs her by the tail, or bounce up and down in the air if he tries to bulldog her by grabbing the head and shoulders.
While that event drew its share of laughs and applause, it’s the stray roping, penning and branding skills that command respect from the audience for reflecting the traditions of a working ranch.
Blair is a partner in the Lazy B Bar C Ranch where they run about 400 black Angus cows and about 1,000 head a year in a yearling operation.
Ranching, like grain-producing farm operations, is squeezed at the production end.
“It is tough,” Blair said. “We’re at the mercy of the feedyards, what they’ll pay.”
Ray, who was born and raised on a ranch, lives with his family on the Dunkin Ranch in eastern Oklahoma, now part of Buford Ranches of Tulsa, which has through the years converted its herds from Herefords to Limousin and Angus.
“Ranchers are making a living and that’s about it,” Ray said of the economics of ranching. “They love it or they wouldn’t be doing it at all.”
The most recent outlook on cattle prices by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is the height of deadpan in presenting dour news: “Volatility in cattle and beef prices expected to continue well into 2010.”
The Economic Research Service report notes that the amount of beef going to retail outlets may continue to be greater than demand, given the continuing high levels of unemployment and slack consumer spending.
Putting a squeeze on beef production from cattle intended for the dinner table is a continued reduction in dairy herds. So far this year, the USDA said, more than 175,000 dairy cows have been slaughtered because the price for milk earlier this year was running behind the cost of producing the milk.
That imbalance in the dairy industry has continued, and the Agriculture Department counted another 26,000 dairy cows to be removed from herds.
Those reductions are enough to lower the price of beef cattle going to slaughter, according to the USDA.
One bright spot is exports, with sales to Asian countries starting to pick up. The outlook notes that this year was running behind exports for 2008, but appears to be heading up for 2010.
But this weekend was more about relief from that strain, whether the comic relief of the wild-cow milking, or the excitement of competition in cutting three steers from a herd in the team penning contest with three cowboys working to guide their three steers away from the herd to the pen on the opposite end of the arena within three minutes.
Arena announcer Dr. Bill Clymer explained the difference in the bronc riding competition between a rodeo horse and a ranch horse. Ranch horses being broken tend to buck a time or two before settling down, he said, while rodeo broncs buck harder each time their hooves hit the ground, making the 8-second ride with a standard working saddle rather than the typical rodeo rigging the mythic eternity.
In the end on Sunday, what counted was the cowboying.
The team representing Sweetwater Cattle and Tom Drummond Ranch, of Foraker and Pawhuska, Okla., was team champion, followed by Wilson Cattle and T4 Cattle, of Hereford and Canyon, Hatchet Ranch and 10X Ranch, of Hachita, N.M., and Apache, Ariz., and Haythorn Land and Cattle Co., of Arthur, Neb.
Riley Smith, of Sandhill Cattle Co. of Earth claimed the Top Hand award, edging last year’s winner, Hegan Lamb, of the Crutch Ranch of Borger.
Mimms Cattle Co. and Myers Cattle Co., of Hereford and Claude, won ranch bronc riding. Wilson Cattle and T4 Cattle won stray gathering. Buck Creek Ranch and Lonesome Pine Ranch, of Cottonwood Falls and Cedar Point, Kan., won team penning, Rainbow Ranch, of Deming, N.M., won team branding, and Sweetwater Cattle and Tom Drummond Ranch won wild-cow milking.

Each year, 20 percent of people in the United States come down with the flu, experiencing symptoms such as sore throat, fever, headache, muscle aches and soreness, congestion, and cough. Diarrhea and vomiting may also occur and are especially associated with the 2009 H1N1 influenza strain (“swine flu”).
Although most sufferers will fully recover, the flu can cause serious illness or even death. The best way to combat the flu and its symptoms is to avoid it altogether.
Fortunately, simple steps can help reduce your chances of getting sick. 
Get vaccinated. Vaccines for both the seasonal and swine flu are available as a shot and an inhaled mist. Because pregnant women have a higher risk of severe complications related to seasonal flu and are six times more likely to die from H1N1 than the general population, ACOG recommends that they receive both vaccines.
Flu vaccination is safe for pregnant women and their fetuses and continues to provide newborns with some protection from the flu after delivery.
Pregnant women should only be vaccinated with the flu shot, not the inhaled mist.
H1N1 vaccination is also strongly recommended for persons between the ages of six months and 24 years; those who live with or care for children younger than six months of age; and people between 25 and 64 years of age with compromised immune systems and chronic illnesses such as diabetes, asthma or heart disease.
Seasonal flu vaccination is recommended for any individual who wishes to avoid the flu and for high-risk populations including those older than 50; people of any age who have a chronic illness, and their caregivers; and household members and caregivers of children younger than five.
Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. Be sure to lather for at least 20–30 seconds (about the time it takes to hum the ‘Happy Birthday’ song twice). You can also use alcohol-based hand cleansing gels if water is not available.
Use a tissue to cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze, and then throw it away. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your elbow or shoulder, not your hands. 
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
Stay home when you’re sick, and keep sick children home, too. Sick individuals should stay out of public places such as school and work until they have been free of a fever for at least 24 hours. Pregnant women are encouraged to plan for someone else to care for sick family members.
And remember to practice good-for-you habits — such as eating a healthy diet, drinking plenty of fluids, exercising and getting enough sleep — to keep your body in tip-top, virus-fighting condition.

Dr. Gerald Joseph Jr.: President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Pete Petersen loves driving a horse-drawn wagon. Loves it so much he tolerates driving a truck as part of a show schedule that takes him all over the country 330 days a year from his base in San Antonio.
Petersen is one of four team leaders for the Budweiser Clydesdale wagons. He was in Amarillo this past week with his seven-member crew for the Working Ranch Cowboys Association Ranch Rodeo, where the Clydesdales made appearances in the arena and on display.
Within the hour of Sunday’s last appearance, Petersen and the crew were breaking down the wagon, cleaning its crisply painted parts and packing them inside the three semi-trailer trucks that were taking them to Albuquerque Monday on their way to their next appearance at Gilbert, Ariz., just outside Phoenix.
Petersen grew up on a farm in Minnesota. His father always had a team of horses, he said, and that experience put him in at the reins of the wagon, where he has been for 17½ years.
“I love it,” Petersen said Sunday afternoon as he wiped down a carriage tree, rushing to complete the task before the crowd for Sunday’s finals would leave and want access through the parking lot next to the Amarillo Civic Center.
That reason, he explained, is the only reason for doing any job, a philosophy that fit right in with the ranch cowboys.
Petersen thrilled the audience, twice taking the team through a demonstration of their precise maneuvering, including Sunday’s performance in which he walked the eight-horse team through a figure eight on the arena floor, and showed how they could maneuver the wagon in tight quarters.
The team of eight geldings, all at least 6 feet at the shoulder, stepped precisely as Petersen guided them through the turn, as if they were moving inch by inch. The wagon’s front wheels, which are smaller than the rear wheels, turned until they were underneath the wagon, and then, Petersen deftly commanded the horses to complete the positioning.
For Wednesday’s demonstration, in which the wagon inadvertently became hooked on the panels lining the arena, Petersen received the association’s “Hard-luck Cowboy” award at the end of the show and rodeo.
Budweiser maintains six teams, four that travel such as the team that came to Amarillo. Each team has 10 horses, Petersen said, with eight being hitched to the wagon so that horses can be rested during appearances.
Horses must be at least 1,800 to 2,300 pounds in weight, at least 4 years old, and bay in color with four white stocking feet, a blaze of white on the face and black manes and tails.
When they travel, one semi holds the wagon and the harness, one carries six horses and one carries the other four horses and the portable stables, he said.
He has a crew of seven to care for the horses and move them, and a farrier flies in every six weeks to tend the Clydesdale’s hooves, which require a horseshoe that weighs 5 pounds and is 20 inches from end to end.
The 12-ton wagon is a 1903 Studebaker painted a bright red with white and gold trim. A harness is made of brass and leather and, with the collar that is fitted for each horse, weighs 130 pounds. The reins weigh another 40 pounds, and with the tension on the harness, add up to 75 pounds of tension for Petersen and other drivers to handle during parades and other demonstrations.

Although divorced dads may identify with this most easily, every dad faces relationship barriers of some kind, and all dads can benefit from being reminded about a few simple truths.

It is pretty well a daily deal that I talk to guys who are divorced or facing a divorce. For the sake of the article, I will call the guy "Mike." He's been through some very difficult trials and has made some mistakes that really became roadblocks for a relationship with his daughter. But recently Mike's daughter made contact with him indicating she wants to be part of his life. The problem is, Mike feels paralyzed. He can't forgive himself for the sins of his past.

All dads face challenges, whether they are divorced, married, single, new dads, stepfathers, dads of teenagers, dads in prison, dads who travel a lot for work, and so on. Some dads are fighting just to see their children. Others might not see their kids for months at a time because of some unavoidable arrangement of work responsibilities, where the mother lives, or other factors. And some do see their children, but may feel paralyzed because of fractured relationships, unhealthy patterns they have established through the years, feelings of inadequacy, or big mistakes their children have made, and they don't know how to make things better. Some dads, like Mike, can't seem to shake their own painful memories and mistakes.

When you've hit a barrier to connecting with your children and hope is in short supply, there are no quick-and-easy solutions. But in the long run, you will benefit from taking a few simple truths to heart — and acting on them:

1. Though the challenges are daunting, your child still needs you to be her dad. She knows that she will always have a connection to you. She needs you to be strong — strong in patience, courage and love.

2. There is still time. Don't be deceived into thinking there's no hope. There is always tomorrow. We always have reasons to hope and be optimistic. If you can't see your kids, your past isn't pretty, you've been treated unjustly by the system, or whatever, it's important to have hope that the future can be better.

3. If your circumstances or other people are making it difficult for you to be a good father, don't give up. Just as with Mike's daughter, things do change. Kids grow up and start putting things together; many times they want to know their dad in a deeper way. Believe that your opportunity will come, live with integrity today, make healthy decisions, and be ready for that day. It would be a shame if you did something now that might jeopardize that opportunity.

4. Be willing to start fresh and put the past behind you. Ask for forgiveness, when appropriate, and strive to better the relationship from here forward.

Action points

Even in difficult and frustrating situations, do all you can to maintain your poise. You will be a powerful model for your kids regarding how to handle adversity.

Make whatever adjustments are necessary to connect with your kids in your situation: write letters; send texts and e-mails; ask your child's teacher, coach, or youth sponsor to help keep you informed; look into changing your work schedule; make the most of the opportunities you do have.

To connect or reconnect with a child, try turning off cell phones and other distractions, getting away together, and simply talking to each other. Say something like: "Sweetheart, you're important to me. How have things been going?" Or, "How can we stay more connected?"

Get a copy of a book your child is reading for school and read it yourself, then discuss it — even if it's over the phone.

Are you in a struggling marriage? Do everything you can to make it work. Many divorced dads say that, knowing how difficult it is being a dad now, they wish they'd tried harder with their ex-wives.

For whatever specific fathering challenge you're facing, chances are fathers.com has articles online that will give you some practical help. See what's available for your situation, your kids' stages, and other hot topics.

Recommended Resources: "Still a Dad: The Divorced Father's Promise" by Serge Prengel; "Live-Away Dads" by William Klatte.

CREDIT: Information for this article was contributed from fathers.com and further information can be explored online at http://www.fathers.com.

Dave Clark: Columnist for the Amarillo Independent. Send comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .