TUMUT COWBOY TOM KERR

TUMUT (NSW) cowboy Tom Kerr will warm up for the August rodeos in the Australian Professional Rodeo Association with two months of competition in the United States.

Kerr, 21, will miss the first part of the Northern Run but will be back for rodeos in Cloncurry, Mt Isa and Townsville on the first three weekends in August.

He has been competing in the APRA for three years and made his first finals in saddle bronc in Warwick last October.

Two of his biggest wins in the current season were saddle bronc rides at Alexandra in Victoria and Narrandera in New South Wales. He scored a career best 86 on the Garry McPhee horse Secret Sister at Narrandera.

He won some bull rides early in his career but is now concentrating on saddle bronc.

Kerr has already been on two trips to Canada and two to the United States. He was part of the Australian high school rodeo team when he competed in America in 2015 and two years later he was in the novice at the Calgary Stampede.

“I shouldn’t have ridden as I had a broken foot at Calgary,” he said.

He will be based in Oklahoma during this trip to the United States this year.

Kerr said it was easy to choose rodeo as a sport as Tumut was rodeo friendly.

“Brad Pierce and Scott Bandy are from Tumut and are top saddle bronc riders,” he said.

Ben Hall, Tom Webster, Gavin Fry and Tim Hammond often share a car with Kerr as they head interstate for a rodeo.

“We even chartered a plane to compete at two rodeos on the one night,” he said.

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THERE are 32 nominations for breakaway roping at the Moranbah Rodeo on Saturday in Queensland.

Nominations for Moranbah are 233 in total.

There is strong interest in both open and second division saddle bronc and bull rides.

Queensland had no APRA rodeos in the first three months of the year but action is really hotting up in the next month.

The first rodeo this weekend in Queensland will be the Bundaberg Show Rodeo on Friday.

There are open and second division saddle bronc and bull rides at both Bundaberg and Moranbah.

The cowgirls will be out in force at Moranbah on Saturday with 32 nominations for breakaway roping and 29 in the barrel race.

On Friday, there are 26 nominations in the barrel race at Bundaberg and 19 in breakaway roping.

Two of the favourites for the cowgirl events in Queensland this weekend will be Upper Horton (NSW) rider Stacey Wilburn and one of the most successful cowgirls in APRA history, Cherie O’Donoghue from Lockington in Victoria.

Bundaberg Rodeo starts at 6pm on Friday 31^st May and Moranbah Rodeo starts at 6pm on Saturday 1^st June.