CD’s rodeo career spanned over 50 years, beginning with wild west shows and rodeos in the late 1920s and continuing through the early 1970s. He was adept at riding broncs and bulls and also had several contract acts in the 1930s and ’40s. In 1936, he formed his first contract act featuring an Arabian “Liberty” Trick Horse and a Shetland Pony, which jumped over a Model “A” roadster with the top lowered. This act was showcased for two seasons at the Industrial Boulevard Arena in Dallas in the late ’30s.
During World War II, CD moved to Houston and worked in the oilfields. A highlight of his rodeo career occurred in 1945 at the Houston Fatstock Show & Rodeo when he rode Bull #19 of the Lightning “C” Rodeos, a bull rated by cowboys at the time as the “rankest” bucking bull in the business and ridden only twice previously by champions Dick Griffiths and Ken Roberts.
In the late 1950s, CD was one of the originators of the “Border Collie and Cowboy Monkey” act. He started with only one dog and monkey at the smaller rodeos, then expanded the act to include two dogs and two monkeys. His debut at Houston in 1962 was a sensational success, captivating the audience throughout the act’s duration in the arena.
Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, CD showcased the dogs and monkeys at prestigious rodeos in locations such as Houston, Texas; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Pendleton, Oregon; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Nashville, Tennessee; Chicago, Illinois; Burwell, Nebraska; and Sidney, Iowa, among others. He also trained many dogs and monkeys for the barrel race and sold them to some of the top rodeo clowns, including Wilbur Plaugher.
He joined the “Cowboy Turtle Association” when it was first established in the 1930s and received his “Gold Lifetime Card” in the Rodeo Cowboys Association in the late 1950s. He also held contract cards in the N.I.R.A., T.Y.R.A., N.H.S.R.A., I.P.R.A., and the Little Britches Rodeo Association.
CD particularly enjoyed the youth rodeos because of the joy the dogs and monkeys brought to the children. He loved all phases of rodeo and was always ready to assist a young participant, whether by setting a saddle on a bronc or pulling a loose rope on a bull.
