story by Lily Weinacht
Dean McIntyre still remembers the first steer he ever jumped in his homeland of Australia. With no junior rodeos or chute dogging to get his boots wet in the event, a 14-year-old Dean threw his first steer at one of the Australian Professional Rodeo Association’s rodeos. Today, the steer wrestler and team roper, lately of Wickenburg, Ariz., is a GCPRA Year-End Steer Wrestling Champion, currently sitting third in the steer wrestling. He’s also a 3X PRCA Turquoise Circuit Steer Wrestling Champion, with four qualifications to the RNCFR under his belt.
The 38 year old came to the United States after high school to attend Northwest Community College in Powell, Wyo., where he earned a degree in welding and college rodeoed. “I grew up in a rodeo family in Australia – my sister, Kylee Ferguson, was Miss Rodeo Australia, and now her kids are coming here from Australia for the National junior high and high school finals,” says Dean. “I moved here to go to college in 1994 and made the College National Finals in 1998. It wasn’t that big of an adjustment to rodeo here, but there were more opportunities to compete.”
Dean continued to rodeo and weld out of Wyoming, pro rodeoing full time for three or four years and making it into the top 45 in the steer wrestling world standings. After taking on a welding job in Arizona for the winter, Dean decided to put down roots in the Grand Canyon State. He started his business, McIntyre Fencing, LLC, in 2007, which specializes in building barns, arenas, horse facilities, and fencing.
He met his wife, Jamie, after moving to Arizona. A barrel racer, Jamie travels with Dean and continues to compete, while they have started entering their five-year-old daughter, Kashlyn, in barrel races this year. “She spends time in the arena with us practicing, and part of my motivation to rodeo is getting her involved,” says Dean. “And I figure I might as well steer wrestle while I’m still young enough! Wayne Jennings was an older steer wrestler who passed away a few years ago, but when I moved to Arizona and was leaning toward team roping and getting out of steer wrestling, he wouldn’t let me quit. He always had steer wrestling horses and I could go practice at his place whenever I needed to.”
For the last few years, the McIntyre family has sidestepped the Arizona summers by rodeoing for several months in either Canada, or Australia, where much of Dean’s family still lives. This summer, Dean is rodeoing in the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, where Jamie will join him after an NBHA barrel race in Las Vegas. Dean excels in long-score rodeos like Tucson, Prescott, and Ponoka, and especially enjoys the GCPRA finals rodeo. “I’ve gone to them every year since I bought my Grand Canyon card, and they have one of the best run finals I’ve been to.” He steer wrestles off a 12-year-old gelding, Kid Rock, and uses D2 for hazing. “Kid Rock is one of the fastest horses I’ve ever ridden, and in the last year he’s really come around and become consistent. Casey Lillyman is a friend of mine and a steer wrestler from Australia. He competes in the GCPRA too and hazes for me, and so does Tim Robertson.”
On top of travelling for rodeo, the McIntyres travel to Mexico for Just Do What Matters, a non-profit organization Jamie started after she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer three years ago. Jamie pursued non-traditional treatment in Mexico, and now offers support and a crisis fund through Just Do What Matters to help other families.
While Dean plans to rope more in the future, his main goals are in the steer wrestling. “I’d like to make the Canadian finals and my circuit finals – I want to make it out to the RNCFR again, and I definitely want to make the Grand Canyon finals this year.”
