story by Michele Toberer
“I bought him as a diamond in the rough and he turned out to be a freak of nature,” says Dusty Link about Buttons, his sorrel, Quarter Horse gelding. In 2015, Dusty spotted the horse at a rodeo, and even though he wasn’t for sale, he propositioned the owner and within a week he had purchased him to be his own. “He was a finished reiner, and I saw a lot of potential in him, I loved the way he could stop.” Right away, Dusty and Buttons clicked together and he trained him to be his heel and tie-down horse, with the help of friends Jim and Cody McCartney. “He is my one and only horse, and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have stepped up my game the way that I have, I guess you could say he is just that one special horse for me.”
Dusty grew up in Montrose, Michigan with his parents Dale Link and Teresa Lingle Link, and brother, Jimmy Paquette. Although Dusty lived in a family that didn’t have anything to do with rodeo, a friend down the road from his childhood home had horses and was involved in riding bulls, and Dusty was drawn to the activity and lifestyle. Dusty’s mom was not so excited about the prospect of her 12-year-old son riding bulls, and instead encouraged Dusty to ride horses. When Dusty explained that he’d like to team rope, she was happy to support him in that direction, and Dusty’s parents purchased a 20-year-old grey head horse for him to get started on. Dusty spent many hours watching professional ropers on television, stopping to video himself and compare his own roping to what they were instructing ropers to do. Emulating the pros as closely as possible gave him a start; but when he was 13-years-old, he attended his first roping school with instructor Steve Shattock and his roping really took off from there.
Dusty competed as a header in the Michigan High School Rodeo Association and qualified for nationals his junior year. After graduating in 2007, his roping continued, but Dusty switched to heeling and mostly jackpotted close to home after relocating to Holly, Michigan. It was in 2009 that started Dusty down the rodeo trail, and in 2010 that he had his rookie year with Mid States Rodeo Association-East. He has since been a member of MSRA-E, as well as the Michigan Ropers Association, and USTRC, where he is now a #6 heeler and #5 header. Dusty has competed in the USTRC finals in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma every year since 2012.
In 2012, Dusty had the opportunity to go stay with Charlie Crawford for a month, in Lipan, Texas, where Charlie was living with Chad Masters at the time. Working under Charlie, Dusty learned a lot about roping as well as having a winning mindset. “He taught me to keep my mind together when things are rough, take the bad with the good, remembering that you are not going to win them all, so just keep roping like you know how to do, and it will all be better in the end.”
Dusty makes his living as a farrier, and when he’s not shoeing horses he is riding and practicing at his neighbor’s indoor arena. Dusty taught his girlfriend, Tina Popour, how to rope and is grateful that “she’s a trooper,” and spins steers for him at practice, works the chute, or whatever else he needs help with. He and Tina travel to many of the rodeos together, and Dusty is grateful that his parents make it to at least one or two of his rodeos each year to cheer him on as well. When Dusty is not rodeoing, he enjoys time hunting and fishing with friends, and is an avid coon-hunter, especially enjoying time with his coondog, Stubby. “Stubby is my main man, and when we’re not hunting he’s a 100-pound lap dog.”
Dusty made the 2017 MSRA-E season finals this past October, in team roping and in tie-down roping, where he placed 3rd in the average. “I enjoy being a member of the MSRA-E, it’s a well-run organization where everything seems to go smoothly.”
