story by Michele Toberer
A roughy, turned timed-event cowboy, 30-year-old, Gunar Ramsey, has entered every event except saddlebronc riding during his lifetime rodeo career. Gunar moved up the typical rodeo ranks, starting out riding calves and steers in junior rodeos near his home in Frierson, Louisiana. He was about 10 years old when a steer riding accident caused his parents to put a hold on his roughstock career and encouraged him to focus on roping. Gunar spent the next several years calf roping and team roping, until as a sophomore in high school, his dad, Shane Ramsey, bet him $40 to enter the steer wrestling at a local rodeo. This new event began the next chapter in Gunar’s life, as he began to rodeo in Texas High School Rodeo Association, Region 5, and qualified for state finals his junior and senior year, in both steer wrestling and team roping, on his horse named Spook.
Gunar learned a lot during his childhood, watching his dad train horses to team rope, calf rope and run barrels. When he was 12, his dad gave him a sorrel, Quarter Horse, yearling colt to train and call his own. He named the horse Spook, because he was so spooky on the ground, watching everything around him. “He was really hard to catch, I used to have to hide in a feed trough and throw my arms around his neck when he came close.” Under his dad’s guidance, Gunar trained Spook, and he became the all-around horse he used for team roping, calf roping, and steer wrestling throughout high school and college. “My dad taught me everything I know, and the lessons he taught me about learning the start, keeping my eyes on the livestock and controlling horses in the box have been so important.”
Following high school, in 2006, Gunar grabbed hold of his roughstock roots, getting on a bull for the first time, after entering the bull riding at a UPRA rodeo in Texas. After re-igniting the roughstock flame, he went on to ride bulls from 2006 thru 2014. In 2008, Gunar joined the Hill Junior College Rodeo team in Hillsboro, Texas as an all-around cowboy, but it was bull riding that brought him to the NIRA National Finals in 2010. Gunar purchased his PRCA permit, and made the 2010 Texas Circuit Finals as well as the All-American Pro Rodeo finals. After college, in 2011, Gunar left Spook at his dad’s, and his sister Emily, now 18, ran barrels on him; while Gunar spent the next three years focusing on bull riding in multiple associations, including the PBR, Championship Bull Riding Association and Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association. While Gunar was competing at the CBR World Finals in 2012, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, he met his wife Julianne. Although Gunar experienced several minor injuries during his bull riding career, it was an injury early in 2014; when a bull stepped on his abdomen, that blew out the roughstock flame that had been burning.
Gunar married Julianne in 2014, they moved back to her hometown of Falkville, Alabama in 2015, and now have a two-year-old daughter they named Cheyenne. Gunar brought Spook to Alabama with them, and after being turned out to pasture for many months, and neither of them steer wrestling for close to 5 years, they entered a local rodeo, making a 3.9 second run at the beginning of the 2016 Southeastern Professional Rodeo Association season. This spurred Gunar on to buy his card, focusing only on steer wrestling, and he and Spook made the 2016 SPRA finals, and placed 2nd in a round. Gunar, his wife and daughter, now haul Spook to 2 to 3 rodeos nearly every weekend of the month, and he is a member of multiple rodeo associations. Spook, now 19, is still an all-around horse, working on his next generation of rodeo athletes, as recently, Gunar took Cheyenne to her first junior rodeo on him. Although Gunar missed part of the season, he is feeling good about going into the 2017 SPRA finals in 5th place, and appreciates the convenience the association offers by co-sanctioning many rodeos, as well as having finals that are done over two days, and a short trip from home.
