story by Ruth Nicolaus
Jate Saults is a beef kind of guy. He likes the beef on a plate: steak, prime rib, brisket, country-fried. And he likes the four-legged beef, too, when he’s tie-down roping, team roping (heeling for Seth Glass), and ribbon roping (roping for Ashlyn Henderson). He also competes in the goat tying, all in the Nebraska Junior High School Rodeo Association.
The Big Springs, Nebraska cowboy rides two different horses: a fifteen-year-old roan mare named Little Jacie, who is his tie-down and goat tying horse, and a six-year-old blue roan mare whose name is Karmen, who is his heeling horse. Karmen is a sister to Little Jacie.
Jacie is pretty laid back, and she’d rather trot than walk or lope. Karmen has mood swings, Jate said. “She’ll go from being happy to being really mad all of a sudden, and you won’t be able to catch her in the pen.” The Saults family raised both horses and Jate and his dad trained them.
He is an eighth grade student at South Platte Public School, where he enjoys math and history. His favorite time period to learn about is the 1800s in the U.S., and if he could choose one person from history to meet, it would be General Patton.
Jate is a member of the National Junior High School Honor Society, Quiz Bowl, and qualified for the State Geography Bee this spring. He played football, basketball, and ran track.
His favorite teacher is Mr. Miller, his ag teacher. The eighth grade class spent a quarter in ag class, and Jate looks forward to having him in high school. He likes Mr. Miller because “he ranches like us and he likes to tell stories a lot.”
The most fun he’s had on a trip is a tie between two journeys he’s taken: one to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Park, and the trip to the National Junior High Finals Rodeo in Tennessee. In Wyoming, he loved seeing the mountains and Old Faithful. In Tennessee, he and his family went to the Grand Ole Opry, where Charlie Daniels was playing, and to a Civil War battlefield.
The best meal Jate’s mom makes is country fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. His favorite dessert is her cherry pie, and his favorite candy is a Twix bar. His favorite vegetables and fruit are corn and cherries, and if he was given $1 million, he’d invest it in land in Nebraska or Wyoming and buy a lot of guns.
For fun, he likes to hunt deer, coyotes, Canada geese and snow geese, ducks, doves, quail and pheasants.
He used to be serious in school, with a nickname of “the Businessman.” But he’s coming out of his shell. “His goofy side has come out,” his mom said. “He’s a crack-up.”
When he grows up, he’d like to be like his dad and be in the real estate business. He’d also like to invest in the stock market.
Jate competed at the Nebraska Junior High School Finals Rodeo the last two years and qualified for the National Junior High Finals in sixth grade in the goat tying and in seventh grade in the goat tying, team roping and shooting sports.
He has an older sister, Jacie, and an older brother and sister, Ralph and JoSee, who are twins. Jate is a member of the National Junior High School Cinch team. He is the son of Scott and Jill Saults.
