story by Ruth Nicolaus
Brady Buum balances work as co-owner of All Cowboy Erosion Control and rodeo as a steer wrestler in the Colorado Pro Rodeo Association and the PRCA.
The Keenesburg, Colo. cowboy, with his family, started the business in 2009, a year after he became a CPRA member.
He grew up the son of rodeo parents: Bradley, the 1991 CPRA steer wrestling champ who was also a bull rider, and LoRena (Jackson) Buum, an all-around cowgirl. His maternal uncles, Floyd and Royce, also steer wrestled.
Brady’s early rodeo days were full of bull riding. He preferred it as much or even more than bulldogging, but “it was definitely hard on you,” he said.
In high school and college rodeo, he competed in both events.
He attended Lamar (Colo.) Community College and graduated in 2008 with two degrees, one in animal science and one in ag business.
A year later, his parents began the family business, which does reclamation work, highway reseeding, oil field and trucking work. Much of their work is with state and local municipalities, and much of it is last-minute. For example, after a heavy rain, if there is erosion, the business is called upon to take care of the problem. The spring and fall seasons are the busiest, with seedings. Summers are more erosion control, and the winter can be slow, if there’s a lot of snow on the ground. Then the Buums are in the shop, doing maintenance on their equipment. If the winter is mild, they can seed roadways.
The business originally involved Brady, his brother, and his parents. His brother and his wife sold their share in May of 2017 to start their own business. Their mother was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2016, which left Brady and his dad to run the business. His dad would help out during the days, then be at the hospital every night with LoRena. For 289 consecutive days, “he slept on a couch in her hospital room,” Brady said. “He never missed a night.”
His mom passed away on April 26, 2019. “She was the glue,” he said. “She held everything together. It was tough. She was the one that wanted a family business so we could be together and work together and be able to rodeo.”
Brady didn’t rodeo much from the time the business started, until 2016, when it was going strong. He’s made the CPRA finals five times: 2009, and 2016-2019, always in the steer wrestling. He quit riding bulls in the summer of 2009.
His bulldogging mount is an 18-year-old named Dash who has been everywhere, Brady said. “He’s taken a lot of people in the CPRA and the Mountain States Circuit to the pay window, and to the short round at Cheyenne.”
Dash has the “wimpiest whinny in the world,” Brady said. “You’d swear he’s a mare.” He has to have another horse with him all the time. “He’s got a serious buddying-up issue. He can’t do anything by himself.”
The horse almost died of colic in 2019. As Brady and his traveling partners drove from Greeley, Colo. to Cody, Wyo., for slack, the horse colicked and was taken to Dr. Ted Vlahos, who is well-known for his work with colicked horses. Dash had colic surgery that night.
Some horses don’t come back from colic surgery; some do. Dash was one that did. “He came back good, and we’ve won a fair amount of money on him since,” Brady said.
Dr. Vlahos commented that Dash had extraordinary abdominal muscles. “He said he’d cut open over 1,000 horses and had never seen a set of abs on a horse like that one,” Brady said.
Brady and his wife Sami Jo are expecting their first child in late June. They’re excited to welcome a new baby into the world.
