By Ruth Nicolaus
Gauge McBride is the 2014-2015 Nebraska Junior High School Rodeo Bull Riding champion.
The Kearney, Neb. cowboy, who is fourteen years old, also competes in the goat tying, team roping (heading for Jace Richter), ribbon roping (running for Tehya From), breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding, and bareback riding. Of all his events, the bull riding and bareback riding are his strengths.
He rides a 13-year-old brown horse named Moose for his events. Moose has been part of the family for the past ten years, and he’s short but fast.
Gauge is an eighth grade student at Sunrise Middle School in Kearney, where he really enjoys science class but isn’t keen on grammar or writing. One of his favorite teachers was his science teacher from last year, Mrs. Vornheagen, because “she made stuff a lot easier, and she was funny,” Gauge said.
He has wrestled since he was three years old, plays football, and is on his school’s honor roll.
In his spare time, he likes to fish and hunt deer, doves, and pheasants. The McBride family moved from Ogallala to Kearney a year ago, and when he lived in Ogallala, his favorite fishing spot was Lake McConaughy, where he loved to catch catfish, walleye, and bass.
Gauge is a nephew to two-time PBR World Champion Justin McBride, and he spent a week this summer at his uncle’s house in Whitesboro, Texas, where Justin gave him advice “and showed me a lot of stuff.” He also went with his uncle to the “Unfinished Business” bull riding in Decatur, Texas.
When he grows up, he’d like to be a wildlife biologist, because he enjoys being outside and he likes animals.
The family has a pet dog, Bo, who is a blue heeler, who “is smart,” Gauge says, “it’s that he chooses not to listen.” Bo chases the horses, which gets him in trouble.
The move to Kearney was a bit of an adjustment for him. As he pointed out, Ogallala has two stoplights, and Kearney has 200. But one good thing about the move is that the Kearney schools have very good wrestling programs.
Gauge has qualified for the state finals both of his junior high rodeo years, and went on to the National Junior High School Finals Rodeo this past summer. His dad gives him a lot of advice, as Cooper McBride was a seven-time Nebraska State Rodeo Association champion and a Prairie Circuit cowboy.
He has a younger sisters, Carsyn, who is seven. He is the son of Cooper and Jacque McBride.
