story by Julie Carter
When you’re not naturally gifted with talent, you make it look like you are with try. Portales Junior High rough stock rider, roper and an all-around “cool” kind of guy Slade Thompson drives that point home with every rodeo he enters.
Slade puts the “all” in All-Around cowboy by working 5 and sometimes 6 Junior High Rodeo events. On the rough stock end, he enters Bull riding, Steer Saddle Bronc and sometimes Steer Bareback Riding where he is holding down first place in the standings in all three. He also works the “timey” end of the arena in the Tie Down Roping, Chute Dogging and Ribbon Roping with little sister Shanley. He’s second in the standings in the Chute Dogging and top ten in the Tie Down Roping.
Before this year, Slade had never won a buckle or a saddle. He has since set some goals. “I’d like to win me a saddle, and buy me a van,” he said. He also set out to win a buckle at every Junior High Rodeo this year and so far, he’s done that and one weekend he won three.
Slade started out in 4H Rodeo as a 10-year-old riding steers and roping, but he always wanted to be a bull rider. His parents didn’t think he was ready to do that until this year as an 8th grader. His time spent prepping for it by riding the steers at home after he roped them fine-tuned him for the event. “He’d get on 10 steers a day,” his dad Ty said. “We’d load them in the chute and then load them again. He was not naturally gifted, but he has worked his way to the top.” Today, that work is paying off in what is now his favorite event, the Junior Bull Riding.
The funny story behind his first bull riding year began early when his parents, unsure if Slade would stick with it, decided rather than spend a lot of money on equipment, they’d first see if he was serious. In a shadow box frame on the wall of their home was a 1970s photo of Ty’s dad who had been a bull rider, along with his bull rope and spurs. “We broke into the back of that frame, took the rope and spurs and off we went to the rodeo,” laughed Danna, Slade’s mom. The old grass rope later broke in a ride and Slade has since proven he’s worthy of his own gear.
The 5’6”, 125-pound cowboy is a fashion statement in all that he does. He oozes confidence, both in his competition and his attire. “I just kind of like wild stuff,” he says in explaining his playing card print jacket and bright colored shirts, preferably purple. He shops for his own clothes online and one time even had a rodeo mom buy the one he was wearing right off his back. Turned out it was his lucky shirt for the weekend as he’d won or placed in every event and won the All-Around. But being the “horse trader” by family influence that he is, he sold it.
Slade ropes off Trigger, a 7-year-old Palomino. Trigger had been a wheat pasture horse, and while he’s still very green, Slade has trained and brought him along well in the roping events. “He’ll be for sale at the finals,” Slade said. “They all are. That’s what we do.”
Studying his favorite event has put Slade on a path set before him long ago by his idol, World Champion Bull Rider and the rodeo guru of positive thinking, Gary Leffew. Slade follows Leffew’s online teaching videos and has tweaked his own riding style through those lessons. “I’ve learned to stay off my pockets and to have better control of my free hand.”
Slade is quick to give thanks to his sponsors: Rock n Roll Denim, Squiggly Cactus Leather, Aztec Abstract Title Insurance and Valley Electric. “I also want to thank my parents and my grandparents for getting me where I am today,” he said. “Without them, it wouldn’t have happened.”
