Booger Gleghorn is a sort of jack-of-all-trades. The cowboy from Ackerly, Texas runs two ranches full time, takes his roughstock to bucking horse futurities, works as a pickup man, lends a hand with the family trucking business, and in his spare time, competes in team roping and ranch sorting. “We’re in a little bit of everything,” says Booger, who has gone by his nickname since he was a year old. “We just try to keep our weekends booked.” He has been involved with the TCRA since he started working as a pickup man for the association when he was 14. “My dad was a stock contractor for over 20 years and I’ve been picking up since I was 14, so I’ve grown up with them. I’ve been in it (the TCRA) for 25 years.”
A team roper, Booger can both head and heel. He qualified for the World Series of Team Roping Finale 8 in 2013 for the first time, but his roping horse was crippled only weeks before the event. Booger and his family still went to Las Vegas to watch the Wrangler NFR, however, a tradition which they keep every year. “It’s our family vacation,” Booger explained. “My fiancée (Kim Coleman) and I also did a lot of shopping. I guarantee that the wheels on the suitcase we had with us were smoking by the time we got out of there.”
Despite having to forgo the WSTR Finale, Booger is no less dedicated to the sport than before. “I guess it’s in your blood. Just like finding that better bucking horse or bucking bull, it’s the same way with winning the better event. You win it once, you want to win it again. There’s lots of good people in it, too.” Recently, Booger and his team roping partner Steve Sanders competed at the Sandhills Stock Show and Rodeo Super Tuesday in Odessa, Texas.
Booger has recently started competing in ranch sorting, which he is thoroughly enjoying. In January, he and his fiancée, Kim Coleman, traveled to several barrel horse futurities, as well as bucking horse futurities as he continues to build his line of bucking horses. Kim raises and trains barrel horses, and she also competes in the TCRA. Booger manages to work jackpots and USTR ropings into his busy schedule, especially in the winter when rodeo season is slow.
While Booger has plenty of rodeos and team ropings on his agenda, his ranching comes first. “You’ve got to pay the bills,” he says. He helps his dad, Wayne Gleghorn, with running the two family ranches – one in Post, Texas and the other in Gail, Texas. Booger described an average day on the ranch. “I go check cattle – sometimes I take a young horse with me depending on the weather. In the evening I ride the colts and rope, but then you’ve also got to keep your pickup horses legged up, because they are what you make them.” Booger works as a pickup man as often as he can, including at TCRA rodeos and ranch rodeos. Additionally, he works as a shag man, roping the bulls and getting them out of the arena.
Booger says of his ambitions for this year, “I’ve got a bunch of good, young horses to take to bucking futurities this year. I’m going to try to qualify for the WSTR Finale again this year. I’d like to go to some big World Series and US ropings and continue picking up at as many rodeos as I can.”
