2018 WCRR Top Hand

Justin Peterson’s only goal at the 2018 World Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo, Texas, was a world title for the Haywire Cattle Company. Any other accolades would be incidental.

As it turned out, Haywire came close. After winning both the bronc riding and the calf branding averages, Haywire finished second to fellow Kansas team, Beachner Brothers.

But in Haywire’s push for the world title, Peterson rose above the crowd for the Top Hand Award.

“Everybody always tells me I have a good chance of winning it because I do all the events,” Peterson says. “I ride the broncs, rope the cow, drag the calves, head in the stray gathering, and I work the line in the sorting. I really want to win the world, that’s what I’m focused on, so I don’t think about the Top Hand award. I just keep doing my thing and roping and don’t focus on it until it’s over with.”

Peterson’s 86-point score in the second round of the bronc riding was the highest of the rodeo. Plus, as the calf dragger, most of the pressure is on him to make things happen fast. In a way, Peterson is solely responsible for most of Haywire’s points.

“I enjoy the ranch rodeos, but I despise riding the bucking horses, but everybody says, ‘We’re not going if you don’t ride them,’” Peterson says. “I’m 23 years old and I feel like I’ve got the body of a 60-year-old. I’ve outgrown the broncs. About four years ago I thought everything that bucked was the only thing to ride. Now, anymore, I’m just like, ‘Can we not buck?'”

Haywire Cattle Company of El Dorado, Kansas, by the way, qualified at the Kansas Ranch Rodeo Championship in Medicine Lodge and is Peterson’s step-father’s team. Peterson and his brother and teammate, Jake, live in Oklahoma. Andy Jones, Callie Jones, Randy Jones and Clint Bohnen make up the team.

Peterson has won several top hand awards at regular season WRCA-sanctioned rodeos, including two years running at Coffeyville, Kans. And while this was Peterson’s fourth trip to the WCRR, winning the top hand was an undeniable highlight of the event.

“It’s a fun time,” he says. “The people are great, going to Amarillo is awesome. It’s an amazing deal to be involved with, to meet all the people and it’s a good time.”

Next year, regardless of whether or not Haywire qualifies, Peterson will be carrying the American flag in the grand entry—as is the tradition for the previous year’s Top Hand.

“It’ll be cool,” Petersons says. “That grand entry is one of the coolest parts of the whole rodeo. Like [announcer] Randy Lewis always says, all the football games and everybody’s kneeling, but look around at that rodeo and there’s nobody kneeling and nobody without their hat off.”