Wagon masters deliver guests on Springdale's rodeo's stagecoach

Wagon masters deliver guests on rodeo’s stagecoach

Beverly and Tonto Shepherd wait for passengers to board Saturday before taking them around the block during the Western Days Street Dance on Emma Avenue in Springdale.
Beverly and Tonto Shepherd wait for passengers to board Saturday before taking them around the block during the Western Days Street Dance on Emma Avenue in Springdale.

Tonto Shepherd sits atop the Rodeo of the Ozarks stagecoach, with his wife Beverly riding shotgun. He guides a pair of horses onto the floor of Parsons Stadium in Springdale. The outfit, with honored guests of the rodeo in the stage, runs a quick loop around the arena.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette

Beverly and Tonto Shepherd guide mules Jack and Jeff, pulling the Rodeo of the Ozarks stagecoach, around downtown Springdale on Saturday during the Rodeo of the Ozarks’ Western Days celebration. The couple has driven the stage for about 10 years.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette

Harper Russell (from left), 5, of Fayetteville peeks down the street Wednesday while waiting for the start of the Rodeo of the Ozarks Parade with cousins Parker Russell, 8, of Bentonville; Presley Russell, 10, of Bentonville; Tucker Russell, 8, of Fayetteville; and Collier Russell, 5, of Bentonville; on Emma Avenue in Springdale.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette

The 72nd rodeo opened Wednesday evening and runs through Saturday. Dancers make their way along Emma Avenue during the parade. Visit nwadg.com/photos to see more photographs from the parade and rodeo.

The rodeo stagecoach is top-heavy.

72nd Rodeo of the Ozarks

• Rodeo: 7:30 p.m. tonight through Saturday, Parsons Stadium, 1423 E. Emma Ave. in Springdale.

• Parade: 10 a.m. Saturday, downtown Emma Avenue in Springdale.

• Fireworks: After rodeo performance Saturday.

• Information: rodeooftheozarks.org, 877-927-6336

The Shepherds

Beverly and Tonto Shepherd don’t drive just the Rodeo of the Ozarks’ stagecoach. They pull a stagecoach carrrying guests at Lowell Mud Town Days in May, join a wagon train from the Bidville mountain top to St. Paul Pioneer Days in September and earned recognition for 20 years of participation in the National Championship Chuckwagon Races each Labor Day in Clinton.

"You have to watch your speed and not turn real sharp," Beverly Shepherd said. "But they want you to get in and get out."

The Shepherds are the "official drivers" of the stagecoach and have done so for about 10 years, said Pat Hutter, a longtime member of the Rodeo of the Ozarks board of directors. They present the stagecoach each night during the rodeo.

Tonto Shepherd was raised about 15 miles east of Mountainburg in the Bidville community, where he learned to work horses and mules from his father and grandfather, he said.

Beverly Shepherd learned to drive from her husband during rides when the couple loaded their two children into wagons to participate in wagon trains. They rode many times with the John Henry Shaddox Memorial Wagon Train as it made its way each year from Harrison to Springdale and the rodeo.

"We were self-contained out of that wagon," Tonto Shepherd said proudly. "We'd haul kids and groceries. It was our only transportation between Harrison and Springdale."

These stage masters started their Springdale run with rides for half-pints at the rodeo's Western Days celebrations.

"That was a lot of fun," Beverly Shepherd said. "The conversations we would have with those kids."

The Shepherds gave rides around downtown Springdale to children Saturday night at the Western Days street dance and rode down Emma Avenue on Wednesday in the first of the rodeo's two parades.

Folks who can drive a team of horses are few because of a decline in the rural lifestyle, Hutter said.

"And they got to where they don't want to feed them anymore, so they just go out and buy a tractor," she said.

Most people owned vehicles when Tonto Shepherd was born in 1947.

"But there was a lot still done with wagons and teams. I enjoyed it, because if I wasn't driving them, I was walking beside it picking corn," he said.

Driving a team is definitely work, he said.

"You've got one animal ... or two or three or four, the harness and all that gear. And there ain't that many that are dedicated," he said of would-be drivers.

Beverly Shepherd added it's tough to find stock dependable enough to trust near automobiles, in crowds and with children.

"And people that do have that kind of stock aren't going to get rid of them," she added.

Tonto Shepherd breeds, raises, breaks and trains his horses and mules himself -- the Shepherds have about 58 on their spread. Tonto Shepherd said he begins light training the stock at age 2. It takes them two or three years after training to get "citified" enough for the rodeo, he said.

Beverly Shepherd said the teams get accustomed to vehicles that travel their dirt road in rural Crawford County, but can get nervous without other horses around when they run in the arena.

Jack and Jeff, two big mules, pull the stage at Western Days and for the parades. Mona and Baxter, half quarter horses, half Belgian horses, run it into the arena, Tonto Shepherd said.

The couple won't pull the stagecoach in the rain or mud.

"It's hard on the animals," Tonto Shepherd said.

Beverly Shepherd was prepared to drive the stage this year but didn't need to. Her husband had both knees replaced during surgery May 18, with the doctor's promise he'd be ready for the rodeo in 4 1/2 weeks.

"The stagecoach was hard to climb on and off of with my good knees" before they went bad, he said.

The couple focuses on safety, they said. They hook up the horses to the stagecoach about two hours before they head into the arena, walking the horses around the rodeo grounds to acclimate them to the scene.

They also offer rides to guests.

"If they look interested, and we don't have nobody inside, we tell them to get in. It's a fun deal for us. We wouldn't do it if we didn't enjoy it," Tonto Shepherd said.

NW News on 06/23/2016

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