Lafayette teen Calf Roper chases Indiana state rodeo title

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 2 minutes read

MONTICELLO – There is a twinkle and joy in the eyes of RET Turner, a calf roping specialist at Harrison High School, as he leads his horse, a short-haired Arabian named Shaq, around an arena makeshift rodeo venue four miles north of downtown Monticello.

The 6-foot-4 Turner, whose first name is Robert E. Turner, is the No. 2 calf roper in the state with 82 points as he prepares for the high school state finals rodeo in Indiana Friday and Saturday at Hoosier Horse. Park in Edinburgh.

Lafayette, 18, gets help from his grandparents, Steve and Deanna Pass, who own a 50-acre farm. They built the makeshift arena filled with pens, chutes, guardrails, holds and passages to help Turner round up the calves and trap them.

Turner fell in love with the sport at a young age, he said. As a child, he would sit on his grandfather's lap and watch rodeos on television before entering his first competitions in eighth grade.

“He always had an interest in horses, and from the age of 2, he wore a cowboy hat and had a rope in his hand,” Deanna Pass said. “He would lasso all the bar stools in the kitchen. We always had a saddle on a frame and he would throw the rope.”

Turner asks other family members to help with calf control on his team. And the help cannot be stronger than that of his cousin Kora Pass. Kora jumped into the pens and helped Steve cycle the released calves from the arena, through the gate trails and back to the pen.

Kora Pass was a former Twin Lakes basketball player who was her team's leading rebounder in 2023.

Cora considers helping Turner a family obligation and said she helps warm up Shaq or helps Steve round up the calves in the chutes.

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“It becomes a habit and I was passing by, so I had to come in and help,” Kora Pass said. “You always expect it to help. I thought it would be fun to come watch (Turner).”

Calf roping is a sport where success and failure are decided in 20 seconds or less. Turner lassoes the calves to the ground, wraps the rope around the animal's legs and takes it to the ground before receiving a score from the judges.

One misfire or misfire, and a cowboy's day is over.

“You have 10 seconds to do your best, and if not, your entry fee is gone and you move on to the next one,” Turner said. “It can be a mentally stimulating sport.”

And like other rodeo sports, it can be physically taxing. Turner was nursing an ankle injury he suffered during a rodeo competition and could only practice roping on the five calves he had in stock.

During competitions, he will grab the animal and get off Shaq before charging in and getting a score.

The 18-year-old continues despite his injury and hopes to one day perform calf raises on bigger stages. He competed in junior rodeo events in Las Vegas and Casper, Wyoming.

He competes in two rodeos a week during the summer at events in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Ohio, but will also travel to events on the West Coast.

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Lina Portman

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