Dodge National Circuit Rodeo Finals

Shelley Murphy For as long as she can remember, Shelley Murphy’s dad called her at 6:30 every morning. A longtime workaholic, Scott Perrigo had only ever been to three of Shelley’s rodeos, but she’d won all three. So whenever she was at a big rodeo, he told her to pretend he was in the stands and to “win for Daddy.” She was surprised she didn’t hear from him the morning after she won the first round of the tournament-style Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Pocatello, Idaho, but figured he’d finally decided to wait and let her sleep in a little. Later that morning at the horse sale held during the DNCFR, Murphy got the news that her dad was gone. He’d perished in a car accident late the night before. “I started packing up to go home,” Murphy said. “But everyone told me to stay – that he would want that. Dad was so proud of me. He’d post my little articles up on his wall at the office and would brag to everybody.” Perrigo had recently moved from California back to Helena, Mont., to be closer to Shelley. Her brother Paul and his family had moved back, too. Not only that, but although long divorced, Shelley’s mom and dad (along with her dad’s wife) were best friends. “When we lost him, we lost a husband, best friend and father,” Shelley said. “It really impacted every part of our family because everybody was so close.” The Helena clan includes Shelley and her husband, Matt, who works for the state government; their 6-year-old son Luke; and Matt’s 15-year-old daughter, Kaela. They all rodeo, and it’s easy to see how they thrive around Shelley, a self-professed Guitar Hero addict with a soft spot for four-legged friends and a straight-shooting sense of humor. Her run that night on 13-year-old Flick was her most lackluster of the week, a 15.17 that split sixth with the Mountain States’ Diann Bukowski and barely advanced her to Saturday’s semifinals. It had been a great night, however, for Rachael Myllymaki, a Montana native now living in Simi Valley, Calif. She’d breezed her gray Doc O’Dynamite mare Give Me A Wink (“Wink”) to a 14.91, breaking the arena record that Sherry Cervi and Hawk had set way back in 1996. It was obviously Myllymaki’s fastest time in nine appearances at the DNCFR, but it also was special to her because Wink is out of MS Winkin Page (“Page”), the NFR mare Myllymaki had ridden to the DNCFR championship in 1990 for the Montana Circuit. To read the complete story, pick up the May issue of Barrel Horse News.