Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Caleb Berquist exploded out of Lacrosse to attend Montana State University and compete in the College National Finals Rodeo on June 19.
Caleb Berquist helped brand cattle on the family ranch near LaCrosse.
CASPER, WYO. — The gates swung open, the calf ran, and the lead horse and rider burst forth on the final tie-down roping run at the College Nationals Finals Rodeo on June 19.
Caleb Berquist and his horse Hefty chased the calf to just beyond where they pulled up on other calves three previous nights, setting times that kept them in first place.
Berquist lassoed the calf, leaped free, ran across the dirt, and dropped the animal, whipping the rope around its kicking legs as Hefty took two steps forward.
Steps meant slack in the rope, leaving the calf feeling free.
Five seconds, six seconds went by, adding to Berquist’s time.
His lead was gone, and he finished second in the nation.
It was five years after the junior from Montana State University (MSU) was sitting in a hospital room in Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane uncertain he would ever be able to rodeo again.
Late one night during his sophomore basketball season at Colfax High School, Berquist woke up with a sharp pain in his leg.
A doctor suggested growing pains but then in April, his leg swelled. After an MRI and CAT scan, a staph infection was found in a bone socket in Berquist’s ankle. Two surgeries followed, including a week in the hospital and a piece of putty bone from his knee moved to graft the hole in the ankle, cut to remove a tumor.
Spring high school rodeo season was gone.
“I was thankful every day it wasn’t cancer or something worse,” Berquist said. “In that moment, sitting in the hospital, you’re never sure you’ll ever be out there again.”
By that July, still on crutches, he drove a combine for harvest on the family ranch near LaCrosse.
He got off crutches and out of a boot in time for the fall high school rodeo. It was Berquist’s junior year.
The next spring, after giving up football but still playing basketball, he took first in the state in tie-down roping.
Four years later Berquist was at the National College Finals Rodeo for 10 days.
“It was a blast, that’s for sure,” he said. “Knowing you’re able to compete with the guys down south was a good feeling. They can practice all year. When you’re going to school in Montana it can be -20 (degrees) out.”
Others concurred.
“Caleb roped good. He scored good. Unfortunately on his last run, the calf kicking like that, it burned up his lead. But overall he did great,” said Andy Bolich, MSU head rodeo coach.
Last September, in Berquist’s junior season of college rodeo he made up five events in the fall and five in the spring. Three days before the opener, his horse collided with another in practice and was injured.
“Our region is extremely tough, I had some horse trouble early,” he said.
He rode a borrowed horse for all five fall rodeos, winning the first two.
This spring Berquist won at home in Bozeman for early momentum on a new horse.
Later, he finished at the top of the Big Sky Region, qualifying for nationals, which in Casper would take not just two roping run times but four.
“You’ve got to be consistent over four head,” said Berquist.
He led after the first run, and then the next, and the next.
“It was intense. It was an awesome feeling,” he said. “It was dang sure fun ... Seeing your name up on the big screen. You never know when you’ll get to go back.”
The Berquist ranch near LaCrosse is the Union Cattle Company and Union Sheep Company. It is baling hay, sheep, cattle, wheat, feedlot, and cow-calf operation, with 10 employees.
“It’s our lifestyle,” said Kim Berquist, Caleb’s mother.
Shane, Caleb’s father, grew up in LaCrosse. Kim is from Colfax. They met at Washington State University (WSU). Once married, Shane worked for Agri-Beef around the northwest before becoming a business partner and later taking over a former Maley ranch.
Later, as Caleb and sister Sidney began to rodeo in junior high, an arena was built at the ranch with lights for after the work is done. Sidney is following her brother and starts MSU this fall.
“Shane has worked his tail off to give this to the kids,” said Kim.
She works as the ranch business manager, and at the arena.
“I just help with the horses and running the chutes,” Kim said. “I’m chute help.”
The ranch has 1,500 ewes, which go to mountains in Idaho above Potlatch for summer pasture. They are overseen by one of the Berquists’ two Peruvian sheepherders.
Work on the ranch for Caleb and Sidney, before they were old enough for paychecks, meant hours tabulated to buy rodeo equipment.
“Caleb’s always enjoyed riding and roping. When we brand, we rope and drive the calves to the fire,” said Kim.
Shane was Caleb’s rodeo coach.
In May, before the sheep are gone every year, the Berquists load their cattle on trailers for two weeks to take them to mountain pastures near Kettle Falls and Weippe, Idaho.
Caleb picked tie-down roping as his main rodeo event because he had a passion for it and it was just him, as opposed to team-roping.
“As long as I did my part and my horse’s part, it gave me the best odds,” Berquist said.
After his freshman year in college, he made the finals of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Columbia River Circuit.
During summer weekdays, he worked on the family ranch.
“It’s big enough to keep us busy,” said Berquist. “It dang sure don’t leave any downtime.”
Aside from rodeo, Berquist, an ag business major, enjoys the rest of college.
“I love it. Everyone is kind of alike,” he said of being at MSU. “You see a lot of old-fashioned ways here ... I got lots of friends that don’t even rodeo.”
In his first year, he finished fourth in the Big Sky Region in tie-down and fourth in team-roping. As a sophomore, he was No. 4 in the tie-down standings when the pandemic hit.
Last winter, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Berquist trained in Arizona, roping every day with a teammate. He rode Hefty, newly bought in Milton-Freewater, Ore.
The day after the national finals, Berquist and his horse won a rodeo in Belt, Mont., after leaving Casper at 4:30 a.m. to drive seven hours.
This summer is the first Caleb has not returned home to work on the ranch.
“He needs to be in Montana, so he’s not close to this operation, so he can rodeo,” said Kim.
Instead, Berquist punches in Monday through Thursday at an Angus operation outside Bozeman.
On Friday morning, he busts out for the latest stop on the PRCA 2021 Montana circuit.
“Caleb’s just a great kid and he’s got a big future,” Bolich said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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