Local rodeo legend continues 50+ year tradition
January 18, 2023
Dave Vaught's team-roping passion spans 50 plus years.
Ezra DeVore
With five decades of medals and accolades behind him, Dave Vaught of Cassville continues his lifelong team-roping career.
Vaught has enjoyed over 50 years of roping - becoming a professional and winning a scrapbook's worth of competitions over several decades from the early 1970s to now. Winning state, regional, and national competitions several times over, Vaught has amassed a vast collection of trophies and belt buckles.
His earliest memories of roping are with his father and uncle at the age of 10, eventually advancing from calf roping to team roping. By October 1973, when Vaught was 13, he'd won his first saddle at a competition in Arkansas. This began years of traveling, and the following year, took him to Denver, the furthest he'd been from home so far. Vaught estimates he's won over 13 saddles since then, selling most.
Vaught recalled that as a boy, he roped "pretty much everything that moved: dogs, pigs, geese, almost caught a deer one time," he laughed.
Dave says that roping is something that his family takes pride in. Having learned from his father and uncle, he says his greatest enjoyment from the sport now comes from passing the skill to one of his sons, Brody, and competing alongside him. Dave says his sister, Tammy, has also lived a life on horseback.
Despite how important roping is to him, Vaught never made his sons participate, adding: "The desire to do it has to come from within; it's not something casual."
He says that when his sons were children, he offered to teach them, though he did not force the hobby upon them. To Dave, if someone does not have a sturdy passion for roping, it's unlikely they'll perform well, as the sport requires a tremendous amount of concentration, endurance, and muscle memory.
Time and experience, however, he says, are the tools that truly hone one's ability, explaining that he practiced daily for many years.
"I had a burro - I used to rope him 150 times a day; I've spent hours upon hours at it. It's like life," Vaught says, "you work at it every day."
A burro is a small donkey, historically used in American expansion westward as a pack animal, though now, ropers in training gain experience by roping them. Vaught says he still trains his horses on a burro that he owns and still learns new things to this day.
"I learn new things all the time," he says, "you never stop learning."
Vaught explains that there were years he sacrificed his passion to raise his family and work to support them, though recently, as his children have left home, he's "back at it" after working at the Barry County Co-Op delivering propane for 20 years.
"If I would have desired to do anything else, with how much time I've put into it, I'd be a multi-millionaire - but this is my passion. I think you should chase your passion. If you don't, you won't be around that long, I don't think. Lot of places, lot of miles - but it's what I love to do."
Vaught recalls one year in the late '80s, during the height of his professional career, that he attended 136 competitions in one year. Following events have led him from Idaho to Louisville, Kentucky, visiting many arenas in between. He says he's watched the culture surrounding the sport change, growing less cutthroat over the years and forming into a more healthily competitive environment, in part leading to many more people joining the competitions. Vaught says there were less than 80 people in his competitive league at one time, but now the numbers are in the thousands.
Dave also states he's seen the price of a good horse rise from $2,500 in the mid-'70s to between $20,000 to $70,000 now.
Even after all these years, the lifestyle remains sacred to him, with Vaught accompanying his son last December to an event in Las Vegas and placing 13th out of 500 teams.
"I enjoyed that trip as much as any trip I've ever taken in my life; it was like a vacation. Didn't win as much as I wanted, but you never do. You could win two, then say, why didn't I win the third one," Vaught says.
"I'm blessed to get to do it. As long as God allows me to do it, I'll keep it up. There's been rewarding parts through all of it: the places I've been, the people I've met - but now, getting to rope with my son is the most rewarding thing. We went to a roping Tuesday night, it was a six-head roping, a number 10 roping, and we won it. That's pretty rewarding when you can win one with your kid."
With five decades of medals and accolades behind him, Dave Vaught of Cassville continues his lifelong team-roping career.
Vaught has enjoyed over 50 years of roping - becoming a professional and winning a scrapbook's worth of competitions over several decades from the early 1970s to now. Winning state, regional, and national competitions several times over, Vaught has amassed a vast collection of trophies and belt buckles.
His earliest memories of roping are with his father and uncle at the age of 10, eventually advancing from calf roping to team roping. By October 1973, when Vaught was 13, he'd won his first saddle at a competition in Arkansas. This began years of traveling, and the following year, took him to Denver, the furthest he'd been from home so far. Vaught estimates he's won over 13 saddles since then, selling most.
Vaught recalled that as a boy, he roped "pretty much everything that moved: dogs, pigs, geese, almost caught a deer one time," he laughed.
Dave says that roping is something that his family takes pride in. Having learned from his father and uncle, he says his greatest enjoyment from the sport now comes from passing the skill to one of his sons, Brody, and competing alongside him. Dave says his sister, Tammy, has also lived a life on horseback.
Despite how important roping is to him, Vaught never made his sons participate, adding: "The desire to do it has to come from within; it's not something casual."
He says that when his sons were children, he offered to teach them, though he did not force the hobby upon them. To Dave, if someone does not have a sturdy passion for roping, it's unlikely they'll perform well, as the sport requires a tremendous amount of concentration, endurance, and muscle memory.
Time and experience, however, he says, are the tools that truly hone one's ability, explaining that he practiced daily for many years.
"I had a burro - I used to rope him 150 times a day; I've spent hours upon hours at it. It's like life," Vaught says, "you work at it every day."
A burro is a small donkey, historically used in American expansion westward as a pack animal, though now, ropers in training gain experience by roping them. Vaught says he still trains his horses on a burro that he owns and still learns new things to this day.
"I learn new things all the time," he says, "you never stop learning."
Vaught explains that there were years he sacrificed his passion to raise his family and work to support them, though recently, as his children have left home, he's "back at it" after working at the Barry County Co-Op delivering propane for 20 years.
"If I would have desired to do anything else, with how much time I've put into it, I'd be a multi-millionaire - but this is my passion. I think you should chase your passion. If you don't, you won't be around that long, I don't think. Lot of places, lot of miles - but it's what I love to do."
Vaught recalls one year in the late '80s, during the height of his professional career, that he attended 136 competitions in one year. Following events have led him from Idaho to Louisville, Kentucky, visiting many arenas in between. He says he's watched the culture surrounding the sport change, growing less cutthroat over the years and forming into a more healthily competitive environment, in part leading to many more people joining the competitions. Vaught says there were less than 80 people in his competitive league at one time, but now the numbers are in the thousands.
Dave also states he's seen the price of a good horse rise from $2,500 in the mid-'70s to between $20,000 to $70,000 now.
Even after all these years, the lifestyle remains sacred to him, with Vaught accompanying his son last December to an event in Las Vegas and placing 13th out of 500 teams.
"I enjoyed that trip as much as any trip I've ever taken in my life; it was like a vacation. Didn't win as much as I wanted, but you never do. You could win two, then say, why didn't I win the third one," Vaught says.
"I'm blessed to get to do it. As long as God allows me to do it, I'll keep it up. There's been rewarding parts through all of it: the places I've been, the people I've met - but now, getting to rope with my son is the most rewarding thing. We went to a roping Tuesday night, it was a six-head roping, a number 10 roping, and we won it. That's pretty rewarding when you can win one with your kid."
