All-Around
Old-Timer
At 66 years of age, Joe Ferrante figures he's just in his prime.
By R.M. Miller, D.V.M.
The Western Horseman
It's
not unusual to see older men competing in rodeo. Joe Ferrante and I both lived
in Tucson in the 1950s, and we talked about Tony Altamarino, who was still
roping competitively at 91 years of age. Tony had cataracts by then and
couldn't see too well, but he old Yaqui Indian was still a deadly heeler, and
still making money.
Joe Ferrante is 66, just a kid in compared to rodeo hands like Altamarino, but what's unusual about Joe is that he competes in all events. "In 1985," the old cowboy says, "I made 20 to 25 shoes, mostly old-timer rodeos, all over the West. Mostly I team rope, calf rope, and bulldog, but I still ride some bulls and do okay. I quit riding saddle broncs last year, but I miss it, and I think I'm going back to it this year."
"Why do you still do it?" I asked. "I mean, why the 'doggin' and riding events? Most men would have quit riding bulls 30 years ago, if they lasted that long."
"I love it," Joe explains. "I never get tired of going down the road. I could do it every day for the rest of my life."
"But you've got to be hurting some," I insisted. "You must be banged up!"
"Oh, hell yes," Joe laughed. "I broke damn near everything in my body one time or another. Worst thing was my right shoulder a few years back. Couldn't rope for a year." I could see the atrophy in his right shoulder muscles through his shirt. "But," he grinned, "you just grit your teeth and go with it."
Joe Ferrante was born the day World War I ended, November 11, 1918. He started rodeoing 20 years later and has been at it ever since, for 48 years. He is, of course, a veteran of the old Cowboy Turtles Association and is looking forward to their next reunion.
Joe rode for Colonel Jim Eskew's Wild West Show, riding bulls, broncs, and bulldogging. Then, he joined Colonel Cliff Gatewood's Wild West Show. Right after Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, and served on mounted patrol in Maryland. After his discharge, he went back with Eskew's Wild West Show.
Later, Joe settled in Arizona, making a living breaking horses and rodeoing. He took flying lessons under the G.I. Bill, cracking up a couple of airplanes in the process. In between these various endeavors, he cowboyed all over the West, punching cows and breaking horses. Once he trailed a hundred head of horses from South Dakota through Montana.
"I did a lot of things," he reminisces, "but mostly I like to think about the rodeos I've been to. I don't evern want to talk about my cattle rustlin' days...but they never caught me," he grinned.
In 1951 Ferrante left Arizona and moved to California. He kept busy rodeoing, shoeing horses, and cowboying. A couple years later, he got a start as a motion picture stunt man, and has intermittently worked at the craft ever since. He is currently living in Las Vegas, alternating between rodeoing, shoeing horses, and doing stunt work.
Joe is active in the National Old-Timers' Rodeo Association, and organization limited to contestants older than 40. Although he admits that he has lost many times to men even older than himself, Joe still is an effective competitor. He won the bulldogging and the team roping at Saugus, Calif., a few years ago, and the bulldogging at the same show in 1983. he can still ride bulls and look good doing it.
Joe has two sons, both of whom live in southern California. C.J. is in the "picture business", and George is a cutting horse trainer and part-time movie stunt man, following in his Dad's footsteps as an all-around hand.
Over dinner, Joe and I reminisced about people we had known in Tucson back in the 40's and 50's. I shook my head. "I don't know about that bull riding, Joe. How long can a man keep that up? I remember seeing Freckles Brown ride a bull when he was -- I think -- 52."
"Yeah," said Joe. "He quit right after that...just before his prime!"
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