By Ted Harbin, TwisTed Rodeo
LAS VEGAS – In February 2021, Cole Franks was a 19-year-old cowboy who was being trained by his dad, Bret, the rodeo coach at Clarendon (Texas) College.
Sippin Firewater was about 5 years old and was being used as a training tool for the Clarendon rodeo team. Bret Franks and the college had a partnership with Bill Hext, a livestock producer near Glazier, Texas, in which the student athletes would practice on the animal.
“We called him Mouthwash when we had him, because it felt like you needed some mouthwash when you got done dealing with him,” said Cole Franks, 24, a four-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier from Clarendon. “He was a little hard to handle.
“We bucked him in the bronc riding a bunch, and no one could ever get out on him or get a clean go or could ever really figure him out. Finally, one day, I just told Dad that I’m getting on him, and we came up with a game plan. He went out there and was and was an NFR-caliber horse from the first time I ever got on him.”
The college and Hext sold the bronc to Rorey Lemmel, who owns Harper & Morgan Rodeo Co. Ten months later, both Cole Franks and Sippin Firewater were at the NFR for the first time.
“That horse made everything start snowballing for me,” Franks said. “Right after I got on that horse, I finally started winning a little bit at the ProRodeos. For whatever reason, everything just clicked. That horse and both his brothers hold a pretty special spot for me.”
It came full circle during Tuesday’s sixth round of this year’s NFR. Franks and Sippin Firewater danced across the Thomas & Mack Center dirt for 85.5 points. Franks finished in a tie for fourth place, collecting $12,420 – it was Franks’ biggest payday so far in Las Vegas. While the bronc is at an elite level in the sport, one brother remains a practice horse in Clarendon, and the other is being used as a pickup horse,
“We didn’t really know anything about those three horses when we got them, and still really don’t know much about them,” he said, noting that a Hext bucking stallion has been breeding on the family’s ranch in the northeastern portion of the Texas Panhandle. “Since we knew who their dad is, we started breeding to that stud to see what we could get.”
Raising bucking horses is an important step in the progression of rodeo. Bucking studs are matched with bucking mares to provide strong genetics, and the proof is shown at the 205 horses performing in Las Vegas. Sippin Firewater is one of them.
“We’ve both grown up a lot since then,” Franks said. “He’s chilled out a lot, but he’s still very hair-triggered and he’s just a freakin’ bucking horse. When I first got on him, he didn’t really know what he was doing because I was the first person to ever stay on him after the second jump.”
The horse has figured it out now.
“When I got on him the first time, I was putting my rigging on him and talking to him, scratching under his chin,” he said. “That was one thing I figured out with him. If you just treat him kind of like a baby, love on him a little bit, he’d mellow out a little. He’s definitely a lot more bucking horse today than he was five years ago.”
It’s been a bit of a slow ride in Sin City for Franks. He has ridden six broncs for a cumulative score of 507.25 points and earned $32,000. He is seventh in the world standings with $232,442.
“We’re chipping away at it,” Franks said. “A little bit is better than nothing. I’m just going to keep doing my job. I’ve got the horse I wanted in (Wednesday’s) pen.”
Franks will test Bridwell Pro Rodeo’s Silver Beaver in Round 7. His traveling partner, Rocker Steiner, won Friday’s second round on the California bucking horse.
“I was talking to Tim Bridwell (Tuesday), and I told him I predicted I’d be getting on his horse,” Franks said. “I guess I manifested it a little bit.”
At this stage of the week with four rounds remaining in ProRodeo’s grand finale, the Texas cowboy is ready to do anything he can to collect some big Las Vegas cash.
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