Eye on the Ball: Shelter Island cowboy find his place

All the young boys in my generation wanted to be cowboys.

In those days, every Saturday afternoon, we went to the movies. You could always count on the local theaters to feature a cowboy  movie. My favorite was Roy Rogers and his “wonder horse,” Trigger.

In my childhood he was referred to as “King of the Cowboys.” Yes, Roy Rogers was a cowboy before he opened up all the roast beef stores.

I loved him. I dressed like him, talked like him, had the same guns in my holster (toys, of course) and even went as far as to walk around squinting my eyes so I would look like him. He was my idol and as an eight-year-old, I even remember getting mad when I heard he married Dale Evans. To me, nobody was good enough for Roy Rogers.

We’d often have fights with other kids who liked Gene Autry. I hated Gene Autry. I hated his horse Champion. Gene didn’t ride, fight or sing as well as my hero. I remember entering a contest when I was 10 where the grand prize was to spend a week with Roy Rogers on his Double R ranch in the Mojave Desert. I anxiously waited for the mail every day in hopes I would secure this great prize. I didn’t win.

Almost 30 years later, I took my wife and children to Victorville, California, home of Roy and Dale and their nine children. I was now 40 but never so thrilled in my life to watch him bowling the night we were in town. He was a good bowler, had an average of 178. When he finished bowling and was changing his shoes, I could no longer contain my excitement and escorted my wife and children over to meet my hero.

Roy was everything I hoped he’d be, calm, kind, polite and entertaining. He spoke with us for a while, mentioning that we should visit his Roy Rogers Museum in the morning. I think that was the first time my children saw me as a child. I’ve never been more excited about meeting someone as I was on that wonderful evening.

All that’s to tell you about Riley Willumsen, who grew up here and also fell in love with the cowboy lifestyle. The big difference is he had the guts to do something about it. Riley, who played all sports well in high school, has pursued his dream to live the cowboy life.

After graduating from Shelter Island High School last year, instead of following his classmates to college, Riley decided to take the hard road and do something that he loved.

His mom and dad, Wendy and Lance Willumsen, agreed that it all started at three years old, when Riley was excited watching bull riding on television. Lance made a bull-riding video that Riley could watch as much as he wanted, more than six hours long. He not only wore out the tape, but he also wore out the arm of the couch that he pretended was the bull.

His parents said that although he played sports in school, they knew that in his heart, he was always a cowboy.
Riley’s life became even more interesting when he was 10 and met Cliff Schadt, then 25, at Paard Hill Farm, who became a mentor. Five years later, Riley made a journey to Montana to visit Cliff. Now a horseman in Manorville, Cliff has stayed a friend.

Riley seems to love bull riding the most of all the cowboy arts. When he was 12, he went to Kansas for a five-day bull riding course called the San Key Rodeo School. Riley was the youngest person there getting on the backs of wild bulls.

At 17, he attended the Saddle Bronc clinic in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Next month, Riley will travel to Cody, Wyoming for an advanced class in rodeo bull “fighting,” or working as a rodeo clown. He told me he’ll continue fighting bulls and attend bigger rodeos and eventually get a Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association to work in the big shows.

Currently, Riley is at the 11,000-acre Grand Prairie Ranch in Montana. He’s the only employee at the ranch and the owners are going away for the next two weeks, leaving him alone to run the entire operation — farming, feeding the animals, fixing fences, creating pastures and moving 500 cows from one pasture to another.

Interestingly, the bulls get in the pasture for 63 days and usually impregnate 25 cows while there.
Riley lives in a bunkhouse that looks something like a cottage with one bedroom, bath, queen-size bed and a full kitchen. In the nearest town, Lewiston, 40 minutes away, he ran into a college boy his age who will be there all summer. Riley still loves all sports and now he has someone to share them with him.

Riley Willumsen is still enjoying the journey. Congratulations to Shelter Island’s cowboy for the courage to make his dream come true.