To hear 92-year-old Bob Holder’s secret to leading the good life, his saddle is nothing short of the fountain of youth.
For the famed Australian rodeo rider, mixing and mingling with young cowboys around the corral keeps him forever sprightly—beyond just mixing and mingling, the nonagenarian still saddles up and competes, riding and roping head to head with youngsters.
Some call Mr. Holder the world’s oldest cowboy.
Last November, he partook in the rodeo of his hometown, Cootamundra, where he has become a fixture with a corral recently named the Bob Holder Arena in his honor. For the rider from New South Wales, the event marked nearly 80 years competing in the sport.
From age 14, he wanted to be a cowboy and nothing else, Mr. Holder told The Epoch Times, adding that his feeling is “exactly the same” today.
“I just love the rodeo life, I love the rodeo people, I love the bucking stock,” he said. “I love the people all around it, and I love Australia.”
Despite developing interstitial lung disease, a scarring of the lungs, from dust and chemical spray inhalation a few years ago—nearly ending his career and his life—lately Mr. Holder has made a startling recovery and comeback in competitive rodeo.
“I don’t worry about little things like that [lung disease],” he told The Epoch Times, admitting “it did draw me back for quite a while.”
“If there’s something wrong, get it fixed up and keep going—don’t give up.
We Want to Be Cowboys
Getting back in the saddle was something instilled early in his life—probably because he was raised during the Great Depression when pain was expected and toughness a must for survival. Attending school ever so sparesly, he started working from age 5.Horses and cattle were his education. “I grew up in the Depression and the war years. It was pretty tough going those days,” he said. “I’m the son of a drover.”
A drover is someone who drives cattle.
“The horses used to buck, so we used to have young people learn to ride ’em and quiet them down,” he said, adding how their ambitions were stoked when the rodeo came around.
“We could handle the horses, handle cattle, and became pretty good at it,” he said. “The rodeo started up, and we started [saying], ‘We want to be cowboys.’”
Mr. Holder competed in his first rodeo at age 14 in Tumut, bronc riding, winning a medal and taking home a prize of 3 pounds—about five or six weeks’ worth of wages then. Though the minimum age was 16, his parents forged a letter to fool the organizers.
He’s been riding shows ever since and would make Australian cowboy history.
After winning prizes Down Under, his international rodeo career reached the stratosphere.
The highlight reel of his decades-long stint was nothing short of legendary: His riding for royalty when the Queen visited Calgary made 1959 a big year. He was the first Australian cowboy to win money in America. But glitzing Maddison Square Garden in New York was perhaps his pinnacle—cowboys who aren’t any good don’t pay entry, he said. They just keep out of it.
Never Back Down
A lot of young, up-and-coming cowboys nowadays turn to Mr. Holder for advice. He loves to help aspiring rodeo riders and answers them like a seasoned drover: “If you want to go somewhere in this world, keep trying. Do not give up.”A few broken ribs, a broken wrist, battered fingers, and lung disease over the years have never stopped him from getting back in the saddle. Mr. Holder isn’t a fan of mixing with other 90-somethings bantering about their next operation, so, at 92, he keeps on competing.
He’s too old to ride bucking horses and bucking bulls anymore, he admits, so he’s had to settle for team steer roping instead. Two competitors on horseback use ropes to catch and bind a steer released from a chute. Mr. Holder leads, taking the steer by the head.
The nonagenarian is now back in the saddle. One way or another.
“If I miss today, I’ll try again tomorrow,” he said, speaking of his successes and failures. “If I miss the next day, I’ll try again next day.
“Never back down, get out there and keep trying.
“If you want to be a cowboy, never give up.”
