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Arena Tracks | A Tribute to Bud Longbrake

There’s a certain amount of pressure that comes with writing about a legend the size of Bud Longbrake. If ever there was a cowboy that was the epitome of South Dakota moxy and South Dakota kind, it was Bud.  Much has been written about Bud’s six qualifications to the National Finals Rodeo, his WNFR Average Championship, sweep of Cheyenne and riding style, including the toothpick that came to be his trademark.  Bud Longbrake, the saddle bronc riding champion, is an icon the world knows.  Emmett Dunn Longbrake, the little boy who grew up on Ash Creek, is a deeper man, loved by family and friends for his actions when the spotlight wasn’t on him.  That cowboy deserves a tribute, too.

When he was five years old his mom took him down to the round corral

To watch his dad work the young horse they called Smokey & man did that horse buck



But his old dad just sat up there and rode him like there was nothin’ to it

“[Bud Longbrake] lived a big life and he had a big heart.” -Charlie (Longbrake) Bradshaw

Right then the boy gained a whole new respect for the man



And from that day on he knew that when he grew up he wanted to be a cowboy.

Seventeen, Chris LeDoux

Bud was born Emmett Dunn Longbrake and landed himself smack dab in the middle of rough country, between Dupree and Cherry Creek, South Dakota.  His folks were stock contractor, cowboy and saddle bronc riding legend, Pete Longbrake and ranch wife/teacher, Faye (Nordvold) Longbrake.  He was met by older brothers Delbert and Jake. Charlie, the lone Longbrake girl, following a year later.  Just a piece cross country, the family’s good friends Jess and Edie Knight ranched.  They had a passel of kids too including Monte, Lona, Tom, Bill, Jess (JR), Lucy, Jeff, and Mark.  The twelve Longbrake-Knight children helped raise one another as their  mothers, both teachers, were often away in the summers working on their masters’ degrees.

Lucy Knight tells of summer mornings when they climbed onto horses and headed off over the hills not to be seen until sundown. That was Ziebach County daycare in the 1970s. The little posse would exist on chokecherries and dam water, often drinking right alongside their horses. They never got sick, and were definitely all the tougher for it. 

Tough was just what you needed to be in that time and in that place. There was peer pressure to “walk it off” and “rub some dirt on it” and so they all did, including Bud. However, Charlie (Longbrake) Bradshaw said Bud always had a softer side. 

“He’d curl up with the bum calves that landed in the house to warm, and was the first to dust me off when my pony Oscar rubbed me off on a tree or fence,” she said. “Bud spoiled me a bit, always riding the ‘fresh’ off my horses before I put my foot in the stirrup.”

Bud was what a big brother was supposed to be; a tormenter one minute, a conspirator the next and a protector always.

At seventeen cowboys’ dreams ain’t on fixin’ fences

Once he’s seen ’em ride in old Cheyenne

Ranch routine and his old man’s schemes

This ain’t where his heart is but you know his daddy understands

Seventeen, Chris LeDoux

Jeff Knight, just a few years older than Bud, was a childhood sidekick and bronc rider on the rise when his career was cut short by a car accident in Texas.  After his passing, Jeff was honored by Burdell Blue Arm with an Indian name: Sung Watogla Hoksila or Wild Horse Boy.  The Knight family chose to memorialize Jeff with a Robert Yellowhair buckle awarded to the Champion Saddle Bronc rider at the 1979 Dupree Regional High School Rodeo. 

Bud was no dandy, but a Yellowhair was a special prize and he decided that buckle belonged on his belt even if he had to start riding broncs to win it.  Bud borrowed a saddle from his brothers and after waving off some advice from Pete, dropped down on a horse of his dad’s named White Owl, only to be lawn darted into the Ziebach County gumbo shortly after.  The whole scenario played out three more times that day, each ending with the walk of shame back to the chutes.  They even demoted him to riding cattle, but it just wasn’t clicking. 

The other boys would drop into the chute and ride one sweet.  And Bud?  He’d eat dirt and question his life decisions.  Bud drew a metaphorical line in the sand:  If he didn’t cover one at the Regional High School Rodeo, he was done riding broncs.  He’d be Bud Longbrake, Bull Rider instead.  The sun rose on the Regional Rodeo and the family packed into pickups and headed north to Dupree.  Bud got through the other events and it came time to set his saddle, measure the rein and nod for his horse.  Whether it was the result of hard practice or the grace of Jeff Knight looking down upon him no one can say, but Bud rode his horse that day and the one the day after to be crowned the Regional High School Saddle Bronc Riding Champion.  He proudly snapped that Yellowhair buckle into place on his belt and kept on covering broncs.  

His daddy knows he’s gotta let him go the boy can’t be a winner

If he don’t spread his wings and fly

And in his mind he’s riding bulls down in Las Vegas

Soon he’ll be on a train that leads to Santa Fe

Sweet voice of freedom echoes down the ages calls another cowboy on his way

Seventeen, Chris LeDoux

South Dakota in the 1990s was an epicenter for quality rough stock riders.  You could step outside of the Longbrake house near Ash Creek and spit and you’d likely hit someone who raised roughstock.  Where there’s roughstock, there are bronc riders  and where there’s more than one bronc rider, there’s competition to get better. There were consistently 20-30 bronc riders at the Dupree Regional Rodeo and most of them had been on plenty of practice horses before they nodded their heads. The quality was high and many of those kids went on to rodeo in the amateur and professional ranks. 

Bud and high school friend Tom Reeves graduated high school and hit the rodeo road together.  One time they were gone so long, Pete told everyone he thought they’d moved to California.  When not traveling with Tom, Bud would hop in with Red Lemmel, Mark Garrett, Ken Lensegrav and the like or haul with his wife Lona and children Jay and Kayla. 

“Bud was a great traveling partner and the smilingest sumbuck you ever knew,” Mark Garrett said. 

Those were great years and all of the cowboys were thankful to have the opportunity to rodeo and make a living doing it. 

Make a living they did. Bud qualified for the NFR on 6 different occasions, winning the WNFR Average Title his first trip to Vegas in 1990. Bud also was the first cowboy to win the first, second, Short Go and Average at Cheyenne and competed for the United States in the Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Bud was a winner with a pretty spur sweep and a bit of a toothpick smile the whole ride. 

As a special honor, the Indian name: Sung Watogla Hoksila or Wild Horse Boy was transferred from Jeff Knight to Bud Longbrake.  That meant the world to Bud both in its meaning and as it had also been carried by his childhood friend and role model.

Eventually, Bud stopped traveling as much and partnered with his father in the stock business. There, Bud had as much of an impact as he did as a competing cowboy. 

“Both Bud and Pete cared about the stock, gave the cowboys their best shot and just wanted it to work out for everyone,” Mark Garrett said. 

Longbrakes would help the local kids that wanted a start and always had horses to buck. During this time, Bud was able to connect with his children, Jay and Kayla, and his grandchildren as well. He loved his family dearly, something he’d learned from his own parents at the ranch on Ash Creek.

Fencin’s done and the morning sun finds him packed and ready

Momma kissed his cheek and then she went inside

His old man well he shook his hand said son you ride ’em pretty

Didn’t see the tears that his momma cried.

Seventeen, Chris LeDoux

“He lived a big life and he had a big heart,” Charlie said. “He wouldn’t want to be a hero to anyone but he’d help you along the way for you to be better.  He played the hand he was dealt and hopefully he gave out enough cards to others along the way for them to play their best hand.”   

It’s hard to summarize the life of a cowboy like Bud Longbrake, but Charlie dang sure did.  From a family of ranchers and cowboys, through the rodeo years and back home as a family man, stock contractor and rancher, Bud Longbrake had a long shadow and left a big space. He was a cowboy, and a rancher, and a damn good man. The world is a lesser place without him in it.