02 September, 2020
CHARTERS TOWERS COWBOYS
CHARTERS Towers cowboys Campbell Hodson and Liam Davison first met at a rodeo school and are now best friends and one of the best team roping combinations in the Australian Professional Rodeo Association.
Hodson, 23, is originally from Townsville and first competed at the age of eight under the watchful eyes of his parents Steve Hodson and Alison Cook. His sisters Ashleigh, Alex and Courtney have also competed in rodeo.
While he rode a few bucking poddies as a junior, Davison became interested in roping when his brother Mick returned from competing in the United States and brought some ropes back for his family and friends.
Hodson competes in the three timed events in rodeo and has won the past three all around titles in the APRA, Davison sticks to just two events, team roping and the rope and tie.
Prizemoney during the season is added to money won at the finals to determine title winners and Hodson won all three all around titles without going into the finals on top of the standings.
Hodson rates 2017 as his best year as he won the all around, rope and tie and team roping header titles.
Davison, 24, has won the past three team roping heeler titles in the APRA. In 2017 and 2018, Hodson won the heading titles in a sport where there are separate standings lists for heeling and heading.
Hodson rode his horse Henry to finish second in steer wrestling behind American rider Stockton Graves at last year’s Mt Isa Rodeo.
One of Hodson’s big breaks was moving to Emerald after year 10 to work with Shane Kenny, the most successful rider in the APRA.
“Shane taught me how to rodeo and how to handle my money,” Hodson said.
“He also advised me where and when to compete, I wouldn’t be where I am today except for Shane.”
Davison said one of his best moves in the sport was at the age of 16 when he took up an offer from Alton Downs rider Shane Iker for the pair to compete together at the Mt Isa Rodeo.
“We finished second in team roping,” Davison said.
The cessation of rodeos due to COVID-19 has disappointed all rodeo competitors but Davison said it was a chance to concentrate more on their day jobs and to work young horses.
The coronavirus stopped Davison from competing in America this year.
While he hadn’t booked his flight, he was planning to head to America mid-year to compete against many of the top ropers in the world.
Davison works as an electrician in Charters Towers while Hodson works in maintenance with Queensland Rail.
Success in rodeo is much more than the competition.
Both Hodson and Davison train their horses four to five times a week.
Hodson breaks in a lot of young horses and familiarises them to rodeo.
They each have an arena for practise and sometimes train together, an important factor in their team roping combination.
Hodson and Davison each started their team roping as a heeler and when they became best friends, one had to change.
“Liam was better than me as a heeler so he took on the heeling role and I became the header,” Hodson said.
At the Davison arena, Liam practices a lot with his sister Bridie who competes in breakaway roping and team roping.
“She trains the horses better than I do, I mainly put in the kilometres at training,” Liam said.
Liam looks up to Johnny Osborne when he talks about the art of heeling. Osborne is the most successful heeler in APRA history.
“Johnny is so talented as a heeler,” Davison said.
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