Camp Jerold

08/03/2024

Remembering my old hometown rodeo taking place this weekend in Santa Barbara. Taken 51 years ago when Ace & I were a young 26 years old. Old Spanish Days, Fiesta Rodeo. Good times. 🤠

05/26/2023

Westyn thought he could catch my sister's pet goat by just running after him. Sorry Westyn, those goats know to stay away from anyone with a rope, even if you thought you'd just tie him.

05/17/2023

Sweet ride to "my office."
Vince Rosenberry showed up at the ranch in this beauty so we jumped in and went for coffee.

04/09/2022

Winners of the 2022 Oakdale Rodeo Gold Card Incentive. Thank you Brian Costa for donating the horse blankets and thank you Chris Perry for spinning em' for me. It was good seeing everyone and doing what we do best.

03/24/2022

After 18 years, I returned to Hawaii to conduct a team roping & breakaway clinic. Back in the day, (as Leo used to say), we put on a lot of schools over there and made a lot of good friends. It was bittersweet to be there without Leo but we felt his presence and strolled down memory lane and shared lots of laughs.
There were 30 young cowboys & Cowgirls in attendance and some had never held a rope. It was roping 101! Lots of fun.
I'd like to thank the Hawaii High School Rodeo Assn Oahu District & the Lazy L Ranch for sponsoring the clinic. Also the beautiful Kualoa Ranch where the clinic was held. Special thanks to Robert & Kathy Rita & family for their hospitality and long time friendship. I know Robert was missing those long conversations he had with Leo. I just couldn't stay awake and nodded off on him! 😴 Much Aloha to all. 🌴🍍🏝🤠🦁

12/12/2021

NFR Round 10! It's been bittersweet without Leo to "quarterback" it all with me but exciting nonetheless. CowboyChannel you have all done an outstanding job and I appreciate all your hard work to bring rodeo into our living rooms.
Wishing all good luck tonight and safe travels back home.

I'll never forget what it feels like being at the NFR.

12/01/2021

Thanks Kendra Santos for allowing me to contribute to your story. Oakdale is my home and will always hold fond memories of when it was indeed the Cowboy Capital of the World. In my heart, it still is.

Some still enjoy bantering back and forth about the great debate over Cowboy Capital of the World bragging rights. That seems silly to those of us who’ve been around long enough to have seen the shift play out. For us, there’s no need to argue. There are cultural and financial factors at the roo...

11/17/2021

Thanks for remembering me RFD TV! Love these special memories you post.

Born at Santa Ana, California, in 1947, Jerold Camarillo grew up in a family rich in ranching tradition, one in which roping skill passed from one generation to the next. He learned to handle a rope at about the same time he learned to walk, and he entered junior events at an early age. Following a period on the amateur circuit, Camarillo joined the professional ranks in 1968.

Jerold Camarillo won his first World Champion Team Roping title only a year later at the age of 22. He repeated the feat again in 1977, and through the years made 17 consecutive trips to the National Finals Rodeo. In recent years he has captured six additional championship titles as a header or heeler in PRCA Gold Card and Senior competitions. Semi-retired, Jerold trains roping horses and teaches his roping skills to up-and-coming rodeo contestants. Jerold Camarillo lives with his wife, Liz, in Oakdale, California.

08/15/2021

Congratulations Trey! I am so proud of you. You've worked hard on your roping and it all clicked! Proud of Cassie too, for also seeing some $! Good job kids! ❤🤠

07/04/2021

Thanks for sharing this story Kendra! Great memories with your dad. Happy 4th of July and Merry Cowboy Christmas to the cowboys and cowgirls traveling this weekend. Be safe. 🇺🇸🎉🎊

Veterans Stadium was for decades home to the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. But on the occasion of this great country’s 200th birthday 45 years ago on July 4, 1976, cowboys came to town for the American Bicentennial Rodeo. Between family and work, my cowboy horse doctor dad was typically good for 10-12 rodeos a year. But this band of Cali cowboy brothers and lifelong friends dragged their good buddy to Philly for the grand occasion.

That’s Leo and Jerold Camarillo sitting on the cannon, and HP Evetts, Reg Camarillo and Frank Santos (my dad) standing in the back with the two soldiers.

Like Leo, my dad usually entered all three timed events. But he tore the ligaments in his instep stepping off in the calf roping the first night, so sat the steer wrestling out.

He said Howard Harris was the stock contractor, and because the Mexican border was closed due to Hoof & Mouth Disease, they bulldogged fresh, wild steers out of Florida that were not Corrientes and were “wilder than snakes.”

The team roping was a go-twice two-header, and while Leo and Jerold both heeled for H and cousin Reg, my dad heeled for a couple other young Cali cowboys, brothers Tom and Larry Ferguson.

“Leo decided we ought to go see the Liberty Bell and have a nice lunch one day, so he heisted the Wrangler guy’s rental car and away we went,” my dad remembers with a grin from rodeo adventures past.

Back to those swamp steers, my dad’s been close to a couple of Hall of Fame bulldoggers forever in Jack Roddy and the late John W Jones. They always told him that the great Harley May, who was originally from New Mexico but spent most of his life in California, developed his style courtesy of wild cattle like the ones they wrestled in Philly when Corrientes weren’t available. “John and Jack always said those wild steers were too squirmy to manhandle, so it made a technical perfectionist out of Harley,” Dad said.

These are the priceless conversations that come with coffee on a foggy Fourth of July morning with your dear 83-year-old cowboy dad in Creston, California in 2021.

Merry Cowboy Christmas, Everyone!
🤠🎄🇺🇸
Miss you, Leo! ♥️🦁

05/10/2021

It's been fun having Westyn Hughes & Blake Chauvin staying at Camp Jerold while they're out here rodeo'n. Good job bringing home the $ today!

04/25/2021

Great to have "Winston" back at Camp Jerold during the spring rodeos. Enjoyed watching him win the Chute Out in San Angelo last night. Now back to Clovis!

04/02/2021

Thanks to everyone for your calls, texts & April Fools pranks today. I had a fun 47th birthday! 😉😂

03/17/2021

Thank you so much Bob. Hearing that you turned out a steer at the BFI in memory of Leo made me a little emotional. It's still tough not being able to call him and get his take on it all.

Without the failures, there wouldn't be the victories. Without the determination, the path woudn't be made. And without the heart of a lion, there wouldn't be the legend.

Last night we paid tribute to the late great Leo “the Lion" Camarillo. It only seemed fitting that Bob Feist cracked open the Priefert chute one more time for the legendary Leo, a king among the team ropers. May the echos of his roar live on forever.

03/17/2021

I'm not as good with words as Leo was but I do appreciate the special tributes that were done in his memory at the Lazy E & the BFI. I sure miss my best friend.

These boots...These boots can never be filled again in the sport of professional rodeo. To walk a mile in these boots means that you were a King. A King of the Timed Events. A King of the BFI. A King of the jungle that is professional team roping. Leo The Lion, your boots will never be filled and tonight we could still hear your roar.

02/19/2021

I understand that we were able to reorder copies of the DVD we made called "Changing the Game."
For those that have asked me about getting a copy, you can order through
Kevinfoxfilms.com.

A limited number of DVDs are still available for order at Kevinfoxfilms.com

DVDs have arrived and will begin shipping this week for pre-orders.

01/25/2021

Happy Birthday in heaven Leo. My best friend for as long as I can remember. I sure miss you.