Monthly Archives: November 2021

CLEMENTS, Calif. – Clayton Biglow has never been afraid to dream big. That’s why he made a big statement that he wanted to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo at least 10 times in his career. This year marks No. 6. Still a youngster at age 25, he’s more than halfway to his goal, and he’s riding as well as ever. He finished the 2021 ProRodeo regular season with $142,004 and will enter this year’s NFR in Las Vegas third in the world standings. “From last year to this year, I’ve learned that you can’t take a second off rodeo,” said Biglow, the 2019 world champion from Clements. “There were a lot of lessons learned, and it’s hard to put into words what all I learned. “I learned a lot about myself more than anything, and I think it’s helped a lot this year.” It’s part of the maturation process for the young bronc buster. Two Decembers ago, he was unstoppable and unbeatable. He won four of 10 rounds and placed in six others, pocketing just shy of $245,000. Last year’s NFR was much different, and he wasn’t nearly as successful as he had hoped. He turned that disappointment into motivation, and he’s reaping the rewards because of it. “Making six straight NFRs is pretty special,” he said. “To be able to hit 10 NFRs has seemed like it’s unreachable, especially for a bareback rider. Then you look at someone like (fellow bareback rider) Will Lowe, and he has 15 NFR qualifications. I’m halfway to 10 and a quarter of the way to 15. “It’s not easy. Bareback riding is hard on your body, and the miles on the road get to you.” That’s true. Cowboys travel tens of thousands of miles each year getting from one event to another. There are two broncs in a day, then there are other times when it’s an overnight drive just to get from Hermiston, Oregon, to Sikeston, Missouri, for more bucking horses. Not only that, but the cowboys cinch their riggings tightly to the horse’s back. Using specially designed gloves with binds built into them, they’ll then wedge their hands into the rigging; their bodies are strapped to 1,200 pounds of equine dynamite. “I feel like this era of bareback riders is a little different than the past,” said Biglow, who credits much of his success to his sponsors, Wrangler, Bloomer Trailers, Resistol, Pete Carr Pro Rodeo and MY Chevrolet in Salinas, California. “There are guys like Bobby Mote and Clint Corey that would still be in the top 15 today, but what’s different is there are so many guys that can ride good. “Nowadays, it’s the top 10 to top 15 that stand out. Everyone deserves a shot to be at the finals. That’s the coolest part of it. There’s always going to be guys that ride good. I think what’s different now is that this is the most competitive bareback riding has ever been.” He may be right. Among this year’s NFR qualifiers are eight men who have been to the championship at least five times, three of whom have won ProRodeo’s gold: Biglow, three-time champ Tim O’Connell (second in the standings) and five-time and reigning titlist Kaycee Feild, who is fifth on the money list and is competing at the finals for the 12th time. Also in the mix is R.C. Landingham of Hat Creek, California, who is returning to the NFR for the first time since 2017. He’s gone through a list of injuries and surgeries and spent the 2021 campaign traveling with Biglow, and the two fed off each other en route to playing for the biggest money in rodeo over 10 days in the Nevada desert. “I think the key to my season was staying positive,” Biglow said. “I worked out a lot more this year. I was more in tune with staying in shape and keeping my mind right, and I think that had a lot to do with it. R.C. was a big help to my year. It was a lot easier get things done with that guy around.” That type of mental assurance is key, even though the two are built quite differently. Biglow is 5-foot-6 and weighs in at 150 pounds; Landingham is seven inches taller and weighs about 160. “We have a completely different build but a lot similar mindset,” Biglow said. “It’s hard to find a better guy. You could probably make a documentary about him and what he’s been through. He’s really underrated, and he’s a hell of an inspiration.” Landingham is also a support system, just as Biglow is to him. That’s part of what happens with cowboy travel together. They become more like family members, and Biglow has a pretty solid family to support him, from his wife, Annie Rose, to his parents, Russ and Jessie, to his sisters, Taylor and Maddie. After his fantastic 2019 campaign, Clayton and Annie Rose began the process of building their own place not far from where Clayton was raised. It’s still in the works. “We started this process a yar ago, and COVID was a terrible time to build a house,” he said with a laugh. “We’ve got the ball rolling now. Married life is good. We’re living in a trailer waiting to move into the house. The trailer is becoming a little insane, but we’re working through it.” He hopes to return to his home after the NFR concludes and roll right into the holidays, while also reflecting on a superb year and build off it. He won 12 rodeos in 2021 and also added an all-around title while team roping in Stonyford, California. His biggest title came early in the season when he snagged the championship this past February in San Antonio. “I was fresh off the finals, so to get a big win like that after the finals I had was absolutely incredible,” Biglow said. “Usually after the finals, I just hang out and enjoy being  Continue Reading »

COMANCHE, Okla. – When Ryan Jarrett was learning how to rope calves as a youngster, he got into the habit of riding several horses in a day. It continues to pay off for him, and he will return to the National Finals Rodeo for the 13th time in a magnificent career. He finished the 2021 regular season with $91,933 and will enter the Dec. 2-11 competition in Las Vegas 12th in the world standings. “I think it’s really important to be able to get on a different horse when you need to,” said Jarrett, the 2005 all-around world champion from Comanche, where he lives with his wife, Shy-Anne, and their daughter, Jurnee. “When I learned the rope, the gentleman that showed me what to do would trade and train horses. I’d ride six or eight different ones four days a week, and they might not be the same horses ever day. “I hated them a lot, but they taught me a lot, too.” Yes, they did, and he proves it every year. This year, he got on several horses and still found success. He won just one tie-down roping title, that in Delta, Utah, in mid-June, so most of his earnings came from finishing among the leaders more often than not. He rode a horse owned by young roper Kincade Henry a few times and rode Lane Livingston’s horse several times, even finishing his campaign on the talented mount. “Lane was hauling him, and when it came time to go to the Northwest, Lane was just entered the week of Caldwell (Idaho) and Moses Lake (Washington), and he was heading back to Seymour (Texas) after that,” Jarrett said. “I made a deal with him to continue to haul the horse the rest of the Northwest to finish the season on him. “That horse excels outside, and he’s real easy to get along with. He’s a run-them-down type horse. I also roped on him at the Roping Fiesta in San Angelo (the end of October).” Not every cowboy has the ability to jump-ride a horse and find success, but Jarrett isn’t a typical cowboy. Raised on a dairy farm in northwest Georgia, he found his success in the rodeo arena. He turned pro 18 years ago and uses that experience to make sure he makes the right moves when possible. “It’s always been beneficial to me,” he said. “If I have seen the horse prior and have an idea of how it performs, I can look at the situation and know that’s what I need to ride. It’ll work most of the time.” That’s true. He’s only failed to qualify for the NFR a handful of times, which proves his prowess in the game. He won the Montana Silversmiths all-around gold buckle in his initial trip to Las Vegas in 2005, when he qualified in both tie-down roping and steer wrestling. He was the only man not named Trevor Brazile to win the most coveted title in ProRodeo from 2002-2015. Now that he’s 37, Jarrett remains as salty as ever when it comes to roping calves. Of his 14 NFR qualifications, 13 have come in tie-down roping. He finished the 2020 season 10th in the world standing. ProRodeo’s grand finale has returned to Las Vegas, the NFR’s primary home since 1985. He’ll return to a routine he knows well and will do everything he can to take care of himself, his family and the horses he will have in the Nevada desert. “I’m going to get on a horse owned by Cody McCartney and Bailey Moore,” Jarrett said of the bay mare named Poppy. “The first time I rode her was at our circuit finals. I always liked that horse. She came from Cimarron Boardman. She’s been rodeoed on and knows the drill. “I also have a horse I throughout the year that I’ve dan sure had success on that I’ll take.” That’s Donk a 13-year-old bay gelding he acquired just before April this year. While Poppy will get the first shot at competing inside the Thomas & Mack Center, Donk will be ready to go if there’s a call to the pull pen. “My year was pretty steady,” said Jarrett, who credits some of his success to his sponsors, Wrangler, Cactus Ropes, WW Livestock, PHT Products and Outlaw Equine. “I had several seconds, thirds, fourths along the way. I probably made the most money that counted toward the standings in Calgary (Alberta).” Yes, he did. In the Calgary Stampede’s return to the PRCA, Jarrett pocketed $19,500, a good portion of which counted toward the world standings. A former Calgary champion, this marked the first time his earnings inside Stampede Park counted for his bid to making the NFR. He also won big checks in Guymon, Oklahoma; Odgen, Utah; and the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo in its final year in Kissimmee, Florida. “I got to feel a little more confident as the season went on,” he said. “It was different rodeoing this year compared to last year. You got an idea of where you were going, and you didn’t have to make new plans like we did last year. “I’m super excited to return to Vegas. I don’t want to take anything away from Arlington, because they were good to us last year, but it’s just not the same atmosphere as rodeoing in Vegas.”

Montana Silversmiths executive to spend time with his other passions COLUMBUS, Mont. – Steve Miller’s life had been set up for him as a youngster. He was the fourth generation born into a Montana logging family, but fate had another plan. With no college degree, he set out a path of hard work and a powerful presence to become a major resource for Montana Silversmiths, the most recognized buckle-maker in Western sports based in Columbus. After 27 years of dedicated service to the brand, Miller is retiring from Montana Silversmiths, but, boy, does he have a story to tell. In nearly three decades with the company, he’s built brilliant sales forces and been an influencer in the silversmithing business. He’s continued to showcase Montana Silversmiths through each phase of his work with the company, and he will be celebrated at his final event as a company representative during the National Finals Rodeo this December in Las Vegas. A change of fate Like the Miller men before him, Steve Miller had made his way through the mountainous terrain of Montana by sawing down trees. Paid by the tree, he could mow down many in a flurry of action. He’d been raised around this. Hunting, fishing and logging were what he knew best. It was a family legacy he was carrying, after all. But things changed in 1980. A logging accident ended it all. He’d suffered a broken back, and his logging career was finished. “It was the worst experience of my life and the best experience of my life,” Miller said emphatically. “They told me I could not lift a chainsaw or saw logs anymore, and I said, ‘What the hell am I going to do? I’ve got two kids and a wife.’ “I cleaned theaters in Kalispell (Montana). I helped out a friend who owned a cleaning service, and I went on food stamps.” While dragging himself through that muck, Miller ran into a family acquaintance, Chuck Brashear, a man who used the services of Miller’s father, an elk hunting guide in the Montana mountains. Brashear owned Rocky Mountain Miracle Ear, a franchise in Kalispell, and Miller’s life was about to change. “He said he could teach me how to fit hearing aids, but I needed to train under his license for a year,” Miller said. “I’d never done anything but saw logs. I didn’t have a college education. He said, ‘I just had my knee operated on, so if you’ll drive me around for three weeks, I’ll pay you $300 a week.’ “It was the best offer I had.” And it worked for the next 12 years of his life. He was a top salesman, then was promoted to the regional manager for Dahlberg Electronics in Southern California, the parent company for Miracle Ear. Within four years, he was promoted to director of sales and marketing for Miracle Ear and was based in Minneapolis, and the course of his life had changed dramatically. What he didn’t know was that it was only going to drastically improve. A self-proclaimed lumberjack hillbilly, he still had a hankering for being outdoors and involved in something completely different. Looking outside his seventh-floor office, he decided it was time for a change. “I was roping, but I had my horse in a stable 50 miles away,” Miller said. “I never got to ride, no place to rope much. I put out my resume to everybody I thought I might like to work for in the Western industry, and I’ll be damned if Dennis Potzman with Montana Silversmiths liked what he saw and hired me. “I ran their sales rep force, and I put together one of the best rep forces in the country. That will be almost 28 years ago. I’ll be two months short of 28 years when I retire.” Take me to Montana In the 1990s, honky tonks had given way to elaborate clubs that played the top country music of the time. Line dancing was the scene at most of the joints across the country, and Western clothes were all the rage. “I told Dennis, ‘If we’re going to stay in business after all the line dancing, the silver boot tips and fake stirrups the line dancers were buying comes to an end, we’d better get in the real trophy buckle business. “We had gotten the contract for the Quarter Horse (AQHA) in 1994. We built on that, and we started making hand-made buckles. We got the contracts for the PBR and the PRCA in 1999. A lot more fell into place after that. In 2008, we split the retail business from the award buckle business. I was hired on as the vice president of sales and marketing, then vice president of event marketing. We’ve built it up to what it is today.” In terms of volume, Montana Silversmiths is the No. 1 Western silver manufacturer in the world. Ten years ago, he moved from Montana to Colorado Springs in order to be closer to clients and a major airport. For a man that had never traveled before his broken back, Miller has become affluent with airline travel. It helped him and Montana Silversmiths build the brand. That also included Miller utilizing his own artistic talents. “After we bought Big Sky Carvers, we needed a Western line of sculptures,” he said. “Big Sky’s artists couldn’t make Western art. They didn’t know what an appropriate saddle would look like, so I said to Dennis, ‘We have announced this line and are going to roll on it, and they can’t get any sculptures done.’ “For the first line we introduced about eight sculptures, I made them at my kitchen table after working on weekends. We did the Steve Miller Signature Line, which was nine sculptures. I can’t make a sculpture until I create a story, then I need a title that sums up the story in one line.” For the sculpture of cowboys roping a grizzly bear, his title is “When Cowboys  Continue Reading »

PERRYTON, Texas – There was a time not long ago that everyone in the Texas Panhandle expected to see Marty Devers at the National Finals Rodeo. He’s a cowboy, and a couple of decades ago, he was just that good. He was a national champion bulldogger in high school, then parlayed that into two national college titles. Everyone around him just knew he’d be among the top 15 steer wrestlers in the standings battling for the world championship. He came close, finishing two seasons as the No. 16 man in the final standings, just one spot out of playing for the biggest pay in ProRodeo. Now, Marty Devers will have the chance to witness the NFR up close and personal, but in a much different capacity than he ever realized: He is going to watch is son, Cody, battle for that elusive Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. “It’s a great feeling to finally see one of my dreams come true,” said Cody Devers, 26, of Perryton, in the northeastern portion of the Texas Panhandle, just minutes from the Oklahoma border in a couple of directions. “I’ve worked at it and tried several different years. I’ve been close a couple of times, so it feels good to get it done.” One of those was a year ago, when he battled through a COVID-infected season to finish 18th in the bulldogging world standings. Instead of competing at the NFR, he worked it as a hazer for his friend and traveling partner, Jule Hazen of Ashland, Kansas. Now, the tides will be turned, with Hazen offering his assistance when ProRodeo’s grand finale returns to Las Vegas after a one-year hiatus to Arlington, Texas. “Finishing that close to making it last year definitely motivated me a lot this year,” said Devers, who finished the 2021 regular season 11th in the world standings with $67,715 in earnings; he also won the average championship at the Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo in mid-October. “You think about it a lot. Hazing at the finals last year and getting to watch it but not getting to compete built my fire even more.” Success isn’t anything new to Cody Devers. He has a pretty powerful rodeo pedigree. In addition to his dad’s attributes, he also gets his genetics from his barrel racing mother, Sabrina. The family-owned Devers Performance Horse is a multi-million dollar horse-selling business that specializes in rodeo event and barrel horses that sell all over the world. The Deverses also host clinics and have hosted members of the Dallas Cowboys to the facility for steer wrestling clinics with Cody. His older brother, Matt, handles technology and advertising for the business. “My brother and I grew up bulldogging,” Cody said, noting that Matt is two years older. “We both jumped our first steers the same day. We got a little bulldogging horse, and I think I even jumped a steer first.  I was 12 years old when I jumped my first one horseback. I absolutely loved it, and he did, too. “He went to college for a little bit, but he had a good job. Now, he owns his own business, and I’m still out here rodeoing. We both branched out a little bit. He went to the business side, and I went to the competitive side.” Make no mistake, rodeo is all business. Devers, Hazen and their other traveling partners spend weeks on the road, making a living one rodeo run at a time. Oftentimes, expenses outweigh their profits, but living and working together builds trust and comradery that can last a lifetime. Besides that, there’s no way to make it to the richest rodeo in the world without putting miles on a truck and living-quarters trailer, not to mention adding many frequent flyer miles It’s been fairly steady ride for the Texas cowboy, though. He filled his PRCA permit in 2014 while still in high school and immediately bought his card so he could compete at whichever rodeos fit his fancy. He left home right out of high school for an education at Garden City (Kansas) Community College, which is coached by a fellow Texas Panhandle bulldogger, Jim Boy Hash. “It was just an hour and 40 minutes up the road, and I thought it would be a good fit for me,” said Devers, who credits much of his success to his sponsors: Usher Brand Custom Saddlery, Cinch Jeans and Shirts, Old 32 Ranch, Devers Performance Horses, Protech Technologies, Centennial Resource Development and Taco Villa. “I had class Monday through Thursday, and I could practice there during the week. On weekends, I could go home, practice and help do whatever I needed to do.” He transferred to Northwestern Oklahoma State University, coached by NFR qualifier Stockton Graves, who has earned his eighth trip to the championship this year and will join his protégé in Las Vegas for all 10 rounds, set for Dec. 2-11 at the Thomas & Mack Center. “Stockton was the reason I decided to go to Alva,” said Devers, who finished as the runner-up to the national champion at the 2018 College National Finals Rodeo while competing at Northwestern. “They take bulldogging extremely serious over there, and I wanted to take it just as serious. Look at all the athletes that have come out of there and made the finals. I can name several guys that I went to school with that have made the finals.” He’s had plenty of training from men who know a thing or two about the game. From Marty Devers to Jim Boy Hash to Stockton Graves to Jule Hazen, there are years and years of experience packed into the mind, body and soul of Cody Devers as he prepares for his maiden voyage to the City of Lights to run at $27,000 per night. “Those are some great coaches,” he said. “You can ask Stockton absolutely anything, and he can tell you what you need to know. He’s been to every rodeo they’ve ever had. My dad still  Continue Reading »

MIAMI, Texas – There is more than one reason for a ProRodeo cowboy to be consistent in his performances from one rodeo to another. Riding well and doing so on a daily basis not only helps with self-confidence, but it also helps keep the cowboy’s mind in the right place. Take saddle bronc Wyatt Casper, now a two-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier who finished the 2021 season with $84,948. He sits ninth in the world standings heading into ProRodeo’s championship event, set for Dec. 2-11 in Las Vegas. “Being consistent helps your mind, and it’s also good for the judges that are seeing you,” said Casper, 25, of Miami, Texas. “If they see you ride consistently time after time, maybe they will mark you for that. Consistency is the key in bronc riding. You have to do as good as you can on every horse you get on.” Casper entered the 2020 NFR with a boatload of confidence. He was the No. 1 man in the world, and the field was chasing him. At the one-time home of the NFR in Arlington, Texas, he put on a show, placing in seven of 10 rounds; that included to round wins. He earned nearly $176,000 in a week and a half in north Texas, finishing the campaign with $321,000, but he finished as the runner-up to the champ, Utahan Ryder Wright. “I learned last year that it doesn’t matter if you fall off three horses the week before the NFR in a practice pen, you can still have a good week,” he said with a laugh. Life is pretty good for Casper. He’s proven to be one of the elite bronc riders in ProRodeo. He had some key wins on the season, from the Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo to the crown in Montgomery, Alabama, to the title in Burwell, Nebraska. But one doesn’t pocket nearly $85,000 in a year without having success elsewhere. Cowboys make their livings on the road, traveling from town to town like a circus. When he wasn’t winning rodeos, he was picking up nice paychecks along the way. He didn’t win the title in Ellensburg, Washington, but he won the short round and placed second, collecting $5,000 in the process. Those are the kinds of finishes that keep the rodeo rigs rolling down the road. “Winning checks is the main part,” said Casper, who credits his sponsors – Priefert, Superior Livestock, Resistol, Cinch, TD Angus, MVP Exceed 6 Way, The KingStar Co. and Western Hauler – for helping him find success in rodeo. “If you go a week without a check these days, it seems like you go down in the standings. “If you keep cashing checks every week, you will prevail. It’s like chopping wood; you have to keep at it.” Other than big checks in Calgary, Alberta, and Salinas, California, Casper didn’t see a payday of more than $8,000 the rest of the season. He pocketed $11,000 north of the border and $8,916 at the California Rodeo Salinas, which also served as the ProRodeo Tour Finale over the final weekend of the regular season. “I didn’t feel like I was drawing horses as well as I did last year, but I also don’t feel like I wasted a lot of opportunities,” he said. “A lot of stuff didn’t go as well this year, but we kept our head down and kept going.” Sometimes a workmanlike approach is the best, especially for a man who toils in the rugged terrain of the Texas Panhandle when he wasn’t on the rodeo trail. He’s a rancher, and he lives on his place near Miami with his wife, Lesley, and their two children, Cooper, 3, and Cheyenne, who will turn 2 during the NFR. Some of it’s age, and some of it’s the constant training that comes every day, but maturity as a man and a bronc rider has been a calling card for Casper. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot in the last year, some of it good and some of it not so good,” he said. “As long as you keep improving, you’re going to wind up on top in the end.” The toughest part of being a rodeo cowboy is the days, weeks and, sometimes, months on the road away from those he loves the most. It’s difficult, especially for a young man with a young family, but he puts clothes in the closet and food in the pantry by riding bucking horses. “It didn’t feel like I got home as much as I wanted,” Casper said. “I was lucky to get home three to four times from the end of June to October. That was kind of rough, and it was a little rough on the home life. Lesley came and rodeoed with me for a little bit over the summer, so that was nice.” Casper may have already qualified for the NFR a year ago, but this will be a new experience for him. It will be his first time riding bucking horses inside the storied Thomas & Mack Center, the championship’s home since 1985. It’s renowned for having the yellow Priefert fencing and bucking chutes packed into the space of a hockey rink. He knows he’ll get chills upon arriving. “I’m really looking forward to walking into the Thomas & Mack the first time,” he said. “I always told myself that I wasn’t going to the Thomas & Mack until I made it, and I’m glad that day is finally coming.”

INGLIS, Manitoba – Admittedly, Orin Larsen is his own biggest critic. That’s a good thing. He finished the 2021 regular season with $97,844 and is ninth in the world standings. He has earned his seventh consecutive qualification to the National Finals Rodeo, the sport’s grand championship set for Dec. 2-11 in Las Vegas. He’s still not satisfied. “I think the key to my season is just the grind of it all,” said Larsen, 30, of Inglis, now living near Gering, Nebraska. “I don’t feel like I had the best year, but I’m pretty self-critical. There are a lot of ups and downs throughout this year. When I was down, I had a lot of great support around me. “I took that as an advantage to learn and grow and get better as a competitor.” That support comes in many shapes and sizes, from his traveling partners, Kody Lamb and Seth Hardwick, to his wife, Alexa, to his family in Manitoba. It also includes his sponsors, Durango Boots, Advantage Chiropractic & Acupuncture, Rock & Roll Denim, Rieta Creek Scoreboards and Tim Cooper Custom Hats. “When you don’t give yourself a good gut check and earn from that, then you fall into a thing called mediocrity, and you’ll be stuck there,” he said. “It’s always been fun for me to learn and adapt from whatever failures I’ve had. I hate losing more than anybody else. When I do, I want to know why. “I still send every video to Cody DeMers. He’s been a coach for me since I went to school for him.” That was at the College of Southern Idaho, where Larsen won the 2013 intercollegiate bareback riding national championship. He also won the same title the next year while competing at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, which was coached by Craig Latham, a nine-time NFR qualifier in saddle bronc riding. Latham died Oct. 8 after a 10-year battle with cancer. “I’m going to miss him a lot,” said Larsen, whose older brother, Tyrel, is married to Latham’s daughter, Chaney. “He touched my life and my family’s lives and so much more. It’s just been a huge honor to know Craig and have him help me as much as he did. “He was a hell of a coach for a lot of people, but he was also a friend.” In 2015, the same year Tyrel Larsen qualified in saddle bronc riding, Orin Larsen earned his first opportunity to compete at the NFR. He hasn’t looked back since. “It seems like I just qualified two years ago,” he said. “I was fighting to get one qualification, and I thought that was going to be making it really. Now, seven years later, it’s something I expect out of myself.” There are many emotions that come with competing in rodeo for a living, especially for a man who rides bucking horses. At 6-foot tall, he’s bigger than most of the men who ply the trade, but it oftentimes works to his advantage. Scores are based on a 100-point scale, with half the score awarded to the animal. The other side is how well the cowboy spurs from the horse’s neck back to his rigging while in rhythm with the animal. Larsen’s long legs are showcased in that classic spur stroke and makes rides look flashy. He’s also proven to be one of the elite bareback riders in ProRodeo, having finished among the top 10 in five of his previous six trips to the sport’s most prestigious event. This season, he won eight event titles, but he cashed big checks by placing at many more events along the way. “When things were good, they were great,” Larsen said. “When things were bad, they weren’t very fun. I didn’t feel like I had the year I had prepared for. Whether you can blame it on elbow surgery or something else, it is what it is. “It was my doing, and I learned from it. I’ve had great support. Lex has been a huge support for me in keeping my head up when I got pretty low.” After the 2020 NFR in Arlington, Texas, surgeons performed an arthroscopic procedure on Larsen’s riding elbow, where they found pieces of bone and other scar tissue that come with years of riding bareback horses. It’s the most physically demanding event in rodeo. Cowboys cinch their riggings tightly to the horse, then wedge their bind-laden gloves into the rigging in order to make their rides. The bronc busters are virtually attached to the bucking beasts they try to ride, and it takes a toll on hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders and just about every other part of the body imaginable. The itch to compete is real, especially for men who only get paid by finishing better than most of the field. If he wasn’t winning, he wasn’t collecting money, and sitting on the sidelines doesn’t help put food on the table, even if he’s on the injured list. “When you come back a little to early, you know it,” he said. “I only took four weeks off after surgery, and I needed to take more time off than that. I kept going until after The American (the first of March), then I realized I had to take more time off. It was a complete roller coaster.” He returned to injured reserve and took the time necessary. That seems to have paid off more than he thought. “I’m ready,” Larsen said. “I think every competitor is going to feel like they can always be better, have something to give them a little bit of that edge. I’m very excited about when I get to Vegas. I don’t have any doubt or concerns about how well I’m going to be riding. “I feel like winning and trying to win every round. I look at it that I can put on the best possible spur ride that I can for myself on every animal I’m about to get on. You have to have the  Continue Reading »

ZWINGLE, Iowa – The phrase “working my tail off” has become synonymous with diligence. To that end, Tim O’Connell could be a poster boy for any package of words about a strong work ethic. He took it to a new level in 2021, breaking his tailbone and having his coccyx surgically removed in order to continue to compete in rodeo at a high level. In a strange set of circumstances, the three-time world champion bareback rider suffered the injury in early August and continued to ride until he couldn’t ride any more. “I broke the coccyx clean; I broke it very straight, so it didn’t touch any of my nerves,” said O’Connell, 30, from Zwingle but now living in Marshall, Missouri, with his wife, Sami, and son, Hazen. “(The bone) was trying to poke into my lower intestine, which was more of a life-threatening injury. It was eventually going to get through, so we had to stop that before it happened.” He was hurt in Lovington, New Mexico, but didn’t know the extent of his injuries. Cowboys are known for their tolerance of pain, but this was at a new level. He competed that week at two rodeos in his home state of Iowa, then took four days off before returning to action. He got on horses in Hermiston, Oregon, and Sikeston, Missouri, before he yelped, “Uncle.” He reached out to Shawn Scott and Rick Foster with the Justin Sportsedicine program, who recommended contacting renowned rodeo physician Dr. Tandy Freeman. “When I called Tandy, he said, ‘I’ve seen your X-ray; I’ve already called your surgeon,’ ” O’Connell said. “Dr. (Andrew) Dossett is the spine and neck specialist for the Dallas Cowboys, the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars, and he said, ‘I’ll go in there and snip it the rest of the way out.’ “It’s a very rare surgery, and he said he’s done the most, and he’d done nine. On Aug. 24, with 100 days to go until the first round (of the National Finals Rodeo), I had surgery.” When he opted to go under the knife, O’Connell was first in the world standings. Over the last six weeks of the regular season, he only fell one spot, which proved how his season had gone up to that point. He will enter his eighth straight NFR with $156,056 in season earnings, second only to leader Tilden Hooper. How did the time away from action hamper his preparation to compete in ProRodeo’s grand finale? “It hasn’t been much different,” he said. “The biggest thing about this surgery is I had to take care of the incision. I had to be very careful of it so there wasn’t any infection. I couldn’t sweat for two weeks. The last thing Dr. Dossett said before surgery was, ‘If you screw up my incision, you can kiss your NFR goodbye.’ “I couldn’t get it dirty. The biggest risk of the surgery was the infection.” He followed the surgeon’s orders, and by mid-September – when the other NFR qualifiers were still battling the miles and the bucking horses – O’Connell was in the gym getting his body built up for riding 10 of the best bucking horses in ProRodeo in 10 consecutive nights. His first test to what the surgeon had done came at the Great Lakes Circuit Finals Rodeo, which took place Nov. 11-13 in Louisville, Kentucky. While there, O’Connell won the first two rounds outright, then split the third-round title with one of his traveling partners, Jess Pope. It all added up to the average title and $10,082 in earnings and served as the perfect proving ground to see if O’Connell was ready for 10 December nights in the Nevada desert. Actually, it was the perfect symbol for his fantastic season, one in which he was pretty dominant from the beginning until he had to step aside. Even with seven weeks off at the end of the campaign, he trails Hooper by less than $6,000. Of course, there were so many positives for O’Connell, from tying the PRCA record with a 94-point ride on Frontier Rodeo’s Gun Fire at the Riggin’ Rally in Weatherford, to winning titles in both Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Calgary, Alberta. “I’ve always loved being the No. 1 guy in the world, but I found something out about that,” he said. “It doesn’t mean anything if you’re not the No. 1 guy on the last day of the year. I’ve always liked being the guy with the bullseye on my back, but I’m ready to throw down in Vegas. I feel ready for a 10-round war.” He also got something some of the other men in the NFR mix didn’t: Quality time at home with his wife and son. In fact, the day before he was to have surgery, he and his wife found out they are expecting another baby next spring. “My son is 3 and a half years old, and he wants to be Daddy’s boy now,” he said. “I dig it. Things could have been so much worse. “I just needed to be home, and this was going to be find. What kind of blessing is it that you get to be home with your family and find out you’re going to add to your family.” It has definitely been a growing experience for the O’Connells. As a man who makes a living one bucking horse at a time, there are learning opportunities at every turn. From what it’s like to tangle with the toughest beasts on earth to knowing that any excessive risk could put his 2021 campaign in jeopardy, he managed to grasp all the positives he could. That comes after a season that was precluded by a disappointing second-place finish in 2020. He found a maturation process through all those negative experiences and hopes to build off it as he makes himself a better competitor and a better man for each forward step he takes. “This year I’ve learned how to deal with  Continue Reading »

STEVENSVILLE, Mont. – A nerve injury that forced him out of the final round of the National Finals Rodeo was not how Richmond Champion wanted to end his 2020 season. Alas, it’s the reality he faced and the memories he carried over into this season, one that saw him more than meet his expectations and allows him an opportunity to battle for the world title at this year’s NFR, set for Dec. 2-11 in Las Vegas. He rode the waves of success as they ebbed and flowed through the course of the campaign. A month away from competition last January helped heal stretched nerves he acquired in a rough-and-tumble run at the NFR’s one-time home in Arlington, Texas, last December. He returned to action and started the winning process right away. “I knew before I got to (the Montana) Circuit Finals a month after the NFR that I wasn’t going to have an issue,” said Champion, 28, of Stevensville. “Once I got on in the first round of the circuit finals, there was no question in my mind that the nerve had healed.” That was the starting point for the season. He won the first round in Kalispell, Montana, and placed in the other two to finish second in the average race. He secured the year-end championship and his qualification to the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo, where he won the bareback riding title and got a leg up on the competition in the world standings. “That was a big deal,” he said. “It was my first time ever going to the RAM Finals. By winning the Montana Circuit, it was my first circuit title ever, then to go to Kissimmee (Florida) and get it won on the first time was awesome. That was definitely a savior throughout the season … that and the Riggin’ Rally (in Weatherford, Texas) right before the RAM Finals. “Just this spring and fall treated me really well. It went cold in the hottest months of the year. That’s part of it. It’s always a challenge. It’s something new every year, and you’ve got to keep your head on straight and stay with what you know.” He did, then he closed out his campaign by winning the ProRodeo Tour Finale at the California Rodeo Salinas. It was the perfect way to end the regular season that featured a roller coaster of emotions and outcomes. There were moments when success was fleeting, but he was able to battle through the challenges. Sometimes, though, all it took was a call home to his wife, Paige, a Canadian Olympic figure skater who understands what it means to compete at a world-class level; she competed in pairs skating at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Though she no longer competes at such a high level, her experiences have helped her in her current role. “It’s a damn good thing I married a performance coach,” said Champion, who also credits his sponsors – Yeti, Hooey and Tony Lama – with helping him get down the rodeo trail. “This year featured a lot of refocusing. By the time I got to Salinas (on the final weekend of the regular season in late September), I was just there to do my job. “At that point in the season, the things to complain about are really long, and I just decided to pick the positive things. I just felt like I had something to prove to myself at that point.” He made his point, pocketing just shy of $17,000. That pushed his annual salary to $98,945, and he will arrive in Las Vegas seventh in the world standings. Maybe it’s coincidence, but this also marks his seventh appearance at ProRodeo’s grand championship. His first qualification came in 2014 when he was still getting his start. He rocked the rodeo world at the inaugural The American by becoming the only qualifier to win an event, pocking $100,000 for the title and cashing in on the entire $1 million side pot. Though that money didn’t count toward the world standings, it was a great motivator that eventually turned into his initial NFR qualification. Many things have changed since then, most of them good. Of his six previous trips to the grand finale, Champion has finished among the top 5 in the final world standings four times. “I’m not 21 anymore; I’m a veteran, and I want to ride like a veteran,” he said. “I’ll still be nervous and excited for that first round. I think about the excitement and the energy, and I try to feed of that. I have a lot less questions in my mind. I know what my routine is. I’m ready to get there, get settled and get going. I know how fast it goes the second week. Once the first round goes, then all of the sudden you’re at Round 7. “I’m really looking forward to being back at the Thomas & Mack with that experience and that confidence. I’ve never been a huge regular-season standout. I’m really consistent about going into the finals in fifth to seventh place, and I love that finals atmosphere. I’m looking forward to getting the ball rolling.” It’s been almost two months since the regular season came to a close, and Champion has been diligent in his preparation for riding 10 of the greatest bucking horses in the world over a 10-day span. He’s been in the gym, consulted with his trainers and prepared his mind and his body for the tasks that will be at hand over those spectacular December nights in Las Vegas. The ultimate prize – the Montana Silversmiths gold buckle awarded to the world champions each year – has eluded him so far. It’s more than a dream to win that. It’s a reckoning, and his focus is on achieving that wearable trophy. “To win the gold buckle, you have to come out hot and stay hot,” said Champion, who trails the world standings leader, Tilden Hooper, by $63,007;  Continue Reading »

WAVERLY, Kan. – Jess Pope is an old-school cowboy living in a society driven by technology and gadgets to make everyday life a little better. He’s a throwback. He doesn’t need an iPhone on a daily basis. A good day for him would be in the saddle in the rolling Flinthills near his Kansas home, running down stray calves and helping them find their way back home with no phone in sight. But Pope is different from than cowboys of a generation or two ago. He is a professional rodeo hand who makes his living by riding bucking horses, and he’s one of the best of this era. At just 23 years old, he is about to venture West, off to a land known for its glitz and glam, its bright lights and ringing casinos, where he will compete at the National Finals Rodeo for the second time in a young career. “When people talk about the greats of bareback riding in the last two decades, I want my name to be in that talk,” said Pope of Waverly, who competed at college rodeo at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri. “We only get to do this for so long, so it’s a young man’s sport. I’ve gotten off to a really good start, but I have a lot of big goals I want to fulfill.” He accomplished a big achievement last December by winning the average championship at his first NFR. He won more than $170,000 in a week and a half at the one-year home of the NFR in Arlington, Texas; he finished the campaign with $220,029, good enough for third in the final world standings. It was a huge first step for the cowboy, who had an unconventional start to his world of rodeo. “I gained a lot of confidence from that,” he said. “I had a lot of confidence going in, and I was really confident leaving there. It carried into this year. I had a great year. “I think the key is staying to the basics and taking it one horse at a time.” Yes, that’s a bit cliché, but it’s also a sound strategy, especially for someone who travels tens of thousands of miles a year and may have to get on more than one bucking horse in a day. “I learned last year that you have to just start with one horse,” Pope said. “You have to stay focused on the one right in front of you. I had great traveling partners this year with Tim (O’Connell) and Cole (Franks). It was easy to stay positive with them. I think that the majority of my success was staying who I am and not trying to be somebody else.” Who he is happens to be one of the best bareback riders in ProRodeo todahy. He’s also traveling with a couple of others on that list. O’Connell is a three-time world champion who is heading to the NFR for the eighth consecutive time. Franks is the PRCA Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year who won the bareback riding and all-around titles at the College National Finals Rodeo this past June. Pope, though, had plenty of success himself. He picked up eight individual titles through the season, but his biggest step came from finishing among the top cowboys at many other rodeos. He finished the regular season with $110,024 and will head to Las Vegas sitting sixth in the world standings. “A lot of people pay attention to the guy that wins first, but if you’re winning a second and a third at every other rodeo every weekend and only winning one every two weeks, you’re going to make a lot of money,” said Pope, who credits his sponsors – Panhandle and Rock and Roll Clothing, Resistol, Bloomer Trailers, Veach’s Custom Leather, Emporia Livestock Sales and T Bar T Cattle Co. – with helping him get up and down the road. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. If I can do my job the best of my ability, then it’s going to pay out.” That’s a solid mindset and one of a proven winner. By finishing so well a year ago, he was invited to be part of the exclusive mix at the Calgary (Alberta) Stampede. For the first time in a number of years, a portion of the money earned in Calgary counted toward the world standings. “Calgary was awesome,” he said. “There were a lot of people that didn’t get to go, and my thought process was, ‘Somebody’s got to win it, so it may as well be me.’ I had a killer Fourth of July (run), and I carried it on through there.” He pocketed $17,000 in Alberta, winning two out of four rounds in his pool and placing in the other two. His roll continued after that with big wins in Spanish Fork, Utah; Deadwood, South Dakota; and Lawton, Oklahoma. His traveling group kept winning, too. All three members of the group will be at the NFR, and only one other traveling posse was able to make that happen in 2021; of course, that group includes Tilden Hooper, the No. 1 man in the standings; Cole Reiner, the 2020 Rookie of the Year; and Kaycee Feild, the reigning and five-time world champion. “It’s awesome that there are only two rigs that were able to do that this year,” Pope said, noting that Franks is a junior at Missouri Valley and O’Connell was a national champion while attending school in Marshall. “It says something about how Tim enters and how we’re all there. With what we have going on at the college at MoVal, I think there’s a lot that goes into it.” Each season offers many challenges and may rewards, and this year was no different. There was some back pain that forced adjustments, and there’s always so much time on the road and away from loved ones, but that’s the life of being a rodeo cowboy. “I learned this year  Continue Reading »

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. – Rae Ann Aus knew a long time ago she and her husband were raising a rodeo cowboy. John Aus rode bareback horses 30 years ago, and he was pretty good at it. He won the Great Lakes Circuit in 1988, and he found some key success in his part of the world. Their first born, a son named Tanner, was born in June 1990, and he soon followed in his father’s footsteps. In fact, he’s surpassed his father in some regard, about to embark on a trip to Las Vegas to compete at the National Finals Rodeo for the sixth time in his career. “I’m very thankful for that,” said Tanner Aus, 31, of Granite Falls. “I had a conversation with my mother shortly after the season was over. She said, ‘You’ve been rodeoing your whole life, and you always think about the NFR, then all of the sudden, you look back and you’re a six-time qualifier.’ “It blows her mind to think about, and it blows my mind, too.” This will be his sixth NFR in the last seven years. The only year he missed was in 2018, when he was hampered by injuries and still finished 18th in the standings – only the top 15 on the money list in each event advance to the NFR. He will return to Las Vegas for this year’s championship 11th in the world standings with $85,675 earned through the regular season. It was a good year, one that saw him claim six rodeo titles, including the Western Fest Stampede in his hometown and the Wayne Herman Invitational Xtreme Broncs in Golden Valley, North Dakota. It’s obvious why the win in Granite Falls was so special, but the victory in western North Dakota held some incredible meaning to the Minnesota cowboy. “It was that week of Lawton (Oklahoma), Hermiston (Oregon) and Sikeston (Missouri), and we put on a lot of miles,” he said. “We got to Golden Valley, and it was two rounds, and I placed in the first round and won the short round to win that event. “Wayne was one of my mentors growing up riding bucking horses. I went to his school when I was 12 and 13 years old. Those things he taught me in those days are the same basic fundamentals I still use to this day. It’s also what I teach younger bareback riders.” He also got to spend time with Herman, the 1992 world champion bareback rider who has since been inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. “Wayne was there, and I hadn’t seen him in a long time,” Aus said. “My wife and my dad came out, so that was a big deal. Compared to last year, we had a lot more rodeos in our circuit, so my family got to come to a few more rodeos. It’s fun to have my wife and kids on the road with me. “The toughest part about being on the road is being away from my wife (Lonissa) and the kids. A couple of long stretches this summer made it tough on me for that reason, but it makes it that much better when you get home.” The children are still young; daughter Bristol turned 3 in May, and son Rowan is a year and a half old. When one travels the country, driving or riding tens of thousands of miles in a calendar year, no amount of FaceTime can make up for being away from those they love the most. “When I left home in August, Rowan didn’t really say anything,” Aus said. “When I came home at the end of the month, he had eight or 10 words he could say. It was wild that he changes so much in a short time.” That’s why winning the title in Granite Falls means so much to the humble cowboy, who won the intercollegiate bareback riding title in 2012 while competing at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri. “That rodeo is near and dear to my heart,” he said. “That’s the one time of year that I get to see my family and friends because I go to my hometown rodeo. Winning it is awesome, bit it’s also one of my favorite weekends the whole year. “That rodeo committee and that community has built that rodeo up. They’ve doubled their added (sponsorship) money for the contestants four times since (2009).” In a typical year, Aus is joined at the NFR by his longtime traveling partner, Ty Breuer, but things didn’t quite work out for the North Dakotan. Still, the relationship they have is a key reason Aus has found his way back under the bright lights of Las Vegas. “You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with,” said Aus, who credits much of his success to his sponsors, Salty Dog Sister Boutique, Granite Falls Dairy Queen, Jug Waterers, Carroll Spur Co., Phoenix Performance Products and Wrangler. “I’ve gotten to travel with some of the greatest individuals I know, guys that are good to be around. We spend so much time together, but everyone handles their fare share of the load win, lose or draw. We’re always trying to amp each other up, especially when the weeks are a little tough. “We started off with Tyler Berghuis and Kyle Bloomquist, and both are up-and-comers in bareback riding and really good guys. They also live close to me, so that’s nice. Later in the season, we jumped in with Clay Jorgenson for a week and a half until he got banged up, but I’m really thankful for the guys that I travel with for helping me get up and down the road and making the summer and rodeo fun.” They become a family on wheels and on bucking horses, and that’s important throughout a long season. Whatever time he gets with family, whether he makes the trip home or they find a way to catch up with  Continue Reading »

CHECOTAH, Okla. – Riley Duvall had spent an entire year chasing another shot at the coveted world championship. He had traveled tens of thousands of miles, ridden horses in the cold and the rain and the wind. He’d been sleep-deprived and eaten truck-stop food just to have a little something in his belly to sustain himself for a long day in the saddle and wrestling steers.   He dealt with all that, and his hope of qualifying for his fourth National Finals Rodeo came down to the final weekend of the regular season at the California Rodeo Salinas on the country’s West Coast. He made four runs on a borrowed horse, and as the dust settled on the final day near the coastline of Monterey Bay, he’d secured his bid for a fourth trip to Las Vegas and ProRodeo’s grand championship. “When the year started out, you had plans to be in the top 10,” said Duvall, the fifth member of his eastern Oklahoma family to play on the sport’s biggest stage, joining great uncle Roy, father Sam, cousin Tom and uncle Spud as NFR qualifiers. “As the year got on, I got to hanging out in the 25th to 30th mark in the standings, so I made some special trips to make sure I had enough rodeos for the tour count.” Salinas was the home of the ProRodeo Tour Finale, and in order to advance to that high-paying event, contestants had to compete in at least 35 tour rodeos spread across the country. With just a couple weeks left in the regular season that ended Sept. 30, Duvall was 30th in the standings, and only the top 15 on the money list in each event advance to the NFR. When he arrived in Salinas, Duvall was 21st. “To be honest, I hadn’t thrown in the towel, but I was just going to go to the ones around the house,” he said. “I didn’t enter Pendleton (Oregon) or Albuquerque (New Mexico). I put all my eggs in one basket. I’d kind of slowed down and was just getting ready for next year, and they threw a curve ball, and I happened to hit it. “I missed one in the short-go at Puyallup (Washington), and I thought it was game-over for me.” It wasn’t. In Salinas, he placed in the first round and made a solid run in the second. He finished fifth in the two-run aggregate, earning a third run, then he won the semifinals round with a 6.0-second run to advance to the four-man finale. He won that, too, with a 5.6-second run, his fastest of the week and the most beneficial to his pocketbook and his place in the world standings. In all, he pocketed $16,249 and moved up eight spots to 13th in the world standings. “That was, without a doubt, the most excited I’ve ever been,” said Duvall, who credits much of his success to his sponsors, Wrangler, Purina, Stierwalt Superflex, Cowhorse Supply, Herring Custom Hats, Best Ever Pads and the Mirage. “To come from that far back, I could hardly sleep for three days after that. “I had adrenaline for two or three days. I would wake up at 5 a.m., and that would be the first thing I would think about.” There was much to digest. In a spectacular run of events, Duvall came from out of nowhere to be in the mix for the coveted Montana Silversmiths gold buckle, awarded to the world champions in each event. It is the highlight, so far, for a pretty good career for the 29-year-old father of two who has been among the elite for several years. “That was a landmark moment for me,” said Duvall, who borrowed a quick-footed bay horse named Rockhouse, owned by California cowboys Tucker Allen and Luke Branquinho. “I drew great steers, but to do good at a rodeo of that caliber is something you dream of. I’ve always wanted to win Salinas anyway, but to do it when my whole season was on the line sure was fun.” He showed his early prowess by being the Oklahoma High School Rodeo Association state champion bulldogger from 2008-10; he also added National High School Rodeo Associatiin two national titles in 2008-09 before taking his show to ProRodeo like so many friends and family members before him. He was raised in the community of Checotah, dubbed the Bulldogging Capital of the World. His last name is Duvall, and he accounts for four of the family’s 34 NFR qualifications. Roy Duvall, the brother of Riley’s grandfather, Bill, is a three-time world champion who earned 24 trips. Riley Duvall now has twice as many qualifications as his dad, his uncle and his cousin, and he continues to be one of the most respected steer wrestlers in rodeo. When he arrives in the Nevada desert, he will ride Dr. Pepper, a horse owned by Trever and Cierra Nelson that Duvall’s ridden most of the season. He will also lean on his longtime friend and traveling partner, Shane Frey, to serve as his hazer and keep the steers lined out inside the Thomas & Mack Center. “Trever went with us a little bit, but he let us use the horse all year,” Duvall said. “He knew he had a good horse and wanted to have the horse out there on the road. A bunch of guys rode him this year, and there’s been a lot of success on his back.” Frey and Dr. Pepper won’t be the only members of the team supporting Duvall. Checotah is a town of 3,100 people, and a good portion will be either in Las Vegas or keeping tabs on him from their Oklahoma homes. He will also have his parents, Sam and Tami; his wife, Megan; and their two children, Chaney, 6, and Cruze, who will be 6 months old when the first round begins. “My family is very important to me, and with the kids, that’s what’s putting a slow  Continue Reading »

MERRIMAN, Neb. – Life in the Nebraska Sandhills can be a bit rugged. There’s always work to be done, cattle to move, calves that are just coming into this world and need a little help. The rolling prairie is the perfect home for ranchers and the operations they run. Garrett Shadbolt is the fifth generation of his family to live and work on the northern Nebraska patch of ground. It’s this terrain and this family that has formed the foundation by which he lives his life and how he hopes to raise his family. At just 25 years old and about to be the father of two, Shadbolt is living his dreams in the world of rodeo as one of the elite bareback riders in the game. He finished the 2021 regular season with $96,013 and will head to his first National Finals Rodeo 10th in the world standings. Along the way, he will take pieces of his Nebraska home with him to the Nevada desert. “I’ve dreamed of this for a long time, and I’ve prepared for it mentally,” said Shadbolt, the 2019 PRCA Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year. “I know it’s a big challenge, but I’m excited about it. I’m also a little nervous. I’ve worked hard for this moment.” The whirling stomach is only natural given that this is his first NFR qualification, but there’s so much more. Every cowboy dreams of competing inside those yellow panels that form the arena inside the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, and Shadbolt will get his chance. He’s earned it, too. “I’m not nervous about the bright lights or the big show or getting over-pumped for a big rodeo,” said Shadbolt, who credits much of his success to his family and his sponsors, Moore Maker Inc., Raise American and Fuel Grill in Gordon, Nebraska. “Those horses that we’ll get to ride have been the highlights of my career every single time I ride one. I’m excited to make those big rides at the big show.” He earned his way to the NFR by having an incredible regular season, which included wins at eight PRCA events. He excelled closer to home, winning Nebraska rodeos in North Platte and Gordon. Winning is nothing new to him, though; he’s done it plenty in his three years as a professional bronc buster. “I think the key to my year is that my riding’s improved,” he said. “I changed my approach on my riding, and that led to a lot more success. It may be a boring detain, but I worked to improve my technique “I try to constantly sharpen myself. If I have any issue, I focus on correcting that issue until I accomplish it.” That goes back to his raising. While he was horseback every day working on the family ranch, rodeo wasn’t necessarily in his foresight. In fact, it wasn’t until his mid-teens that he figured out riding bucking horses might be something he liked. “Our ranch is in the dead center of the Sandhills,” Shadbolt said, noting that he went to a country school through fifth grade before moving on to further his education in Merriman. “We’d get home from school every day, and the corrals were by the road, and my dad would have horses saddled for us to go do the work. “I think growing up riding so much has made a big impact on my bareback riding. That feel for a horse is part of horsemanship. Logging hundreds of miles working horseback had a pretty big impact on my ability to pick up riding bareback horses later.” When he wasn’t riding horses on the family’s place or handling other tasks that came his way, Shadbolt was likely in a wrestling room preparing for another sport he loved. He ran some cross country and tried his hand at golf, but he spent much of his time wrestling. In fact, he competed on the wrestling team at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. “I think wrestling is one of the best sports for roughstock riders, particularly bareback riders,” he said. “It develops muscles that are critical on a bareback horse. As much as wrestling helped me physically, it helped me mentally even more, as far as setting goals, training and staying out of slumps. “I put in so much time in my mental training in college to where I don’t think a lot of things are going to bother me. You learn these little tricks on how to think about adversity and how to overcome. In eight seconds of a wrestling match, you can hit four moves; you’re making one move right after another in a flurry of action. That mental training and being ale to think on your feet can really go over in bareback riding.” Rodeo was just an extraneous part of his life until he was in school. He’d grown up in a saddle and had competed in the sport through his youth, and his father, Quentin, had ridden bucking horses. When Garrett was 16, he was riding colts on the ranch, and one was particularly broncy – a horse that was more prone to bucking and kicking. “I rode him, and I thought that was pretty fun,” he said. “I think the dream of the NFR solidified in my mind about the time I got to riding at some amateur rodeos and actually got to spurring the horses. When that clicks in your head, it’s an amazing feeling. A lot of guys can ride a bucking horses, but getting that timing down and that spurring action can be tough for some people to get ahold of.” While wrestling in college, he continued to rodeo and actually worked it out with the administration of Doane College to compete in intercollegiate rodeo. “There wasn’t a rodeo team, and I wasn’t into rodeo as much as I was into wrestling,” Shadbolt said. “During my sophomore or junior year in college, I talked to some kids that  Continue Reading »

CLARENDON, Texas – It was the fall of 2020 when Cole Franks made a couple of goals for himself. He was a sophomore at Clarendon College in his hometown, competing on the rodeo team for his father, Bret Franks, the program’s coach. He also had just purchased his card, allowing him to be a full-fledged member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association instead of a permit-holder. He wanted to win a college championship for his team for the 2020-21 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association season and hoped to add the PRCA’s Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year title. The missions were accomplished in multiple ways over the summer run of rodeo. Franks dominated the bareback riding race at the College National Finals Rodeo and also qualified for the championship round in saddle bronc riding to win both the bareback riding and all-around titles in Casper, Wyoming. He also was a major part of the reason the men’s team title went to Clarendon. Within a few weeks of that, he’d earned enough money to have clinched the rookie crown. He finished with $77,393 in earnings, leading the field by nearly $45,000. With that, though, he added another major accomplishment to his list by qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo. In fact, he’ll head to Las Vegas for ProRodeo’s grand finale as the 12th-ranked bareback rider in the world standings. “Making the finals is really great,” said Franks, 20, now a junior at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri. “When I got my card this year, I wasn’t focused on it or even looking at the finals this year. I was just looking at the rookie deal and banking on making the finals next year.  For it to happen this year is really cool.” It happened because of relationships he’s developed in his time in ProRodeo. He joined two NFR veterans – three-time world champion Tim O’Connell and 2020 average titlist Jess Pope – on the rodeo trail and gained some education because of it. As Franks moved his way up the bareback riding money list, O’Connell and Pope offered the idea of a switch in priorities: Focus on making the NFR, and the rookie race would come. That’s exactly what happened. Along the way, Franks picked up some big victories. In fact, he finished the 2021 campaign with 13 event titles and had three rides of 90 points or better, all of which came the same week in early August. He started out the week by scoring 92 points on Three Hills Rodeo’s Spanish Feathers to win in Carson, Iowa. A couple days later, he followed that with a 90 on Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Bar Code to win the first round in Dodge City, Kansas, advancing to the championship round at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame event in western Kansas. On Short-Round Sunday, he set an arena record by spurring Frontier Rodeo’s Gun Fire for 93 points, one of the highest scores of the season in the PRCA. Born in Guymon, Oklahoma, Franks is the second generation of his family to advance to rodeo’s most prestigious event; Bret Franks was a three-time NFR qualifier in saddle bronc riding. Cole Franks proves the genetics come strong in their athletic form, but so does the love for the game. He was two months from being born the last time his dad played on the biggest stage in ProRodeo. He’s only seen videos and heard stories, but that never curbed his hunger to be one of the best cowboys in the sport. Like his dad, Cole Franks likes riding bucking horses. He uses a bronc saddle some, especially in college, but he’s excelled using a bareback rigging. “It’s cool to think I’m following in Dad’s footsteps, even if it’s in bareback riding and not bronc riding,” said Franks, who credits much of his success to his sponsors, Cinch, Pete Carr Pro Rodeo, Western Legacy Co. and 287 Ag. “I have always told myself that I had to make it at least three times, tying Dad’s three. But I want to make it to where I have three (world championship) gold buckles to put with Dad’s three back numbers.” By transferring to Missouri Valley, he’s positioned himself to only improve upon his skills. The college is well known for its bareback riding prowess, and Franks will be one of four bronc busters with ties to the college performing at the NFR, joining O’Connell, Pope and Tanner Aus for the 10 nights of action from Dec. 2-11 in Las Vegas.   “Bareback riding is just more of a fight,” Franks said. “I wouldn’t say I’ve always had a fighter’s personality, but I’ve always wished I was in a way. I think that’s what made me stick with it because of the aggressiveness of it. In the bronc riding, you have to be relaxed to a point, but in bareback riding, it’s 100 percent bare down.”   It’s the perfect fit for the young man who won’t back down from a fight with a 1,200-pound bucking beast.

CLARENDON, Texas – The Clarendon College rodeo team has been gaining some incredible momentum over the last few years, and it has only gotten better in 2021. The proof is in the pudding with three former Bulldog cowboys having earned qualifications to the National Finals Rodeo, the sport’s grand finale that features the top 15 contestants from the regular season in each event. Leading the way is two-time qualifier Wyatt Casper of Miami, Texas, who finished the 2020 season as the reserve world champion. He became the first national champion in Clarendon history when he won the saddle bronc riding crown in 2016. He will be joined by fellow bronc rider Tegan Smith of Winterset, Iowa, who finished third at the 2019 College National Finals Rodeo; Smith finished the 2021 PRCA regular season in 10th place, one spot behind Casper. Cole Franks rounds out the trio of qualifiers, earning his spot by finishing 12th in the bareback riding world standings. Franks, the son of Clarendon College rodeo coach Bret Franks, is coming off a tremendous 2021 campaign; he was named the PRCA Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year. All that came after being one of the guiding forces behind Clarendon’s men’s team title at the college finals this past June. He dominated bareback riding to claim that national title, then added to it by qualifying for the championship round at the CNFR in saddle bronc riding, securing the all-around national title, too. All three will be recognized and honored during an NFR Sendoff Party and Prime Rib Dinner, set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20 at the Donley County Activity Center. Tickets are $100 (for two people), and proceeds will go to the Clarendon College rodeo team. “I think it’s a pretty special deal that we have three NFR qualifiers from our little college, so we wanted to put something together to honor them,” Bret Franks said. “We also want to put something together to raise awareness and money for the rodeo program. Every ticket will be entered into a $1,000 cash drawing. “We will also have live music and a silent auction, so we hope it’s a lot of fun for everyone and gives them a chance to wish our cowboys luck in Las Vegas.” -30-

WHEELER, Texas – The final few weeks of September correlated into the final few days of ProRodeo’s 2021 regular season, and Zach Hibler was in the middle of a tornado known as the “NFR Bubble.” He was driving, flying, scrambling to find success at as many rodeos as possible in order to qualify for the first time to the sport’s grand championship, the National Finals Rodeo, which features only the top 15 contestants on the money list in each event. He’d been close before, finishing 17th in 2019, but he knew he had to push the envelope in order to secure his bid. “It was actually the most fun I’ve had rodeoing after I finally settled down,” said Hibler, 24, of Wheeler, Texas. “I was trying to make things happen and not just ride bareback horses because I loved it. When I figured that out and got my composure a little more, things started happening. “It just felt natural. When you try to make so many things happen, you’re not doing anything wrong, but you’re trying so hard that mistakes pop up left and right.” Riding bucking horses is fun, but it’s also a job for Hibler, the 2018 PRCA Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year. He wasn’t the only cowboy scrambling those final few days of the regular season. Fellow bareback rider Wyatt Denny was traveling coast to coast to give himself a chance. By the time the dust settled, Hibler had earned the 15th spot by less than $700. When talking about the $65,371 that Hibler earned in 2021, that’s not a big margin, but it’s enough for the Texan to finally find his way back to Las Vegas for the NFR. He made his first venture there three Decembers ago, when he received the hardware for being one of the top rookies in rodeo that season. “I always said I wouldn’t go to watch the rodeo until I made it,” said Hibler, who credits some of his success to his sponsors, Koepke Pipe Sales, Double J Waterwell Services and Tintori’s Lube & Tires. “I realize when you win the rookie, they give you the buckle in the arena at the NFR, so I made an exemption for that, but that was the first and last time I’ve been in the Thomas & Mack.” That will change in just a few days, when he arrives in Sin City for the rides of his life at the NFR, set for Dec. 2-11 in the arena on the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “I’ve always known that is where I wanted to be, with those top 15 guys in the world,” he said. “It just pushed me to do the things at home, the things people weren’t seeing. I realize it’s the behind-the-scenes work that I needed to focus on.” Bareback riding is the most physically demanding event in ProRodeo. Cowboys will strap their specially made riggings that are cinched tightly to the horse’s back, then wedge their gloves (outfitted with binds) into the rigging and essentially lock themselves to the bucking animal. Even the gentlest of rides can be felt through the cowboy’s body. But the gentlest of rides doesn’t make for good scores, and bareback riders feed off the good scores. When he’s in the middle of a ride, Hibler will counter the horse’s moves by spurring from the neck of the horse back to his rigging in time with the animal’s bucking motion. That not only takes the pressure of the forces against him, but it also helps magnify the score. Rodeo, in general, is a tough lifestyle. Contestants leave home in late June and may not return until the season ends the final day of September. Bareback riding can be tortuous on a cowboy’s body, so it takes passion to chase the most coveted prize in the game, a Montana Silversmiths gold buckle awarded to the contestants in each event that finish with the most earnings each year. “One day, I saw bareback riding on TV or a video, and I asked my parents if I could enter a rodeo that weekend,” said Hibler, the son of Michael and Brandi and big brother to Layton, Clayton and Kyler. “They got me in touch with somebody that they knew rode bareback horses, and I got me and old-school rigging and got on that weekend. “It went terrible, but I got up and knew I wanted to do that again, and I have no idea why.” Now, he knows. He played every sport possible as a youth and knew his father rode bulls when he was in high school. Hibler has even tried his hand at the timed events. “Dad didn’t pursue riding bulls much, but then he started team roping,” he said. “I wanted to be a team roper, but I wasn’t any good at it, so I guess it’s a good thing I like bareback riding. I team roped a little bit before I started riding roughstock. I got on a few bulls and roped calves and team roped in high school, but bareback riding stuck.” It all goes back to that passion. The love of the game translated into success. He won the state finals and did well at the College National Finals Rodeo – he competed at Western Texas College in Snyder and Hillsboro (Texas) College. “I didn’t have much success at the college rodeos, but I realized I needed to work harder and make it a priority if it’s something I was going to do,” Hibler said. It’s a labor of love. Once he and his brother, Layton, decided to compete in rodeo, family vacations ceased because the family was on the road rodeoing. That was excellent family time together, and there were some memorable occasions. Now that he has his own family to care for, he knows doing well in rodeo is going to be his driving force. “I just want to do what’s best for my family,” he  Continue Reading »

Champion roper switched from baseball to rodeo and has reaped rewards Shane Hanchey will be the first to say that rodeo wasn’t his sport of choice. “Baseball was my first love,” said Hanchey, 32, originally from Sulphur, Louisiana, now living in Carmine, Texas, northwest of Houston. “I thought I was going to play baseball for a living for the longest time. Once I got Reata, that shifted my focus.” He was just 16 or 17 years old when he met up with his once-in-a-lifetime horse, a smaller, blaze-face sorrel gelding that made life so good for so long. The horse came along about several years before Hanchey won the tie-down roping world championship for the first time in 2013, and he was the driving force behind most of Hanchey’s qualifications to the National Finals Rodeo. Even today, just weeks before the start of the 2021 NFR, which will be his 12th straight. It’s been eight years since he strapped on that Montana Silversmiths gold buckle, and it’s about high time he does it again. He knows none of it would be possible without his little red soldier. “This has probably been the best one year I’ve ever had,” said Hanchey, who heads to Las Vegas in December No. 1 in the tie-down roping world standings with $175,079. “I came into the NFR No. 1 in 2018, but they just released the back numbers (for this year); to have No. 2 hit me on how great of a year it really was. Only Stetson Wright won more money than I did. “At the end of the day, all the money I won was in one event.” That’s true. Wright is the reigning two-time all-around world champion who added a bull riding gold to his resume in 2020. He is second in the bull riding standings but No. 1 in the all-around and the saddle bronc riding races. But as single events go, Hanchey’s 2021 regular season may stand the test of time a little more. He owns a lead of nearly $42,000 over the field, while Wright’s lead is just $11,000 over his older brother, two-time world champion Ryder Wright. You see, Shane Hanchey has had great motivation since last December, when the NFR took place in Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. He placed seven of 10 nights, won the NFR average with a 10-run cumulative time of 83.1 seconds and walked away with nearly $144,000 in earnings in a short span. Yet, he fell $2,400 short of his goal. “Leaving the 10th round, even thought I was short of a gold buckle by a couple thousand dollars, I got a lot of confidence from it,” said Hanchey, a Cinch endorsee. “I proved to myself that I was back to where I wanted to be as far as timing and momentum at the National Finals. It carried into a pretty good winter. Winning The American (in 2021) drove the nail in it for me. “Knowing you had the NFR made in March made it a lot less stressful for me. It gave me a lot of momentum and confidence that I just carried with me the rest of the season.” The American offers a $100,000 payout to all winners, and half that counted toward the world standings. But the proof of a great season shows up in the financial records. Without that $50,000 windfall toward the money list, Hanchey still would have finished the regular season among the top five in the world standings. Here’s how things have changed since he first turned pro 13 years ago. When he won the world title, he finished the year – including his NFR earnings – with $207,672. He’s less than $33,000 behind that total before this year’s finale begins. He could easily surpass his 2013 earnings by the second night of this year’s championship. “Rodeo has elevated so much in the last seven or eight years,” he said. “It’s crazy to think winning a world title with that kind of money back then. That’s a good sign. “Counting these big rodeos and letting the money count toward the standings, that makes it more pressure when you’re backing into the box for the final four round at The American, but it also makes it worth it all.” Yes, the money is greatly different now than it was a decade ago. Rodeos like The American, RodeoHouston and the Calgary Stampede now count toward the world standings, while many other rodeos have increased their purses over time. It all adds up to a better way to make a living than rodeo allowed a decade ago. Even then, Hanchey was among the upper-echelon of calf ropers. He’s worked hard to maintain that status, if not build upon it. At 5-foot-10, 150 pounds, he’s smaller than most of the guys who rope at his level, but he’s never let his size stop him. In fact, he’s focused his time on doing everything as right as possible to make sure he was at the top of his game, including his mental approach to roping. “One of the best compliments I ever got was from (fellow tie-down roper) Blair Burk, and he made the NFR 14 times in his career,” Hanchey said. “What he told people was that my highs never got too high and my lows never get too low. I hope to take that with me my whole career. I don’t get too happy when it’s going great, and I don’t get down on myself when it’s not. “I feel that’s part of the reason I’ve been able to consistently be in the top 10, top 15 in the world.” It’s as good a reason as any. When he was a newcomer to ProRodeo, he competed against the stealthy veterans and took their money. As he’s aged and matured, he’s continued to be one of the men to beat any time he backs into the roping box. But life has changed. He began dating the former  Continue Reading »

ALVA, Okla. – Sometimes competitors just need to make a call for help. Kerry Duvall did that after struggling at the first three rodeos of the 2021-22 Central Plains Region season, and the freshman tie-down roper at Northwestern Oklahoma State University has already seen the benefits. He made two solid runs to win the overall title at the Northwestern rodeo at the Alva Dome this past weekend. His 9.9-second run was good enough for fourth in the opening round; he followed that with a 10.7-second run to win the championship round and claim the two-run aggregate by four-tenths of a second. “It means a lot because I hadn’t made the short-go the three previous rodeos,” said Duvall of Farmington, California. “I have been struggling with my roping, so it felt really good to come out and put in a good run in the long round, then come out and put another solid run in the short-go. “Just being a freshman that was able to win the hometown rodeo and keep the calf roping title in Alva is a big deal to me.” After opening the season toward the bottom end, Duvall reached into his bag of tricks to make the adjustments needed. It seems, though, most of the changes came within his own mind. “I just made some phone calls to some good buddies back home, and they helped me pick up my spirits,” he said. “I’m glad they helped me see things from a different perspective, to see that I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Things just weren’t working out for me.” The positive thoughts were wrapped tightly to two successful runs and the first intercollegiate title for the recent graduate of Oakdale (California) High School, where he also saw great success. With the Alva rodeo being the final event of the 2021 calendar year, he hopes the momentum gained will carry over into the spring portion of the region campaign. Of course, it helps that he has a partner he can trust in Tanna, an 11-year-old bay mare that he’s had about two years. “She’s a super sweet mare, and she always gives me the same trip every time,” Duvall said. “I never have to worry about whether I have enough horsepower. I knew she would go out there and try her heart out.” In fact, he gave Tanna a test drive a couple seasons ago at the Alva Dome, and that parlayed into him deciding on Northwestern as his college choice. “I found out about the school when I came out to try that horse, and I really liked the coach,” Duvall said of Stockton Graves, who is in his 10th season coaching his alma mater. “It’s a small school in a small town. It’s also a great place to rodeo out of. You’re right in the heart of it all, whether it’s college rodeo, amateur rodeo or even ProRodeo. We’re centrally located to about everything.” While Duvall had the greatest success over the weekend, there were others who found their way into the top spots. Team roping brothers Reed and Rhett Murray from Alma, Kansas, put together two solid runs to finish second overall. Header Ben Jackson of Hudson Hope, British, Columbia, placed in both rounds and finished fifth overall while roping with Jackson Choate of Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. Header Stran Morris of Woodward, Oklahoma, stopped the clock in 6.1 seconds to finish second in the opening round while roping with Jordan Lovins of Western Oklahoma State College, and the Ranger team of Camden Hoelting of Olpe, Kansas, and Austin Lampe of Dodge City, Kansas finished the first round in a tie for third place. In steer wrestling, Tyler Scheevel of Lester Prairie, Minnesota, led the way by finishing sixth overall; he also finished third in the opening round. Lee Sterling of Gotebo, Oklahoma, stopped the clock in 5.5 seconds to finish sixth in the opening round, while Beau Kelley of Artesia, New Mexico finished sixth in the short round. Samantha Chambers of Calhan, Colorado, led the way for the Northwestern women. She placed in the opening round of barrel racing, then won the short round with a 12.90-second run to finish second overall. Hannah Zimmers of Eureka, Kansas, earned her way to the championship round in breakaway roping, where she finished sixth in the round and sixth overall. While success has been limited over the first four rodeos of the season, there is a considerable amount of optimism among the contestants rodeoing for Northwestern. “I think we’ve got a good team, but we’ve just got to keep hustling to see if we can get on that roll that we need,” Duvall said.