Monthly Archives: November 2022

Cinch barrel racer hoping to expand on her extensive Vegas earnings Cinch barrel racer Emily Beisel didn’t want to stay in the Northwest through so much of September. She had to, though. It was one thing to be part of the Ellensburg Rodeo and the Pendleton Round-Up. It was quite another to know she needed every dollar she could muster in order to return to the National Finals Rodeo for the fourth straight year. “That was my first time to go and stay in the Northwest,” she said. “There was a lot of learning going on. I thought Puyallup (Washington) would suit Chongo, and it really didn’t. I thought Ellensburg would fit Beau, but I tipped a barrel. We were really close to doing some big things and couldn’t quite get it together.” Beisel needed her herd of horses just to qualify for the NFR. She found some success through Oregon, Washington and Idaho, but she found even more when the end of the rodeo season took her closer to home in Weatherford, Oklahoma. She won rodeos in Abilene, Texas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to close out the regular season. By the time the final pennies were tabulated, she had earned $93,965 in 2022 and heads to the NFR as the No. 9 barrel racer on the money list. “It’s awesome to know we’re going back to the NFR,” Beisel said. “It just gets tougher every year to qualify. More girls are out here pursuing it, and the horsepower is incredible. The goal is to make the NFR, but I want to do right by my horses. I have three incredible horses, and they’re all in their prime. They’ve been really good to me.” They were outstanding and have been for several years. They have been the guiding force behind Beisel’s success, and they’ve proven it time after time. Where the jockey seems to show up the best is when she arrives at the NFR. Her best run through ProRodeo’s grand finale came in her inaugural season there in 2019, when she placed second in the 10-round aggregate and earned $157,654. In her previous three qualifications combined, she has collected $403,783. That’s impressive, but so is Beisel, who was raised on a farm in western Kansas. Rodeo took her first to Garden City (Kansas) Community College, then on to Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Every lesson she’s gained in her lifetime comes into play when she runs her horse down the alley and toward that first barrel. “You hope things will go as good as they have in the past, but it’s a new rodeo every day,” Beisel said. “You have to run your race and focus on every single night. I have had it start out magical, and I’ve had it start horrendous. You just never know. It’s going to be a knife fight. There are a lot of great horses returning to the Thomas & Mack.”

Cinch heeler capitalizes on his best year ever in return to Vegas When he reflects on the 2022 ProRodeo season, Cinch heeler Logan Medlin can look back on some amazing things. While roping with Coleman Proctor, Medlin accumulated $110,692 and qualified for his third straight National Finals Rodeo. He heads to Las Vegas as the fifth-ranked cowboy in the heeling world standings. He is a way behind the leader, reigning world champion Junior Nogueira, but Medlin knows the world championship will be won over the 10 rounds of ProRodeo’s grand finale. Nonetheless, he’s going to celebrate a great regular season. “To this point, this is the best year of my career,” said Medlin, 31, originally from Tatum, New Mexico, but now living in Stephenville, Texas. “This is the most I’ve ever won going in to the NFR by a long way.” He and Proctor utilized momentum they gained at last year’s finale, where they collected $106,231 apiece and finished eighth in the world standings. Of course, having one of the best heeling horses in rodeo is a key component to consecutive trips to the NFR. Drago was named the co-heeling Horse of the Year in 2020 and won the title outright last season. This year, the talented bay was second in voting. “He’s been a crucial part of my success,” Medlin said of Drago. “Our horses – mine and Coleman’s both – were a big part of what got us to the NFR. Coleman had a little bit of trouble with a horse that got injured in Cheyenne, but he had a couple other horses he jumped on and still did a good job turning steers. Coleman did a good job of not skipping a beat when he had to get off that horse. “My horses were able to stay sound through the year. Drago is what I’ve ridden the last seven years. He’s Mr. Reliable, and he’s always going to give you a chance to win.” That’s an important factor in just about any event in rodeo. Horsepower is vital to a cowboy’s success, whether he’s roping steers or riding for 90 points. It’s the confidence in his mount that provides a transition to success in the arena. “I think you have to go into the NFR feeling confident,” Medlin said. “I know it’s the NFR and it’s the biggest function all year, but it’s another rodeo where you’re trying to do the best you can.” His best is better than most. In 2020, when he first earned a spot in the championship, he and Charly Crawford earned $77,692 at Globe Life Field during the NFR’s one-time venture away from Las Vegas because of the pandemic. With that experience and the one he had a year ago, Medlin has some valuable tools in his back pocket for his 10-day adventure in the Nevada desert. “Although it only feels like 10 steers, it’s a long week whether it starts off good or bad, and I’ve done both,” he said. “You’ve just got to keep your focus on one steer. I know Coleman is going to turn a lot of steers, so I just have to worry about getting to my spot and giving myself the best chance to catch.” He is one of five Cinch heelers battling for that coveted world championship. JADE CORKILL, Fallon, Nevada It didn’t matter who three-time world champion Jade Corkill roped with this year, he found success. He started the season off with Clay Smith, whom Corkill had gone to three straight trips to the National Finals Rodeo. In the spring, he teamed with his longtime partner, Clay Tryan, with whom Corkill shares two Montana Silversmiths gold buckles. Tryan sits No. 2 in the heading world standings, and Corkill is fourth on the heeling money list with $110,855. The biggest victory for the pair came at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Corkill became the first team roper in Frontier Days history to win it in consecutive years. It was the fourth time the Nevada cowboy had collected the prized title at the Daddy of ’Em All: He and Tryan won the championship in 2013, and Corkill also claimed the title in 2009 while roping with another world champion, Chad Masters. It’s been eight years since Corkill last won a world championship, but he’s roping as well now as he ever has. The proof will likely come during 10 December nights in Las Vegas. TRAVIS GRAVES, Jay, Oklahoma By now, Travis Graves should know his way around Las Vegas as well as he does his hometown of Jay, a community of 2,400 people in eastern Oklahoma. It’s not far from Arkansas or Missouri, and it was the stepping stone for one of the greatest heelers in ProRodeo. Graves, 38, just completed his 21st season in the PRCA. Since 2008, he’s only missed the National Finals Rodeo one time. That was in 2009, when he finished 22nd. He’s been back every year since, and he’s found a great deal of success in the game he loves. He competed this year with header Dustin Egusquiza, the third season they’ve made the NFR together. Graves finished the regular season seventh in the heeling world standings with $106,737. He’s already looking forward to his 14th trip to Sin City Over the course of his career, he’s seen the ups and downs that come with competing on the biggest stage in ProRodeo. His best year was 2014, when he finished second in the heeling standings while roping with Trevor Brazile in Las Vegas. It’s about time he gets to the top. JEREMY BUHLER, Arrowwood, Alberta The auxiliary basketball court at the Thomas & Mack Center is home to the media covering the National Finals Rodeo. It’s never been louder than after the 10th round of the 2016 championship, when heeler Jeremy Buhler and his heading partner, Levi Simpson, walked in after claiming their first world titles, becoming the first Canadians to earn rodeo’s gold. They had earned the right to whoop and  Continue Reading »

Texas cowboy is one of nine Cinch bronc riders going to Vegas For the final three months of the ProRodeo regular season, Cinch saddle bronc rider Wyatt Casper tried to ride only a handful of horses. He’d suffered a partially torn right hamstring and was trying to manage the injury while still plying his trade. His best chance at making a living is on the backs of wild horses, so he kept trying. He’d feel a tweak, then he’d take a couple weeks off. He’d try it again, but to no avail. He was hoping something would give, and he could continue as he had hoped. The first week of August, the only thing that gave was the muscle he’d been hoping to nurse back to full health. His regular season was officially over. Since that day in Utah, the Miami, Texas, cowboy has been limping along. Rehabilitation exercises and stretching were his best options, so he went to work the best he could. There was a caveat for Casper, though. His time healing was done with those he loves most, his wife, Lesley, and their two children: Cooper is now a 4-year-old little boy and the apple of his daddy’s eye, and Cheyenne will turn 3 during her December birthday. Recovery is going well, even if he’s cheated the system a bit. His advisers suggested he stay off broncs for 60 days, and he’s done that and more. He was also supposed to stay out of any saddle for a month, but that’s just not who he is. When Casper isn’t on the rodeo trail, he’s riding colts and training horses. “I made it about three weeks, but then I had to do something else,” he said, noting that he was a bit stir crazy while the pain and discomfort were at their worst. He hasn’t tested it much, because he understands the importance of all leg muscles to saddle bronc riders. Not only are they trying to outride an equine earthquake, but they’re also trying to spur from in front of the bronc’s shoulders back to the cantle of the saddle in rhythm with the horse’s bucking motion. Only the top 15 bronc riders on the money after the regular season advance to the National Finals Rodeo. Casper is a three-time qualifier and is excited about the opportunities in front of him at the richest event in ProRodeo, where go-round winners will earn about $29,000 per night for 10 days. The bronc busters will be matched with the 100 best bucking horses from the 2022 season, so this is not only a test of one’s physical game but also how well that man can face the challenges ahead. It’s a pressure-packed situation and brings out all levels of emotions over that stretch in the Nevada desert. Casper has handled it before, as have most of the other Cinch bronc riders who will compete at this year’s NFR. BRODY CRESS, Hillsdale, Wyoming As Brody Cress prepares for his sixth straight trip to the National Finals Rodeo, he has a keen understanding of the greatness that can happen in Las Vegas. He’s the only three-time NFR average champion in the mix, and it’s a title he’d love to defend. He’ll have his chance as the third-ranked bronc rider in the world standings, having earned $182,645 through the course of the regular season. In order to have the best 10-ride aggregate in Sin City, one must first earn a trip there. Once there, he’s excelled. Take last year, for example: He finished the season third with $325,746, with nearly $184,000 coming from his performance inside the Thomas & Mack Center. In a tough that has seen incredible amounts of money paid out, Cress has stood near the top much of the season. He had 13 event titles, including the championship at the Xtreme Broncs Finals, where he collected more than $23,000 while riding two broncs, including a 93.5-point ride on Sutton Rodeo’s South Point to win the short round. ZEKE THURSTON, Big Valley, Alberta In just his second year of qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo in 2016, Zeke Thurston walked away from Las Vegas with the most coveted trophy in rodeo, the Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. Only world champions earn rodeo gold, and he added a second in 2019, just one layer of the proof the Canadian cowboy possesses. He’s a second-generation NFR cowboy, following in the footsteps of his bronc riding father, Skeeter. This year, he’ll head to his eighth straight championship as the sixth-ranked bronc buster in the game, the highest-ranked of the half-dozen Canadians in the mix. He gathered $143,838 through the rigors of the regular season, one that saw him win eight individual titles. He also won the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association title this season. He was just 21 years old when he first competed on ProRodeo’s biggest stage and 22 when he won his first world title. At just 28 now, he’s an established veteran who brings a powerful punch to riding bucking horses. LOGAN HAY, Wildwood, Alberta His dad may have made a big mark in saddle bronc riding a couple of decades ago, but Logan Hay set a new standard in 2022. In late July, the 25-year-old rode the Calgary Stampede’s Xplosive Skies for 95.5 points to set the record for highest-marked saddle bronc ride in ProRodeo to win the Hardgrass Bronc Match in Pollockville, Alberta. That day, he won both go-rounds – he was also 91 points in the first round on Calgary’s Business Girl – and dominated the aggregate to earn $14,038. It was just one of the big paydays for Hay, who collected $139,440 this season and will enter his first National Finals Rodeo seventh in the world standings. His biggest earnings came with his victory at the Calgary Stampede a few weeks earlier, collecting the coveted $50,000 prize to the shootout winner; half of that counts toward the world standings. He’ll have plenty of momentum from his best  Continue Reading »

Cinch cowboys Reiner, Landingham, Franks ready for the NFR The road to the National Finals Rodeo is long and features two-lane highways, freeways and interstates. It also is paved by gravel and mountain passes, and it takes more than 14 months to complete. For Cinch bareback riders Cole Reiner, R.C. Landingham and Cole Franks, their quest for the 2022 National Finals Rodeo began Oct. 1, 2021, as they kickstarted the season before they even nodded their heads at that year’s NFR. Their overnight drives and days spent at airports paid off with their qualifications to this year’s championship event, set for Dec. 1-10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Landingham is the senior statesman from Hat Creek, California. Now 32 years old, this marks his fourth qualification to ProRodeo’s grand championship. He’s coming off a sensational run through the 10 rounds of the 2021 NFR, one that saw him earn nearly $110,000 in just 10 nights. That’s a pretty good living, especially when counted in eight-second increments. “That was the best finals I’ve ever had,” said Landingham, who also played on the sport’s biggest stage in 2016 and 2017. He is sixth in the world standings with $130,524. He utilized the momentum from his best NFR into the best regular season of his career. He earned more through Sept. 30 this past campaign than he did all of the 2017 season. “We’re not just cowboys anymore,” Landingham said. “We’re a bunch of athletes now. Everybody works really hard at this job. You have to be at the top of your game and in the best possible shape.” His physical stature is evident every time he rides a bucking horse. In a demanding event like bareback riding, it takes extra work to keep one’s body prepared for the pounding it takes. At his age, Landingham just has to work harder. He doesn’t have the luxury of youth like Reiner, 23, or Franks, 21. Reiner has been at the top of the bareback riding game for much of the season. In fact, he’s the king of the mountain as the top 15 bronc busters prepare for the fights of their seasons in Las Vegas. He finished the regular season with $160,971 and owns a slim lead over the field. In fact, less than $60,000 separates Reiner from the 15th spot. “It’s pretty crazy that just three years ago I was hoping that one day I’d be making the NFR, and now it’s the only thing I do,” said Reiner of Buffalo, Wyoming. “Now, I’m in a pretty fun race with Jess Pope and a couple of other guys that are right there. “It makes it to where every week we’re trying to beat each other.” The race was fun through the summer, but now the stakes get higher. The NFR features a $1.4 million purse, with go-round winners earning nearly $29,000 a day for 10 December nights. Fortunes will be made daily, and each ride is going to count as the battle ensues in Las Vegas. “At the end of the regular season, these standings don’t matter, but it’s kind of fun to see where everyone’s at and give everyone a hard time,” Reiner said. “This year going into the National Finals Rodeo is going to be one of the most exciting races. I don’t remember when it was this close. Going in, it’s going to be 100 percent on the average, and Pope shines in the average. “I’m just going to try to kick everybody’s ass.” Franks is just in his second year in ProRodeo, but it doesn’t look like it. A year ago, he was the Resistol Rookie of the Year, then had a big NFR to finish third in the world standings. He remained hot this season and sits 10th on the money list with $116,426. “We do this because we love it, but it does make it a lot more fun to have a shot at that much more money every day,” said Franks of Clarendon, Texas. “Every rodeo I went to this past year, they just keep raising the stakes. That’s what keeps you wanting to go more. “I don’t think I’ve ever been ready to go home; I like staying out on the road. You may get worn out a little bit, but you know there’s all that money out there you can get.” Unlike other professional sports that feature guaranteed contracts, rodeo athletes need every penny they can get. Not only is this how they pay their expenses, but dollars equal championship points. Contestants with the most money earned at the conclusion of the NFR will be crowned world titlists. “I honestly think the key was staying at it, making every horse count,” Franks said. “You want to do the best you can with what horse you’ve drawn. If you don’t have one you can typically win on, then you’ve got to flash it up and do what you can.” Through the 10 nights of this year’s NFR, there will be 15 bareback riders flashing signs of greatness while also tackling all the challenges that come with the sport’s premier event.

PRYOR, Okla. – The 2022 ProRodeo regular season was one of the best of Coleman Proctor’s career. Roping with New Mexican Logan Medlin for the second straight year, Proctor battled his way to fourth in the heading world standings, earning $110,691 as he prepares to compete at his seventh National Finals Rodeo, set for Dec. 1-10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. It’s just proof that the tandem has put together something special and why they’re in contention to battle for the elusive world championships. “Any time you’re making good runs consecutively, it feels like it stays easier to stay in the groove,” said Proctor, 37, who lives on 240 acres near Pryor with his wife, Stephanie, and their daughters, Stella, 5, and Caymbree, 3. “Momentum’s a sweet thing. If you can keep it going, a lot of magical things can happen.” That’s true, and this is the time to get on a big-time roll. The NFR is the richest event in rodeo with a payout of $1.4 million. Go-round winners will pocket $29,000 per day for 10 December nights. That can make a big difference in the final outcome; the world champions in each event will be crowned when the NFR concludes. That’s where Proctor and Medlin want to be, and they’ll have a week and a half of competition to make it happen. A year ago, they placed six nights, won the fifth go-round outright and shared first place on Night 9. In all, each man grabbed more than $106,000 in NFR earnings. “(Last) year did give me a lot of confidence from the finals,” said Proctor, who competed in college rodeo at Northwestern Oklahoma State University and has since begun taking online classes to obtain his degree from the school in Alva, Oklahoma. “To be able to go that fast and not feel like I was trying to go that fast is absolutely big. “I feel confident we can be more consistent and still maintain high-quality runs.” The team will need to be fast to stay in the money. They stopped the clock in 3.8 seconds to with the fifth round, then were 3.5 to share the ninth-round title. It helped Proctor and Medlin finish the campaign eighth in the standings. Proctor’s best season came in his inaugural year of qualifying for the NFR. He finished fourth in the world standings and made a statement. Between his talent as a roper and his brilliant personality, he’s become an important figure in rodeo and team roping. He’s also proving his versatility as a roper. Over the past couple of years, he’s stepped into the world of steer roping, and he pushed that discipline a bit more in 2022. Because of that, he finished the regular season among the top 10 in ProRodeo’s all-around standings. In fact, the highlight of this year’s campaign was winning the all-around championship at the Cheyenne (Wyoming) Frontier Days Rodeo because of his success in both events: He earned $19,590, with more than $18,000 coming in steer roping. “I built my arena 200 (feet) wide, because I knew one day I’d be tripping steers,” Proctor told the Team Roping Journal in July, explaining that steer roping veteran and friend Jess Tierney has been a big help to his growth in the event. “Jess let me make one run on his backup horse, Elvis, and I fell in love with it. “I’d been playing around with it on my heel horse, and Jess said, ‘If you’re really going to do this, you need to buy a good horse.’ ” He did, purchasing a mount from steer roper C.A. Lauer, and the bug to do it just kept getting bigger. His performance in Wyoming this past July just made it even better. “Cheyenne – The Daddy – is a bucket-list rodeo,” Proctor told Kendra Santos. “I’ve dreamed of winning the team roping (there). To win the all-around … is like nothing else.  Hopefully, someday, I’ll just be here heeling and roping steers. I love the steer roping. It’s an amazing event.” That bodes well for the cowboy’s future in rodeo. For now, though, he’s focused on a Montana Silversmiths gold buckle as one of the elite headers in ProRodeo.

INGLIS, Manitoba – There’s something deep in the mind of bareback rider Orin Larsen that he pulls out when he needs it. Take the 2022 ProRodeo season, one in which he had to overcome more injuries than ever in order to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo for the eighth straight year. He suffered a partilly torn posterior cruciate ligament and partially torn meniscus in April and missed a good portion of action. In August, he suffered a broken middle finger on his riding hand and was forced to injured reserve for a few weeks. “It was definitely a roller coaster of a season,” said Larsen, originally from Inglis but now living in Gering, Nebraska, with his wife, Alexa. “I tore my knee in April in San Angelo (Texas), and that took me out for a couple of months. In the heart of the rodeo season, I broke my middle finger. You don’t realize how important that is for gripping things until you break it.” He first returned to the game in June and had a solid run through mid-August, when he suffered the injury to his finger. “I didn’t really pick back up until the beginning of September, then that went pretty well for me, too,” he said. “Having that kind of adversity and overcoming it is always a special feeling. It prepares you for adversities you might face in the future. I’ve been fortunate to not have to deal with it much in my career, but now I know I can pull through. “You definitely have to tap into part of you that you don’t visit all that much until you need to visit it. Dealing with injuries is making your mind up that you can pull through. It hurts, and it sucks at the moment, but when the dust settles, it’s pretty neat to look back and see what happened.” His look back is on a campaign that saw him earn $111,659. He sits 12th in the bareback riding world standings and feels as healthy as he’s ever been.  He proved that a few weeks ago, when he pocketed more than $38,000 at the Canadian Finals Rodeo, which took place the first of November in Red Deer, Alberta. “That’s about as good of a tune-up as a guy can ask for,” said Larsen, who is sponsored by Durango Boots, Advantage Chiropractic & Acupuncture, Panhandle and Rock and roll Clothing, Rieta Creek Scoreboards and Tim Cooper Custom Hats. “If you can get on Virgil as a practice horse for the NFR, it can’t be much better than that.” Virgil is a big, powerful gray gelding owned by C5 Rodeo. He was named the PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year in 2017, and he’s also a fixture every year in Las Vegas. Larsen tested the strong bronc during the last round of the CFR and scored 87.75 points to finish third in the round and in the final Canadian standings. “I would definitely love to get on him again,” he said. “I felt like I didn’t ride as well as I could have, but that’s definitely a special animal.” Bareback riding can be brutal on one’s body. Not only are the cowboys riding a horse that was bred to buck and kick, they are basically strapped to the animal’s back. Men wear specially designed gloves outfitted with binds, which are wedged into a handhold on a rigging that is strapped tightly to the bronc. Every energetic move the horse makes can be felt by the cowboy. “I think when times got tough, I just tried to be a little tougher,” Larsen said. He was raised on a ranch in valleys of Manitoba, the third of four children born to Kevin and Wanda Larsen. He moved to the United States to attend the College of Southern Idaho on a rodeo scholarship. He won the national championship in 2013 while part of the rodeo program, then followed it up a year later after transferring to Oklahoma Panhandle State University. He may live in Nebraska, but he’s also at home in Canada. This year, he won events in the British Columbia communities of Williams Lake, Armstrong and Merritt, which were co-sanctioned with the PRCA and the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association. They were key to his success. When he arrives for the NFR – set for Dec. 1-10 in Las Vegas – he’ll experience a big of a hometown feel. Not only will he be just one of the top 15 bareback riders in the sport, he’ll have a chance to reconnect with those he cares about most. “I have all my roots in Canada, so I get to go up there and see friends and family that I haven’t seen for about a year, and I’ll always run into somebody that I know,” Larsen said. “It’s fun to go to Canada and get on the horses they have up there and get a chance to see family and friends. It’s a very homey experience for me. “I’m looking forward to just being part of the NFR. I’m excited to see the top 15 bareback riders. I’m excited to see the first two rounds of the draws when we go for the back-number ceremony. It’s going to be great to see my friends and family there.” There’s also a chance for him to collect his share of the $1.4 million purse, which will pay go-round winners nearly $29,000 each day for 10 December nights. “It’s always been the most addicting rodeo I get to go to,” he said.

MANDAN, N.D. – The bareback riding competition in ProRodeo continues to get tougher, with great young athletes stepping into the spotlight. Ty Breuer is a veteran who has been around for 13 years. He’s qualified for the National Finals Rodeo seven times in his career – an injury forced him out of the 2020 championship – and he’s been one of the very best to have played the game since his inaugural year in 2010. In 2022, he had the best campaign of his career. He closed out the regular season with $104,195 and will be 14th in the world standings when he arrives at the NFR, set for Dec. 1-10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. “This was one of the hardest years to make it to the finals,” said Breuer, 32, of Mandan, North Dakota. “There are a lot of good bareback riders. I think the key that got me through was believing all along that I was going to make it.” Only the top 15 on the money list at the end of the regular season advance to the NFR, and this year featured unprecedented earnings. All bareback riding qualifiers have earned at least $100,000 this season. The 16th cowboy, Nevadan Wyatt Denny, earned more than $98,000 and was left on the outside looking in. More often than not, Breuer has found himself among ProRodeo’s elite. A season ago, he closed out the campaign 19th in the world standings, just missing out on playing for the biggest pay in the game. This year’s championship features a $1.4 million purse, with go-round winners collecting nearly $29,000 for 10 nights. “This is what we work for all year long, to get to Vegas and have a shot to ride for that kind of money,” said Breuer, who credits his success to his sponsors, Ressler Land & Cattle, Franks Diesel & Ag, McQuade Distributing, Pulse ND, Cattleman’s Club Steakhouse & Lounge, Phoenix Performance Products, D Day Trucking and Fettig Pro Rodeo. “That’s what you compete for and what you dream of.” It was a year-long battle, from October 2021 to the end of September this fall. In a sport where money not only helps cover expenses but also serves as championship points, he gathered dollars throughout the campaign. He closed out the season with some nice paychecks in Amarillo, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; and Pasadena, Texas, to secure his bid for Sin City. “I was very fortunate that I drew some good horses, and I was riding good,” he said. “That last couple weeks, were probably the funnest weeks I’ve had. I was traveling with Wyatt Denny and Mason Clements, and we were all in the same boat trying to make the NFR, and we were still rooting for each other. “I think what helped me, too, was my experience. Toward the end, I knew I had to rodeo hard, and it all worked out. I drew good horses the last couple of weeks. I knew, from the past, that I needed to be within $2,000 of 15th (spot in the standings) the last two weeks because all the same guys were winning everywhere.” He’s been in that position before, scrambling through September to try to make sure he earned his spot at the NFR. He’s been on the outside looking in, and he’s snuck in, but it takes something special to remain one of the best bareback riders in the game. In Breuer’s case, it came down to being pretty healthy through the rigors of the campaign. “This is actually one of the healthiest years I’ve had,” he said. “I’ve been working out, and that helps, but I’d say some of it is luck. “I also think the older a guy gets, the smarter you are about getting on the right horses.” That can make a great deal of difference. Bareback riding is the most physically demanding events in rodeo. Cowboys utilize specially designed gloves with binds on the forefinger and pinky, then wedge their hands into a tight handhold on a rigging that is strapped tightly to the bronc’s back. Once in place, men are virtually locked onto the horse. Every time the horse bucks, kicks or moves in certain ways, pressure is applied to the riding hand, elbow, shoulder and spine. To make good rides, and also to utilize that pressure in a positive force, the cowboys will spur from in front of the horse’s shoulders back to the rigging. Doing so in rhythm with the animal’s bucking motion is also a key to securing more points. The better the horses, the better the scores. Now in his 30s, there may come a time when Breuer opts for a different way to conduct business, but that might not come soon. “I love rodeoing, but I love ranching, and I love my family the most,” said Breuer, the 2010 Bareback Riding Resistol Rookie of the Year who also won the intercollegiate national title that year. “It gets harder and harder to rodeo, but it’s worth it at the end, especially when you get to go to Vegas for a couple of weeks and hang out together. “It gets hard to leave home, but it also makes you ride better. You’re leaving stuff at home that needs to be done, so you need to make money to care for everything back home, and this is the way I do it.” Life back home includes his wife, Kelli, and their three children, Kayd, 5, Treyt, 3, and Trex, 1. They continue to be the driving force behind his passion for the game. They all understand that when it’s time for Dad to go to work, he’s going to be away from home. Still, Ty Breuer makes it a priority to get back to his place near Mandan when he can. “Probably the biggest relief I had was that when when I got on that last horse in Pasadena,” he said of the rodeo that concluded Sept. 29.  Continue Reading »

REXBURG, Idaho – Garrett Smith wasn’t happy. He’d arrived in Heber City, Utah, the first weekend of November with hopes of a dominating performance in bull riding at the Wilderness Circuit Finals Rodeo, the regional finale for contestants and rodeos primarily in Utah and Idaho. Things didn’t go as planned, so he opted for Plan B. He had already planned to spend a couple of days in Clarendon, Texas, with his older brother, Wyatt, and get on some practice bulls. Those two days turned into a week, and he spent his time to focus his talents and his mind on the tasks ahead of him, his fourth appearance at the National Finals Rodeo. “I wanted to get everything lined up, and after the circuit finals, I just decided to stay little longer,” said Smith, 27, of Rexburg. “My confidence is getting better. I just got on some practice bulls, and it felt really good. We should be ready by the time we go to Vegas.” That time is coming soon. ProRodeo’s grand championship will take place Dec. 1-10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, its home since 1985. After three years away from the NFR, he returns after having a stupendous regular season, one in which he earned $141,658 riding bulls. He enters the 10-day finale No. 4 in the world standings. “The highlight of my year was winning the Reno Rodeo’s Xtreme Bulls title,” said Smith, who credits much of his success to his sponsors, Idaho Project Filter, Cinch, Resistol, Rodeo Vegas, Rodeo Tax, Rodeo Graphics, Truth Bucking Stock and Crown Royal. “I’d never won a big Xtreme Bulls like that before. “I’d stayed on two of them one time before and ended up sixth or seventh, so I was pretty pumped to get that win.” He wasn’t just excited; he capitalized on that momentum. Two weeks later, he added another Xtreme Bulls championship at Cody, Wyoming, and the ball was officially rolling in his favor. Smith’s propulsion toward the top actually began a month and half earlier. During the first week in May, he battled through the heat at the Xtreme Bulls in Uvalde, Texas, to finish second overall, riding two bulls and winning the championship round. He then won the bull riding crown at Guymon, Oklahoma, and just padded his earnings – he pocketed just shy of $15,000 that week alone. “That was a pretty good confidence boost to get through the rest of the season,” Smith said. “I feel like it started there.” He hopes his roll continues through the 10-night championship in the Nevada desert. He first appeared on the sport’s biggest stage in 2014 when he served as a hazer for his bulldogging brother, Wyatt, for the final five nights of the NFR. That relationship is why he spent time in the Texas Panhandle, where Wyatt Smith is the assistant rodeo coach at Clarendon College. Garrett Smith was offered the chance to hone his skills inside the school’s rodeo and equine facilities, and he took advantage of it. By returning to the basics of rodeo on practice bulls, he is hoping that will help him transition to his performance in Sin City. While he had a big financial windfall through the 2022 regular season, he still trails the leader, Utahan Stetson Wright, by almost $180,000. That may seem insurmountable for some, but bull riders have a different mentality. With nearly $29,000 paid to go-round winners each night, there are amazing chances to move up in the standings. There’s also the fact that “ground money” counts toward the bull riding standings. The NFR pays out six places in each of the 10 rounds, and there’s an opportunity for more income if fewer than six ride their bulls on a given night. If Smith is the only cowboy to stay on in a round, he will add $93,270 to his earnings. That’s the kind of move that could make a difference in the world-title race. “You can’t think about the money to much through the regular season,” he said. “The big money is in Vegas. You make Vegas to break even, and in Vegas is when you make your money.” In his three previous trips to the NFR combined, Smith has earned nearly $170,000. That’s good for the profit margin, but he’d like to do a bit better. There will be 10 more nights to the 2022 campaign to make that happen. “I’m just looking at it one bull per night down there, and I’m going to do it with that exact attitude,” Smith said. “We’re all competing in this together. We all have to ride our bulls and not worry about what the other guys are doing. I can’t control what they do or whether they stay on their bulls. “I need to worry about staying on my bull, then moving on to the next one. The more bulls you ride there, the more chances you’re giving yourself to win money.” He’s done pretty well at that this year. Yes, he had some key victories – he had nine event titles – but the way to earning more than $140,000 was finding a place near the top when he wasn’t finishing first. It’s an old lesson handed down from one rodeo cowboy to another through the history of the sport. Second place still pays well, and he had a lot of paychecks through the course of the campaign. “I just chipped away at it,” he said. “Wyatt’s always told me since I was little, ‘You nickel and dime your way to the finals, and it all adds up.’ He wasn’t wrong.” While in Las Vegas, he will also be trying to collect money for people who have been affected by breast cancer through his fundraiser, PinkChaps.com. The plan is to help those individuals and families cover expenses that come with their battle with the disease. “Not everybody sees the cost of having breast cancer,” Smith said. “I can actually help a  Continue Reading »

WAVERLY, Kan. – The truest form of competitor comes out at the most unexpected of times. Michael Jordan’s defining moment came in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, when he battled the flu but still scored 38 points in the Chicago Bulls’ victory over the Utah Jazz. For bareback rider Jess Pope, that moment came in early July when he was sidelined with a torn plantar facia in his right foot. The injury can cause intense pain for an extended time. Pope took a few weeks off; when he returned, he quickly jumped into a race for the 2022 world championship. “I’m excited about going back to the finals and being in a race for the world title,” said Pope, 24, of Waverly, Kansas. “Other than the injury, it was a fun year to be rodeoing. There’s a lot of young talent out there that pushes everybody to become better bareback riders.” He actually fits into that category, though he’s now an established veteran at a young age. He earned $159,259 through the season and returns to the National Finals Rodeo for the third straight year as the second-ranked bareback rider in the standings. He did pretty well in his first two adventures to ProRodeo’s grand finale, winning the average title by having the best 10-round cumulative score in 2020 and ’21. During those two seasons, Pope earned more than $560,000, with about $401,000 coming over 20 go-rounds at the NFR. He’ll have 10 more nights to add to that total during this year’s championship, set for Dec. 1-10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. “What happens with everybody else is out of my control when I get there,” said Pope, who credits much of his success to his sponsors, DewEze, Mahindra, Roxor, Mack Steel, Phoenix Performance Products, Graham School for Cattlemen, Resistol, Bloomer, Panhandle and Rock and Roll Clothing, Veach’s Custom Leather, Emporia Livestock Sales and T Bar T Cattle Co. “I’ll control what I can control. I’m going to ride each horse to the best of my ability and see how that falls each night.” In rodeo, cowboys are scored by how well they perform against the animal they are matched with via random draw. For a bareback rider, scores are based on a 100-point scale, with half the score coming from the bucking horse; the other half is based on how well the cowboy spurs the animal in rhythm with its bucking motion. He can’t control how well his animals will buck each of the 10 December nights. He can’t control how other bareback riders perform their tasks. His is a tunnel vision, and it’s worked well so far in his career. It’s a grown-up approach for a talented man who also has taken the right steps with his injury. Since that day in early July, he’s taken some herbal and prescribed medicines to control the pain. Beyond that, he’s proven just how tough he is and what kind of cowboy it takes to ride bucking horses on days when it may be difficult to walk. His pointed focus has been a main contributor to his place in the standings and his ability to overcome adversity. “I think the big thing for me since I started out is just growing up quite a bit,” he said. “When you travel as many days throughout the year, you have responsibilities at home; you have a fiancé and a family and other things you have to take care of. It makes you mature and learn how to slow down and smell the roses. “Everybody learns how to do that, but for some people, it happens faster than others. For me, it had to come really fast. I wanted to be able to do these things and enjoy this life. You have to find the positives and make every day count.” That’s just how Pope looks at each day. From taking care of himself and his place to feeding his animals and handling day work as a cowboy in the Kansas Flint Hills, he accepts each opportunity for what it is. “I enjoy my life,” he said. “I enjoy every day I get to be around my house, and I wouldn’t change my life for anything.” There are some changes on the horizon, though. It comes with that maturity and seeing what the future might hold with his fiancé, Sydney Odle, to whom he proposed this past May while at her family’s place in eastern Colorado. That was the highlight of his year, but he had some pretty special moments in the arena, too. He won 13 individual rodeos, including the prestigious RodeoHouston, in which he pocketed more than $60,000. He also has some other key victories scattered throughout to keep him in the middle of the world-championship race from the spring to the fall. “I’d say the best parts of being a bareback rider are the places I get to see and the people I get to meet,” Pope said. “I don’t have to show up at an office every day. I work at my own schedule. I also know if I’m pretty well anywhere in the United States and need something, I’ll have somebody I can call.” That extensive travel may be enjoyable, but it can have its downsides to a man with responsibilities back home. He has his own herd of cattle, and they need tended to whether he’s there to do it or not. “The toughest part is trying to have a plan for after rodeo and to make everything work,” he said. “To focus on rodeo, I have to make sure to get everything done when I’m at home. I have my cowherd. It’s just an ongoing process to make everything better so I have a good retirement one day.” For now, though, he’s making a pretty good living in rodeo. Unlike most professional sports, there are no guaranteed contracts, and no team is going to cover his business expenses. He  Continue Reading »

CLARENDON, Texas – Cole Franks made an impressive statement in 2021 during his inaugural season in ProRodeo: He’d claimed the collegiate all-around and bareback riding titles. He was named the Bareback Riding Resistol Rookie of the Year. He qualified for his first National Finals Rodeo and finished third in the world standings. It was a remarkable beginning for the second-generation cowboy from Clarendon, and he bounded into his sophomore campaign during the 2022 season with plenty of confidence and talent. With that, he’ll make his return to the sport’s biggest stage, the NFR, set for Dec. 1-10 in Las Vegas. “This year was a little more challenging in a way,” said Franks, 21, who won the intercollegiate title while competing for Clarendon Colleges. “It was a lot different. They changed the rule to where we couldn’t double up on rodeos on the same day. It was easier in that sense, because we didn’t have to decide between two rodeos, but it made it a little harder. “When we were rodeoing, because of that rule, everyone else was in the same places we were. It made it to where sometimes it was so crammed full of people that it was a lot harder to win.” He found his way to the winner’s circle anyway, proving talent and a powerful mindset can go a long way. Through the course of the campaign, he picked up 10 victories and earned $116,426; he heads to Las Vegas No. 10 in the world standings and will have a chance to battle for the coveted world championship. “I honestly think the key was staying at it, making every horse count,” said Franks, who credits much of his success to his sponsors, Pete Carr Pro Rodeo, Cinch, Western Legacy Co. and 287 Ag. “You want to do the best you can with what horse you’ve drawn. If you don’t have one you can typically win on, then you’ve got to flash it up and do what you can.” It takes a combination of key victories and making the most of one’s rides count in order to qualify for the NFR. He is $45,500 behind the leader, Wyoming cowboy Cole Reiner, but that deficit can be surpassed in just two rounds in Vegas, where go-round winners pocket just shy of $29,000 each night. Just a few years ago, round winners were making $10,000 less. It’s a good trend in a sport where there are no guarantees. Unlike other professional sports where athletes have surefire contracts that pay them whether they’re in the game or not, rodeo cowboys make their livings eight seconds at a time. They don’t get paid unless they score better than most others in the field. The rise in payouts is a boon for the men and women who are part of the rodeo trail as a business. “We do this because we love it, but it does make it a lot more fun to have a shot at that much more money every day,” he said. “Every rodeo I went to this past year, they just keep raising the stakes. That’s what keeps you wanting to go more. “I don’t think I’ve ever been ready to go home; I like staying out on the road. You may get worn out a little bit, but you know there’s all that money out there you can get.” Money is vital in rodeo. It’s not only how the contestants pay their bills, but it’s also how points are tallied. Only the top 15 on the money list in each event advance to the NFR. The contestants in each event who conclude the season with the most earnings will be crowned world champions. Last year, Franks earned more than $150,000 over 10 December nights in the Nevada desert, finishing the season with more than $225,000. He’ll need a similar showing this season if he hopes to earn the Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. “I’d say I improved quite a bit,” said Franks, whose father, Bret, was a three-time NFR qualifier in saddle bronc riding and whose brother, Clint, is a PRCA bronc rider. “Mainly, I’d say, I’ve gotten better at being able to handle those big, strong bucking horses, the ones that everybody wants and the ones you can win on. “Last year, I dropped the ball sometimes on those kinds of horses. I feel like I’ve gotten better at keeping the ball in my court on those horses while being able to flash up on the weaker end of horses and making them look better.” It’s a formula that has worked quite well. He made his second straight NFR even though a broken wrist in May and a damaged finger on free hand in July put him on injured reserve for nearly two months. The latter injury was actually scarier and happened at one of the largest regular-season rodeos in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “One thing I realized was that you don’t take your good draw as a sure sign you’ll win,” he said. “At Cheyenne, I knew I had it in the bag based on paper. That went out the window a bit during the short round. The horse flipped all the way upside down on top of me, and I was laying in the bottom of the chute. I don’t know for sure what happened, but it ripped my finger open.” He rebounded well, built up some style points and closed out his campaign in fine fashion by winning his last rodeo of the regular season in Stephenville, Texas. A week later, he won the first rodeo of the 2023 season in Hempstead, Texas. He’s been doing the things he needs to stay in shape. He’s been riding some practice horses to prepare his body for the rigorous week and a half in Las Vegas, which will pit the best 15 bareback riders of the year against 100 of the greatest bucking horses in 2022. “This is why I do this,” Franks said. “I love it, and  Continue Reading »

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. – Any athlete can attest to injuries throughout a career and even through a season. In bareback riding, the strain and stress the body takes during an eight-second ride can make injuries stack up. Cowboys wedge their hands into a tight-fitting handhold on a rigging that is strapped tightly to a bucking horse; they are nearly tied to 1,100 pounds of dynamite in bucking flesh. Tanner Aus has been doing this for more than a decade, and he’s become one of the preeminent athletes in ProRodeo. He had another terrific season, pocketing $127,132, and will return to the National Finals Rodeo for the seventh time in his career as the ninth-ranked cowboy in the world standings. “I was lucky I drew good horses all year, and I stayed healthy,” said Aus, 32, of Granite Falls. “That was the main thing. I’ve still got a little bit of fight in me that when I draw a horse I can’t win on, I still might go try it to see what I can do.” What he did was excel all season long. He won at least a share of the title at 14 rodeos, an incredible feat. “I attribute the money I made to just staying on the road and riding bucking horses,” he said, noting that many cowboys leave their families in late June and don’t return home until the regular season concludes the end of September. “I love riding bucking horses. I had kind of a slow winter and a pretty good spring, and I had a few licks in the summertime that kept me (high in the standings).” Rodeo cowboys travel tens of thousands of miles a year in order to make a living. They may be in North Platte, Nebraska, one day and need to be in Reno, Nevada, the neext. There are times throughout the year when they may ride two rodeos in the same day, traveling many miles to make it happen. But being on the road means being away from home. That’s tough on anyone, especially fathers. When he left home in June, he and his wife, Lonissa, had two little ones – 4-year-old Bristol and 2-year-old Rowan – and another on the way. Aus had been home for both their births and wasn’t going to miss out on No. 3. “We were due Aug. 2, and Cheyenne (Wyoming) got over on (July) 31st,” he said. “I took off like wild heading home. I talked to Loni on the way, and she told me she wanted me rested and that I didn’t have to race home. I got to Mitchell, South Dakota, and I slept for the night. “At 7 o’clock the next morning, she called and asked where I was. I told her I was in Mitchell, and she asked why I was still there. She said it was about time, so I took off and got home about noon. I showed, we ran into town, and they said, sure enough, it’s time. She ended up coming a day early.” And Dad was there to be part of it all. It may not have gone as planned, but it worked well enough for the family. “Everyone was just waiting on me for a few hours,” said Aus, who credits much of his success to his sponsors, Midwest Agri, Salty Dog Sister Boutique, Granite Falls Dairy Queen, Jug Waterers, Carroll Spur Co., Phoenix Performance Products and Wrangler. “It was an awesome way to spend a little time at home.” Those times are always good, but he wasn’t home for long. It’s the life of a rodeo cowboy, and he knows all about that. His father, John, rode bareback horses for years and was the Great lakes Circuit titlist in 1988. Tanner Aus has been around the game all his life. “I remember from the time I was very young – I was probably 9 years old when I started – I always wondered what it would be like to set making the NFR as a goal,” he said. “When you’re that young and have so many other things that can snag your attention, it feels like a pipe dream.” Now, though, he’s a regular. Since his inaugural trip to Las Vegas seven years ago, he’s only missed returning one time. That year, injuries slowed him down, and he finished 18th in the world standings; only the top 15 on the money list at the end of the regular season qualify for the sport’s grand championship, and he’s been among that field more often than not. “I pretty much take the same approach every year,” said Aus, who attended Iowa Central Community College before winning the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association title in 2012 while competing at Missouri Valley College. “You know it’s 10 in a row at the best rodeo you’ll ever get to go to. You show up, you take it one horse at a time, you make the best ride you can make on the stock that you have drawn and you fall back on your fundamentals and your training. “Competing inside the Thomas & Mack is unreal, so much more than you expect. That first time, you’re about to nod your head at your first NFR, and you try to prepare yourself, but just the electricity in that place makes your hair stand up. I think it’s a shared sentiment with all the bareback riders no matter how many times you’ve been there. It’s a feeling that’s unlike any other I’ve ever experienced.” In a year when the financial gains of ProRodeo are unprecedented, all 15 NFR bareback riders earned at least $100,000. Only $57,000 separates first to 15th, and with go-round winners earning $28,914 per night, that difference can be made up after Night 2. “The competition this year stayed very tight,” said Aus, who recently was inducted into the Iowa Central Hall of Fame. “Now, it comes down to the next 10, and it’s pretty exciting.”

MERRIMAN, Neb. – Oftentimes there is a fine line between great and awful. Garrett Shadbolt walked that line over the summer of his 2022 ProRodeo regular season. In a two-week stretch from the end of July to the first of August, he experienced the highest of highs as a bareback rider, but it also led to some pretty big lows. “The highlight of the year actually was those couple of weeks where I was just on a roll and was drawing really well,” said Shadbolt, 26, of Merriman, Nebraska. “It all started when I finished third in Cheyenne (Wyoming), but I won my performance and my semifinals. I got a check in Deadwood (South Dakota) that week, then the next week, I got a good check out of the long round in Dodge City (Kansas) and in Lovington (New Mexico), and I won Phillipsburg (Kansas). “I went back to Dodge City and won the short round and got the Dodge City win. It was a really good stretch.” In all, he pocketed nearly $22,000 in just two weeks of riding bucking horses, and it’s a big reason why he returns to the National Finals Rodeo for the second straight year. He finished the regular season with $103, 949 and holds down the 15th and last spot to qualify for the December championship in Las Vegas. His championship round- and event-winning ride in southwest Kansas came on Aug. 7 when he rode Frontier Rodeo’s Gun Fire for 91.5 points. That ride capped off an impressive stand, and he added $6,014 to his earnings. Gun Fire is also impressive, a powerful buckskin mare that was named the 2022 PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year based on voting by the cowboys that have ridden bucking broncs all season. Her power came into play right as the eight-second buzzer sounded, as she launched Shadbolt forward and the two combatants smacked heads together. Shadbolt crashed to the dirt, and the victor needed a bit of assistance getting out of the arena after having suffered a concussion because of the collision. That incident, in essence, put him out of competition for the better part of the final two months. “I’ve been rodeoing for quite a while but a career wrestler who competed at the college level was also part of that, so it’s been a pretty rough lifestyle,” said Shadbolt, who has support not only from his family but also his sponsors, East Sandhills Beef, Romsa Farm & Ranch, The Lodge at Deadwood, Raise American and Fuel Grill. “When you have that kind of history and you take a hit like that, it can affect you for a while. I didn’t really feel right until recently, and that was affecting me. I tried to go at it again, but I just didn’t feel right.” All the while, he kept watching more bareback riders pass him in the standings. Because of his excellent run in the winter and spring, he was able to hold on to his spot among the top 15, but he had fallen from fifth in the standings to 15th. “I was pretty confident I could make it this year,” he said of the NFR. “I had a great winter, spring and early summer, then I was having some hard luck. I wasn’t drawing very good. I got on a lot of questionable horses in a row. I went to six rodeos over the Fourth of July run and didn’t win any money. “I don’t think I made any mistakes, but bareback riding is just so competitive right now that it’s hard to win, especially over the Fourth run when everybody’s rodeoing.” Cowboys are matched with their animals by random draw, and the better the horse, the better the score and the better the opportunity to win big money. While he was being matched with good horses through a stretch of the season, he was hoping other match-ups would help increase his earnings. That’s just an aspect of rodeo that remains out of his control, though. He can control how he rides and how he approaches the game mentally. That’s been a big plus for the Nebraska cowboy. It’s also why he’s been a bit conservative when it comes to his head injury. “I’ve had concussions in my past,” said Shadbolt, who lives on his family’s ranch outside Merriman with his wife, Katie, son George and daughter Mavis. “I don’t want to be brain dead when I’m 40. I’ve got a wife and kids to think about. It’s definitely not a fun injury to have. It’s hard to tell when you’re ready to go back and when you need to just stay home.” There’s definitely a competitor deep in the heart of his 132-pound body, and it’s what drives him. Having been able to match moves with a powerful horse like Gun Fire is something that he can build on. “For me, getting a match-up like that and getting tested and coming out on top is the pinnacle of success in bareback riding,” he said. “That’s the feeling I’m chasing. I like to say every man should know what he’s capable of. I enjoy that; some people don’t. There were a couple jumps on Gun Fire where I was riding a razor’s edge.” That’s what happens when two determined athletes meet. When the NFR begins its 10-day run Dec. 1, he will have more opportunities to ride rank horses. Not only does the NFR feature the top bareback riders from this past season, but it also is home to the top 100 bucking horses in the game. “Everything’s going to buck really hard, and I may have been a little overconfident in that first round and came out swinging for the fence last year,” Shadbolt said. “It really pays to recover from mistakes you make and finish your rides. I don’t want to safety up; that’s not my style or my strategy. I’m definitely going to try to finish all my rides.” Only  Continue Reading »

ZWINGLE, Iowa – The competitiveness that Tim O’Connell has in his soul is one reason why he’s a three-time world champion and is always a contender to add more gold buckles to his collection. It’s what drives him and makes him push himself beyond the limits. It’s why he will return to the National Finals Rodeo for the ninth consecutive year. He will be in the mix for another bareback riding title when he arrives for the 10-day rodeo, set for Dec. 1-10 in Las Vegas. His nature, though, tends to add an element that takes away from the enjoyment of the occasion. It’s the richest rodeo in the world with a payout of $1.4 million. Go-round winners will collect nearly $29,000 each night. With that comes a bit of a burden to excel. “Until you get into a world-title race, it’s hard to describe the pressure you feel and that you put on yourself,” said O’Connell, 31, originally from Zwingle but now living in Marshall, Missouri, with his wife and two sons, Hazen and Stratten. “It’s one thing to make the NFR, but it’s another thing to be in a world-title race. “I put an exceptional amount of pressure on me to be perfect, so that makes those 10 days very stressful.” That changed with the sudden thump at last year’s finale. Big Stone Rodeo’s Mayhem bucked O’Connell off during Night 7 of the 2021 NFR, officially ending his hopes of walking away with another Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. “One of the best things that ever happened to me in my career to this point was getting bucked off in Round 7,” said O’Connell, who credits a great deal of his success to his sponsors, Treetop Ranches, Frontier Rodeo Coffee, 12 Gauge Ranch, Polaris, Panhandle Rock and Roll Clothing, Justin Boots, Veach’s Custom Leather, Ingram Quarter Horses, MRT Racing Tires, Capri Campers, Twin Cities Featherlight, American Hat Co., Windmill Ceiling Fans, Farm Girl Marketing Solutions, Kleinschmidt Western Wear and Ranch Interior Designs. “I had built up a lot of anger from what happened in 2020. When that horse put me on the ground, the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. I really enjoyed the last three go-rounds of the NFR. I didn’t have anything to lose. There was nothing that made me anxious about the draws. I joked a lot more in the locker room, and I really seemed to enjoy the finals for the first time.” That episode did more than change his behavior last year. It carried over into the 2022 regular season, and he’s expecting it to ride with him when he arrives in Las Vegas. “I’m looking forward to coming into this finals and remembering what it was like to have enjoyment at the finals,” he said. “I expect to show up there and get myself into a world-title picture again, hoping I can get off to a hotter start than I normally do. This time, I don’t have the other 14 guys looking at me as the target. I’m the hunter. “We have an outstanding group of bareback riders going to the finals. It’s fun rodeoing with these guys.” O’Connell had another fantastic year. It started off a bit weak, and an injury he sustained a year ago in which his tailbone was removed was a cause of that. He was able to turn things around during the lucrative Fourth of July run, and he steamrolled through the next month and a half. “I was back to riding how I expect to ride on a daily basis,” he said. “I was drawing great. The summer couldn’t have gone any better. It was close to 90 days where I felt like I could do no wrong. I had a great Calgary and finished third there. I went back-to-back in Cheyenne (Wyoming) to get my third Cheyenne saddle. I think I was placing wherever I went.” He was in the middle of a race to see which bareback rider would lead the world standings with his traveling partner, Jess Pope, and Cole Reiner as they rolled through August. “It was fun,” said O’Connell, who attended Iowa Central Community College before becoming an intercollegiate champion at Missouri Valley College. “It was really fun when we were within $300 of each other. It just made for a fun little race. It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of it, but you are jockeying to see who’s going to be called No. 1 the next week. We just kept banging heads.” He was on top of the world when he suffered a freak injury during a ride Aug. 23 in Kennewick, Washington. He suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb and underwent surgery two days later. In an injury called “skier’s thumb,” he had a Grade 3 tear, and surgery was the best choice. That ended his regular season, and he fell from atop the bareback riding mountain to to No. 4 with $137,760. Now on the injured reserve for the second straight year, he watched as other cowboys passed him in the standings. Stress never entered the equation. He found the positives in what many would consider a negative situation. He and his wife, Sami, had welcomed baby Stratten into their family in April, and time at home meant time spent with his bride and their sons. “Every time I left in the heart of the summer, Sami was left home with a 4-year-old and a newborn that didn’t want to sleep,” O’Connell said. “It was nice to be able to come home and give her some relief. “Stratten might be the most chill child. The only time he fusses is when he’s hungry. We’re sleep-training now, but he didn’t sleep through the night for a while. Hazen loves him. Hazen took on the big-brother role as perfect as you could ask of a big brother.” After weeks of rehabilitation and therapy, O’Connell got on his first horse in 11  Continue Reading »

MILAN, Minn. – When the chance came for steer wrestler J.D. Struxness to ride one of the best steer wrestling horses in rodeo, the Minnesota cowboy didn’t hesitate. “One of the biggest keys for my year is that I got to ride Curtis Cassidy’s horse, Tyson,” said Struxness, 27, originally from Minnesota but now living in Perrin, Texas, with his fiancé, Jayden, and their two daughters, Everlee, 3, and Lilly, 1. “He was voted as the Horse of the Year again this year, and he darn sure made it easy. “Curtis and his family have had a couple of great bulldogging horses between Willy and Tyson. Tyson is super easy to get along with. He scores good, and you know you have a chance to catch and place on everything. It makes my job a little easier.” There were a lot of simple avenues for Struxness through the course of the 2022 regular season and to his fourth qualification to the National Finals Rodeo. Because he was on the rodeo trail with Cassidy and another Canadian, Tanner Milan, the traveling posse spent a considerable amount of time competing at events north of the border that are co-sanctioned by the PRCA and the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association. It served as a two-fold benefit: Not only did he, Cassidy and Milan all qualify for the Canadian Finals Rodeo, Struxness also got to spend more time with his family. “Since my fiancé and kids were spending time with her family in Alberta, I got to spend a lot of time with them this summer,” he said. “That became a way to feed my soul. I’d see them for two or three days a week for the most part while we were up there. “It was good to be around family a lot so you weren’t as homesick out on the road.” When he was home in Texas, he found a way to continue to improve his game while working with Clay Volmer of Volmer Cutting and Reined Cow Horses in Brock, Texas. “I ride some colts for him and practice with him,” said Struxness, who credits a great deal of his success to his sponsors, Arena Trailer Sales, 4-Star Trailers, Wrangler and Nutrena. “We work on getting my mindset right, back to where it needs to be where I can be on top. Clay helped me with my mental game, and we talked about the mindset you need to get back to the top.” Through the process of riding colts raised for other disciplines, he found some other things that were helping him when it came time to compete. Because Volmer focuses on cutting and reined cow horse competitions, there are different techniques used than what Struxness normally practices as a bulldogger. “They’ve got to train those horses for so many disciplines, and Clay’s helped me with my own horses a lot,” he said. “Riding a bunch of horses with him, I’m just more comfortable in the saddle in different situations. “Their horses have to do so many aspects. You’ve got to have control of the horses and be very comfortable in the saddle to work in that game. It’s been a big help getting to spend time doing that. I’ve found that anytime I can get in the saddle, it dang sure helps me, no matter what event you’re competing in.” That came into play when riding Tyson, which was named the PRCA AQHA Steer Wrestling of the Year for the third straight season. “The main and obvious reason I’m going to the NFR and in the position I’m in is because of that horse,” Struxness said. “But being able to see my family as much as I did and working with Clay dang sure were some other contributing factors.” Oftentimes, cowboys leave their families at home in late June and don’t return to them until the season comes to a close the end of September. Because Jayden is from Alberta, she and the girls spent much of the summer with her family, allowing Struxness to find comfort and joy while also competing at an elite level. He finished ProRodeo’s regular season with $123,649 and enters the NFR third in the world standings. He is about $11,000 behind the leader, Idahoan Stetson Jorgensen, and will be in the middle of a world-title race when he arrives for the finale, set for Dec. 1-10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. “I think the lesson from this year I learned and took advantage of is going out and trying to win something every run,” he said, noting that he will compete at the NFR with another traveling partner, Oregonian Jesse Brown, who also rode Tyson much of the season. “I know you need to be sure to stay on edge and not back off when it’s your time to compete.” This was the best regular season in Struxness’ career. He earned his first NFR qualification in 2016, then followed that with trips to Las Vegas in 2017 and 2019. He realized his dream of returning to the sport’s grand championship in August, nearly two months before the regular season came to a close. “It sure enough lets you relax a little bit and enjoy yourself,” said Struxness, who competed at Missouri Valley College before transferring to Northwestern Oklahoma State University, where he won the intercollegiate national title in 2016. “I think being there before and being in those scenarios will help when I get there this year. The first time you’re out there, the bright lights definitely hit you. “It’ll also help just knowing how to prepare myself and getting myself to where I need to be when I get out there.” He’ll have plenty of confidence in himself, in his horsepower and in his hazer, who will be Cassidy, an NFR veteran who has also hazed hundreds of runs inside the Thomas & Mack. “We’ve got the ball rolling, so now we just need to keep the momentum,” he  Continue Reading »

MIAMI, Texas – Wyatt Casper learned a valuable lesson through the course of ProRodeo’s 2022 regular season: Don’t try to rush back from an injury. Casper is a saddle bronc rider who makes a living riding dynamite in the form of bucking horses. In early July, he suffered a partially torn right hamstring. He tried to ride through it, but that just didn’t work. He took two weeks off, returned, then spent two more weeks back on the injured list before trying it again. He found his way back to the game by the end of that month and rode through the next two weeks, picking up checks along the way. In Heber City, Utah, though, he tore the muscle completely and had to finish out the season on injured reserve. It was back home to the Texas Panhandle to recuperate and hang out with his wife, Lesley, and their two children, Cooper, 4, and Cheyenne, who will be 3 in December. “With one negative, there’s a positive, and that was being able to come home and hang with the wife and kids and doing stuff I don’t normally get to do,” said Casper, 26, of Miami. “I don’t know what they’re going to do when I’m out rodeoing again.” Since that day in early August, Casper has been going through rehabilitation and getting himself prepared. His season isn’t over. He’s earned his third straight qualification to the National Finals Rodeo, the sport’s grand finale that takes place Dec. 1-10 in Las Vegas. He finished his campaign with $123,802 and will enter the competition in the Nevada desert as the 11th-ranked bronc rider in the world standings. “It’s been a pretty cool year,” he said. “I would take every year like this if I could have a good start to the year like I did and still make the NFR even missing the last two months of the season. “I’m still rehabbing my hamstring, slowly getting it ready for the finals. Shawn Scott (with the Justin Sportsmedicine team) and I got together, and he wanted me to give it 60 days off without getting on any broncs. We’ve been doing regular stuff, stretching it, band work and light lifting. I’m just trying ot get it 100 percent again. It feels really good.” That bodes well for the Texas cowboy, who was raised on a place near Balko, Oklahoma, and moved to Texas to attend Clarendon College; he remained in the Texas Panhandle upon getting married in 2017. He finished the 2020 season as the reserve world champion to titlist Ryder Wright, then closed out the 2021 season eighth in the world standings. There were plenty of bright spots through his latest campaign. One doesn’t miss a good portion of the final three months of the regular season and still make the NFR without that. Only the top 15 contestants on the money list advance to the sport’s grand championship, and doing it three times in a row is quite an accomplishment. “I don’t feel like I changed anything from what I’ve been doing that last couple of years,” Casper said. “I just kept a positive attitude and had good traveling partners.” That’s helpful. He made his way along the ProRodeo trail with fellow bronc busters Jake Clark, Brody Cress and Lefty Holman. Cress and Holman will join Casper in Las Vegas. “To be a good bronc rider, you’ve got to surround yourself with other good bronc riders,” said Casper, who is sponsored by Priefert, Superior Livestock, Resistol, Cinch, TD Angus, MVP Exceed 6 Way and Western Hauler. “We’re all a little different in our own ways, but at the end of the day, we all feed off each other and always try to have a positive attitude. If one guy’s down, we try to pick him up. “Being able to qualify for the NFR three times consecutively is a feat in itself. The group of bronc riders you have to ride against day in and day out are the best in the world. To be able to say you’ve made it three times is pretty darn cool.” A half-dozen years ago, Casper brought home the most cherished prize in college rodeo while attending school at Clarendon. He became the college’s first national champion and has built upon that since arriving in ProRodeo. In a typical year when he’s not away from home, he rides and trains horses at his place near Miami. The injury put a damper on that a bit this year, but he’s been back at it and working himself into a frenzy to get back in the bronc saddle again. His body feels good. “I haven’t been on a bronc since August, so I don’t have a lot of bumps and bruises,” he said. “I’m just ready to get out there and battle for 10 days.” It’s a rugged schedule once he arrives in Sin City. There are bucking horses for 10 straight nights, and there are appearances and obligations when he’s not spurring an 1,100-pound bronc. He’s been part of it before, and each experience has offered him a bit of on-the-job training. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is you need to ride all your horses,” Casper said. “I’ve been there two times, and I have yet to get them all rode. I’m going through the preparation, and I’m trying to get that all figured out before the NFR. I’m also trying to figure out how to take care of myself at the NFR. “There’s a lot that goes into it, but I’m ready for it.”

ALVA, Okla. – Kaden Greenfield was blunt and to the point when talking about the Northwestern Oklahoma State University rodeo this past weekend. “We’ve got a good team this year,” said Greenfield, a senior steer wrestler from Lakeview, Oregon. “We’ve been placing right along, but it was great to win our first one, and it was our home rodeo.” The Rangers scored 510 points to win the men’s team title at the Alva Dome, and Greenfield led the way with his first-place finish. He knocked down his first-round steer in 4.4 seconds to finish third, then was 3.9 to win the championship round and the aggregate with a two-run cumulative time of 8.3 seconds. He was a full second faster than his teammate, Trisyn Kalawaia of Waiakea, Hawaii, who finished second. Fellow Northwestern bulldogger Trevin Cowen of Harrold, South Dakota, placed third, while Jeremy Plourde of Carleton, Michigan, finished fifth. “It was definitely a successful weekend, and I’m pretty stoked,” said Kalawaia, who transferred to Northwestern before the start of the fall semester. “We’ve been working very hard in practice, and it shows that it’s paying off. For me, I’ve just been focused on practicing and having confidence in myself. “It was pretty cool being part of the winning team.” For years, steer wrestling has been the hot topic for the Rangers. Alva is recognized as the Bulldogging Capital of College Rodeo, and the Northwestern steer wrestlers proved it at the Alva Dome. Seven of the 12 men in the championship round were from the home team, and six of them earned points, including Emmett Edler of State Center, Iowa, and Cameron Fox of Tulsa, Oklahoma, both of whom placed in the opening round. “It’s a pretty big deal to win the home rodeo,” Edler said. “We have had a lot of people doing well on the team but didn’t have the right lineup for guys to get team points. Everything lined up at Alva, and the right people did well for us to get our first team win of the year. “I think it really represents that we are one of the strongest teams in the (Central Plains) Region and are going to continue to be.” The points boosted the Rangers into the top five in the regional team standings, but the bulldoggers’ domination proved to be valuable for the steer wrestling standings. The top five cowboys on the list are all from Northwestern: Greenfield, Quade Potter of Stockville, Nebraska, Kalawaia, Edler and Fox. “Everybody shows up for practice, and everybody wants to get better,” Greenfield said. “It shows at the rodeos.” The Kansas team roping tandem of Camden Hoelting of Olpe and Austin Lampe of Dodge City put on another strong performance. They placed in the first round with a 6.7-second run, then were 5.7 to finish second in the short round and the aggregate. In all, they added 220 points to the team’s total. “You want to put on a show for the home crowd,” Hoelting said. “It was huge, because the team wants to win that rodeo. My heeler and I wanted to do good. It helped both: It helped us win as a team, and it helped Austin and I move up the points race individually.” Hoelting is No. 2 in the regional heading standings, and Lampe is third in heeling. “I think a lot of us are pretty talented on this team, and it’s dang sure one of the best teams we’ve had in a while,” Lampe said. “We knew with us being on the points team that we wanted to take it pretty seriously and wanted to get the job done. Doing it at home is a pretty good place to do it.” Northwestern header Ben Jackson of Hudson Hope, British Columbia, placed fourth in the first round while roping with Zach Dunlap of Western Oklahoma State College. Denton Oestmann of Auburn, Nebraska, helped his own cause with a second-place finish in tie-down roping. Oestmann placed in the first round with a 10.2-second run, then was 9.1 to finish second in the final round and the aggregate. Brandon Hittle of Harveyville, Kansas, placed in both rounds and finished fifth. “It’s been a little while since our men’s team won a rodeo,” said Oestmann, who moved up to second in the Central Plains standings. “I’m sure everybody’s pretty excited about that. I thought we had a decent team last year, but we underachieved. I think this is one of the better teams that we’ve had.” While the men won the team title, the Rangers women got help in the form of barrel racers Samantha Chambers of Calhan, Colorado, and Julianna Sprague of Kincaid, Kansas. Chambers finished fourth in both the short round and the average, while Sprague snuck into sixth place in the aggregate without placing in either go-round. Goat-tier Laci Geiger of Emmett, Idaho, placed in both rounds and earned a sixth-place finish overall. Northwestern proved in its final event of the fall semester that the team has the opportunity to challenge for the Central Plains Region title. “The win at home definitely shows things are coming together and that we’re coming together as a team and pushing off each other and using the confidence we’ve gained at past rodeos,” Edler said. “We’re going to keep building on it. “If we keep doing what we did at Alva and guys keep competing and winning, there’s no reason why Northwestern shouldn’t win the region. There’s no reason we couldn’t go on to win the national title. There’s a lot of good talent and a lot of competitiveness. There’s a lot of good to be had coming up in the spring season.”