Monthly Archives: December 2022

LAS VEGAS – Tim O’Connell is feeling like his old self. While he won’t offer any excuses to a less-than-par National Finals Rodeo a year ago, he knew he wasn’t able to ride up to the level he expects of himself. He’s won three world championships because of the ability he has in riding bareback horses, so there have always been high expectations. “To start your finals out feeling like myself, feeling strong, feeling comfortable with my hand in my rigging, my position on the back of the bucking horse, the command I had on the back of the bucking horse … I just felt totally in control of everything that was happening in that ride,” said O’Connell, 31, of Zwingle, Iowa, now living in Marshall, Missouri. It showed. He rode Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Scarlet Belle for 85.5 points to finish in a tie for fifth place during Thursday’s first go-round of this year’s NFR. It was worth $6,063. Most importantly, the ride provided the champ a bolt of confidence as he prepares for the final nine nights of the 2022 ProRodeo season. “It is really a big deal to get a check,” he said. “This is probably the toughest set of guys ever coming in here from one to 15. The 15th guy could have won this round; the No. 1 guy in the world could have won this round. “I didn’t do too much; I didn’t do too little. I did exactly what I did with the animal that was underneath me. I think I was only two points off winning this round. I feel really good about it. I felt I did everything to the best of my abilities. That is all I can ask for out of myself.” In the summer of 2021, O’Connell suffered a broken tailbone that had to be removed. Though he was back and able to compete at ProRodeo’s championship event, he wasn’t quite up to his standards. He finally felt good about his riding in July. Then in August, he suffered an injured thumb on his riding hand that required surgery and ended his regular season. He got on seven practice horses to prepare his mind and body for the rigors of the NFR, a 10-round slugfest between the top 15 bareback riders and the top 100 horses. His focus on opening night was on his fundamentals, getting a good start and testing how well his thumb and the rest of his body would adjust. “I knew by the second jump she was going to let me start going,” said O’Connell, who attended Iowa Central Community College and won an intercollegiate national title while competing at Missouri Valley College. “From that point on, when I can get going on the back of a bucking horses and have them picked up and the timing picked up, I can be exposed and can be in control. “I can flash one up a little bit more than others can. That’s just my riding style.” As he prepared for the richest week and a half every year, the Iowa-born cowboy also made sure his equipment was set for the experience. He acquired a new rigging and utilized those practice horses to adjust the apparatus, but something wasn’t right. He made it right by switching back to the rigging he had been using. “When I slid to (the rigging), I knew it was in the right spot,” he said. “I knew my hips were underneath it. From the time I ran my hand in and laid back, this is it. We are golden with this.” Golden is key, because that’s what he wants to be when the season ends in nine days.

LAS VEGAS – When Cole Franks was a youngster, he knew there was something about bucking horses that drove him. His dad, Bret, rode them, competing in saddle bronc riding for years. Bret Franks is a three-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier who now coaches tomorrow’s stars at Clarendon (Texas) College. Naturally, his sons, including older Cole’s brother Clint, followed suit. On opening night of the 2022 NFR, the youngest of the Franks boys was matched with one of the legendary horses in the sport, Pete Carr Pro Rodeo’s Resistol’s Dirty Jacket, a top-three bareback horse for four straight years and a two-time Bareback Horse of the Year. “I love that horse,” Cole Franks said after posting an 85.5-point ride Thursday night to finish in a tie for fifth place. “I’ve loved that horse ever since I was little. He was one of the first horses that I actually knew when I was little. I’d hear Dirty Jacket’s name come on the TV, and it’d pop my attention and I’d be watching.” The first time the two matched up was during the 10th round of last year’s finale, and they also scored 85.5 points together. “I was excited tog et on him last year,” he said. “I was a little more excited this time around. It was a different pen of horses, a different standout.” And it worked out. For his finish, Franks added a little more than $6,000 and pushed his season earnings to $132,489. That’s key; not only does money help cover expenses and pay bills, but dollars equal championship points. The contestants in each event who earn the most money in a given season will be crowned world champions. “That ride felt really good,” Franks said. “I felt like I got a little behind there at the end, but it was still good. He’s a dream to get on. We just want to keep building on it. Tomorrow I will be shooting for higher, better, more every time. You keep pushing to the top until you get there.” He’s been close already. In his rookie season and his first trip to the NFR in 2021, he finished third in the world standings. He is 12th on the money list but has nine more nights to cash in. Each night offers a different challenge, and bareback riders will face the top 100 animals from this year’s season. He will be matched with Rafter G Rodeo’s Ankle Biter on a night when the cowboys will face the semi-eliminator pen of bucking horses. The Round 2 horses will be a big test, but it’s also a stepping stone; the third round features the hardest-to-ride broncs in rodeo. “I have yet to get on Ankle Biter, but I’m excited for that,” he said. “He’s awesome for that pen, too.”

LAS VEGAS – Bareback rider Orin Larsen isn’t known to get off to a good start at the National Finals Rodeo. He opted to change that discussion with an 86-point ride on Harper & Morgan Rodeo Co.’s Sippin’ Firewater to finish fourth in Thursday’s first go-round of ProRodeo’s grand finale. It was the first time since his inaugural trip to the NFR in 2015 that he’s placed in the first go-round. “Placing in the first round hasn’t happened for me in eight years,” said Larsen, 31, of Ingles, Manitoba, now living in Gering, Nebraska. “That is the very last time I made money in the first two or three rounds. “You just try to put that away and still start out with a bang. There are some things I can fix (from tonight), but it is a marathon out here and not a spring. I’m excited to fix what needs fixed and move on.” He may feel a bit broken, but his bank account isn’t. He earned $12,125, which is almost $3,000 more than he earned for placing higher in 2015. That’s how much the money has changed in rodeo, especially at the NFR, which boasts of a $1.4 million purse with go-round winners earning nearly $29,000 a day for 10 December nights. The key for a veteran like Larsen is remaining healthy through the rugged 10 nights of this championship. Riding bucking horses isn’t for the timid. He’s had his share of aches and pains over his career, and this year was no different. “I am pretty healthy relatively speaking,” said Larsen, who won intercollegiate national titles while competing at both the College of Southern Idaho and Oklahoma Panhandle State University. “We’ve all got bumps and bruises, and I’m not 23 years old any more. I feel stuff a little bit more as the years go by, but I feel really good. I’m healthy, and I’m ready to rock and roll this year.” With his earnings, he moved up one spot to 11th in the world standings, but he knows there are nine nights remaining on this season, and he wants to cash in as much as he possibly can. “You can only do so much of what you can do,” he said. “From there, you just let the chips fall where they may. The only thing I’m focusing on is a good spur out and going on from there.” Opening night got the bugs out, but bareback riders will get their first test during Friday’s second round when they face the semi-eliminator pen of bucking horses. He is matched with former Frontier Rodeo’s Full Baggage, a former Bareback Horse of the Year. “That horse has won me a lot of money and made me look really stupid,” Larsen said with a laugh. I was really tickled to know I had him. If there’s one horse I had to pick out of (Tuesday’s) round, it would be that one.”  It’s a good shot to continue his winning ways in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS – It took just one night at the National Finals Rodeo for Jess Pope to jump into the No. 1 spot in the bareback riding world standings. That may be exciting to some, but it’s not to Pope. He can’t control that, so he focuses on the things he can, and that is riding each bucking horse through the 10-round championship the best he can. He definitely did that with an 87-point ride on J-Bar-J Rodeo’s Straight Stick to finish second in the opening go-round. “That’s a young horse of Sparky Dreesen’s, but I thought it was good,” said Pope, 24, of Waverly, Kansas. “There are a lot horses out there like that, and you have to win on all of them. I just showed up and had to do my job. It was a little bit tougher than some of the other horses I’ve been on, but it was still just riding a bucking horse.” He did it better than most. Only six-time world champion Kaycee Feild scored higher, but Pope’s ride was worth $22,851. Those earnings propelled into the lead and past Cole Reiner, with whom Pope has been battling for the top spot through much of the season. “This is a great way to start the NFR,” said Pope, who competed on a rodeo scholarship at Missouri Valley College. “I’ve got nine more rounds, nine more days. I’m just going to keep my head down and keep doing my job.” That tunnel-visioned focus on his own tasks has helped Pope excel every year he’s made the NFR. He is a two-time average champion, the title that goes to the cowboy who posts the best 10-ride cumulative score. This year, the average champion will earn more than $74,000, so it’s a valuable prize. It also enables him to enjoy the rides made by the other 14 competitors as they battle for the Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. “That’s one special thing about the bareback riding is the companionship between us all,” he said. “I love all those guys like they are my brothers. I want to see them all win.  I’d be super happy to see them win.  I’m competing against the animal that I’m there to get on. I can’t control what they’re doing. “I can clap and smile and be happy for them when they get to succeed, and I expect the same thing from them.” He travels the country with fellow bareback riders Tim O’Connell and Cole Franks, both of whom also placed on opening night. “It is fixing to be a good week,” Pope said. “I love my traveling partners to death all year long. They are taking care of me; I’m taking care of them. It is good to feed off each other. It is a good start to the week with all three of us starting strong. Now we just want to build with each other.”