It’s been five years since Riley Duvall has competed inside those yellow chutes and panels at the Thomas & Mack Center, but he will return to the National Finals Rodeo for the fifth time in his career. He is the fifth member of the Duvall family to compete in Las Vegas.
(PRCA PHOTO BY ROD CONNOR)
CHECOTAH, Okla. – Riley Duvall knows better than anyone that most of his rodeo career is behind him.
That’s what makes the 2026 campaign so special. Duvall finished the regular season with $128,751, good enough for 10th in the world standings and a return to the National Finals Rodeo for the fifth time.
“I’m probably more excited now than I was the first year I made it in 2016,” said Duvall, 34, a third-generation steer wrestler from Checotah. “I didn’t make the finals for four years in a row; I should have made them last year and came up short. You get that feeling that you’re still good enough, but the fact that you hadn’t made them four years in a row sure is in the back of you’re mind.
“You don’t feel like you’re ever going to get back there, so, to get over the hump this year and get it done means a lot. I wish Round 1 started tomorrow.”
He’ll have to wait. ProRodeo’s grand finale, which features a record purse of nearly $14.3 million, takes place over 10 nights beginning Dec. 3 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The arena has been the host of the championship since 1985. That NFR featured Riley’s great uncle, Roy Duvall, a three-time world champion and 24-time qualifier.
Riley Duvall is carrying on a strong tradition that includes his being the fifth member of the family to have advanced to the NFR, including his father, Sam; uncle, Spud; and cousin, Tom. He lives in Checotah, an eastern Oklahoma community of 3,100 that has been dubbed the “Bulldogging Capital of the World.”
“I already feel more relaxed going into this year’s NFR than I ever have,” said Duvall, who credits part of his success to his sponsors, Cinch, Cowhorse Supply and the City of Checotah. “I don’t know if that’s just the confidence I have in my horses and my hazer and the fact that I’ve been practicing a lot better or if it’s something else.
“I feel like I bulldogged good this year, and this is the first time going into Vegas where I feel confident on every angle going in there.”
Everything about his season received a boost in July, when he won the Calgary (Alberta) Stampede, reeling in $62,500 in Canadian dollars. Of that, $50,000 counted toward the world standings.
“When I left Calgary, I was at $94,000, and I figured if I got to $120,000, I was safe to make the finals,” he said. “Winning Calgary took the pressure off for just a week or two, but then it hit right back. I tried to keep the pressure on myself and fell like I was always behind and always chasing in a sense. I’ve been there before and felt safe, and then I got bumped out. I didn’t take the pressure off, but I tried to pretend I was still outside the top 20 and going like crazy trying to get back in.”
Only the top 15 on the money list at the conclusion of the 2026 regular season advance to the sport’s grand finale. He will do so in a season that saw him celebrate some familial landmarks. He won the Alberta bronze six decades after Roy Duvall won Calgary.
“I guess Roy made his first finals in 1966, and that was 60 years ago, too,” Riley Duvall said. “I just like to do the math, and there’s been a Duvall at 35 of the last 60 NFRs. Any time I can do good, I feel like I’m representing all the guys that came before me and putting their name back out there again.”
His grandfather, Bill Duvall, never qualified for the finals, but he was at plenty of them. He was Roy’s hazer and a guiding force for all the others. He died in July 2025 but left a legacy that lives through the generations that have followed. That’s something Riley Duvall shares with his family, including his wife, Megan, and their children, a daughter, Chaney, 11, and a son, Cruz, 5.
That trio not only serves as motivation but also serves as a reminder of great things waiting for him in Checotah. It makes those expensive flights and long drives back home easier to manage when he knows he’ll spend time with them.
“My family’s always been such a huge help to me in literally ever way, whether it’s just bulldogging or life in general,” he said. “Any time you can have a successful year and make the finals, it shows them, ‘Hey, your time and effort that you put into me wasn’t wasted.’ I feel like I make them proud in a sense.”
Duvall has been doing this all his life. Wrestling steers is not just in his legacy; it’s also in his blood. He turned pro 16 seasons ago and has seen the changes made over time. The biggest among them are the financial rewards that come with playing the game on a high level. When he made his first NFR a decade ago, he finished the regular season with $61,117. That amount would be 35th on the money list this year, and he’s nearly doubled it.
He’s not only ridden that wave, but Duvall has been part of discussions on how to improve earnings opportunities for competitors as the steer wrestling representative. In that role, he represents other bulldoggers, offering their voice while reporting to the PRCA board.
“The money was so hard to get when I first made the NFR,” Duvall said. “Back then, you were going to rodeos that were adding $3,000 (per event in local sponsorship dollars) like crazy, and you thought they were good. Rodeo’s gotten so good now that if it doesn’t add $10,000 or more or it isn’t a big rodeo in your circuit, you don’t even go. It’s great for the guys that are going and winning, but even he guys that are 20th-30th (in the standings) should not be losing money the way rodeo is now.
“We had 90-something rodeos that added $10,000 or more this year, and we can only go to 85 rodeos. Mathematically, you can’t even go to every rodeo that has $10,000 in added money.”
Over time, he has learned more about the game and about himself. He’s always ridden good horses, and he has that with Dr. Pepper, a blaze-faced bay he hauls but is owned by fellow steer wrestler Trever Nelson and his wife, Cierra. The two have history together; Duvall rode Dr. Pepper at the 2021 NFR.
“That horse had been turned out almost all last year, and in January, I called Trever and said, ‘I’m in a bind and need a horse,’ ” said Duvall, who will enlist NFR veteran Kyle Irwin as his hazer. “We started in January, and it took me realistically until late March or early April before he was in rodeo shape running steers like he’s supposed to be. At about that time, I started really winning.
“My year took off.”
So did Duvall. After a little stretch of limited success, he found his winning ways, thanks in large part to that Calgary bronze.
“I’ve gotten older, and I feel smarter about my bulldogging,” he said. “If I needed to win third or fourth, I just went and did my job and won third or fourth instead of trying to press it. Once that horse got into rodeo shape and I started bulldogging better, everything just clicked at once. Getting on him made a big difference.
“I had a great hazing horse, Wimpy, that Casey Stone loaned me, and that horse was a game-changer, too.”
Being well-mounted is huge, but so is confidence. Duvall has both heading to Las Vegas.