Bradlee Miller had his work cut out for him during an 84-point ride on Brookman Rodeo’s SOS during Wednesday’s seventh round of the National Finals Rodeo.
(PHOTO BY GREG WESTFALL)

 

LAS VEGAS – The reality of the National Finals Rodeo is that it’s an incredible competition stretched out over a week and a half in the Nevada desert.

It can be grueling, especially for men like Bradlee Miller, who rides bareback horses for a living. This is the sport’s championship event, so it’s meant to be a test for the cowboys that play the game. Miller has certainly been tested.

He rode Brookman Rodeo’s SOS for 84 points to finish fifth during Wednesday’s seventh round, pocketing $9,413. It was just his third paycheck after scratching some money in Rounds 1 and 5, and his Las Vegas total is $36,614. It’s a far cry from what he was doing 12 months ago during his first NFR qualification, when he had earned more than $178,000 through seven nights.

“I almost wish it was flip-flopped a little bit,” said Miller, 22, of Huntsville, Texas. “My expectations last year were low, and I exceeded them by a lot. This year, my expectations are high, and the results have been pretty underwhelming.

“I’ll just keep doing my best. I’ve ridden all my horses the best that I can. It just hasn’t worked out in my favor yet, but my time’s coming. I don’t know if that’s tomorrow or next year, but it’s coming.”

The mind is a powerful tool, and it can be the deciding factor in an athlete’s success.

“It’s frustrating when you watch $37,000 a night slip through your fingers whenever things don’t go your way,” said Miller, who has accrued $244,088 this season and sits seventh in the world standings. “But just to be here in this atmosphere and with this caliber of rodeo athletes, it’s a dream come true, so I try to look at it as if anything on top of that is just a bonus.

“It’s still frustrating, but looking at it that way seems to help.”

It can be trying, and while $36,000 is nothing to sneeze at, it pales in comparison to what Miller has done and what others are doing. Oklahoman Wacey Schalla has placed in six of seven rounds and earned more than $150,000. There are two other cowboys that have earned more than $100k and two others who will likely cross it by the week’s end.

But there are also two cowboys who haven’t reached the pay window yet, so the power of positive thinking has its benefits. Miller has maintained a strong performance, but scores are also based on how well the animal performs. The Texas cowboy has found difficulty with that.

“The best horses in the world are here, but with the best being here, there’s going to be a top end and a bottom end in each of the pens,” he said. “The way the draw works here is we have five pens of horses and 10 rounds. A lot of those horses get bucked a second time. We only pick the better 10 or so horses to buck a second time from each of the first five rounds.

“All of mine that I had in the first five rounds were cut after their first out. We decided not to buck them again, because they were the very bottom of the pen.”

Sports is about two things: Winning or learning.

“There’s a lot of emotion right now because of things not going my way,” Miller said. “I got behind right there at the beginning of my ride (Wednesday), and it took every ounce in me to be able to catch back up to a horse of that caliber. With where I’m at right now, I have nothing to lose. I’m holding nothing back and giving it everything.

“Sometimes that’s what it takes to be able to catch up and scrape away with a check like I did today.”