About: Ted

LAS VEGAS – While most people come to this shiny, desert town for fun and frivolity, reigning world champion bareback rider Jess Pope considers it a business trip. He’s definitely doing his job inside the Thomas & Mack Center during the opening two days of the National Finals Rodeo. He has finished third two nights in a row, with his most recent coming after an 84.5-point ride on Rafter G Rodeo’s Ankle Biter. He earned another $18,325 and pushed his NFR earnings to $46,650 – all contestants also receive a $10,000 qualifying bonus. “The nice thing about rodeo is you don’t always have to win first,” said Pope, 25, of Waverly, Kansas. “A guy can’t win first all the time, but you kind of stay under the radar when you’re second or third, and it still pays a ton of money, especially out here.” Pope has pushed his season earnings to nearly $175,000 and has moved up five spots to fifth in the world standings with eight nights remaining in the 2023 campaign. “It’s pretty amazing,” he said. “It’s something a guy works hard for all year, so it’s really nice to be able to get here and get rewarded for it. I got a lot of confidence out of my first-round ride. I’ve been off since October first. I got on two practice horses since then, so it’s always a little nerve-wracking to get on the first one. “It feels good to get it knocked out, and now you just get into a routine and go to work. You ride it and enjoy it while you can.” In addition to his world title a year ago, Pope has won the last three NFR average titles. After just two nights, he is in the aggregate race. It’s way too early to be concerned with that. With go-rounds paying nearly $31,000 to each day’s winners, there are great opportunities to cash in.   Round 3 will feature the hardest-to-ride bucking horses in the game, the eliminator pen. Tensions rise, because the bareback riders realize they’ll be matched with an animal that likes to fight. Las Vegas is the perfect place to host that kind of bout. “You’re always excited getting on, and now we’re going into the eliminator night tomorrow,” Pope said. “That’s always an exciting night.”

LAS VEGAS – Just looking at Big Stone Rodeo’s Fired Up, Richmond Champion felt the nerves creeping up. “He’s kind of intimidating,” said Champion, a bareback rider from Stevensville, Montana. “He looks like there’s a lot going on, but Caleb (Bennett) told me today, ‘Dude, that horse feels so good. He’s fast, and it feels like there’s a ton going on underneath you, but it feels good.’ ” Champion trusted his eye test and chose to just grit his teeth and handle the fight the horse was about to provide. He was a bit stunned when the animal started bucking. “Caleb was right, and that’s exactly what he was,” he said. “He was a big empty, wild jump, and then he was just really fast and hits funny, but he sends your feet. I was trying to be really quick to keep up with him, then all of the sudden, the whistle blows and you’re like, “Whoa, what just happened?’ ” He and Fired Up matched moves for 84 points and finished in a tie for fourth place in Saturday’s second round and pushed his NFR earnings to nearly $27,000 in two days – that money also includes a $10,000 bonus every contestant receives for qualifying. Champion has moved up two spots to 13th in the world standings with $138,527. “I’ve got nothing to lose this year,” he said. “I’m just having fun, and I want to climb that ladder and see what I can do in 10 days.” He missed last year’s championship after having neck surgery in March 2022; neck injuries are a common predicament for bareback riders. He’s been back to work all year, but he made sure to take care of his health to ensure his place among the elite cowboys in the game. “I’m definitely feeling a little tighter through my shoulders today, but that’s very normal for this stage of the NFR,” said Champion, now at his eighth NFR. “I’ve felt way worse here after Day 2 than I do right now. I’m feeling good, and I’ll get a little movement tomorrow beforehand, and then it’s bring on the buckers.” The third round of bareback riding features the eliminator pen, the hardest-to-ride bucking horses in ProRodeo. The intensity changes a bit amongst the top 15 cowboys, because they know they will be in for a heavyweight bout. He’ll work up a little sweat and prepare his mind and body for the fight ahead. Most of all, he’ll enjoy the day with his wife, Paige, and their son, Forrest, who just turned 3 months old. “We finally got him to the point where he’s not supper fussy and it doesn’t take too much to put him to sleep,” said Champion, who has helped calm his baby boy by walking around his Montana house. “Those 40-mile walks a day drastically dropped off at home, then you feel like you’re walking 40 miles around here. “It’s still an awesome experience.”

LAS VEGAS – It wasn’t much, Stephen Culling was able to exhale just a little. It was a sigh of relief, and it matched the intensity he has felt over the first two nights of his first National Finals Rodeo. Culling wrestled his steer to the ground in 4.4 seconds to finish in a tie for sixth place in Saturday’s second round, pocketing $2,476. “The nerves are a little bit higher than your normal rodeo, and the heart’s pounding pretty big in there,” said Culling, 30, of Fort St. John British Columbia. “I’m excited to get in there and get a little better start tonight. I didn’t know that a 4.4 would be good enough to hold on for a check on this kind of steers. “This was supposed to be our softer pen of steers, but I was fortunate enough to sneak in there and grab a check.” Each contestant earned a $10,000 bonus just for qualifying for the NFR, so Culling has pushed his season earnings to $116,502. He’ll have eight more chances to improve upon his annual salary. He just missed out on a paycheck in the opening round. “I’m just happy right now,” he said. “To go out there and be making good runs and win a little bit of money here, then after Round 3, we can have a little more of a game plan and go at them a little more and hopefully win a few bigger checks. “At this point, you always want to be going after it every round, because the rounds pay so good, but getting 10 qualified times is very important, too. My game plan is to try to win in the rounds and just be happy with getting good times and staying consistent.”   Consistency is the key to success in just about any sporting endeavor. Culling has an advantage in Eddie, the 2023 Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year owned by Canadian bulldogger Tanner Milan. “Tanner and I talk a lot, but the game plan never really changes,” Culling said. “You’ve got to go at the barrier; missing the barrier is your biggest enemy.” The start is vital, but steers are allowed a head start. A barrier line is placed in front of the steer wrestler and is released when the animal reaches the point necessary. The right start is having the horse’s chest hit the barrier line as it is released. “You want to know if the steer is going to step right or left or pick his head up, and that’s where you game plan with your hazer. I just want to blow out the barrier every night and try to get as good a start as I can. “ That horse is amazing. I don’t have any confidence problems with him. I know that if I get the start, he takes care of everything else and tries so hard, and he makes it pretty easy.”

LAS VEGAS – While he gets all the glory when things go right and takes the blame when they don’t, J.D. Struxness isn’t competing alone this week. He has a large team that supports him, but also he has a handful to help him, including Ty Erickson, who owns Crush, the horse Struxness is riding, and Matt Reeves, who is hazing while riding his horse, Kirk, an 11-year-old sorrel gelding. That bond is working well so far at the National Finals Rodeo. Struxness placed for the second straight night with a 4.1-second run to finish in a tie for second place during Saturday’s second round. “I thought the steer I had (Saturday) was just OK, but I was able to place on it,” said Struxness of Milan, Minnesota, now living in Perrin, Texas. “I didn’t think 4.1 was going to place that high, but that’s how everything worked out. “The horses worked good. There are a few things to do to clean up the run, but we didn’t make too big of mistakes, so we were able to sneak in there for the money. We’ll take two rounds in a row. His run on Night 2 was worth $21,296 and pushed his season earnings to $156,169. He sits fourth in the world standings and is continuing to build momentum. Part of that is studying his run with an objective eye to decipher what he may do a little better the next time to stop the clock a few ticks faster. “You’ve got to celebrate the victories,” he said. “Then you’ve got to make sure that you pick apart what you did so you can be ready if you run across that situation again and try to capitalize on it a little better. You’ve got to be a bit picky on yourself but not too picky that you drive yourself into the ground.” When the times come that he nods his head to start his run at the Thomas & Mack Center, he knows he can trust his team. Over the few weeks prior to the NFR’s start, Erickson, Reeves and Struxness trained together to make sure they were all on the same page once they arrived in the Nevada desert. “Matt has a nice horse over there, and he does a good job out here in Vegas,” Struxness said of Reeves, an eight-time qualifier who won the 2019 NFR average champion. “We spent a couple of weeks practicing together. We’ve got a feel for each other, know the situations, and I know he’s going to be right there and read us pretty good. “It’s working out well so far, so hopefully the horses and everything keep working like they do. If that happens, it could be a good week.”

LAS VEGAS – The Thomas & Mack Center can be an intimidating place. Those yellow bucking chutes hold thousands of stories that explain rodeo’s history. It’s been a lot like home for Jess Pope, the defending world champion bareback rider from Waverly, Kansas. He’s won the National Finals Rodeo average title at all three of his previous qualifications to ProRodeo’s grand finale. He’s back for a fourth straight year, and he got a good start during Friday’s first go-round, riding Wayne Vold Pro Rodeo’s True Grit for 85 points to finish third. That was worth $18,325 and moved up two spots to eighth in the world standings. In 31 NFR rounds, he’s earned more than $650,000. “It’s comfortable, but it’s still nerve-wracking,” said Pope, 25. “I still had the first-round jitters, but the nice thing is now we’ve got one round knocked out of the way, and it’s time to get in a routine and do our job. “Getting jitters is the way it’s supposed to be. If you’re not nervous and don’t get wound up for this, then you probably ought to just go ahead and hang it up. When you first walk down the hallway here, you see the panels stacked up there, and it just has this smell. When you get here for the first round, all the horses are standing there, and they’re looking at you. The hair on the back of your neck stands up.” That kind of excitement pays off when matched with a top bronc. “They’ve won piles and piles of money on that horse,” Pope said of True Grit. “I think they’ve probably won a round or two on it here, and I know they’ve won multiple rounds at the Canadian Finals. That’s just a really solid horse to have drawn, especially in this pen. It’s like having an old faithful.” There have been plenty of emotions in Las Vegas this week. Two days ago while the contestants were in the Thomas & Mack Arena at UNLV when a man shot four people, killing three. The shootings happened just a few buildings away from the arena, so the 119 contestants and several other personnel were in lockdown for nearly two hours. NFR organizers opted to delay the start of the 10-day championship, and that round will be made up next Wednesday morning and will not be open to the public. The contestants will still have a chance to battle for nearly $31,000 for 10 performances. “One thing about rodeo is no matter what our circumstances are, we’re going to find a way to make something happen,” he said. “We’re going to do the job. It’s heartbreaking to even think about, especially where we were so close. You see these things on TV and think about how horrible those things are, but when you’re this close, you can feel all the emotions. It’s quite scary, to be honest, and really intimidating. “I think Las Vegas, their police, their SWAT force, has done a great job. They do an amazing job and prepare for it, and I’m confident we’re safe.” The show continues, and Pope will make his second-round ride Saturday night. “This will be my third time that I’ve been on that horse,” Pope said. “It’s another old, solid faithful. It probably won’t win the round, but it’s going to give me a good opportunity.”