About: Ted

LAS VEGAS – Garrett Shadbolt had a pretty good idea of what to expect during his first trip to Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo. Now, he’s hoping it continues to pay off. He’s placed in two of the first four rounds, most recently riding Cervi Championship Rodeo’s Guardian Angel for 86 points to finish in a tie for third place in Sunday’s fourth round. That was worth $9,688. At the world’s richest rodeo, it’s important to cash in on as many opportunities as possible. “I feel like I’m really starting to find my stride,” said Shadbolt, 25, of Merriman, Nebraska. “The nerves are getting good, solid. I’m not feeling the pressure like I was the first couple of nights. I’ve got some money in my pocket now, and my foot in the door. I’m starting to get it figured out how it’s going to be here. “I was just happy to get to dress up that horse, show some things I’ve worked on this year that’s gotten me to this point. I did that that horse (Sunday).” The ride pushed his NFR earnings to $41,025 and his annual salary to $137,038; he is ninth in the world standings. With a purse of more than $10 million, he has six more nights on the season to earn as much money as possible. That’s important. In rodeo, dollars equal points, and the contestants in each event with the most money earned when the season comes to a close Saturday night will b e crowned world champions. “This is what I expected as far as the amazing amount of horsepower,” he said. “I haven’t been on a lot of these horses, but I’ve seen a lot of them bucked. Everything you get is something. If you got one at a rodeo, you’d be like, ‘I’m going to win this rodeo.’ “With that mentality, it is a little bit intimidating to try to dress something up, whereas if I was at a rodeo and had that horse, I could probably make a cut-and-dried spur ride and be confident winning. But here, I’m trying to lay it all out on the line and be right up there with the best. I think I did that (Sunday).” He’ll need to continue that. He’s among the top 15 bareback riders in ProRodeo, and this is the sport’s biggest stage. Some of the biggest lessons Shadbolt has learned have come from behind the scenes inside the Thomas & Mack Center. “The bareback riding locker room is the place to be,” Shadbolt said. “I think we are just a great group of guys. I’m proud to say these guys are my friends. It’s kind of a brotherhood; we watch out for each other, the jokes fly and it’s an amazing experience. “I’m just really happy and proud to be part of that.”

LAS VEGAS – Tim O’Connell was in a bit of a different situation at the National Finals Rodeo; he didn’t earn any money in the opening two rounds of this year’s championship. A three-time world champion who has battled for that coveted Montana Silversmiths gold buckle for most of his seven previous qualifications to ProRodeo’s grand finale, he knows how things roll. “I don’t have much to complain about,” said O’Connell, 30, of Zwingle, Iowa, now living in Marshall, Missouri. “I’ve been riding good; I haven’t been riding great. I’ve been drawing good; I haven’t been drawing great. “It’s been a slow start. It hasn’t been bad, but it’s been a slow one.” Things changed a bit during Saturday’s third go-round when he rode Frontier Rodeo’s Ace of Spaces for 85.5 points to finish fifth on the night, pocketing $6,967. It may be just the spark to get his championship engine revving. He pushed his season earnings to $173,023. He’s fourth in the bareback riding standings and has seven more nights to really cash in. “I think I’ve been trying to do a little bit too much and take matters into my own hands instead of just letting things happen, so I’m a little tight, and I take responsibility for that,” he said. “I was a little more freed up (Saturday), and I made a rigging change to something different, and it worked better.” The third round featured the “Eliminator Pen,” the toughest-to-ride bareback horses at the NFR, and Ace of Spades proved to be perfect for the night. “I didn’t now much about her, other than she’s been around forever and might be older than I am,” O’Connell said with a laugh. “She’s a small, black horse and bucked a lot harder than what I gave her credit for. She was good and fired out of there. I could have handled her better off the wall, but I was pretty happy overall with the performance. “It’s also my first check of the week, so I’m pretty happy about it. I’ve just been quiet, unfortunately. I’d rather be a lot louder out here than I am, but the well finally opened up and it’s time to drink. There are still seven rounds to this thing.” While the first couple of rounds were slow, it’s starting to heat up. The days go by faster in the Nevada desert over the next week of competition, and O’Connell hopes to be plugging right into the electricity that builds in Las Vegas. “This is honestly where the finals start flying by,” he said. “You get past the first eliminator pen, then it starts over and the fun ones come back around. It starts back over, and the next thing you know is it’s gone.” Added to that was the fact that Saturday’s ride marked just the seventh time he’s been on a bucking horse since August. He suffered an injury that sidelined him for the final two months of the regular season, and he didn’t return to action until mid-November. While some of the top 15 bareback riders are sore after three rounds of riding, he is as strong as ever. “I went to sports medicine to do some maintenance, but other than that, I feel pretty dang good,” O’Connell said. “I had a four-month break. I feel like I’m still getting back into form and, unfortunately, it’s at the finals. We’re coming back now.”

LAS VEGAS – With age comes wisdom. Even at age 25, Clayton Biglow is mature beyond his years. He proved it Friday night, riding Bridwell Pro Rodeos’ Meat Sweats for 85 points to finish in a tie for fourth place in the second round of the National Finals Rodeo. It was sweet justice after suffering a low score on opening night to find himself at the pay window worth $9,144. “When things don’t go your way in Round 1, you realize you’ve got nine more rounds,” said Biglow, the 2019 world champion bareback rider from Clements, California. “You’ve just got to forget about it. If you get so down on yourself, it’s going to be a long week.” With experience comes wisdom. Biglow has learned a great deal over time. This is his sixth straight NFR, and he’s seen the highs and lows that come with competing in a humbling sport. Two Decembers ago, he left Las Vegas with nearly $250,000 earned in just 10 days and a Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. Last year in Arlington, Texas, he won the fifth round and placed just three other nights. “Last year taught me a lot,” he said. “You just learn to keep going at them like nothing’s going wrong.” He did that on Meat Sweats, which comes from the Bridwell outfit based in Red Bluff, California. “I know a lot about that horse,” said Biglow, who sits No. 4 in the world standings with eight nights remaining in the ProRodeo campaign. “I’ve seen him a whole lot, but I’ve never been on him. He’s pretty hard to ride and has a lot of direction changes. He was dang sure a good one to have in any pen. He’s pretty “It felt good. It wasn’t like I had fun on him, but it felt good to be 85 and get a check.” It was also a good warm-up for Saturday night’s “Eliminator Pen,” which features the toughest-to-ride broncs in bareback riding. Biglow is matched up with Showstopper, a big, bay gelding from Frontier Rodeo. The two matched up for 90 points to win Round 8 of the 2019 NFR. It will be the fourth time the two titans have been matched together in Biglow’s career. “I plan to repeat that last time when we won the round together,” he said. “This is the pen of bucking horses that separates the boys from the men.” A season ago, the NFR moved to Texas because of the pandemic restrictions. It’s return to Las Vegas has been heralded by many in rodeo, including the young California cowboy. “It feels great to be back,” Biglow said. “Being in Texas was awesome and they treated us great, but it’s pretty hard to beat Vegas. Every contestant that’s here today has probably grown up watching the NFR at the Thomas & Mack. “It feels good to be back to our roots.”

LAS VEGAS – It took all of 16 seconds, but Jess Pope has earned a small fortune in Las Vegas. It wasn’t at the blackjack table, no was it rolling craps. He did it the hard way by riding bucking horses at the National Finals Rodeo, and doing it better than every other bareback rider competing at ProRodeo’s grand finale. On Friday night, he won his second straight go-round with an 89.5-point ride on Big Stone Rodeo’s Fired Up. Along with his $10,000 bonus for qualifying, he has pocketed $63,994 in short order. He has moved four spots to No. 2 in the bareback riding world standings, trailing the leader, Texan Tilden Hooper, by just $2,300 with eight nights left in the ProRodeo season. “It’s exciting to be in Vegas,” said Pope, 23, of Waverly, Kansas. “I’ve dreamed about it my whole life. I’m ready to keep it rolling. I like Vegas. A lot of electricity really gets me pumped up to do my job, and I’m enjoying it.” He should. He won the average title a year ago by having the best cumulative score through 10 nights of competition. But that was in Arlington, Texas, the one-time home of the NFR because of the pandemic. It’s a different atmosphere in the City of Lights, and it’s got the young cowboy believing. Walking into the Thomas & Mack Center, the championship’s home since 1985, is something special for Pope, who competed in intercollegiate rodeo at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri. “It’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up,” he said. “This is what you’ve dreamed of since you were a little kid to ride in the Thomas & Mack. When you walk down the tunnel and see all those bucking horses standing down the alley, you get pretty excited. Then you’re standing on the back of the chutes, and they run the NFR flags in, there’s not another experience like it.” Still, he knows what he needs to do to handle business. He makes each day work toward each night, maintaining a simple approach so things go smoothly once he arrives on campus. It helps, of course, that the animal with which he’s drawn is having a good night, too, since the horse accounts for half the score based on a 100-point scale. “I saw that horse one time at Walla Walla (Washington) with Caleb Bennett this year, and I remember leaving there thinking, ‘Oh, my golly, that thing bucked.’ When I saw (the horse’s) name by my name, I was pretty excited. I knew he was going to be one of the stronger ones in the pen. “I just hope to keep the drawing and keep rolling, because it’s working out.” Yes, it is.

LAS VEGAS – Garrett Shadbolt knew he wanted to start his first National Finals Rodeo with a bang. Instead, his first-round ride was more of a thud. Refocused and re-energized, Shadbolt turned things around in a big way Friday night, riding Calgary Stampede’s Yippee Kibitz for 88 points to finish as the runner-up in the second round. “Yesterday didn’t go the way I wanted it to,” said Shadbolt, 25, of Merriman, Nebraska. “I don’t know if it was first-round jitters or what, but I was being really aggressive and was coming with everything I had. That horse threw a dirty move at me, and I spurred over her neck for two jumps. “Today I figured I needed to be a little more cut and dried, a little more precise and a little less wild gap and slap. The horse I got on today was a little stronger, and it worked out for me.” It also helped that his mind was a bit more organized when he nodded his head for his second-round ride. “Believe it or not, it’s a little easy for the NFR to get in your head when you’re on the back of the chutes,” he said with a smile, acknowledging that the atmosphere inside the Thomas & Mack has a special reverberation among those playing at ProRodeo’s grand championship. “There’s a lot of activity going on, and you’re trying to get on a bucking horse, and you’re like, ‘Holy smokes, are we ever going to ride?’ “I’m really happy to make a good ride, and I feel like I’ve got my game plan figured out and my head on straight. I’m really looking forward to the next eight rounds.” That makes for the final eight nights of the ProRodeo season and his last eight chances to cash in as much as possible. By finishing second on Friday, he collected $21,336 and has pushed his season earnings to $127,349; he has moved up two spots to eighth in the world standings. Saturday’s third round will feature the most difficult to ride horses in bareback riding, dubbed the “eliminator pen.” That doesn’t matter to the cowboy from the Nebraska Sandhills, though. “They’re all buckers here, and you can bet anything I’m getting on is going to buck its hardest because I’m about the lightest guy who’s going to get strapped on them,” Shadbolt said. “I’m not worried about it.  I’m just going to show up here and put the iron to whatever I get on.” He’s talking about the spur stroke. Each cowboy is scored based on how well they spur from the horse’s neck back to the rigging in rhythm with the horse’s bucking motion. When each night is over, he’ll return to the house he’s rented for the two weeks he’s in the Nevada desert and spend it with his wife, Katie, nearly 2-year-old son and 10-day-old baby girl. “I get to spend a lot of time with the, and that tickles me, because I’m not working every day like I would when I’m at home,” he said. “I just have to focus on riding one really good bucking horse a day, and the rest of the time I get to spend with my family.”