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ARLINGTON, Texas – It wasn’t pretty, but it worked out for Mason Clements during the second coming of the “Eliminator Pen” of bareback horses at this year’s National Finals Rodeo. Clements managed to get by Mental Illness of the Sankey Pro Rodeo and Phenom Genetics string for 77 points to tie for sixth place for the second straight night, this time for Thursday’s eighth go-round. The nastiest horses in the game are done, and many of the cowboys are breathing a sigh of relief to not have to face them again. That’s not necessarily the Utah cowboy. “It’s a relief and it isn’t, because I want redemption, and I want it now,” said Clements, who added another $2,115 to push his NFR earnings to $36,654. “You go all year long to come here to have a shot at those horses for the right amount of money and the right stage. I just hope I have them again at a big rodeo in the season or back at the NFR again next year.” It was a tough night for most of the bareback riders. Six cowboys failed to get a score, and two others were jerked around like rag dolls. The seven that managed to make better rides all collected NFR cash. “Everything damn sure bucked,” Clements said. “Jess Pope had a pretty nice horse compared to how the rest of the field went, but he still had to do his job. Everything was on fire. I’m pretty sure my horse ate half the plywood in the alley before we got her in the chute. “They were a bunch of fire-breathing dragons in the field. I haven’t seen that many guys miss markouts or get bucked down in a long time out of the 15 of us. This is crazy. Anything can happen at the finals.” He arrived at Globe Life Field early Thursday to work on his rigging. He hoped it would help him perform better. The rank horses were tough enough, but trying to do it with a worn out, yet important, piece of equipment made things a big tougher. He will finish the final two nights with a new rigging. “When they’re new, they’re a little tight,” said Clements, a three-time NFR qualifier from Spanish Fork, Utah. “When it’s dried and cured, it’s really solid like a piece of wood. I’ve stretched it out some, and I’ll stretch it out again before I ride in the ninth round. “I’ll just pull it down tight, then you go in and squeeze your hand and nod your head.” Getting past the eliminators is still an accomplishment, and he takes great pride in still being healthy and in good shape for the final two horses of a rough 2020 season. “It’s a big mental game when it comes to the best, buckingest horses in the world,” he said. “The third and eighth rounds were those horses. You’ve got to do it if you want to crown a world champion. At least when it’s here, we have time to rest and recover, and a lot of times, we don’t get that.” He likened his ride on Mental Illness to being part of a Fourth of July celebration, only different. “She felt like a fireworks mortar, but you don’t put it in the tube; you just set it on the ground and don’t give it any guidance,” Clements said. “She wasn’t out of control, but she sure made me work for it with her moves, going back and forth and turning back to the left.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – The smile on Jess Pope’s face won’t be leaving anytime soon. On Thursday night, Pope matched moves with Calgary Stampede’s Xplosive Skies for 89 points to win the sixth round of the National Finals Rodeo, pocketing $26,231 in the process. It was his first go-round victory at his first NFR qualification, and he realized early how special that moment is. “It is pretty awesome to win a round here,” he said. “It makes you smile 24/7, and it’s just humbling and makes me grateful. “My main goal going into the victory lap was to not fall off the horse. That’s what Tim (O’Connell) yelled at me right before we went around, ‘Just don’t fall off.’ It was really fun, and I can’t even put it into words.” Thursday’s list of horses was the “Eliminator Pen,” the hardest-to-ride broncs in the game, and they proved it. Six cowboys failed to make the whistle, which is uncommon in bareback riding, even for these types of horses. But Pope and Xplosive Skies got along very well. With the big score, the Kansas cowboy moved into the No. 1 spot in the average with a cumulative score of 681 points on eight rides. He is 5.5 points ahead of O’Connell, his traveling partner who sits second in the aggregate but first in the world standings. “This put me in the race for the world title, and I’m leading the average,” Pope said. “God’s got a plan, and I’m just glad the plan is this. It’s positive and going to be great for me.” He pushed his NFR earnings to $82,417. If he maintains his spot in the average, he’ll pocket a bonus of $67,269. For now, though, he’s sitting at $132,029, which is good enough for fifth in the world standings. It’s all thanks to a powerful Canadian bucking horse. “Xplosive Skies is a great horse,” he said. “I’ve been on her once in the short round of Fort Worth. She really bucks, and she’s really electric. She wants you off your rigging really bag. It’s like a big ol’ fist fight. She really wants to back you in the corner, and you really got to fight your way out of it. “If she hits you, you’ve got to hit her back.” Pope landed the haymaker.

ARLINGTON, Texas – In just two nights, steer wrestler Tanner Brunner has produced his best National Finals Rodeo appearance to date. A big part of that came Thursday, when he stopped his steer in 3.7 seconds to finish as the runner-up in the eighth go-round. For that, he pocketed $20,731. It was his best run of his best round in 28 performances at ProRodeo’s grand finale. “I knew that steer was a good chance going in,” said Brunner, 27, of Ramona, Kansas. “After last night, I settled in and wanted to capitalize again tonight. Things worked out.” Yes, they did. He was only one-tenth of a second behind round winner Blake Knowles of Oregon, and it came at a great time. After starting the first six nights without placing, Brunner hit the pay window for nearly $16,000 Wednesday by finishing third in the seventh round. That helped bring comfort to the cowboy, who was looking for a shot to battle through the adversity the NFR has offered him. In his first qualification in 2018, Brunner placed just one time and earned just $3,667 in 10 nights. He also received a $10,000 bonus for the qualification. A year ago, he placed in two rounds and left Las Vegas with $34,962. With two nights remaining in the ProRodeo season at Globe Life Field, he has already pocketed $46,385. A big part of that comes from riding Miss Kitty, a horse he acquired in the last year. “She leaves the box as hard as any horse if not harder, but she’s easy in the box,” Brunner said, referring to his starting spot behind the timed-event chute. “She’s easy in the field. She just makes my job so much simpler. She is just so solid every time that I don’t have to worry about what horse I’m on or what she is going to do.” That’s a dandy partner to have, and so are the other two members of the team, hazer Cole Edge and Brunner’s hazing horse Slick. Their collaboration is paying off, and he hopes it continues. “I’m just out her going after a go-round victory every night and see where I end up from here,” Brunner said. “There is a sigh of relief and kind of finding a groove that you can get it. I’m going to try to blast the barrier (the start) every night and make a quick run.” It happened in Rounds 7 and 8, so two more should work just fine.

ARLINGTON, Texas – It’s not often that a cowboy can earn money at the National Finals Rodeo and not be happy about it. That’s exactly what happened Thursday for saddle bronc rider Wyatt Casper, who rode Andrews Rodeo’s Brutus for 82.5 points to finish sixth in the eighth go-round, earning $4,231. Meanwhile, his closest competitor for the world-title race, Ryder Wright, won the round and pocketed $26,231. With that, Wright moved into the lead in the world standings, while Casper fell to second, $9,253 behind the leader with two nights remaining in the 2020 ProRodeo season. “I should have ridden that horse a little better,” Casper said of Brutus. “That is a really strong, fast horse, and I did all I could to hang on to him the first couple of jumps. He was on his A game, and I wasn’t. I was s touch behind, then he had those moves, and I was trying to hold on to them. Finally, I could let go and do a little bit of swinging.” Based on a 100-point scale, the horse earns half the points by how well it bucks. The cowboy earns points by spurring the animal from the neck to the cantle of the saddle in rhythm with the animal’s bucking motion. “It’s tough, because you can really feel those moves on a horse like that,” he said. “To not hang one side and then the other side is pretty tough. You are trying to go at him every jump, trying to get as many points as you can. I was really lucky to get this horse down. That’s all I was really going for tonight was to stay in the average. Luckily, we got him down. Casper is second in the average race with 602.5 points on seven rides. Wright has ridden all eight horses for a cumulative score of $698.5. Even if Wright is bucked off one of the next two nights, he’ll still hold the aggregate advantage. There are several ways for Casper to ride off with the world title, and part of that happens in the go-rounds. “I have nothing to lose at this point, so I’m going to go for the go-rounds and see what happens,” Casper said.

ARLINGTON, Texas – In the rough-and-tumble world of bareback riding, Thursday night at the National Finals Rodeo is as tough of a day as any throughout each year. “It was a scary day to be a bareback rider,” Orin Larsen said while talking about facing the “Eliminator Pen” of bucking horses for the second time in eight days. “This is one of those pens you have to have. It’s going to separate your world champions from the rest of the field. For those guys that got jerked down, it definitely wasn’t for a lack of effort. It is just that way, and I just happened to come out on top.” By on top, he means he escaped the monsters. There are times cowboys have to slay dragons, and Larsen did that with an 85-point ride on Beutler & Son Rodeo’s Redigo. For that, he pocketed $13,327 and pushed his season earnings to $141,949, of which $60,558 have come over the last 10 days in ProRodeo’s grand championship at Globe Life Field. “Beutler horses are known to get a few bags of ice on your arms afterwards,” he said, talking about the battle between man and horse, especially on the toughest-to-ride broncs in the game. “I have been on that horse before. He’s really uphill, long and strong. Those stronger horses are what I like to think I thrive on. I’m just happy to get some money.” There was a time at this NFR that he thought that might not be possible. He didn’t place in the first five rounds, but he’s been hot over the last three nights. That’s where all but the $10,000 bonus for qualifying have come from. He earned $11,000 in Round 6, then won Round 7 before falling to third on Thursday. “We need to work on the first and second half together; we need to coordinate those two,” he said with a laugh. “There are still two rounds left, and that is still a lot of rodeo.” Larsen sits fourth in the world standings and fifth in the average race, the latter of which will pay a bonus for having one of the best cumulative scores through 10 nights at the NFR. His combatants over the final two nights of the 2020 season won’t be near as scary than what he and the other bareback riders faced Thursday night. If there’s a gold buckle in my future this year, I’ll be pretty happy,” said Larsen of Inglis, Manitoba, now living in Gering, Nebraska. “Right now, I’m just spurring bucking horses.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – There was a bit of trepidation inside the bareback rider locker room prior to Thursday’s eighth go-round at the National Finals Rodeo. It was time for the “Eliminator Pen,” the nastiest bucking horses in the game, and the best of them were situated at Globe Life Field ready to release a bit of torment. Nobody came out unscathed, but some were worse off than others. “It’s a big sigh of relief in that locker room after those horses are done,” said Tanner Aus, who rode Calgary Stampede’s Soap Bubbles for 85 points to finish tied for third place in the round. “I’ve gotten on him a couple of times before. It has always been alright. That is the best score I’ve ever had on that horse, so that was good. “She was pretty honest. She just came out of the chute around to the right and bucked right down in front of the chutes. It was no day off, but it felt good.” She wasn’t the first Calgary bronc to have a good day at the Texas NFR. Where some horses have struggled to perform at their best inside the complex built primarily for the Texas Rangers, the Canadian horses have generally excelled. The cowboys have attributed that to the horses being energized after not bucking at rodeos since March. “They are pretty fresh and seems like everything they brought has been firing,” said Aus, a five-time NFR qualifier from Granite Falls, Minnesota. “I’ve gotten on two of them so far in eight nights, so I’m thankful for that. “That horse has a little different trip than the last time I got on her. I think that was in 2016. She’s still a good one for this pen.” It’s always a benefit to the cowboys when the horse underneath them is performing well. Half the score goes to the animal, so in order to be in the mid- to upper-80s, the bareback riders know the importance of a solid mount. “I think some stuff that is hard to ride on any given day is harder to ride here,” he said, referring to Globe Life Field. “This is a great big arena, and it’s just another variable thrown into the mix. It’s a tough night of bareback riding, and it always is. I’m very thankful that it went well for me.” Aus has placed in four rounds so far but still earned $81,077 at the NFR. He has pushed his season earnings to $142,802 and sits third in the world standings with just two nights remaining. “I haven’t been paying attention to that,” Aus said. “Don’t ever take your foot off the gas. It doesn’t always go the way you plan, but I have been very thankful for my time here. I’m staying focused and feeling good after eight rounds.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – Every athlete understands the need for a little bit of practice. Fundamentals are a vital part of success. Ryan Jarrett took that to heart, even during the National Finals Rodeo. Since he’s commuting from his Comanche, Oklahoma, home every day, he decided Thursday was a good day to tune himself and his horse, Snoopy. That night, they stopped the clock in 7.8 seconds to finish third in the eighth round of tie-down roping at Globe Life Field. “I changed some things up today; I changed my underwear and my boots,” Jarrett, a 13-time NFR qualifier originally from Summerville, Georgia, said with a laugh. “I roped at home today. I mixed it up a little bit. I’m a little bit superstitious on some things, so hopefully that will make a little bit of difference.” The 280-mile daily round-trip is nothing new to rodeo cowboys, who essentially travel for a living getting from one rodeo to another. It allows him the chance to rest in his own home and handle his business before he makes his way to compete at ProRodeo’s biggest annual event. Most nights, he drops Snoopy off at Outlaw Equine on the way home and picks up the gelding on the way back to Arlington. That also changed Wednesday night. “There’s a good chance he’ll go home with me tonight, too,” he said. “The practice session went good. I guess I needed it and he needed it. Maybe we both needed a change in the atmosphere a little bit, and this gave us a chance to get dialed in a little more and be ready to win something.” Jarrett placed in the fourth and fifth rounds, then missed placing the next two nights. His Wednesday night run, though, became viral after he through his rope backhanded and caught the calf, stopping the clock in 11.4 seconds. “I have a bad habit that if I ever over-and-under my horse (with the rope), when I pull it back up, I swing it backwards and rope the calves,” Jarrett said. “It was not for show by no means. It’s not the first time I’ve ever done it at a ProRodeo, but it is for the NFR. Nobody in his right mind would do it.” Even though Jarrett doesn’t have a social media account, he heard all about it, even the Tik Tok that has had several thousand views over just a few hours. For now, though, the focus is less on a backhanded throwing motion and more on what he can do the final two nights of the 2020 season. Jarrett has caught all eight of his calves and sits fifth in the aggregate race.  He’s also earned nearly $47,000 in just three nights of placing. “It feels real good,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll slide in here and get a little more (Friday) and Saturday and call it a success.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – On the eve of Canada Night at the National Finals Rodeo, bareback rider Orin Larsen and a Calgary Stampede bucking horse decided to celebrate early. “I’ve been on that horse in 2018 in the short round of Pendleton (Oregon), and I actually ended up winning Pendleton on him,” said Larsen, who rode Yippee Kibitz for 90 points to win Wednesday’s seventh go-round. “All these Calgary horses have had all this time off with no rodeos up in Canada. They are fresh, and they are all really wanting to do their job. “I knew when I had a Calgary horse by my name that I definitely had a shot.” Yes, he did, and he still needs it. Larsen entered this year’s championship No. 3 in the standings, but after missing the pay window for the first five rounds, he dropped as low as ninth. After making good in Rounds 6 and 7, the Inglis, Manitoba, cowboy has shot back up to fifth with $128,622. In just two nights’ work, he has pocketed $37,231 at the NFR. “I’m just happy to get a check at this point,” he said, showcasing a wide grin that indicated as much. “I take full responsibility on the calls I’ve made. We all took great horses to the NFR, and everybody is riding outstanding. To say it has come down to a drawing contest at the NFR is unheard of, but that’s what it’s come down to. “They are great horses, but everyone is just riding good.” On Wednesday, nobody rode better than Larsen, who now lives in Gering, Nebraska. He and the other 118 contestants are competing at Globe Life Field – home of the Texas Rangers baseball team – for the first time because the global pandemic forced the event to move away from Las Vegas this year. That’s an adjustment for everyone, including the bucking horses. “I think it’s affecting a lot of horses this year,” said Larsen, who earned $26,231 for his round victory. “Compared to smaller rodeos and smaller arenas, a lot of these horses are never in and out of your kind of Globe Life Field, which is just gigantic. It will play on a horse. “Those older horses that buck and are really good … they will do their job every time, but the younger horses that don’t quite have it figured out, well, it might toy on them. It didn’t bother Yippee Kibitz.” It’s showing in the scores. Wednesday’s featured fairly low totals for a typical NFR. Most years, it takes at least 85 points to earn a check in bareback riding; two Utah cowboys, Mason Clements and Kaycee Feild, finished tied for sixth place with 80.5-point rides, while an 85.5 from Winn Ratliff was second. Through his trials and tribulations and a delayed kickstart to his NFR, Larsen has maintained a positive outlook. “This is still the NFR,” he said. “We are getting on great horses with your pals for good money, and that’s pretty hard to beat. I’m still having fun. This makes it a little more special and enjoyable.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – No matter what happened during the first six nights of the National Finals Rodeo, Tanner Brunner kept his head in the game. There were three nights when his time was too long for him to cash in. He also suffered a broken barrier, which added a 10-second penalty to an otherwise solid run, and he had two no-times. Each night, though, he’d erase his memory of them and focus on the tasks at hand. It paid off, and he stopped the clock in 3.8 seconds Wednesday night to finish third in the seventh go-round. That was worth $15,654 and was his first paycheck of this year’s finale. “It can be trying at times,” said Brunner of Ramona, Kansas. “You just have to stay consistent, believe in the system, that you belong here and you have done the work and everything necessary to win. You’ve worked all year and past years to get here, and you belong here. “I had a great steer tonight and was glad to manage that and use him.” Times have been fast at this NFR. There were eight men who posted runs of 4.0 seconds or faster, and they all earned money – three cowboys finished in a tie for sixth place to extend the payout a bit, but those three pocketed less than 10 percent of Brunner’s nightly wage. But Brunner hasn’t always had the best opportunities. He had to take some chanced with less-than-ideal cattle, and he took the consequences that came with it. “That’s rodeo,” he said, referring to how cowboys are matched with their animals by random draw. “When it’s your turn, you will get a good one. You just have to stay ready. When it’s your turn, you need to capitalize on it.” Brunner pushed his season earnings to $72,539 and sits 13th in the world standings, but that also is a testament to how tough the competition has been. He has just three more nights to add to his bank account. “You’ve got the best bulldoggers in the world here,” Brunner said. “The stock is great. We’ve got all the atmosphere and everything. It just turned out to be a good bulldogging tonight. And he was right in the middle of it.

ARLINGTON, Texas – It’s taken three nights for Jess Pope to find his way back to the pay window at the National Finals Rodeo. It’s part of being one of the 15 best bareback riders in rodeo; there are 14 other guys chasing those same dollars, and everyone is riding like it. “I feel like I’m riding better than I ever have,” said Pope, 22, of Waverly, Kansas. “I’m just not worried about the money too much. I’m riding bucking horses and living the dream. When you go to focusing on the money, it’s going to affect your riding. I’m just taking care of my job. “They pay me to ride them. They don’t pay me to write the scores down. I’m really happy with how my finals is going. I’m riding very consistent, strong, and I’m ready for these last three just to see how it pans out.” On Wednesday night, he rode Beutler & Son Rodeo’s Bar Talk for 83.5 points to finish in a tie for third place in the seventh go-round. It was worth $13,327 and pushed his NFR earnings to $56,186. He now sits 10th in the world standings with $105,798, but there’s a kicker: He’s third in the average race with 592 cumulative points on seven rides. Should he remain in that position through the final night, he’ll add a bonus of $43,154 to his NFR paycheck. He just needs to stay as consistent as he has been to collect the money in the average. If he keeps matching up against animals of Bar Talk’s caliber. “I’ve seen that horse go quite a bit,” he said, noting that he hadn’t been on that particular Bennie Beutler bronc. “All of Bennie’s horses buck, but they ride good. I was excited to see my name beside him. Tim (O’Connell) won Burwell (Nebraska) on him two years ago, and I saw Blaine Kaufman win Burwell on him this year.” Beutler horses are well known for how hard they buck, but that doesn’t seem to bother the Kansas cowboy. “They’re up and down, but they’re bucking horses,” Pope said. “You just bury your chin, keep your shoulders back and let them hit you in the back (with their rumps as they buck). As long as you’re hitting them back, it’s fine. “I like getting on those horses. It was a good horse, and it felt good for me.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – John Aus isn’t new to this bareback riding thing; he was a pretty handy cowboy about three decades ago, but he’ll be the first to say good things about his son. Tanner Aus is at the National Finals Rodeo for the fifth time in his career. John never played on a stage this big, though he was a circuit champion in his time – that’s still quite a feat. His son is now 30, and he is an annual contender for the biggest prize in the game, the Montana Silversmiths gold buckle awarded to the world champion. “He is always quick with a reminder,” Tanner Aus said of his dad, just moments after posting an 83.5-point ride on Sankey Pro Rodeo & Phenom Genetics’ Irish Eyes to finish in a tie for third place in Wednesday’s seventh round of the National Finals Rodeo. “He’s a big proponent of fundamentals, too. If I am ever struggling with something, he can pick it out in a heartbeat because it’s just something that I’m not doing. He can give me a simple reminder on those fundamentals, and it usually sticks. That’s the way we carry-on.” It’s often helpful. For his work Wednesday, Aus pocketed $13,327 and pushed his NFR earnings to $67,750. He is third in the world standings with $129,476 and is a contender for the world title with three nights remaining in the 2020 season. Irish Eyes was just the right horse to get him back to the pay window for just the third time, but he’s making big money each time he places. “Some pens of horses are more fun than others,” he said. “The thing that carries a guy through is your fundamentals. The tougher the horse, the closer you’ve got to stick to those fundamentals. It’s not always pretty, but that is the way you’ve got to approach it.” He will be tested in Thursday’s eighth round, which features the second coming of the “Eliminator Pen.” He will be matched with Calgary Stampede’s Soap Bubbles, which bucked off Winn Ratliff in the third round. By definition, the eliminators are the hardest-to-ride horses in the game. He’ll utilize everything he knows about horses to master one of the nasty animals in ProRodeo. “You’ve got to keep your composure, especially when you’re in the chute,” Aus said. “If you’re calm, the horse is typically going to be calm. We know these horses good enough. If you don’t know what it is, you can ask somebody else, and they can tell you what your horse is going to be like in the chute, in the arena and what they’re going to feel like.” Any advantage a competitor can get can be helpful, especially when the foe is a 1,200-pound bucking beast.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Richmond Champion has been here before. Through seven nights of the National Finals Rodeo, he sits in contention for the prize he most covets: a world championship. To look at him, there is no worry or trepidation. He’s a man on a business trip, and his work involves riding bareback horses. He’s pretty good at it, too, having qualified for ProRodeo’s grand finale six times in seven years – the only year he missed was 2015, and injuries left him on the sidelines a little too long to put him into the top 15 when the regular season ended. At this year’s NFR, he’s placed in just four rounds so far, but he’s snagged some nice paychecks. He won the opening round last Thursday, then placed again on the third and fourth nights. He earned another payout Wednesday, when he rode Big Stone Rodeo’s Mayhem for 81.5 points to place fifth, worth $6,769. Still, he’s ridden consistently each night, and it shows. He is tied for first in the average race with 594 cumulative points on seven rides. That could be a big bonus in the end, but he’s already clinched $62,321. “It’s a marathon,” said Champion, who grew up in The Woodlands, Texas, and now lives in Stevensville, Montana, with his, Paige. “You’ve got to take the good with the bad. I feel like I’ve done a good job of placing on horses that normally don’t get placed on, taking advantage when they give me a chance. “The last two nights were a little bit of a lull, but I feel like I was riding good through those two rides, so I just tried to focus on that.” He’s got three more nights remaining in his 2020 campaign to see where it all takes him. If he remains at or near the top of the aggregate race, then he’s looking at a substantial bonus when the NFR ends Saturday night. “Three rounds are a long time,” he said. “My goal tonight was to just stay focused, don’t worry about the average, don’t worry about the world standings. I wanted to win some money, and we did that.” After the third cowboy to ride Wednesday night, Champion knew his chances of winning the round had been diminished. Canadian Orin Larsen scored 90 points on a Calgary Stampede bucking horse named Yippee Kibitz to win the round. After seeing that ride happen knew he and Mayhem had a big uphill climb. It was Mayhem’s second trip at this year’s NFR; he bucked off Jake Brown in the second round last Friday. “We have to take horses back a second time, and sometimes they’re not as good the second time,” Champion said. “After I watched Orin’s ride, I looked down at Mayhem in the chute and said, ‘Let’s just do our best today.’ “That’s a great little horse. He’s ranch-raised by Bruce Sundstrom (of Big Stone Rodeo), and I’ve seen him a lot. He didn’t have his best day, but it was still fun.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – For a young man in the middle of a world-title race, Wyatt Casper isn’t too concerned about the things outside of his control. He’s handling it like a veteran, and that’s a good thing. “Toward the beginning of the week, I had been staying focused on the standings, looking at the money, looking at it all,” said Casper, who rode Calgary Stampede’s Y U R Friskey for 85.5 points to finish in a tie for sixth place in Wednesday’s seventh go-round of the National Finals Rodeo. “I hadn’t had very good luck the last couple nights, so I stopped looking at that. I’m just going to stick to having fun. If it goes our way, it goes our way. There’s not a whole lot I can do about it if I don’t draw the best horses.” While he collected cash – $2,115 for sharing the same score with the No. 2 man, Ryder Wright – it wasn’t what he was hoping for with the Canadian bucking horse. “I’ve been on it at Fort Worth (Texas) this year, and I was 88.5,” Casper said. “It didn’t go quite as good, but he felt a little stronger than what he did the last time. I was pretty lucky to get by him. He kind of got me bucked off by the fourth jump. I got sat back down, and it felt good.” That’s the nature of saddle bronc riding. There’s nothing but stirrups and a rein that holds a cowboy down on the animal as it jumps, bucks and kicks, and matching that with the spurring motion the cowboy tries to make in rhythm with the horse can allow for some wild experiences. Lifting on the rein can help the cowboy more than anything. Another piece of the puzzle is the bronc, which receives half the score. When animals don’t perform up to par, then scores get dropped. Casper was just 82.5 points Tuesday night and finished a few spots out of the money. Still, he’s ridden six of seven horses he’s mounted and sits third in the average race with 520 cumulative points. The men above him in the aggregate have ridden all seven horses. “I felt like that horse (Tuesday) night was probably at the bottom of the pen,” he said regarding the random draw out of the 15 horses that were bucked in the round. “We’re just trying to keep getting horses down. It will fall where it falls. “I feel like I’m riding at the top of my game. We just hope we start running some really good horses under us and pick up a couple more first-place checks.” Casper has earned nearly $91,000 in seven nights of riding at Globe Life Field. He’s still No. 1 in the world standings with $235,946, but Wright has gained ground; Wright is less than $13,000 behind and sits first in the average. “I’m just going to stay focused,” said Casper of Miami, Texas. “I’m going to take it night by night and just stick to the game plan of riding them all as good as I can.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – There’s nothing quite like feeling rushed when a world championship is on the line. That was the case for steer wrestler Jacob Edler, who felt a little pressure prior to his 3.9-second run during Wednesday’s seventh go-round of the National Finals Rodeo at Globe Life Park in Arlington. His steer wasn’t cooperating in the chute, and Edler was waiting him out. It paid off, and the State Center, Iowa cowboy, pocketed another $8,885 by finishing tied for fourth place in the round. “I sat in the (timed-event) box for about a minute and a half because that steer would not look straight out the chute,” he said. “He kept turning his head back and forth; the steer has to be down for the stopwatch to stop. Time was running out, and they were about to turn the steer out. Right at the last second, I nodded. “Everything else worked out pretty good.” Yes, it did. Not only did Edler earn money for the fifth time in seven nights at ProRodeo’s grand championship, he also moved up a spot to No. 1 in the all-important average race, which will pay a bonus of $67,269 when the NFR concludes Saturday night. He has wrestled seven steers to the ground in a cumulative time of 30.7 seconds and owns a six-tenths-of-a-second advantage over the previous leader, Stetson Jorgensen, with whom Edler shared the Round 6 title. “I don’t pay any attention to that,” Edler said. “I’m just going to keep bulldogging.” That approach has worked out well. When his horse, Ditto, started to veer away from the steers during his runs, Edler made some risky jumps and still earned money in three rounds. He made a horse change prior to the sixth round, and he’s pocketed more than $32,000 in two nights since. More importantly, he’s in position to claim the most coveted prize in the game, the Montana Silversmiths gold buckle awarded to the world champion. “That’s why I came here,” he said. “It’s been a heck of an experience so far. I’m just going into the next three rounds like I’ve approached the last seven. I know I’m riding a great horse, so I’m going to go and do my job.” The NFR competition is always tough, but there’s something special going on in steer wrestling, where there have been no repeat champions and 12 men have earned at least a share of a go-round win. In most years, some cowboy has separated himself from the pack by the later rounds of the event. “I think everybody’s excited we’re even having an NFR,” Edler said. “Everybody here is a competitor and can win on any given day. These are the 15 best athletes in the world as far as steer wrestling goes. It’s been an incredible bulldogging to watch.” Edler has a front-row seat, and he’s doing quite well. Of course, whatever earnings he can take from Arlington will be grand as he sets off to plan a wedding and a life with his fiancé, Moriah. “It’s nice knowing we’re going to be able to have a start in life,” he said. “We’re going to leave here with a bunch of money and make down payments on a bunch of stuff we’re going to need for the future.” That future looks pretty bright inside Globe Life Field.

ARLINGTON, Texas – There have been frustrating times through the first seven nights for bareback rider Mason Clements. When things don’t go one’s way, there are two reactions that are common: A person can pout and consider all the negatives, or that same person can look at ways to improve the situation. Clements chooses the latter. “The only thing that is really frustrating is we’re heading to Round 8, and I haven’t done what I’ve needed to do,” said Clements of Spanish Fork, Utah. “I caught good momentum right off the bat, and I’ve not kept up my end of it and rolled with the momentum. I’ve got way more to offer, so I’m not letting it get me down. “It’s motivating. Things aren’t going your way, so it just fuels the fire. It’s good, positive, constructive criticism. I can find good things I’ve done in my rides, and I’m going to keep building off that. It’s not rocket science; it’s bareback riding.” He has earned $34,538 at the National Finals Rodeo, and part of that came after an 80.5-point ride on Prairie Rose of the Sankey Pro Rodeos & Phenom Genetics string. He finished in a tie for sixth place and earned $2,115 in the process. “It’s nice to get a piece of it,” he said. “I still didn’t just capitalize how I know I can and what I wanted to good. It’s always good when you’re placing and even better when you’re placing at the finals.” He’s also going to make some minor adjustments to his equipment before he makes his eighth straight ride. That’s probably a smart thing since Thursday’s round features the second coming of the “Eliminator Pen” at this year’s finale. Clements is matched with another Sankey bronc, Mental Illness, which has yet to buck at this year’s NFR. That could be a good sign for the Utah cowboy. “After Round 6, I didn’t feel my feet a whole lot, which wasn’t allow me to squeeze and make a snappy spur ride,” he said, indicating that he’d like to get a better feel for how his feet are working when in contact with the horse. “(Wednesday) night solidified that I needed to fix my equipment. I’m not squeezing with the handle of my rigging, which, in turn, plays into how you squeeze with your legs. “I’m healthy, and I’m glad for that. I’m starting horses really good, but there’s something between the start and the finish that’s not working.” It’s part of being a cowboy, because bareback riders can actually help horses perform better. That’s something he hopes will change in the final three nights of the season. “You’ve got to help them out, keep them kicking, keep them going and keep their timing,” said Clements, now a three-time NFR qualifier. “I need some more horsemanship. After I make these adjustments, I know my performance will be a lot better. “It’s like (ProRodeo Hall of Famer) Louis Feild told me: The easiest thing you’ll ever do in your life is run your hand in the rigging and ride bucking horses. I’ve got the best job in the world, and I’m here at Globe Life Field. I get to compete against the best guys in the world and the best bucking horses.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – Like all elite athletes, there are some bucking horses that expel all their energy the first time they perform. At the National Finals Rodeo, most are bucked twice over the 10-day championship, and they may not be quite as special on their second time out of the chutes. Bareback rider Tim O’Connell knew that was a possibility with J Bar J Rodeo’s Blessed Assurance, who guided Richmond Champion to the first-round win last Thursday. “She was pretty stinking good for her second trip in five days with Richie being on her and me being on her,” said O’Connell, who marked 85.5 points to finish in a tie for fifth place in Tuesday’s sixth go-round. “I feel like I got everything out of her I could.” He did, and he collected $5,500 in the process. He pushed his NFR earnings to $68,526 and still leads the world standings with $191,453. It all comes down to being a cowboy. “I think you have to have a little bit of horsemanship knowing what a horse is going to do and adjusting how you spur,” he said. “You can show these horses. If you (spur) these horses too hard, they can give up. You can’t have them give up and give a point away a round. One point separated me from $5,500 to $18,000. “You’ve got to help them be the best they can be.” It’s paying off, and he has four days left in the 2020 ProRodeo season to cash in on his fourth world championship in five years. He holds a lead of just less than $20,000 over the No. 2 man, four-time world champion Kaycee Feild. “I do think about the average, and I look at it,” said O’Connell, who won the average three times (2016-18), the same years he won Montana Silversmiths gold buckles. “The way I see it, if you don’t know where you’re at and what you’re doing, you’re probably not in a world title race. That’s my mindset. “I look at the average; I look at the standings. I look at my horses, and I’m strategic about how I do this. When I was nine points back in the average coming into Round 4, you know you’re going to have to do something.” He did. He won the fourth round and has placed in the two rounds since. He’s also doing it with a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder, which occurred in the first go-round. Though he doesn’t feel pain when he rides, he makes sure to go through the Justin Sportsmedicine team to ensure his free arm works as well as possible when it’s time. “Those guys are taking care of me,” said O’Connell of Zwingle, Iowa, now living in Marshall, Missouri. “Once the 10th round is over, then we’ll move on. As of right now, I’ve only thought of the here and now.” A big reason is because of massage therapist Benny Vaughn, who helped O’Connell rehabilitate his riding-arm shoulder after surgery nearly two years ago. “Benny has come over and ends up being in with the sports medicine team, so I see him every day,” O’Connell said. “I call him my ‘Magic Man.’ We’ve got a team of three that works on me. I can’t express enough how important the Justin Sports Medicine team is.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – The competition featured at the National Finals Rodeo brings out the greatest from the elite field of contestants. That’s especially true in steer wrestling, where most of the field of 15 cowboys still has a chance to win the 2020 world championship. Each dollar makes a difference, but so does each run. Bridger Anderson of Carrington, North Dakota, is making every run count. “We’re super excited for how we’ve been doing,” said Anderson, who bulldogged his steer to the ground in 3.7 seconds to finish in a tie for fourth place in Tuesday’s fourth go-round. “We haven’t got caught up in the world standings or the average, but the world championship race is definitely on my mind.” It should be. With his run, Anderson added $8,885 and pushed his NFR earnings to $60,558 and is fifth in the world standings with $104,434, less than $22,000 behind the leader, Texan Matt Reeves. While that may seem like a big sum, he can make up that ground in one night – go-round winners pocket $26,231 each night. “We just need to be smooth and do our job,” Anderson said. “As long as we’re doing our job, we’ll let the rest of it play out.” He sits third in the NFR average race with a cumulative time of 27.2 seconds on six runs. Should he remain in that spot through the end, he would collect a bonus of $43,154. Of course, he’d like to move up that list; the contestant with the best aggregate score when the 10th round is complete will add $67,269. That could make all the difference in who claims the Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. Anderson has been solid. He earned a share of the second-round victory, then placed again the following night. In rounds he hasn’t cashed in, he’s still maintained a solid standing. “It’s been good, but we had a few things we had to get around,” he said. “We drew a steer we didn’t necessarily like, but we got him laid down. We’ve missed the barrier, and that set us back in the round a bit. We had a good one (Tuesday). I got close to the barrier. It was a tough round. I’m happy to be amongst the money-earners in a really good pen of steers like that.” Anderson split fourth place with South Dakotan Jace Melvin, and the two have a bit of history. During the final two months of the 2020 regular season, Anderson traveled with Melvin, Cody Devers and Jule Hazen, the latter of whom is also an NFR qualifier and who also placed Tuesday; Hazen was 3.6 to finish third. “It was really awesome that we were all having some luck,” he said, noting that Northwestern Oklahoma State University alumnus Jacob Edler shared the round victory with Stetson Jorgensen with a lightning-fast 3.3-second run. “I was really pumped for ‘Eddy’ and Stetson. Eddy and I have been practicing together. It’s also neat that all four (NFR) rookies got a go-round buckle this week.” In fact, no cowboy has won more than one go-round through six nights of competition. In all, 11 men have earned at least a share of a go-round victory. “The bulldogging is definitely tight this year, and almost everyone is getting a piece of it and everyone is in the race,” Anderson said. “The steers are good and the barrier’s fast. There’s a lot of things happening, and it looks to be a fight to the finish. There are so many contenders for the world title right now that it’s crazy. “We’ll see how we get separated over the final four nights, but it really looks like it’s gong to be a tight race.” That makes it fun for the fans and the contestants alike. When he’s not bulldogging, he is watching it. He celebrates the good runs anyone makes, but that’s one of the things that makes rodeo different than other professional sports: The comradery between the combatants is next to none, especially in steer wrestling, where riding someone else’s horse is the norm. In Anderson’s case, he’s got a pretty solid mount in Whiskers, which guided him to the national championship at the 2019 College National Finals Rodeo and also got him to his first NFR. “Whiskers likes a straight by,” he said, explaining that his equine partner prefers to take a direct shot at the steer. “If I’m not doing my jobs, he’ll sometimes let me know. For the most part, he lets me get away with a lot. His pattern is right up the steer’s back. He keeps everything in control He makes my job pretty easy. All I have to do is drop down there. It makes the situation a lot more controlled. “Stockton (Graves) is also doing a great job of hazing, and he’s putting everything into my wheelhouse. Between Whiskers underneath me and Stockton beside me, I’m kind of set up.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – It turns out that Mabel was just the right fit for Jacob Edler to make a significant change. Garrett Henry’s 9-year-old sorrel mare replaced Ditto – the horse Edler had ridden through the first five rounds of this year’s National Finals Rodeo – in the lineup, and it was a home run Tuesday during the sixth round at Globe Life Field. Mabel guided both Edler and Stetson Jorgensen to 3.3-second runs to post the fastest times of this year’s NFR and win on Night 6 of ProRodeo’s grand championship. It was worth $23,481 to each man. “I was very fortunate,” said Edler, 26, of State Center, Iowa. “That horse, Ditto, is an amazing horse. She’s the horse the got me to my first NFR. I rode her in the first five rounds and had some success. “Throughout the week, it seemed like I was getting a little bit more separation each night from that steer. I asked Stetson right away if I could get on Mabel, because I’d had some success on her in the past. Without hesitation, he said yes.” During Monday’s fifth round, in which the Iowa cowboy placed, Ditto veered away from the steer just as Edler was about to transition to the steer. That meant he had to actually jump out of his stirrups to secure the catch. Mabel didn’t allow any space to happen for either of her cowboys, which is why they shared the spotlight Tuesday. “It obviously worked out,” said Edler, who has earned just shy of $60,000 in six nights in Arlington and pushed his season earnings to $104,472. “I got slicked up that steers back, and I was able to do my deal on the ground and win the round. It was awesome.” The proof came in his celebration. He ignited the crowd inside Globe Life Field, the temporary home of the NFR because of COVID-19 restrictions in Nevada. It was the type of dance that might make highlight reels for years to come. Edler moved up seven spots to fourth in the world standings. He’s also second in the average race with a cumulative time of 26.8 seconds on six runs. He sits just two-tenths of a second behind Jorgensen for the average title race. The top eight times in the aggregate will earn a bonus at the NFR’s conclusion, with the winner pocketing $67,269. “Winning this round is very important,” he said. “It was one of my goals to leave with at least one go-round buckle. I’ve dreamed about what that experience would feel like. That feeling never really came until it actually happened right there. That is the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – That breeze that blew through Inglis, Manitoba, was actually a huge sigh of relief from Globe Life Field in Arlington. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” said Orin Larsen of Inglis, who earned his first paycheck of this year’s National Finals Rodeo during Tuesday’s sixth round with an 86-point ride on The Cervi Brothers’ Ain’t No Angel for fourth place, which was worth $11,000. “I’m just trying to work my way back into contention if that’s possible. If not, then I’m just here enjoying myself. That’s all I can really do.” Larsen has had a rough start to his NFR. For whatever reason the horses underneath him haven’t performed to the optimum level, but that’s part of the game. He understands that as well as anyone, now competing in his sixth straight championship. But it doesn’t make it easy, especially with a payout this big. Go-round winners are earning $26,231 each night, and to go without anything for five straight nights can drive a competitor nearly mad. That’s just not Larsen’s style. “I think a lot of dealing with it is the power of prayer and keeping strong in my faith and knowing everything is going to be OK,” said Larsen, who now lives in Gering, Nebraska. “No matter what happens, God has a plan. This might not be my year this year, or it still might be, I don’t know, but we’ll figure that out. “My wife has kept me positive. A lot of friends and family are behind me, and I am really grateful for all them.” He knew exactly what to expect out of the Cervi horse. Ain’t No Angel has been a top bronc for many years. Mason Clements rode the powerful roan for 87 points in the opening round last Thursday. “I was wanting to get on that one,” Larsen said. “I’ve been on that one quite a few times, and I’ve always had luck on him and made money. I knew it was just a matter of time for me to draw something good, something that will work for my style. It feels good just to get a check finally, and we can only go up from here.” That’s true. Actually, the Canadian cowboy has been in this boat before. At the 2016 NFR, he suffered separated ribs and didn’t cash a check until the sixth night after he learned how to ride through the pain. The only injury this year has been to his ego, but his confidence remains high. He has been riding well and just needed a good shot to make it happen. He would like it to continue. “As far as making money, I’m not worried about it,” he said. “I still need to try like hell. Everybody is riding good, and the horses are working well. It’s going to be a grind, but it’s going to be exciting just to keep going.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – The first time Chad Rutherford rode J Bar J Rodeo’s Yum Bugs, he got just a taste of what the bucking horse could be. “I just got on her in Darby (Montana) at the Riggin’ Ralley in the first round, and she fell on me,” said Rutherford, a bareback rider from Hillsboro, Texas, making his first appearance at the National Finals Rodeo, and it just happens to be an hour from his house at Globe Life Field in Arlington. “I was still 84 points on her, even with her falling. I got on a re-ride horse, and that horse earned me a lot of money that got me here.” On Tuesday night, he and Yum Bugs matched moves for 85.5 points to finish in a tie for fifth place, worth $5,500. “I figured if I got her picked up today,” he said, referring to a spurring procedure that helps a horse buck a little harder, “she would be outstanding, and she was. “Both times I’ve been on her, she has been outstanding, and that’s all you can really say about her. She gets a lot of air underneath her, a lot of kick and a lot of stuff going on with her. She is real flashy and showy, and I just do what I’ve got to do.” With that, he pushed his season earnings to $77,874, with more than half coming at the NFR. He’s placed in three rounds and pocketed $40,462. Better yet, he still has four more nights to cash in. “We’re just going to go to the next jump,” Rutherford said, referring to each ride in a very specific way he handles each ride and each day. “After that, we are just going to go to the next jump after that. I’m not going to look ahead at the next few rounds, the average or any of that. I’m just looking for the next jump. That’s all that matters at this point.” His routine is quite different than most bareback riders in this field that stay in the Arlington area to spend their days before competing each night. He and his family travel home to tend to things there. “For us, we try to get to bed as soon as we can and get some rest,” he said. “As soon as the sun comes up every morning, we are heading down the road to take care of our animals in the morning, then I’m in the gym for about an hour or so, just working out some soreness from the previous night and get some blood flowing for the night coming. “This is in our back yard, so it’s an everyday deal for me, except I get on a bucking horse at the end of the day at the NFR.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo features the 100 best bucking horses and bulls in the game, but there are still some that are better than others. Out of six nights to open this year’s championship, bareback rider Tanner Aus of Granite Falls, Minnesota, has drawn toward the bottom end four times. The two times he’s had a solid chance to cash in, he’s done so in fine fashion. “That is part of rodeo,” said Aus, who matched moves with Calgary Stampede’s Zulu Warrior for 86.5 points to finish in a tie for second place in Tuesday’s sixth round, worth $18,192. “You want to draw the best one in the pen every night when you’re at the NFR, but it doesn’t work out like that. I just try to keep doing my job. “We’re having fun. This place is amazing. They have done a lot to accommodate us, and they are making it work. It has been awesome.” The NFR is taking place inside Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers, instead of its typical home in Las Vegas because of the pandemic. It’s a big change, and there are safety measures in place to help keep everyone in good shape through a recent explosion of COVID-19. “We’ve been trying to be pretty careful; we want to stay healthy through the end of this deal,” said Aus, who has earned more than $54,000 in the two rounds in which he’s placed, which includes the second-round victory last Friday. “My mom, dad and my wife, my kids … we are all staying in a house we rented. “There’s a park right down there, so we can go run off a little energy. The time we’ve got to spend with my folks and my kids during this week and a half has been pretty good. It’s not Vegas wild, but that’s to be expected.” The wild times are happening in the ballpark. Having a horse like Zulu Warrior is a big part of why he had so much success. “It has been a little quiet for me, but it has been good,” Aus said. “I have been getting on good horses, and I’m healthy. Zulu Warrior is an awesome horse, and I was happy to have that. To get a check and be able to place is great, and hopefully we keep it rolling now.” He has four nights remaining on this ProRodeo season, and he hopes the right horses can help him cash in even more during this NFR, his fifth in six years. If not, the Minnesota cowboy will just keep a brilliant smile on his face and handle what comes his way “You can’t ever hang your head here; that’s the bottom line,” he said. “If there is one performance left, you’ve got a big rodeo to go to. Just keep on charging. I always say that, but it is just one horse at a time. It is just doing the same things that got you here.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – The proverbial monkey that was on Jace Melvin’s back has left Globe Life Arena, and the South Dakota steer wrestler now living in Stephenville, Texas, is having a ball at this year’s National Finals Rodeo. Being a first-timer on ProRodeo’s grandest stage can be a big nerve-wracking, even if the contestants don’t want to admit it. The change in Melvin’s approach actually came after a penalty-induced run in Sunday’s fourth round. “When I broke the barrier and was 3.3, that changed everything,” he said, noting that the broken barrier for not allowing the steer the appropriate head start provided a 10-second penalty, making his overall time 13.3. “I was like, ‘I can do this; just take the start.’ “I was trying too hard possibly. After (Monday) night, I realized I just need to go bulldog.” Melvin won Monday’s fifth round, then followed it Tuesday with a 3.7-second run, which was good enough to tie for fourth place, worth $8,885. He tied with Bridger Anderson, who spent the last two months of this season traveling with Melvin, Cody Devers and Jule Hazen, the latter of whom also made the NFR and placed Tuesday. “This was a good pen of steers,” Melvin said, noting that Dakota Eldridge finished in sixth place with a 3.8, which has won rounds. “You better bear down if you’re going to win first. I was glad to win what I did, but I had a good steer. “Honestly, I wish it was a two-header tonight. I could have run a couple. Winning that round took a little monkey off my back. I’m excited to go forward.” He even celebrated, which really wasn’t in the original game plan when he arrived. Contestants have been tested for COVID-19 before and during this NFR, and a positive test would result in a disqualification. Already, two qualifiers didn’t get to make their runs because they had positive tests before the event began. Because of that, they were replaced. “Winning the round and what we did after was a blast,” Melvin said. “We have been taking the bubble pretty serious. We let down our hair a little bit (Monday) night. I got to see Mom and Dad, my brothers-in-law and my sisters. It was a lot of fun. You only win your first round one time.” Of course, he has four rounds remaining on this season, so he hopes there may be more victory laps in his future; if not, he’d still like to walk away with as much NFR cash as he can and possibly with a Montana Silversmiths gold buckle awarded to world champions. “It’s a good bulldogging,” he said. “It’s insane to watch.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – In a match-ups of world champions, they both came out on top. Reigning bareback riding titlist Clayton Biglow put together a powerful section of spur licks on Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Top Flight, the 2020 Bareback Horse of the Year, for 89 points to win Sunday’s fifth round of the National Finals Rodeo. “She has a couple different trips, but tonight she felt like a Cadillac,” said Biglow, 24, of Clements, California. “I’m shooting for go-rounds and top money every night. Placing would be good, too, but I’m wanting to win every night. The first half of the rodeo was a little shaky, but we’re getting to the second half. “I guess you can call me a second-half guy.” A year ago, he placed in the first and third rounds, while missing the mark in Round 2 and 4. He won at least a share of five round titles over the final six nights of the season. He ended the campaign with an NFR earnings record. Whatever the case, he added $26,231 to his bank account and has pushed his NFR earnings to $58,442. He is now in third place in the world standings with $129,415. And, of course, he was able to take a victory lap inside Globe Life Field for the first time. “It is different than the Thomas & Mack,” Biglow said, referring to the Las Vegas arena that is the permanent home of the NFR. “Winning first is awesome every time. I hate to lose. I’m a terrible loser. It doesn’t matter where we are at; I want to win first.” Top Flight has been one of the top horses for the past decade. The fifth and 10th rounds feature the greatest bucking animals that year, and the electric bay athlete has been part of that field every year. “That’s the fourth time I’ve been on her,” Biglow said. “She is a great horse. She’s 16 now, and she’s had a great career. She’s got to have more money won on her back than any other horse here. She’s not the rank-pen kind of horse. “She is so consistent; they are dang near 90 points every time she is out. I told Cullin (Pickett), ‘When you retire her, I want her, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.’ ” Top Flight is one of 27 horses at this year’s NFR genetics from the great Night Jacket. In fact, two of her own colts were part of Sunday’s go-round, meaning they, too, are considered one of the greatest of 2020. “Cullen said there are some Top Flight babies that are coming up, and they are wicked,” he said. When champions are matched together, great things happen. Since has virtually no chance to win big money in the average race, he knows how important it is to continue riding this hot streak. “My job now is to put the best spur ride together and go for go-rounds,” Biglow said. “I mean business when I showed up, and I am really mad. If you don’t get rid of it off your shoulders, it’s just going to be a long week. I’m shooting for the second half.” That’s what second-half guys do.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Maybe Jace Melvin has found the secret to his success. On the eve of this year’s National Finals Rodeo, the Stephenville, Texas, steer wrestler originally from Fort Pierre, South Dakota, slept in his own bed. He got up the next morning and practiced at home before making the commute to Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. He placed in the opening round. Since then, he just missed out on the money in Round 2, then struggled in Rounds 3-4. He went back home Sunday night, then hit the practice pen Monday morning. Again, it paid off, but even better this time with a 3.9-second run to earn a share of the fifth-round title at Globe Life Field. “I’m super excited,” said Melvin, who split the round with Texan Matt Reeves. “I drew good. That’s the key part of doing good is drawing right. I drew a great steer, took my start and got a great start tonight. “I’m happy to win anything but real happy to win first.” With that, he pocketed $23,481 and pushed his NFR earnings to $37,712. More importantly, it’s a good way to kick off the final six nights of the 2020 ProRodeo season. “Today was just a great day, and I felt really good,” he said. “I was a little bit more relaxed tonight. I broke a couple of barriers, and I think I was a little worked up about that. I just let it go today. I’ve just got to have fun take the start and live with it. You’re either on the right side or the wrong side of it, but that’s all right.” A key part of being a competitor is letting go of failures. They come with playing a game, especially one as rugged as this one. Throughout the season, big wins are oftentimes followed by runs that don’t work out. There’s typically no time to stew about it; the next run is not far away. “I feel like I got back to that today,” Melvin said. “Everywhere you go, you have to take a starat, and there’s not room for error. I think I was overthinking it the first few rounds. I just need to try to be relaxed and have fun. I went in there and took the start, and it worked out great. I set up my run, and it allowed me to win something.”