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LAS VEGAS – J.D. Struxness may have stumbled a bit during the third round of the National Finals Rodeo, but it didn’t keep him down. He rebounded with a 3.9-second run during Monday’s fourth go-round to finish second, earning $24,268. In all, he has earned $58,041 since arriving in Las Vegas. He is still very much in contention to win the world championship, and he’s not letting the circumstances that occurred Sunday bother him. “That steer just didn’t leave as sharp as the videos they showed,” Struxness said of his broken barrier, which penalized him 10 seconds; instead of winning the round in 4.1, he finished out of the money with 14.1. “That can happen out here, but you can’t back off the barrier because you don’t want to get to the other end of the arena.” Steers are given a head start, and the barrier system allows for that. By breaking the barrier, Struxness didn’t allow the steer the appropriate advantage. The penalty is sharp and pointed, but he is still in position to continue a hot streak he’s show. In his first four rounds, he’s placed three times. “That was just a little glitch in the game plan, but we were able to come back (Monday) and take advantage of what we had,” said Struxness, a five-time NFR qualifier from Milan, Minnesota. “Hopefully we’ve got things kicked back in the right direction.” It was a big round for the NFR alumni from Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Struxness, who became the school’s first intercollegiate rodeo national champion in 2016, was only bested by Bridger Anderson, who won the college title three years later. “That was a good night for old Northwestern,” Struxness said. “Bridger did a heck of a good job. I didn’t know that steer was as electric as Bridger made him look.” The Minnesota cowboy was wrapping his career when Anderson arrived on campus, so the two became close. They remain that way, with Struxness offering a bit of advice for the relative newcomer; Anderson is at the NFR for the second time. “I don’t ever want to get in the way, because we’re both in the top 15 and know what we’re doing, but I will just give him a few friendly words of advice. “The steer I had (Monday) was on the better half of the pen, so I was happy to have him,” he said. “I went out there, and I felt like we just did our job. I was able to pick up second, and we’ll just keep chipping away through the week.” He has confidence in himself and in Crush, his bulldogging mount owned by fellow NFR competitor Ty Erickson. “Crush worked really well,” Struxness said. “We broke the barrier (Sunday), but we’ve been fast for four straight.” Now, he’ll have five more days to build on his run in Las Vegas. “Having a good start the first half of the finals is awesome,” he said. “I did it the opposite way last year, and it felt like at the end you’re just scratching and clawing. This year, we are in a good spot, and we just keep climbing along, so we just need to keep doing our job and keep throwing steers down and let it all play out.”

LAS VEGAS – In the grand scheme of the National Finals Rodeo, a sixth-place finish is better than most of the 15 in the field, but it’s small in comparison to round winners’ share of nearly $31,000. For bareback rider Dean Thompson, his 83.5-point ride on Cervi Championship Rodeo’s On Your Own was just what he needed, and that $4,963 will come in handy. “It’s a new rodeo every night,” said Thompson, 21, a first-time NFR qualifier from Altamont, Utah. “I learned that before tonight, but I do think that after the first round and the second round and the third round – especially the third round – I realized that it’s a new round every night. That’s the best part of it.” While he scored points in the opening two rounds, he placed down the list with a pair of 77s. He wasn’t able to muster a score in Round 3, which was his first attempt at riding in the eliminator pen at the NFR. By bouncing back Monday, and he finally exhaled a little bit. He also received a boost from veteran NFR tie-down roper Cory Solomon. “He said, ‘This is the craziest game I’ve ever watched happen; I’ve seen guys go five rounds in a row not winning a dollar and come back and win the last five rounds,’ ” Thompson said. “That hit me so hard to realize that literally every single night is a new opportunity.” He also received a jumpstart from the Golden Circle of Champions event that took place earlier this week; it raises awareness about pediatric cancer. “When you see something like that, you realize this is just a game,” he said. “This isn’t like a young person fighting for their life. This is a game with a lot of money, but it doesn’t compare.” Bareback riding is the most physically demanding event in rodeo, but there are no equal lines to children who are trying to be healed by medicines that make them sick. Families also suffer, so Thompson is happy to offer his platform to help draw more eyes to those who need support. When he nodded his head Monday night, he had that on his mind while finding out a little more about On Your Own. “I realized he was not a guarantee in this pen of horses,” Thompson said, noting that the fourth and ninth-round bareback horses are supposed to be the easiest ones in Vegas to ride. “He’s got a wild factor to him, and those that have a wild factor make it tough; they can be great and you can be 90 points, or they can be too wild and just fall around and you can be 80, or even 77 again. “He jumped out there, and I counted that changed leads eight times in eight seconds. He was just a fun little horse. His changing leads was really a big confidence boost. I feel great, and I feel ready.”   That’s key. Confidence drives consistency, and that’s how winners are developed. “It’s crazy how fast our brains tries to tell us we forgot how to play this game,” Thompson said. “I’ve been doing this all year long, but to come in here and sin some money, it’s a great stress reliever. I feel ready for the next one.”

LAS VEGAS – Coleman Proctor is no stranger to the nuances of the National Finals Rodeo. “It’s funny how you win money here once or win a go-round, and things just come back in your favor,” he said after Monday’s run of 4.3 seconds to finish fourth on Night 4 of team roping with his heeler, Logan Medlin. “It’s nice to get on a roll. “I didn’t do a very good job of scoring,” he said, referring to starting on time when the steer is released. “I missed the barrier pretty good. I had a steer I really liked, but I just didn’t trust myself scoring, and I missed the start a little bit, which then made my shot harder. (The steer) squared off, giving my partner a good shot to heel him.” The result was a second straight night of earning money; he and Medlin won Sunday’s third round after two no-scores to open this year’s championship. Since they arrived in Sin City, they have each earned nearly $54,000 – $10,000 of that came from bonuses they received for their qualifications. “Any time you’re trying to win a go-round at the National Finals, you can’t be as late as I was,” said Proctor, an eight-time NFR qualifier from Pryor, Oklahoma. “I was very fortunate that being late at the barrier just cost us winning a round instead. I’m glad to still get some money out of it. “It’s funny, because a guy can get out here to thinking about, ‘Oh, man, fourth,’ but yet I still won $13,000. Winning that kind of money the week of the Fourth of July is a pretty good Fourth, and you travel a lot further and have to beat a lot more guys for that kind of money. There’s just so much money in Vegas that it can skew your thinking a little bit. I’m certainly glad to be rocking and rolling.” They’re pushing toward the top of the world standings. Proctor is fifth on the heading money list with $187,071 and still has six rounds in which to collect Las Vegas money. “Any time you can get a check against the top 15 in the world, you’re doing a great job,” he said. “I was excited. I made a bobble, and I still cashed in for $13,000. “My roping feels really good. Everything’s felt good. My mental game feels great. I’m in a good place mentally every time I walk into the (roping) box. Physically I feel really good, and my horses feel great. What’s carried both me and Logan through the first few rounds was the preparation we’ve put into this. I mean, you come out here, and you dream of having the week that Clint Summers and Jake Long are having, but you have to take what you get.” Summers and Long have won three of the four rounds. Proctor and Long have been friends since childhood and even roped at the NFR together. There’s a bond they will always have, and seeing Long have so much success is good for Proctor’s soul. “Obviously it looks right now like Clint and Jake have a pretty good grasp on things, but you never know how it’s going to play out,” Proctor said. “I know how hard he’s worked at this, and I’m thrilled with the week they’re having, but we’re going to keep doing everything we can do to run them down.”

LAS VEGAS – Coleman Proctor has done this dance before. He and his partner, heeler Logan Medlin of Tatum, New Mexico, suffered no-times in the first two go-rounds of the National Finals Rodeo. It’s frustrating and disappointing, but it’s also part of the sport. They didn’t dwell on it. In fact, they built off it. They posted a 3.7-second run to win the third round team roping, and each pocket $30,706. It was a much-needed night of success for the cowboys that are roping at their third straight NFR together. “When you miss the first ones, the pressure’s definitely off,” said Proctor, an eight-time qualifier from Pryor, Oklahoma. “That’s absolutely not how we drew it up in our heads, but that’s how the cookie crumbles somethings. If you’re going to rodeo for a living, you’ve got to learn to be mentally tough. “I told my wife this morning that I’m just going to lean on the fact that we’re as prepared as I’ve ever been coming here. The horses are better than they’ve ever been, and Logan and I are more mature and understand our run. I know that we’re going to get tapped off at this place. The Thomas & Mack can mount so much pressure on you.” By bouncing back so fast, Proctor moved up to fourth in the heading world standings; he has earned $174,194 so far this season, and he has seven more rounds to capitalize on the world’s richest rodeo. He is less than $15,000 behind the No. 1 man on the money list, Nelson Wyatt. “Your whole year is wrapped up into this week, and you don’t want to let anybody down,” he said. “You want to do a great job, and when it goes in the wrong direction, it’s easy to start searching for answers. I told my wife that I was going to be the definition of tenacious about staying with our plan. We’re ready. We practiced really hard for six weeks. We wanted to come out here and battle for a gold buckle, and it’s absolutely still in sight.” Rodeo can test anyone’s mental fortitude, and it’s especially true in team roping. It’s the only event where cowboys must rely on a partner to succeed. They travel the rodeo trail together, and their relationships can be affected by that in a multitude of ways. “Logan and I are always there for each other,” Proctor said. “Neither of us ever expects the other one to miss. It happens. Logan Medlin is the best heeler in the world, and he’s got the best horses. We’re a great team.” Medlin isn’t the only one on the team that’s well-mounted. Proctor has a lot of faith in his horse Heisman, a 15-year-old bay gelding. “Heisman’s been so great here about getting me out of the barrier with a chance to win some money,” Proctor said. “Every time I’ve rode him, I’ve always had a chance, and he does a great job of maneuvering the left wall, the tight conditions here. He gives my partner a chance to set his rope down fast. “Heisman is the big reason why I’m so successful in this building. I’m so excited to be getting to ride him for the next six days.”

LAS VEGAS – When cowboys arrive at in Sin City, they know the competition will be tough. Only the top 15 contestants in each event qualify for the National Finals Rodeo, so it’s a showcase of the sport’s elite from that year. Now in his fourth trip to the championship, Wyatt Casper understands that well. “I’ve been riding well, but I just needed something to happen,” he said. That came Sunday night, when he rode Corey & Lange Rodeo’s Diamond Fever for 85.5 points to finish in a tie for fifth place in the third go-round. It was his first time in the money since the rodeo began, and it offered a bit of relief. “It took until Round 3, but we finally got a paycheck,” said Casper of Pampa, Texas. “Yeah, we’re excited. Anytime you can get a check out here. It feels good.” There are more than 600 PRCA rodeos across the country, and winning most of them would offer a smaller payday than the $6,438 he collected in Las Vegas. It’s a significant amount of money for one eight-second ride, but it pales in comparison to the $30,706 that goes to each night’s winner. The NFR offers an impressive payout, issuing nearly $100,000 per day for 10 nights. By earning money on the third day of competition, Casper pushed his yearly income to just shy of $160,000. He is 12th in the world standings. “I felt like I was riding good the first two nights,” said Casper, 27, of Miami, Texas. “We’re just going to carry it over into these next couple of rounds. You want to get the good draws and show what you can do.” Sunday’s battle with Diamond Fever was a rematch. The two danced across the Thomas & Mack Center floor at the 2021 NFR, and Casper was 84 points. He didn’t earn any money that night, so there were a lot of positive steps over time. “I wouldn’t say I was really excited about drawing him,” Casper said. “It’s not really a horse that fits my style. I’m a bigger guy, and he is a little bitty thing. I’m still glad it all worked out.” The ride also boosts his confidence. Originally from the tiny community of Balko, Oklahoma, he will have his biggest battle at this NFR during Monday’s fourth round. He will be matched with Championship Pro Rodeo’s Tickled Pink, which is part of the eliminator pen, the hardest-to-ride broncs at the NFR. “We’re going to cross our fingers and hopefully draw of the better ones out of that pen so we can make some points,” said Casper, the 2016 intercollegiate champion at Clarendon (Texas) College. “You just want to stay aboard and hopefully get to the South Point.” The casino and resort on the south side of The Strip is rodeo central during the NFR and hosts the nightly Montana Silversmiths Go-Round Presentation. Nightly winners will be awarded buckles and celebrated on stage. It’s where every contestant in the field wants to be on any given night, and it’s another attractive feature to competing on ProRodeo’s biggest stage.

LAS VEGAS – Every cowboy who makes a living in rodeo keeps plenty busy. They travel extensively just to make a living, covering tens of thousands of miles a year going from one rodeo to another. They only make money when they finish better than most in the field. First place is always the goal, but third-place pays well, too. Mason Clements stacked the deck for himself this year, though. After fellow bareback rider Trenten Montero died in August after being involved in a wreck in the arena, Clements joined others in mourning his friend, then he sought a way to ease the pain for those closest to those lost. “The Trenten Montero Foundation is for the cowboys that sacrifice everything,” said Clements, a four-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier from Spanish Fork, Utah, who sits on the organization’s board. “It’s to take care of the families that are so devastated by career-ending injuries and, obviously, death, like what we just experienced with Trenten sacrificing that in the arena. “We all got together around the IHOP table in Ellensburg (Washington) and said it was time for a change; it’s time to have more resources available. When things like this happen, it shouldn’t take months and months for a family to be squared away with everything they have to do. They should have time to grieve and not worry about what’s coming and how they’re going to handle it. They need time to be with their families and then they need psychological help and other resources that could be available to them.” During Sunday’s third go-round, rodeo celebrated Memorial Night and honored those former NFR qualifiers and other dignitaries close to the championship. It was quite fitting that Clements won the round, scoring 88.5 points on Frontier Rodeo’s Breaking News to pocket $30,706. It was his first payday of this year’s finale. “I truly don’t have any words for that,” he said. “That one was for Trenten Montero and his family to remember his name. That’s also for the Golden Circle of Champions, all those kids that have been diagnosed with cancer and have to fight for their lives every day. My heart goes out to them. It makes walking in here for the eliminator pen tonight much easier.” An adjustment to his equipment also helped. He made a rigging change Saturday, and a brand-new rigging needed to be broken in. One ride did it, and he was set up for success Sunday. “You prepare for this for two months, and your equipment should be the last thing you’re thinking about when you get here,” Clements said. “I finally found what I needed as far as a rigging goes. Coming into tonight, it was alright; that took care of the issue, and it felt much better. It showed in my ride, because I can move my feet that much faster and go that much harder.” It even worked in the eliminator pen, the set of horses known for being the hardest to ride.   “When I dream of riding bucking horses, I dream of those kinds of horses, the dragons, the eliminator pen, because one wrong you will make you look silly, and you’re at the mercy of the horse at that point,” he said, who won the fourth NFR go-round of his career, the first since 2018. “You will not get any opportunity to get it back once it’s taken on these kinds of horses. It’s important to get that first punch.”

LAS VEGAS – Bridger Anderson has found his rhythm at the National Finals Rodeo. After suffering two no-times to kickstart ProRodeo’s grand championship, he bounced back with a 4.7-second run to finish fourth in Sunday’s third go-round, pocketing $12, 877 and earned some well-timed momentum in Las Vegas. “It’s not the way we wanted to start the finals, but we were getting good starts,” said Anderson, 25, of Carrington, North Dakota. “We had one that ran (in the third round) and maybe missed the barrier a little bit, but we got him caught and got him mucked down to break the ice.” It’s his first payday competing at the NFR in Las Vegas. His first qualification to the championship came in 2020, when the finale took place in Arlington, Texas, because of COVID restrictions. He’d spent a lifetime dreaming about running steers inside the Thomas & Mack Center, the 10-day event’s home since 1985. He’s been faster than he was Sunday and won a lot less money at rodeos across the country, and he had to beat a lot more than the top 15 cowboys in steer wrestling to do it. Round 3 featured the strong pen of steers, so being among the leaders was a big deal. “We’ll take every dollar we can get,” he said. Riding his horse, Whiskers, with veteran Clayton Hass hazing on Tyler Pearson’s Metallica offers Anderson a bit of comfort. Hass has competed at the NFR before and is one of the top hazers in ProRodeo. “Hass is amazing, and Metallica is arguably one of the best haze horses ever to do it,” he said. “I’m pretty confident in the team we have out here.” He’s also secure in his own abilities and his mental approach. That came in handy after his early struggles. “The first two nights are regardless of what we’re doing now,” Anderson said. “The starts are fast enough at this rodeo that there’s no different game plan other than to try to blow the barrier out and make a good run. You’ve got to beat 14 guys for ($30,706) every night. It’s the best rodeo, and each night is better than any other rodeo. “We go all year to get here, so take it one night at a time. Whatever happened last night is irrelevant. We just keep rolling, and hopefully we can get a little momentum as long as it’s going good.” They key to success in any athletic endeavor is to remain mentally strong. “You have to take the positives,” he said. “When you get to Vegas the first time, it’s really tough to get the start. I feel like we did a good job of that, even the first two nights. We decided that as long as we get good starts and the horses keep working good like they have been, they’re not going to be able to starve me forever. I just try to do the best I can.” He has seven more go-rounds to make it happen.

LAS VEGAS – At the National Finals Rodeo, momentum can swing in either direction. It’s trending upward for steer wrestler Stephen Culling, who grappled his animal to the ground in 4.3 seconds to finish in a tie for second place during Sunday’s third round. That was worth $21,296 and pushed his Sin City earnings to nearly $34,000 in three days of work. He also has the fourth-fastest cumulative time on three runs. All told, his season earnings have risen to $137,799. He is 10th in the world standings. “I wanted to get a good start, and I knew I had a pretty good steer,” said Culling, 30, of Fort St. John, British Columbia. I got a good start, and the steer was just laid up toward (hazer) Tanner (Milan) just a little bit. Tanner did a good job of getting in position and getting him picked back up. It just strung me out just a hair, and I was scrambling for a second. “The steer was great, and I managed to pull a little bit of a check.” Actually it was a pretty good check, a nice chunk of change for a few seconds of work. Competing at the NFR for the first time, the cowboy who attended Western Oklahoma State College and Northwestern Oklahoma State University on rodeo scholarships is learning about the championship as he goes. Milan offers a bit of help. In addition to being the hazer and owning the horse Culling is riding, he has some inside information to share when necessary. The mount is Eddie, the 2023 Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year. Having that kind of equine power under him is also a blessing for Culling. “Riding Eddie and having Tanner on the other side is huge,” Culling said. “Tanner is riding that great horse, Kirk, which is owned by Matt Reeves. It’s a great combination. I never think twice about having Tanner over there. He puts more confidence in me than anything, and he’s been there for me pretty well from the get-go when I started. “Tanner’s helped me out for forever, and I’m just pretty awed to get the opportunity to get to travel with them and rodeo with them and have a guy like Tanner standing in your corner. That’s huge for someone’s confidence.” There are 60 steers for the bulldoggers in Las Vegas, and they have been separated into pens to try to give each of the competitors as even of a chance to win as possible. Sunday’s pen was the stronger set of steers. The cowboys will run them again in the sixth and ninth rounds. “We knew they were going to be a little stronger, but they weren’t as strong on the run as we were thinking,” he said. “They were just a little bit wild on the ground, and there was a little bit of everything that showed up.” Culling has had some big wins in his career, including the title at the 2022 Ponoka (Alberta) Stampede. By sharing second place Sunday, he caught the biggest one-run paycheck of his career. “I’ve won quite a bit out of Ponoka, but this one has a little different feel to it,” Culling said. “We get to do it seven more times to make it more exciting.”

LAS VEGAS – Whether it’s on a football field in Pendleton, Oregon, or a baseball diamond in Arlington, Texas, or t a basketball arena in the City of Lights, Jess Pope will ride bucking horses anywhere. On Sunday night, he rode Championship Pro Rodeo’s Meat Cracker for 84.5 points to finish sixth in the third round of the National Finals Rodeo. He is three for three so far at the NFR, and the $4,953 he pocketed for that ride pushed his Sin City earnings to $51,602; he is fifth in the world with just shy of $180,000 on the season. “It’s always a hard round,” Pope said, referring to the eliminator pen of bucking horses that are featured in Rounds 3 and 8. “Everyone’s sore from the first two. These will jerk it out of us. These are the hardest horses that we can put together. They’re the horses nobody wants to get on.” It was also Memorial Night, where qualifiers who have died are remembered. One was Trenten Montero, who was killed in a rodeo accident in the arena this past August at the age of 31. All 15 qualifiers reflected on his passing and the kind of human being he was. Montero qualified for the 2019 finale. “I’m wearing blue for Trenten,” said Pope, the reigning world champion from Waverly, Kansas. “If there was a bareback rider who didn’t have a tear in his eye after that opening, I’ll be shocked. It was really hard to try to come back from that. “I was the 11th guy out, and you’ve still got to try to gather yourself back up. You’re also getting on the baddest bucking horses in the eliminator pen. You have to try to go from that to being in killer mode. It’s tough. It takes a very mentally strong human, and with those guys were all out before I was, I’m impressed with how mentally strong they are.” A good mental approach is important in rodeo, whether the cowboys are getting on the hardest-to-ride broncs in the business or traveling overnight from one rodeo to another. It’s a cornerstone to why Pope has been so successful, especially when he arrives at the NFR. He’s a three-time and reigning average champion – as a four-time qualifier, he doesn’t know what it’s like not to win the aggregate title. With seven rounds remaining, he’s a long way from grabbing a fourth. He has ridden three horses for a cumulative score of 254 points; he’s just a half point behind the average leaders, Wyoming cowboy Cole Reiner and Utahan Mason Clements, the latter of whom won the round. Pope was content in having a solid ride on a bronc he knows well. “That horse has never had the same trip twice,” he said. “You just never know what she’s going to do. I was pretty nervous to get by that one, because of how small she is and how big I am. She definitely bucks; she’s really fast, and you’ve got to be doing everything fully correct to make it happen.”

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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – When Tanner Aus was a little boy, he watched his dad ride bareback horses and thought about how much fun it would be to follow in those footsteps. In the years since, he’s been one of the very best in the game, having qualified for ProRodeo’s championship event, the National Finals Rodeo, eight times. At 33, he still loves what he does and has fun doing it. Such was the case with his 84-point ride on Korkow Pro Rodeo’s Dixies Gravy to finish in a tie for fourth place in Saturday’s second go-round. “That’s really fun to have a horse that you’ve got a chance on and to be able to place amongst the competition that’s here,” said Aus of Granite Falls, Minnesota. “It’s as tough as it’s ever been for as long as I’ve been coming here, so, yeah, I’m happy.” He earned $10,401 and pushed his earnings to $140,297. Most importantly, he earned a round paycheck and gained a bit of momentum heading into the final eight nights of the rodeo season. “I knew that horse was kind of wild, and the last few videos I saw of her, she was very consistent,” he said. “She had a couple of big switch-ups, and then at about six seconds, she picks a spot, leaps high into the air and tries really hard. She looks flashy.” Aus is among the top 15 bareback riders in the world standings. In the mix are three world champions and other cowboys that make up dozens of NFR qualifications. “The energy in our locker room is good, and everyone’s wound up,” said Aus, the 2012 intercollegiate bareback riding national champion while attending Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri. “We’ve gotten to get on our 2 Pen horses and our 3 Pen horses. We’ll have the eliminators tomorrow, and it’s a little bit of a different atmosphere in there.” The 100 broncs in bareback riding are separated into five pens, and the third round will feature the hardest-to-ride in the game. They are the type that can build fear in men who ride them. The nerves are amped up, and that makes for a quieter, less-jovial gathering in the locker room at the Thomas & Mack Center. “It’s not like we’re seeing horses we’ve never been around before,” he said. “It’s just a little more serious, and it seems like after that round, the tension eases a little bit. Bareback riding is the most physically demanding event in rodeo. Cowboys wear gloves with binds in them, then wedge their riding hands into a rigging that is strapped tightly to the animal. Every jump, kick and wiggle is felt. Cowboys can get sore in a hurry. “You get back into that rodeo shape after around Round 3, and you’ll be a little bit sore,” Aus said. “Barring any major injuries, you just fall into the rhythm of it, and everything starts to move pretty easy.” Aus is finding the right beat at the right time, and he’s hoping to make it roll at the world’s richest rodeo.

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.”

LAS VEGAS – When Richmond Champion arrived the Nevada desert to compete at his eighth National Finals Rodeo, he just wanted to keep climbing. He snuck his way into the top 15 in order to compete at the 10-round championship and wants to make a statement about his place among the elite bareback riders in the sport. He’s off to a good start, riding Andrews Rodeo’s Cash & Carry for 83.5 points in Friday’s first round to finish in a four-way tie for fourth place. That was worth $6,438 and moved him up one spot to 14th in the standings. “I was just so excited to get this thing started off electric and fun for all the guys, especially after missing this for a year,” said Champion, who had neck surgery in March 2022 and missed the rest of that year. “I was just pumped to be back in the locker room and on the yellow bucking chutes again. “This was the first time for that horse, a younger one that Cole Reiner rode a couple of times and won a pile of money on her. She’s got a really good head on her, and she handled the fireworks and everything really well. We figured we could still trust her, and, yeah, she was awesome.” There are a lot of emotions that go into playing the game at this level. It takes talent, hard work and a little bit of luck to earn qualifications to the NFR, which features only the top 15 contestants in each event at the conclusion of the regular season. Champion first qualified for Sin City nine years ago when he was just 21 years old. Returning to the world’s richest rodeo brings back all those feelings. “There were nerves, but they were all good nerves,” said Champion, 30, of Stevensville, Montana. “There was definitely part of my brain that was wanting to make things more complicated than they needed to be for a minute, but being the first guy out … there’s no time to think. There’s no time to be really nervous.” A bulging disc in the middle of his neck had been causing problems for Champion for longer than he realized. Once surgery repaired the ailment, he had to learn how to ride in a way that not only gave him a good shot at winning, but also helped him keep his neck healthy. The result was a return to Las Vegas and renewed energy. “I didn’t know how much I was hurting before, but I feel really good and am just excited for the next nine,” he said. There’s been a lot of pain in Las Vegas this week. Two days ago, a man walked into a building on the UNLV campus and fired shots. He killed three members of the faculty and injured another before police ended the rampage by killing the shooter. All 119 contestants and many others were at the Thomas & Mack Center just a few buildings away form the shooting when it happened. They were all placed on lockdown for nearly two hours. The first NFR performance was delayed by a day, and officials opted to add morning performance next Wednesday to make sure there are still 10 rounds of competition. “It seems selfish to say it robbed a little bit of the excitement of check-in day, but this was just a bad thing that affected a lot of people,” Champion said. “Something on a massive scale had just gone on outside of where we were. The first-responders made sure we were safe and the building. We’re thankful for that.”

Cinch teams with Rodeo Performance Network to help NFR athletes Injuries are just part of any athletic endeavor, whether it’s football or the sport of rodeo. The Rodeo Performance Network has been built to try to stop that pain before it happens. It’s a matter of building the body in intricate ways to help athletes perform at an optimum level while developing the muscles, ligaments and tendons so they are more versatile and able to handle the duties assigned to them. Take barrel racer Taci Bettis, a two-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier from Waller, Texas. In January 2022, she suffered a back injury that was hampering her ability to compete professionally. She reached out to Andrew Shea, owner and operator of Shea Competitive Edge in nearby Brenham, Texas, and quickly found ways to alleviate the pain while also building strength. That collaboration resulted in the foundation of the Rodeo Performance Network, which is working closely with Cinch and its endorsees during this week’s National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. “We got a plan to get me better, but as we worked, we talked a lot,” Bettis said. “He said, ‘I have this idea of coming up with a virtual program, and I wanted to make it like a network of things.’ ” A few months later, Shea reached out to Bettis about creating the network with rodeo event-specific activities. “I thought, ‘Is this God telling me that I need to branch out a little bit and try something new?’ ” she said. “So, we came up with Rodeo Performance Network. We have the workout programs, and we have coaches for each specific event.” In addition to Bettis, who establishes programs for barrel racers, other coaches are 2013 world champion tie-down roper Shane Hanchey, NFR steer wrestler Rowdy Parrott, NFR bull rider Cole Fischer, Shea and Sarah Duval, who focuses on the mental game. All understand the necessities that need done in order to perform at an elite level. “When Rowdy tore his peck a few years ago, he came to me for a few months trying to do non-surgical rehab and see if he could get back to bulldogging,” said Shea, who has an extensive sports medicine background with a doctorate in physical therapy and is also a certified strength-and-conditioning specialist. “He ended up having surgery anyway, but I got to know him really well because were spending almost a year together with his rehab. That got me much more involved in the rodeo world. Rodeo athletes are different for a number of reasons, which is why I really got interested in helping that group of people.” Shea has been around the more traditional sports like football, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. He competed in track and field in college, and much of his work was centered around the ball-type sports until he found his passion for helping rodeo athletes. While professional baseball players, for example, are still paid when they are on injured reserve, cowboys and cowgirls have no guarantees and only earn money when they are finishing better than most in the field. “I’m not saying (traditional-sports athletes) are less motivated, but when your paycheck is completely contingent on you performing, there’s a little bit more of a motivation,” he said. “Getting to work with that caliber of athlete – just from the mindset of saying, ‘I’ve got to go, so I’m going to do whatever I need to do to get myself back.’ – makes my job a little easier because they are in the right mindset. That is pivotal to having a successful rehab in general. “Some of these injuries are unique, because it is basically car accidents without seatbelts. That’s how I got into the rodeo side of things.” The preventative medicine is doing some little things a little differently than the athletes had done before. That may mean adjusting the way they ride the horses and planning a workout to help push the muscles and tissues that power those adjustments. “It’s a lot of core work, but it’s also a lot of hip movements,” Bettis said. “I hurt my lower back, and a lot of us sitting in the saddle for so long, you have your hips closed. We just started doing a lot of hip work. “I workout three days a week, so I thought I was strong, but Andrew pointed out I could hardly move because my bigger muscles are strong, but the little muscles that you need while you are riding aren’t as strong as you need. We started working on strengthening my core more than I even thought I needed. I’m working all the little muscles that get overlooked, because we start to work the big muscles so much.” That changed the way she was riding and the way she was teaching others in the way they ride. “You just start to see how weak they are in those places, so I’m starting to point out things like that,” she said. “It’s actually coming from you physically not being strong enough to move right there in the saddle and opening your eyes to fitness.”   The moment came when she and Shea were working on her rehab for her back injury. “I hurt for about four months before I called him because I just kept ignoring it,” Bettis said. “It got so bad that I couldn’t even lift my leg to get in a vehicle anymore. I was terrified somebody was going to say I needed to have surgery, but he said, ‘This is a pretty easy fix as long as you do your homework.’ “I was doing my homework every single day, and I was 90 percent better in probably three sessions. That’s when my eyes really opened to quit being hardheaded and do these workouts to stay healthy.” From specified workouts to having a mental-performance coach, the purpose is to give cowboys and cowgirls the opportunity to not only avoid injuries but to also help them excel at  Continue Reading »

LAS VEGAS – For steer wrestlers at the National Finals Rodeo, it’s all about the start. In order to post fast times, they need to time the beginning of their runs in conjunction with the steer leaving the chute. The better the timing, the better the run. In Las Vegas, it also is important to get the ball rolling early in the 10-day championship. J.D. Struxness did that, knocking down his steer in 4.6 seconds to finish in a tie for sixth place in Friday’s opening go-round. “I didn’t think that a 4.6 would catch a check, but it hung in there and we got the ice broke,” said Struxness, 29, originally from Milan, Minnesota, but now living in Perrin, Texas. “I’m glad it did.” For his feat, the 6-foot-2 cowboy earned $2,476 and maintained his sixth-ranked spot in the world standings. The first-round steers were strong, and the evidence came in the times. At the NFR, bulldoggers need to be closer to 4.0 seconds or faster to be in the money; only two cowboys managed to have runs less than four seconds. They will see this grouping of steers three more times over the course of the final nine rounds. “This pen of steers is more of the middle-of-the-road pen,” he said. “I think there were some jitters in the first round and a couple of guys struggled, but once everybody gets that lined out, that pen will be more of a 3.5-second or short 4-second pen.” While riding Crush, a horse owned by fellow steer wrestler Ty Erickson, Struxness has found the comfort necessary to compete at a high level inside the Thomas & Mack Center, the NFR’s home since 1985. “That horse works great,” said Struxness, the 2016 national champion bulldogger while competing at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. “That’s the reason I picked him.” There are 15 steer wrestlers competing at this NFR, but there are only a handful of horses they will ride. The cowboys rely on the best horses in the game to give them the best opportunity to cash in each night. Go-round winners will pocket nearly $31,000 for 10 nights. Crush will have just two jockeys, Struxness and Erickson, the latter of whom was 4.3 seconds to finish in a tie for third Friday. “Having just two runs a night on that horse is just about right,” Struxness said. “Any more than two, you start dealing with fatigue and the horse getting wound up, so I think two runs helps with that.” Now competing at the NFR for the fifth time, the Minnesota man has gained a keen understanding of what it takes to be successful in Las Vegas. “Catching a check in the first round is awesome, because it seems like you need to break the ice out here,” he said. “If you can’t get that ice broke in the first round, it just add a little bit of pressure. I feel like that weight has been lifted off. “We’ve got that first one out of the way, and it went good, so now, we’ll just keep rolling from here.”

Canceled first-round performance will be made up next Wednesday morning While Thursday’s performance of the National Finals Rodeo was canceled because of the shooting that took place on the UNLV campus, the show will go on. The PRCA and Las Vegas Events boards met Thursday morning to hammer out the details, which are: The first performance of this year’s NFR will take place at 5:45 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, and continue for nine days. The sixth round will take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 13, and will be closed to the public. Full refunds for the Thursday performance will be issued by LVE. If tickets were purchased through StubHub, a refund will be issued directly to the buyer by StubHub. A moment of silence will occur at the start of Friday’s first performance. “The PRCA is saddened by the tragedy that happened yesterday, and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their friends and families,” PRCA CEO Tom Glause said in a statement issued by LVE and the PRCA. “We have worked closely with our partners in Las Vegas and the Thomas & Mack Center to work through the NFR schedule, while maintaining sensitivity to the events that took place. We will bring our fans together on Friday evening to share our support for this community.”

Cinch endorsees make up more than a third of breakaway-roping field The top dogs in any sport always wear the biggest targets. In breakaway roping, Cinch cowgirls Shelby Boisjoli and Martha Angelone have everyone else’s sights set directly at them. Both have qualified for every National Finals Breakaway Roping since the event was established in 2020. But Boisjoli is the No. 1 roper in the land, having wrapped up her regular season with $164,549 in earnings. Angelone is the defending champion; her Montana Silversmiths gold buckle is the shiniest of all who wear one. That’s why the bullseyes are on their backs, and the other girls have their rifles aimed The shots will be fired during two days of competition, set for 2 p.m. Pacific Tuesday, Dec. 5, and Wednesday, Dec. 6, at the South Point Equestrian Center in Las Vegas. Just like the National Finals Rodeo, which begins Thursday, Dec. 7, the ropers will compete through 10 rounds. When the dust settles on the two-day competition, the newest WPRA world champion will be crowned. “I wanted to go in No. 1 again ever since 2021,” said Boisjoli, originally from Langdon, Alberta, but now living near Stephenville, Texas, with her husband, tie-down roping world champion Haven Meged. “That year I went in No. 1 and felt like I had a chance to win the world. I messed up. Ever since, I just wanted to come in No. 1 and prove that I can correct those mistakes and do it. “At the beginning of (this) year, I didn’t see me going into the finals No. 1, but it’s crazy how it happened. Now, my goal is to not beat myself when I get to the finals.” She’ll have 14 other ladies waiting in the wings for their opportunities. Go-round winners will earn $5,080, and the aggregate champion will collect $13,866. There are plenty of opportunities to increase their 2023 salaries while in Las Vegas. While Boisjoli leads the Cinch contingent, Angelone, also of Stephenville, is third with $132,885. Taylor Munsell, the 2022 reserve world champion from Alva, Oklahoma, is seventh with $108,458. Of the top 15 in the world standings, seven earned more than $100,000 in the regular season. First-time NFBR qualifier Bradi Good of Abilene, Texas, enters the finale eighth in the standings, followed by Cheyanne McCartney of Kingston, Oklahoma, in ninth. Johnson, who won three world titles before the breakaway finals was established four seasons ago, is from Fowler, Colorado, and hasn’t missed the finals yet. “I ended up making it hard on myself to make the finals this year, but I’m really excited to be going back,” said Johnson, who finished fifth in the world standings each of the past two years. “I know everybody goes through slumps and fights their way through. I was fighting my head and fighting my desire not to be gone from home. “The mental game comes into play all the time. When you’re craving it, loving it and having fun, that’s when you perform your best.” Her key to making it back to the championship? “It was just sheer determination,” she said. “I am not a quitter, and I hate to lose. I was desperate to make it because if I didn’t, then all the sacrifices I made to be gone from home all year were for nothing. I’d been away from the kids and away from home and all that strain that comes with it, so I felt that if I didn’t pull through, it would be such a waste. “My husband, Darnell, pretty much dropped everything for the month of September to go along with me and help me because I really needed it.” It paid off. Having a strong support system is vital for people who travel a good portion of every season in order to make the rodeo life work. Brandi Good understands that as well as anyone. Her father, Shay, is a four-time qualifier to the Clem McSpadden National Finals Rodeo, and he’s been passing along his knowledge to his daughter. Good realizes there is something special about earning a spot among this elite field. “This is going to be super tough,” she said. “There were a lot of breakaway ropers this year at every rodeo, and I think the cream rose to the top. It was a really tough year. Shelby had the most fun; she set the season-earnings record, but it was fun to be around that. There was a lot of money that we won this year, and it’s pretty cool that I get the chance to rope with all these girls.” While Good is one of four newcomers to the finale, Johnson is a veteran who first won WPRA gold in 2011. She will be roping against cowgirls who are two decades younger. That’s where the mental approach gives Johson a bit of an edge. “I feel like you just have to take it one calf at a time, one round at a time, and you can’t get ahead of yourself,” she said. “You just have to do the best you can with every single calf you draw and see where you land from there.” It comes down to making sure all the fine details are covered and understanding the basics of roping calves. “I think horsepower and consistency are going to be the keys just because we have to go five in a row back to back,” Good said. “You don’t want your horses to get tired or make us do things where we can’t do our jobs. “As for my game plan, it’s just to go out there and try to win the average because that pays the most.”   In a year that featured unprecedented earnings, Boisjoli came out on top. She has a $20,000 lead over the field and can just extend that advantage while in Sin City. To have so many ladies earn six figures indicates some big things are happening in breakaway roping. “It shows how  Continue Reading »

12 Cinch contestants would love to add more gold to their resumes The National Finals Rodeo and National Finals Breakaway Roping are not just the grand championships for the sport; they also are host this year’s greatest ProRodeo stars, who will play the game at the highest level. There are a dozen Cinch-endorsed cowboys and cowgirls who epitomize that as well as anyone; they are world titlists and cumulatively account for 25 Montana Silversmiths gold buckles. Five of them will defend their 2022 championships, and the others will try to add to their trophy cases. That’s what makes the National Finals such a special event to those elite athletes. “I grew up watching all my heroes and dreaming about having one gold buckle,” said Louisiana steer wrestler Tyler Waguespack, who last year tied Everett Bowman, Jim Bynum and Ote Berry for third place in the record books with four world championships; only Homer Pettigrew (6) and Luke Branquinho (5) have more. “Ote Berry is one of my biggest role models and biggest supporters and helped me out so much.” Waguespack will enter this year’s NFR third in the world standings and will be in contention to repeat during this year’s finale, set for Dec. 7-16 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. He will be joined by four other reigning champions, tie-down roper Caleb Smidt, who also has four gold buckles; saddle bronc rider Zeke Thurston, who has two; header Kaleb Driggers, the two-time defending titlist; and breakaway roper Martha Angelone, who snagged her first title last December. “I wasn’t going into the finals trying to win the average,” said Angelone, who will compete at the breakaway finals Dec. 5-6 at the South Point Equestrian Center and will be joined by another Cinch titlist, Erin Johnson, a three-time WPRA champion. “Since our finals pays $5,000 a go-round, I was going in there to see how much money I could win in the rounds.” That’s some impressive money, but it’s even greater across town. Inside the Thomas & Mack, the NFR’s home since 1985, go-round winners will earn nearly $31,000 for 10 December nights. A year ago, Thurston won more than $256,000 to not only secure another world title but also win the RAM Top Gun Award, given to the contestant who earned the most money in a single event in Las Vegas. “Just coming in here, I knew I was in the world-title hunt,” he said. “There’s so much money to be one; anything’s possible here. “I knew if I just aced every horse that I got on and rode them as good as I could that at the end of the week, I’d give myself a chance, and that’s just what I did.” Driggers earned his second straight world championship and will return to Sin City as the No. 1 header in the 2023 world standings. He leads a contingent of five Cinch team ropers that have claimed rodeo’s gold who will be in the mix starting in just a few days: Clay Smith, a two-time champ in heading; Erich Rogers, the 2017 titlist; heeler Paul Eaves, who won his titles in 2018 and 2020; and Jeremy Buhler, a heeler who claimed the crown in 2016. Shane Hanchey, the 2013 tie-down roping world champion, and Haven Meged, who won the buckle in 2019, round out a solid class of Cinch world titlists who will have excelled again in 2023 and will have another shot at winning the most cherished prize in rodeo. There are many factors that go into winning the crowns. Whether they ride bucking animals at rodeos across this land or travel North America with athletic horses in their specially designed, living-quarters trailers, it takes fortitude and skill to make it through the rigors of the regular season and earn a spot in the exclusive field at the National Finals. All 12 have proven that multiple times. Combined, they account for 102 qualifications to the greatest two weeks in rodeo. Once they arrive in Las Vegas, the pressure mounts, and the competition level increases. The timed events will get fast, and the roughstock cowboys will score high. That’s what it takes to win rodeo’s gold in the Nevada desert.

HEMPSTEAD, Texas – When the right ingredients are packaged correctly, big things happen. That’s been the case for the Waller County Fair and Rodeo since it teamed with Dallas-based stock contractor Pete Carr to produce its annual ProRodeo. It’s a formula that will continue; the Waller County Fair Board has voted to extend its contract with Pete Carr Pro Rodeo for four more years. “We’ve had great partnership with Pete Carr over the last 10 years,” said Paul Shollar, the board’s vice president. “The organization is extremely excited to continue to see what’s to come with our great rodeo.” The popularity of Hempstead’s rodeo has continued to blossom over the years. Much of that has to do with how local organizers plan their events through the nine-day exposition. The fair board has increased its rodeo’s purse over the years and has always brought in top-flight contract personnel. Whether it’s award-winning entertainers like John Harrison or Justin Rumford or the world-class animal athletes Carr brings to town, the rodeo has been a major attraction at the fairgrounds. This year’s rodeo – as well as other Western-sports events – took place under the newly covered arena with revamped bleachers and specialized suites for major contributors. Carr is a 14-time nominee for PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year. This year, 20 Carr animals have been selected to buck at the National Finals Rodeo, which begins Dec. 7. That includes Bayou Bengal, which was named the PRCA Bull of the Year, the sixth animal from the company to have won a world championship. “Year after year, it seems our rodeo tops the previous year’s expectations, from attendance to contestants,” said Clint Sciba, president of the Waller County Fair and Rodeo. “Pete’s production and rodeo stock, paired with our newly covered arena and cowboy/cowgirl hospitality building, has helped build the board’s support and the community’s support. “We can’t wait for the next four years of rodeo in Waller County.” The 2024 rodeo will take place Thursday, Oct. 3-Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Waller County Fairgrounds in Hempstead.

Cinch has seven newcomers eager to show off talents in Sin City The 2023 National Finals Rodeo will again have an international flavor. Rodeo isn’t just America’s game; it’s been established on a worldwide stage. This year’s grand championship will feature a hefty dose of Americans, but there are also contestants from Canada, Australia and Brazil in the mix for those elusive world championships. Among them are seven Cinch-endorsed cowboys and cowgirls all competing in Sin City for the first time. From 20-year-old bareback rider Keenan Hayes of Hayden, Colorado, to 30-year-old Stephen Culling of Fort St. John, British Columbia, the NFR rookies are making their mark on ProRodeo. “It’s pretty cool just making the finals,” said Bradi Good, 21, a National Finals Breakaway Roping qualifier from Abilene, Texas. “We go all year, and we get to compete with everybody else, so it’s just cool to make the finals because breakaway hasn’t been included in the ProRodeos for as long, and it just started getting added four years ago. “It’s great to be part of something that’s still continuing to grow and we’re just trying to get better.” In many cases, Ryder Sanford would be considered a veteran. He’s 25 years old and has been riding broncs for several years. He just held off becoming a full-fledged member of the PRCA until this season, and it paid off in a big way. He’s not only qualified for the NFR for the first time, but he’s also clinched the Saddle Bronc Riding Resistol Rookie of the Year award. “That was a knife fight the entire year to win that,” said Sanford of Sulphur, Louisiana. “Q Taylor gave me a run for my money, and I was able to get into the finals. I wouldn’t have minded if he would have made the finals, too. It would be just like bareback riding, and we would have had to have waited until the 10th round of the NFR to see who’d win the rookie.” Instead, Sanford concluded the regular season with $125,388 to finish in that magical 15th spot to earn the trip to Sin City. NFR veteran Isaac Diaz was just $2,000 behind but missed the finale by one spot. Taylor, who finished second in the rookie race, was $9,300 behind Sanford. “I don’t think I could have planned it out any better,” said Sanford, who waited to start his rookie season while obtaining his civil engineering degree at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. “I had a lot of big wins, wins in some places that guys go their whole career without achieving, so it’s been quite a blessing.” The biggest was at the Cheyenne (Wyoming) Frontier Days, one of the most storied rodeos in the sport’s grand history. “That’s just an iconic rodeo,” he said. “Even people who are not involved in rodeo know about Cheyenne, and to not only get the win but to set the arena record while doing it is pretty special, too.” Hayes has set a new standard in bareback riding. A year ago, he set the earnings record while competing on a permit with nearly $109,000. This year, he more than doubled his annual income, finishing with $265,896; that is a new bareback riding regular-season earnings record. He not only leads the bareback riding rookie race, but he’s the No. 1 man in the world standings. He has a $103,000 lead over the field of the top bronc busters in ProRodeo. Nothing is set in stone, yet. He’ll have to battle through the final 10 nights of the year during the NFR, set for Dec. 7-16 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. He leads the pack, but there are other rookies in the mix. Sanford is joined in bronc riding by fellow Cinch endorsee Damian Brennan, who won the rookie title last year and is making his first NFR. Brennan, of Injune, Queensland, Australia, is 13th in the world standings. In tie-down roping, Beau Cooper of Stettler, Alberta, and Brushton Minton of Witter Springs, California, will make their debuts roping inside the Thomas & Mack. Cooper is 11th and Minton 12th in the world standings. Stephen Culling’s rookie season in ProRodeo was seven years ago, but he is involved in likely the most competitive event in all of rodeo. He’s been climbing the charts the last few years and has launched himself among the top 15 steer wrestlers for the first time. He will enter the competition 10th in the world standings. “Making the NFR is a dream come true, something I’ve been working on since I first started bulldogging in high school,” said Culling, who won the National High School Finals Rodeo and the Canadian High School Finals Rodeo in 2010. “I feel like in the early days, I was almost just doing it for fun. As the years went by, I just kept working at it. “This is a huge accomplishment for me. That was one of the things I set out to do, and I’m really excited to show up in Vegas.” For Good, she’s a third-generation roper. Her grandfather, Billy, and father, Shay, have competed in steer roping. She’s not just carrying on a family tradition; she is taking her game to a different level. “I’m looking forward to the environment and everybody that’s going to be out there,” she said. “We’re going to rope five (calves) a day, and I’ve never really been in a situation like that unless it was a jackpot. “The (officials) are stepping it up a lot. We get to sign autographs for people, and we get the luncheon for our back numbers. There are just a bunch of things that really make this exciting, and most of all, we get to back in the box and run five a day for two days.” While still a big part of ProRodeo, the breakaway finals is separate from the NFR. It will take place Tuesday, Dec. 5-Wednesday, Dec. 6, at the South  Continue Reading »

PERRYTON, Texas – During his first qualification to the National Finals Rodeo, steer wrestler Cody Devers was just trying to hold everything together. He’d suffered a partially torn pectoral ligament in his right shoulder a month before the finale in Las Vegas. He was excited to finally play on ProRodeo’s biggest stage, and he wasn’t going to let a little pain derail him. As he lowered himself onto his first-round steer, that all changed. He toughed it out for four more nights, throwing down each steer until the fifth round. He was unable to finish that run, which took him out of a chance to earn an average payout and ultimately ended his first NFR and the remainder of the 2021 season “I’m looking forward to going back to the NFR again and proving the first time wasn’t a fluke,” said Devers, 28, of Perryton in the northeastern Texas Panhandle. “I’m really looking forward to winning my first go-round buckle the most. I just want to prove that I belong.” He’s done that over the last five years, even after missing most of the 2022 campaign while on injured reserve. He didn’t start competing until July, wrestling steers for just the final three months of the regular season, and still finished 33rd in the final world standings. All that did was help build confidence, which he capitalized on this year. “I won quite a few rodeos last year,” he said. “There were seven or eight that I’d never won before. It was a tough situation. If I would have capitalized on a few different rodeos, I might have still made the finals, but it’s not an easy thing to do.” No it is not. He concluded this year’s regular season with $104,132 and will head to Sin City ninth on the money list. How did he collect so much cash this year? He placed a lot. He is credited with three key victories: Sundre, Alberta; Omaha, Nebraska; and Stephenville, Texas. Rodeo offers no guaranteed salaries. In order to get paid, cowboys must beat most of the contestants in their field. Only the top few at each rodeo earn money, and the competitors must pay a fee in order to make a run. It takes something special to earn six figures in rodeo. “The little mare I bulldogged on and the hazing horse made it a lot easier,” he said. Sassy is a 15-year-old sorrel that Devers and his traveling partners rode when they were competing. Cinch is a 16-year-old palomino gelding haze horse. Having the bulldogging and hazing horses teamed helps them work better together. “Sassy was a barrel horse the first few years of her life, but she proved to be a little to strong and wanted to run more than turn, so I gave her an opportunity to try steer wrestling,” he said. “She has loved racing the steers ever since. She can still get a little anxious in the (timed-event) box, but she still fits me really well; when I nod my head, she knows exactly what to do to give me the perfect go on every steer.” That’s an important trait to have in a mount. “Horsepower is everything in our event,” said Devers, who was the runner-up to the college champion in 2018 while competing at Northwestern Oklahoma State University; he also attended Garden City (Kansas) Community College on a rodeo scholarship prior to finishing in Alva, Oklahoma. “In other events, you don’t have to pass the steer. There is no ability to throw a rope 30 feet to catch something. You and your horse have to physically outrun the steer. If you’re not mounted well, you’re going to run the steers too far and not win near as much as you should.” He’s hoping his tandem will be a guiding force to success in Las Vegas. He will have one of his traveling partners, Marc Joiner, be his hazer at the Thomas & Mack Center, the NFR’s home since 1985. The two have been a strong team all season, so there’s no reason to break up that partnership. He also had Travis Munro in the rig with him through the campaign, and Joe Nelson was part of the squad early in 2023. “They were crucial to me making the NFR,” said Devers, who is sponsored by Cinch, Usher Brand Custom Saddlery, Old 32 Ranch, Devers Performance Horses, Protech Technologies, 100x Equine, Best Ever Pads, Revita CBD, Koolspeed Feed, Vetline Equine and Hyer Boots. “They are a great group of guys, and we had a bunch of comradery in our rig. “We all had different goals in mind for the season. Marc hauled a young horse all year and focused on getting him ready for the years to come while getting his qualifications up for next year. Joe’s horse got sick, so he had to go home and heal him. Travis did a great job of learning and winning at a bunch of new rodeos and almost made his first NFR. We were all good at pushing each other to do better all the time and never dwell on a bad run.” Devers comes from a rodeo family. His father, Marty, was a standout steer wrestler. He won national titles in high school and college and just missed the NFR twice. Sabrina Devers is a barrel racer, and the family has a multi-million dollar horse-selling business that specializes in rodeo and barrel horses. Cody Devers, though, is expanding on that family side of things. He and Brecklyn Stump became engaged this fall while on the East Coast at a rodeo. “I was really nervous, and I had it all planned out,” he said. “We went to North Carolina for a rodeo, and I was going to propose the day before I actually did. We got busy with the rodeo, so it didn’t happen. We were at a lake house, and that’s when I actually asked her. It worked out good, because we didn’t have  Continue Reading »