Three Wyoming Bull Riders & A First Fighter

You’d have to really scour the record books to find the last time three Wyoming contestants made the finals in bull riding. So far I haven’t been able to see a match for it in the written record. They are fine young men and the one smallest in stature was tall dog at the pay window Thursday. Gillette bull rider Bobby Welsh started his quest for a world champion’s gold buckle by winning the first round of the 50th annual national finals rodeo in Las Vegas last night. Welsh rode a bull he’d never been on before and had fun. “He beat me out just a little bit but I recovered well and just kept going to his front end,” said Welsh. He knew a 90-point score would be possible if he stayed on after waiting a month for last night to arrive. “I’ve never been this excited early at the finals,” Bobby echoed in media interviews for audiences from Canada to Mexico after the night was over and the Welsh family had a little more than $16,000 to put in the bank. They’ve been traveling together all year. Bobby entered 92 rodeos and his wife barrel raced in about half that many. “We were really looking forward to tonight and weren’t disappointed.”

Kanin Asay, of Powell, was not able to make the eight and the aftermath looked a lot worse than the resulting torn shirt and upper arm cut. “I haven’t been on for awhile and didn’t ride like I should have,” said Asay. He was caught underneath the animal for a short time however he escaped mostly unscathed. “I’ll be good to go tomorrow,” he smiled.





Kanin Asay: Round-One

Seth Glause appeared ready to finish his inaugural national finals appearance with a scored ride but lost his grip less than a half-second before the eight-second horn. The 19-year-old Rock Springs cowboy is the pride of Central Wyoming Community College’s rodeo team in Riverton. His coach, Rick Smith, is here in Vegas and is sure to be offering counsel before his young charge gives it a second go. Seth is proud bearer of the number 50 back number at this historic finals now a half-century old. Another Wyoming man was out in the bull riding competition and could not have been more anxious. “It was awesome,” said bullfighter Dusty Tuckness of Meeteetse. He was in the alternate slot and got called to duty because of the broken leg sustained by Darrell Diefenbach two months ago. Darrell asked to stay out for a few more days and until his return Dusty is planning to make the most of his first chance to work in the national finals arena.

Seth Glause: Round One

Les Gets More WYO Dough

Les Shepperson surely honored the path blazed by his Dad. Frank won the world in steer wrestling in 1975. Les, from Midwest, came out strong in his first-ever national finals run dispatching his steer in 4.2 seconds to earn nearly $5,800. Must be that lucky can of Copenhagen in his shirt pocket.

Les Shepperson: Round-One



A couple of other Wyoming contestants took home cash in the first round of the WNFR. Gillette’s Chet Johnson collected $2,700 for sixth in bronc riding and world champion steer wrestler Jason Miller pocketed $1,350 in a sixth-place split. Six Wyoming cowboys hold in high regard a state tourism office sponsorship and four of them won money in Las Vegas last night. If those odds were greeting gamblers out on The Strip the town powers-that-be could never afford to build all those new casinos.

Chet Johnson: Round-One