Wrangler National Finals Rodeo: Round Eight

Not So Average

Steer wrestlers are dropping like flies, big ones, out of the competition for the big dollars doled out at the end of the national finals Saturday night. The average money is significant - $162,000 total with $43K for 1st, $35K 2nd and $27,500 for third and so on through eighth place. In the Friday night follies five doggers suffered no times in their runs. “Those steers weren’t as bad as we made them look,” said Jason Miller who had another great run and finished with a split of second and third places netting $11,660. The pen of steers used last night, thankfully for the last time here, took many steer wrestlers out of the average or aggregate time competition. Only three men – Miller, his traveling pal and close friend Luke Branquinho and former University of Wyoming rodeo team member Todd Suhn have times on all eight of their steers and are under a total of 40 seconds for all of them. Branquinho has a significant hold on 1st overall and a 1.3 second jump on Miller for the average. No question Luke has the edge in gaining another gold buckle. But in this year of extraordinary weirdness for the wrestlers, we shall see. It will be fun to watch. “We picked all of the steers so there isn’t anybody to blame but ourselves. It’s just so hard to say what they’ll do when they get in that little building,” Miller told me late last night after a rather hearty prime rib dinner. What did you expect he’d be chowing on? And yes, one of those four-legged critters out last night is apparently missing. I’m kidding so no need to call the animal rights hotline.



Brutal Bulls

You probably couldn’t see them on television, but Kanin Asay’s boots didn’t match last night. He wore a bigger one on the left foot and it had a slit down the inside so he could slide in without too much pain. He had that spare footwear from early this summer when he sprained the same ankle that got turned on him a couple of nights ago at the national finals. The boots stayed on and Kanin up to end last night as one of only two riders to get scores. “There wasn’t a bull out there that was easy to ride. Every single one has something about him,” said the Powell, Wyoming man. His had drop. “That straight shot he gave me was really hard to handle. He had more rolls and weird jumps than he normally does,” Asay noted. Kanin collected $13,000 for his work and is most thankful all the bull riders walked away from “eliminator” night relatively unscathed.



Cowboy Christmas

Our crack staff at the Wyoming Travel & Tourism office, board members, families and friends have been helping hand out Wyoming materials and introduce the cowboys we sponsor to visitors inside the huge “Cowboy Christmas” show in the Las Vegas Hilton Convention Center throughout the national finals. There are a number of Wyoming business people with booths there too. We’d like to introduce you to a couple of them in this story. Kathy Flickinger is with Cowboy Free Range Meat from Jackson Hole. Karen Roy and her husband started American Cowboy Coffee and are responsible for a new, and spirited, invigoration in the little town of Hartville, Wyoming.

Christmas Money Comes Early

Fourth of July rodeos are the craziest travel time for contestants on the pro rodeo circuit. If you live in the West you saw horse trailers rolling the highways somewhere in the last few days. Two of them carrying Wyoming athletes pulled into Greeley, CO yesterday for the finals at the Stampede – the largest of the “Cowboy Christmas” purses. Both left with pockets full of cash.

Brandie Halls and her trusty steed Slim won the barrel racing average in Greeley with a total time of 52.33 seconds in three runs. The Carpenter, WY resident, and Torrington area native, ran at speeds good enough for money in each round and total winnings of over $8,400. Just to give you a thumbnail of how the travel miles accumulate during the first week of July, Brandie headed to Steamboat Springs, CO for a rodeo last night. She took her inexperienced horse, Lizzy, out for that run that really was difficult because of the fireworks and crowd noise. On top of those impediments, the wind kicked up and blew the timing eye down during the run. Back to the travel: Brandie’s been to Red Lodge, Montana and Cody, Wyoming in addition to Greeley over the last few days. She’s headed to Utah today and will return to Steamboat this weekend.

Casper team roper Jhett Johnson heeled his way to the Greeley pay window to pick up nearly $5,800 along with heading pard Keven Daniel. They took the average title with a total time of 17.4 on three head. Jhett has now moved up to 26th in the world standings and hopes to close in on the coveted top 15 within a few weeks. He has the honor of hauling a horse trailer widely, and colorfully, adorned with Wyoming scenery and a big picture of the Johnson family. They live west of Casper on a ranch that dates to the late 1800s.

Another member of the Wyoming rodeo athlete sponsorship program supported by the state tourism office is Jason Miller – a steer wrestler from Lance Creek. His year is getting better quickly after Greeley. He left the Stampede with a cool $6,000 and a startling vault in the standings, now in the 26th spot.