ALTAMONT, Utah – Dean Thompson’s fantastic year only got better as the calendar moved toward autumn.
While riding bucking horses as a professional bareback rider, the young cowboy produced his best season yet, earning $172,197 through the year-long campaign. He will enter his second straight National Finals Rodeo as the No. 4 man in the world standings with a great shot at winning rodeo’s gold, a buckle made by Montana Silversmiths and awarded to each year’s world champions.
That wasn’t even the best part of 2024. In late August while on a hike with his girlfriend, Chezney, Thompson proposed. On Nov. 9, they were married in a ceremony at his hometown of Altamont, a mountain town that’s a 135-mile drive from Salt Lake City.
“The day I proposed, it was mostly just a hike in the mountains,” said Thompson, 22, who attended Western Texas College in Snyder, Texas, on a rodeo scholarship. “We spend a lot of times in the mountains; that’s just kind of our family thing since we live at the base of the Unitas Mountains there in Altamont.
“We just went out there for a little hike looking for elk and deer, and when the sun was going down, we just got the job done.”
The timing was perfect, especially for the cowboy who plowed through the regular season with a focus on the business of riding bucking horses. He picked up big wins along the way, but most importantly, he is building a resume as one of the elite bareback riders in the game today. While doing so, he spent much of the year by himself as a way to keep a schedule that allowed him to compete while also returning home for necessary time off.
After a rugged season that featured tens of thousands of miles traveled, the November wedding and subsequent honeymoon was the perfect time to let his mind wander from rodeo and toward building a life with his new bride. Taking his attention off rodeo was a great remedy for him to have the right mental approach as he heads off to the NFR, the sport’s grand finale that takes place Dec. 5-14 in Las Vegas.
“I feel like last year by the time I was headed to the NFR, I was so sick and tired of thinking about rodeo and planning and scheming about that’s going to happen at the NFR,” Thompson said. “By taking that two weeks away from rodeo, I feel like I’m in such a better mental state. I’m excited. There was no vacation time last year; it was straight from the season and straight into the NFR workouts and planning.
“It’s not that I haven’t been working out and preparing for this, but that just hasn’t been the only thing on my mind. I feel like I picked up speed right when I want to, and I’ll be able to carry this momentum strong into the NFR, where it seems like that momentum was starting to wane by this time last year.”
What happened in November for the wedding in Altamont and the honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico, could be a major player in how things roll for Thompson in December at Las Vegas.
“I didn’t see myself as a shoo-in for the NFR, but I definitely expected to have to work for it,” he said. “Making it the second time proves that the work and the effort that I’ve put in and the attitude I have toward rodeo and toward bucking horses is working. It wasn’t just a blip in the system for me to make it one time; it’s the new status quo for me now.”
Thompson finished his rookie season in the PRCA 13th in the world standings with nearly $175,000 for the year when his inaugural NFR concluded. When he arrives in Las Vegas in a few days, he and the other 119 contestants will receive a $10,000 bonus for being qualifiers, which is added to the earnings that count toward the world standings. That means he has already earned more in his sophomore season in ProRodeo prior to the championship than he did a season ago.
“Consistency was big,” Thompson said. “I won a lot more events this year, but it seemed like everywhere I went, I won money.”
His winning percentage was big. He made money at 75 percent of the rodeos in which he competed, which is how someone earns that kind of money riding bucking horses. What’s even bigger is that he spent so much of the campaign on the road by himself.
“I probably wouldn’t have been able to do that if it wasn’t for the support I got from Ken Garff Nissan in Orem (Utah),” said Thompson, who also credits part of his success to his other sponsors, Beddy’s Beds, War Bonnet Hats and Kings Peak Ready Mix. “They took great care of me, especially when I spent so much time rodeoing alone. They made it possible for me to rodeo and still get back home to see my now-wife and my family and still rodeo the way I wanted.”
As he turns his attention to the final few days of preparation, Thompson will focus on the fundamentals he’s used to excel at his craft. He will get on practice horses, hit the gym and form his mind and body for those magical 10 days in the Nevada desert. He’s constructing a career and a lifestyle while also building his family life.
This is the next phase of things for him, and he’s eager to meet the challenges that come his way. While in Las Vegas, he’s get on 10 of the greatest bucking horses from this year with the greatest opportunity to cash in while there. He trails the money-list leader, Texan Rocker Steiner, by $61,000, but he can surpass that in just two nights at the NFR.
“You’re getting on these horses with the best guys in the world, but one thing you have to remember is that you can totally differentiate yourself a little bit from those guys no matter how good they are,” he said. “You have to have some luck, but you also have to value yourself some way in your riding that they don’t have.”
He also heads to Sin City with an ace up his sleeve name Chezney.
“The amount of confidence I’ve gained this year is amazing, and it’s not just in my riding,” Thompson said. “Chezney allows me to do well, and I think that’s a huge confidence boost knowing that I have this support system that is super unwavering. I think that’s going to be a huge advantage.
“Another big thing to me is that I’ll always have something more important than rodeo now, which is my wife, our family life and our commitment to each other.”
Thompson has a few more things to ride for at this year’s NFR, and a gold buckle is one of them.