MERRIMAN, Neb. – On the northern end of the Nebraska Sandhills rest thousands of acres of rolling grasslands. It’s vast yet desolate, a perfect place for cattle and the ranchers that raise them.
This is Garrett Shadbolt’s home. It’s why he’s a cowboy and why he’s raising a family, the things that are the most important for him. When he’s not doing something as the fifth generation of his clan on the expansive spread, he’s handling a different kind of trade in rodeo.
The biggest business venture of his season happens at the National Finals Rodeo, the sport’s premier championship that features only the top 15 contestants in each event in December. Shadbolt finished the regular season with $137,096 and enters his third NFR in four years as the 13th-ranked bareback rider.
But unlike a lot of cowboys who will leave home in June and not return until October, he found his way back to the Sandhills as much as possible. It’s a testament to the relationship he has with his family and his commitment to continuing the ranching legacy that has been left by the ancestors before him.
“Getting home is really important to me,” said Shadbolt, 28, of Merriman. “My mom, dad and older sister are holding the ranch down when I’m gone. It’s pretty awesome to be able to say I’m still involved in a fifth-generation cattle ranch that’s still operating. I could still be gone, and with them there, it’s not going to burn down.
“It’s also nice hauling my wife and kids around with me, because they’re there to share your successes and your losses. When you win one, everybody’s there to celebrate with you. When you lose one, my whole crew is with me to pat me on the back and head down to the next one. I won most of my money this year with those kids in the rig. They make a pretty good traveling crew.”
That crew is his wife, Katie, and their children, George, Mavis and Lindin. All are under the age of 5, which makes for some interesting travel tales. It’s refreshing for the family man, who knows there are times when they’ll be apart because of his job, so he makes spending time with them a priority.
“George is about to turn 5, Mavis is about to turn 3 and Lindin’s a year old, so we’ve got the camper full,” he said of his pickup that’s been outfitted with a Capri camper in the bed. “We’ve got no more room. It’s pretty crazy traveling with the three of them, but it’s so much fun at the same time. Those kids have had more adventures than most kids their age.”
Rodeo cowboys travel tens of thousands of miles in order to chase their gold-buckle dreams. The roads can be long and winding, and there are detours along the way. Sometimes it’s a missed flight; other times it may be a horse that didn’t buck as necessary to score enough points to cash in. After sitting out most of 2023 because of a broken leg, he responded fast this season by winning the bareback riding title in Denver in January.
The first few hiccups came weeks later when he failed to advance to the final rounds in both Fort Worth and San Antonio, two large, indoor rodeos that take place in Texas through the winter months. He rebounded with a second-place finish at RodeoHouston, worth $26,750,
“That was a huge jump for me and really shaped my winter into something totally different,” said Shadbolt, who credits a portion of his success to his sponsors, Spring Lake Ranch, Dragonfly Performance Horses, Topp Hereford, Romsa Farm & Ranch, American Grace and Fuel Grill in Gordon, Nebraska. “It’s funny how rodeo works like that. You just never know when you’re going to strike gold.
“It was just a good season. I think I rode really consistently and didn’t leave a lot of money on the table.”
Part of that is riding well, but another aspect is competing at events that work best for him. Many big rodeos now feature a tournament-style format. Just like playoffs in other sports, those events feature preliminary rounds, with the top players advancing to the next level. First is the semifinals, and the top four then advance to the championship round.
“Those rodeos have been my bread and butter these last few years because of the consistency,” said Shadbolt, who was an intercollegiate wrestler and Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. “I think it takes a little bit of the luck out of it, and I can ride five (horses) better than just about anybody. If there are enough horses, the cream rises to the top.
“I can usually fight my way into that short round.”
The list of events that feature the tournament-style format is short, so most of his time was getting from one rodeo to another. He traveled much of the season with newcomer Bradlee Miller, a Huntsville, Texas, cowboy who has earned his first NFR qualification this year. That is also part of the rugged test that comes with riding bucking horses for a living; they may drive overnight to get from one spot to another in an effort to gain as much money as possible to earn a trip to the Nevada desert in December.
“Bradlee ended up having to split off to go to more rodeos,” Shadbolt said. “I was pretty thankful that I had a good enough winter and early season that I could take my foot off the gas just a tiny bit and be home with the kids a little bit more, but, boy, did I pay for it. I took two weeks off, and I went from sixth or seventh in the world to 13th.
“It was crazy competitive out there this year. We’ve got so many young guys in bareback riding that they’ll overwhelm you on sheer numbers if you’re not careful. The younger guys have a little bit of an advantage there, but the older guys like me have a little bit of an experience advantage, so it kind of all shakes out that way.”
The time at home was not only good for his mental game, but it helped Shadbolt remain healthy. After missing so much of the previous year, he made it his focus.
“I’ve gotten better setting a pace for myself as far as how many rodeos a week and how much time I spend at home,” he said. “One of my strategies is to show up to every rodeo feeling 100 percent, which is actually quite a bit different than a lot of guys that just try to show up at every rodeo.”
It has paid off, and now he will do what he can to collect as much of the $12.5-million purse that’s available in Sin City. Go-round winners will grab nearly $34,000 every round for 10 nights, so his chances of increasing his profit for the year are big.
“Making the finals again means that I didn’t get derailed too bad from breaking my leg, and that’s good,” Shadbolt said. “The last time I made the finals, I was around the bubble (close to the 15th spot), and that’s a miserable place to be. This year I felt confident in my riding, and I stayed away from the bubble the whole year, which is nice.”
Every man in the field is in contention for the world championship. While season leader Rocker Steiner has a $96,000 lead heading into the NFR, that ground could be made up in just three nights if things Shadbolt’s way.
“The reason I say being a world champion this year isn’t necessarily my goal is because I think I would have to rely on someone else to make a mistake, and I don’t want to set a goal on something I have no control over,” he said. “I’m 100 percent, and I’m going to be right there to take advantage of every opportunity.”