LAS VEGAS – Weston Timberman is mature beyond his 20 years.
In his first go-round at his first National Finals Rodeo, Timberman scored 87 points on J Bar J’s Drunk Bunny to win the night of bareback riding and $33,687. He moved up four spots to third in the world standings, sitting at $197,787, and he has nine more nights to capitalize on his experience.
“At the end of the day, it’s just another rodeo,” said Timberman, the 2024 Resistol Rookie of the Year from Columbus, Montana. “So, if you prepare yourself correctly, there’s no rodeo too big. Today proved that to me. I just came out here, looked around a lot and (realized it’s) another rodeo. ‘Let’s go out and have some fun.’ ”
This is the sport’s Super Bowl and World Series wrapped up into a 10-day package in the Nevada desert. Cowboys dream of one day competing inside those yellow chutes, and they can be intimidating to some.
Timberman isn’t a typical cowboy, though. He’s a third-generation bareback rider, guided by his grandfather, Lonnie. His father, Chris, was a national circuit champion. His uncle, Kelly, won the world title the same year Weston was born, then won the average title for a second straight year in 2005.
“There’s some limelight and some cool stuff that’s added onto it – or maybe a lot – but it was super cool to finally come out and do that,” said Weston Timberman, who won intercollegiate titles each of the past two years while competing at Clarendon (Texas) College.
The 100 horses are set in five pens depending on their bucking prowess in order to give the 15 cowboys in the mix as even a shot at the money as possible. Still, there are some of those animals that each contestant might like a little better.
“Out of every horse that was out tonight, that’s the one I’ve been on the most,” he said of Drunk Bunny. “It was good to get on my first one knowing what he was going to do, how he was going to be and feel. Just that was an added sense of confidence.
“The whole key to bareback riding is confidence, and everything just played out exactly how we planned.”
The NFR is the world’s richest rodeo. There are millions of dollars on the line in this pressure cooker, but there are also a lot of benefits. Rodeo cowboys spend the year traveling tens of thousands of miles in order to earn a trip to Sin City to compete for this kind of prize money. There are no guarantees in this sport; not only do the contestants have to pay their own ways, but they must beat most of the field at each rodeo to earn money.
That means all-night drives or getting on multiple bucking broncs in a day. At the NFR, it’s one rodeo each day at the same place. There’s more opportunity for rest and developing a routine.
“That’s one of the beautiful things about Vegas,” Timberman said. “It’s a pretty cool place to be.”