LAS VEGAS – The big, bad gray gelding, Virgil, was named the Bareback Horse of the National Finals Rodeo.
Jess Pope can testify to the incredible power the two-time bucking horse of the year possesses. Pope rode the C5 Rodeo horse for 87 points to close out his fifth straight NFR during Saturday’s 10th round and add another paycheck to his 2024 income. He shared sixth place with Cole Franks, worth $2,717.
“There aren’t very many people that ride Virgil on the trip he had right there,” said Pope, who rode 10 broncs for a cumulative score of 846.5 points to finish fifth in the aggregate race and earn $29,340. He left town with $139,953 n Las Vegas money and finished the season fifth in the world standings with $307,108.
He also scored big points on two of the toughest horses in ProRodeo, Virgil and Frontier Rodeo’s Gun Fire, the latter of which helped Pope to a 90-point ride during the fifth round. He finished third that night in what the cowboys call the “TV pen,” a grouping of the most electric broncs in the sport.
There are 105 bareback horses placed in five pens. The fifth and 10th rounds are the electric horses, the ones everyone wants to watch. The “eliminator pen” is featured in Rounds 3 and 8. That’s where the bareback riders face the dragons, the nastiest broncs. Virgil was eliminating Saturday night.
“That was extremely hard and difficult,” said Pope, the 2022 world champion from Waverly, Kansas. “Every single jump, he dinged. He could have bucked me off in any given second.”
The NFR was a microcosm of his regular season. He struggled to be matched with the kinds of horses that gave him a chance to earn money, but he showed signs of the brilliance he’s had the previous four years.
“For the year I’ve had, I was excited to be at the NFR,” he said. “My September and August were just banger. Coming out here, it seemed like my year was the same way. Show up but can’t draw the ones I need to win. When I had a chance to win money, I feel like I did everything I could to take advantage of it.
“I’m extremely blessed and grateful to be here.”
There’s a resurgence of young cowboys involved in bareback riding, the most physically demanding event in rodeo. At 26, Pope was the elder statesman of the cowboys who finished among the top five; the other four – world champion Dean Thompson, Rocker Steiner, Keenan Hayes and Bradlee Miller – average 21.25 years old.
“This has been a really unique and cool top 15,” Pope said. “It’s been an extremely cool battle on who I thought was going to come in here, dominate and really kick butt throughout the week.
“To see Dean win a world title is pretty dang cool. He sure enough is an animal, and he’s going to wear that pure gold buckle really good.”
The next step is to build toward next season with rodeo gold on his mind.
“I’m going to go home, get healthy and just keep doing me,” he said. I pride myself as the bareback rider and the person that I am, and I don’t plan on changing anything.”